The Salisbury International Arts Festival announces its 2010 Programme
The Salisbury International Arts Festival, which takes place this year from 21st May to 5th June, is back with a dazzling array of events. The Festival, which last year was named the 2009 South West Tourist Event of the Year,delivers over 120 arts events including concerts, gigs, comedy, poetry, exhibitions, extraordinary outdoor spectacles, Festival commissions and special one-off exclusives. This year’s main themes are RUSSIA, STORIES, STONE & CHALK - and inspired by the beautiful Wiltshire White Horses cut into the landscape, a theme of the HORSE also canters throughout the programme.
Artists and speakers confirmed to attend this year include: Billy Bragg, Dmitry Bykov,Eliza Carthy,John Cooper Clarke, Nikolai Demidenko, Dreadlockalien, Carol Ann Duffy, Helen Dunmore, Jenny Eclair,Roberto Fonseca, Michael Holding,Elizabeth Jane Howard,Milton Jones, Sean Lock, Alexander McCall Smith, Andrew Motion, Paco Peña, Patti Plinko, John Simpson, Spiro, Mark Wallinger, Daphne Wright, Pinchas Zukerman and The Royal Philarmonic Orchestra.
Festival Director Maria Bota says of the 2010 festival: ‘I am thrilled to present my second Salisbury International Arts Festival. We are honoured to be working in such a glorious landscape, from the ancient circles of Stonehenge, the romance of Old Wardour Castle, our beautiful chalk downs through to the inspiring Salisbury Cathedral. These locations offer incredible settings for artists to respond to and be inspired by.”
Opening Event
Salisbury’s Market Square will be transformed for the Festival’s spectacular free opening night, featuring Zic Zazou who combine comedy with theatrical street music in their incredible self-propelled “Kiosque” - a roving traditional circular bandstand complete with exhilarating party band, pyrotechnics and special effects.
Classical
This year’s Festival hits the high notes with an impressive line-up of classical concerts. Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 is presented as a lavish liturgy with incense and candles in Salisbury Cathedral by the world renowned original instrument ensemble The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. The Cathedral is also the venue for a spectacular concert by TheRoyal Philharmonic Orchestra and violinist and conductor Pinchas Zukerman. Zukerman will perform Beethoven’s violin concerto and will conduct Tchaikovsky’s fourth symphony, powerfully introducing the Festival’s Russian focus. World-renowned Russian pianist Nikolai Demidenko performs a programme created for the Festival including Russian composers - Mussorgsky, Glinka, Blumenfeld and Kalinnikov. In a blend of words and music, the prestigious European Union Chamber Orchestra will give a special performance of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, with newly commissioned poems written and read by Andrew Motion at a concert in Wilton’s beautiful Italianate Church.
Other highlights include: The Russian Patriarchate Choir performing a programme of ancient and contemporary Russian Orthodox music presented in the magical setting of a candlelit Cathedral and by lamplight at the ancient site of Stonehenge;and a new Festival commission by composer Alec Roth for the Allegri Quartet.
UK première - Stones
Award-winning Israeli theatre company Orto-Da bring the UK première of Stones to this year’s Festival. Six mime artists create a musical, surrealistic, comic living statue which deals with the myth of victory. Reflecting the Festival’s main themes, this thought-provoking piece tells the story of a granite block that was to serve as a monument celebrating Hitler’s victory in Europe and ends up as a memorial to Jewish fighters from the ghetto in Warsaw.
Jazz, Folk and World Music
A stunning line-up of gigs, concerts and shows including world, jazz, latin and folk music will take place during the festival. A highlight is The Imagined Village project, this year’s Festival residency. A daring mix of ancient and modern, fusing fiddles and squeezebox with dub beats and sitars, this three day residency features an extraordinary array of talent including Martin Carthy, Eliza Carthy, Billy Bragg,Chris Wood and Simon Emmerson and powerful footage of Benjamin Zephaniahs’ retelling of Tam Lyn.
Other highlight eventsinclude:flamenco guitarist Paco Peña, who returns to Salisbury with his new show Flamenco sin Fronteras;Roberto Fonseca - one of the most talented young pianists to explode from Cuba in recent times, who will wow festival audiences with his inimitable blend of jazz and Latin sounds; the Manic Chanteuse Patti Plinko and her Boy, tipped by critics to be the next big thing after sell out shows around Europe and the UK; contemporary acoustic ensemble Spiro; ZUM, who combine the fire of Eastern European gypsy fiddle music with the hot-blooded passion of Argentinian Tango; and renowned storyteller Hugh Lupton and award-winning folk musician Chris Wood celebrate the ancient relationship between man and horse with Psalms from the Horse’s Mouth.
Comedy & Poetry Stand-up
The Festival presents top names from the world of comedy and stand-up including: Jenny Eclair, star of the hit ‘Grumpy Old Women’;BBC Radio Four favourite Milton Jones, Sean Lock, star of BBC2’s ‘QI’ and team captain on Channel 4’s ‘8 Out Of 10 Cats’; legendarypunk poet John Cooper Clarke andLuke Wright, the leading light of a new wave of poetry stand-up.
