The Sage Gateshead celebrates five years

By Richard Yates, Evening Chronicle

THE world’s most famous percussionist will be doing more than banging a drum to celebrate The Sage Gateshead’s birthday.

The diminutive barefooted figure of Dame Evelyn Glennie will be on the music centre’s Hall One stage on Friday week, December 18, surrounded by a bewildering array of gongs, marimbas, tom-toms, vibraphones, cymbals and bell chimes.

It’s part of a “bash” to mark the first five years of music-making at the Tyneside venue.

Dame Evelyn – who is profoundly deaf and performs shoeless so she can sense the rhythms and intensity of music through her feet – gives more than 100 performances a year across the world, working with the greatest conductors, orchestras, and artists.

Her diverse collaborations have included such stars as Bjork, Bobby McFerrin and Sting, as well as choral ensembles such as The King’s Singers and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

From 7.30pm she will join the Northern Sinfonia for Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, the concerto for percussion and orchestra by fellow Scot, James MacMillan.

It’s a dramatic piece based on the Advent plainsong of the same name and was one of the first major works with which Evelyn Glennie established her international reputation.

The concert opens with The Lamb, the short but exquisite carol by contemporary English composer Sir John Tavener using the words of William Blake, and this will be performed by the Northern Sinfonia Chorus.

The orchestra and chorus join forces for the concert’s second half with a performance of Benjamin Britten’s cantata Saint Nicolas, which is interspersed with audience hymns.

Singing the role of the saint who was the original Father Christmas will be the distinguished international tenor James Oxley.

Tickets are from £7-£29.50, booked on 0191 443 4661. There is a pre-concert talk at 6.30pm which is free to ticket holders.

TAVENER’S The Lamb is also on the Durham Choral Society’s programme to launch its 2009-2010 season with a Christmas concert.

Up to 100 members of the society, with conductor Richard Brice, will gather at the city’s Elvet Methodist Church from 7.30pm on Saturday, December 19. Joining them will be the NAS/UWT Riverside Band, under their musical director Ian Robinson.

The concert opens with For Unto Us a Child is Born and ends with the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah.

In between, the choir will perform the carol collection An English Christmas, and the Tavener piece will be followed by several less-familiar carols.

Interspersed with these will be popular carols for the audience to sing and some tunes from the band.

Tickets are £7 with concessions at £5, under-16s £3, from the Durham Tourist Information Office, Millennium Square.

Book them by telephoning 0191 384 7641, or pay at the door on the night.

CLASSICAL LISTINGS for week from 11/12/09

TONIGHT 11/12
NEWCASTLE: King's Hall, Newcastle University, 7.30, Newcastle University Symphony Orchestra perform Elgar's Symphony No.1; Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No.2, soloist Edward Cross; Mendelssohn¹s Midsummer Night's Dream Overture. Tickets on the door: £3-£9.

SATURDAY 12/12
GATESHEAD: Hall One, The Sage, 7.30pm, Northern Sinfonia & Chorus Christmas Concert, conductor Simon Halsey, special guest John Sergeant. Tickets: £7-£29.50, tel (0191) 443 4661.
NEWCASTLE: All Saints' Church, above Quayside, 7.30pm, Cappella Novocastriensis & Newcastle Baroque, director Eric Cross, candlelit concert of Christmas choral music by Charpentier and Poulenc. Tickets £12, OAPs £9, NUS & unwaged £6, under-18s free, from Windows, Central Arcade, Newcastle, tel (0191) 232 1356.
TYNEMOUTH: St Andrew's URC, 2.30pm, Christmas concert by Tynemouth Choral Society.
MONKSEATON: St Mary the Virgin Church, Claremont Road, 7pm, Priory Singers perform Handel's Messiah. Tickets: £8, tel (0191) 257 5353.

SUNDAY 13/12
GATESHEAD: Hall One, The Sage, 3pm, Northern Sinfonia & Chorus Christmas Concert, conductor Simon Halsey, special guest John Sergeant. Tickets: £7-£29.50, tel (0191) 443 4661.
NEWCASTLE: All Saints' Church, West Avenue, Gosforth, 7pm, All Saints' Chamber Choir & Orchestra, director Simon Fidler, perform Rutter's
Magnificat, Vaughan Williams' Christmas Carols Fantasia. Tickets: £9, Windows (0191) 232 1356. Accompanied children free.

TUESDAY 15/12
NEWCASTLE: King's Hall, Newcastle University, 7.30pm, Newcastle Choral Society & Durham Cathedral Young Singers, conductor Mark Anyan, Traditional Christmas Concert. Tickets: £7, concessions £5, tel (01207) 560555 or (0191) 286 6338.

NEXT FRIDAY 18/12
GATESHEAD: Hall One, The Sage, 7.30pm, Northern Sinfonia & Chorus, conductor Simon Halsey, perform John Tavener's The Lamb; James MacMillan¹s Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, soloist Dame Evelyn Glennie; Britten's Saint Nicolas, tenor soloist James Oxley. Tickets: £7-£29.50, tel (0191) 443 4661.
NORTH SHIELDS: Christ Church Parish Centre, 7.30pm, piano recital by Martin Cousin of works by Beethoven, Mendelssohn & Rachmaninov. Admission: £7, concessions £6.