Theatre
Theatre is high on the agenda this year. Highlights include: The Globe Theatre’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the grounds ofOld Wardour Castle; Morecambe, a deliriously funny memorial to a man who held the mantle of ‘Britain’s best loved comic’; Odysseyperformed by Lecoq-trained mime company Theatre Ad Infinitum;The World's Wife based on Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy’s poetic portraits of the partners of famous men; Out of Chaos, the five-star-reviewed Edinburgh show from Temple Theatre; and award-winning Flick Ferdinando unleashes a stable of unstable characters into her deliciously dark physical comedy Horse. The Festival also presents a fantastic range of theatre productions for children and families – please see below.
Art Exhibitions & talks
Two of the most significant artists of our generation are in conversation at Roche Court. Mark Wallanger, whose giant white horse sculpture is destined to rise as a major landmark at Ebbsfleet in Kent talks to Daphne Wright, known for her unsettling yet poignant sculptural installations including Stallion, a full size cast of a dead horse.
Small Finds, a series of drawings by Tania Kovats recently acquired for the Arts Council Collection alongside a range of objects from The Museum of the White Horse, will be on display at Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum. This body of work is Kovats’ personal and poetic response to the Uffington White Horse: a 2,500 year-old chalk drawing carved into an Oxfordshire hillside.
Film
The 2010 film programme features a compelling selection of classic and recently released films - including three UK premières - programmed around the themes of Russia and Eastern Europe, Storytelling and Growing Up. Highlights include: Andre Tarkovsky’s haunting 1979 Science Fiction film Stalker; UK Premiere’s of two moving films about young people coming of age in the shadow of war – Broken Promise based on a remarkable true story of survival and resilience in WW2 and multi-award winning Georgian film The Other Bank, set during the recent Georgia-Azerbaijan conflict. Also being shown are: a double bill of two of the most influential silent films ever made: Man with a Movie Camera and The Battleship Potemkin; and Tulpan,a humorous and engaging story of a love struck young shepherd set amidst the breathtaking landscape of the Kazakhstan Steppe.
To complement the Festival’s artistic focus on stories, the progarmme includes films based on classic children’s stories, such as captivating Czech film Who’s Afraid of the Wolf?, which looks at the world through the eyes of a little girl obsessed with Little Red Riding Hood, Jan Svankmajer’s darkly inventive adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and the Festival celebrates the centenary of influential Czech animator Karel Zeman with a rare screening of The Fabulous Adventues of Baron Munchausen.
Literature
The literature programme is back with an exciting line-up of authors and speakers including:Dmitry Bykov, Phillip Blond, Helen Dunmore, Martin Gayford, Elizabeth Jane Howard, Michael Holding, Alexander McCall Smith, Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall,James Shapiro and John Simpson.
Family
Children are promised a huge dose of fun during the Festival with a vibrant programme of family friendly events. Many take place during half term including a free event Playday: The Big Play which includes a host of exciting activities. Other highlights include: Carol Ann Duffy, the current Poet Laureate, reading The Princess’ Blankets - her fairy tale about a princess who always feels cold; ECHOA by Mitiki featuring great music, exhilarating dance and laugh out loud comedy; LaLaLuna, the acclaimed international theatre sensation combining circus, theatre and film; James and the Giant Peach performed by outdoor theatre company Illyria and Horseplay - a magical, multi-sensory world set within a horse’s stable.
For details of the full programme which please visitwww.salisburyfestival.co.uk.
For further information please contact Emma Lawson on 07768 738 345 or email emma.lawson@globalnet.co.uk
Booking Information:
Tickets can be purchased in person from Salisbury Playhouse the Festival Office, Salisbury City Hall or.the Salisbury Tourist Information Centre
Tickets can be purchased by phone or online:
Box Office: 0845 241 9651
To book online visit www.salisburyfestival.co.uk
Notes to Editors:
About Salisbury International Arts Festival
§ The 37th Salisbury International Arts Festival runs from Friday 21 May – Saturday 5 June 2010
§ The 2009 Festival featured 11 premieres and exclusives of which 9 were commissions by Salisbury International Arts Festival.
§ The annual 16 day Salisbury International Arts Festival blazed into life in 1974 with a performance by Paco Peña and is a leading commissioning and producing Festival which attracts over 55,000 attendances each year and contributes £3m to the regional economy
§ Salisbury International Arts Festival 2009 was named ‘Tourism Event of the Year’ at the South West Tourism’s ‘Tourism Excellence Awards’
§ Salisbury International Arts Festival is supported by Principal Sponsor Friends Provident, Wiltshire Council and Arts Council England – South West.
§ Salisbury International Arts Festival’s Principal Sponsor, Friend Provident has been supporting the Festival for a wonderful 25 years
§ The full Festival programme will be announced 1 March 2010.