PIANOCIRCUS AT CULTURE LAB

Established in 1989, pianocircus was originally formed to perform Steve Reich's Six Pianos. Since then, they have worked with composers to expand the repertoire for this unusual instrumental combination. Not surprisingly given the scarcity of venues with six pianos available for performance, pianocircus take their own equipment wherever they go, based on six MIDI racks controlled from six Roland RD-500 digital keyboards.

The group performs throughout the UK and internationally, with appearances at the South Bank Centre, London; Lincoln Center, New York; Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Bath International Festival, the Big Chill Enchanted Garden Festival, the Hong Kong and Singapore Festivals, the Istanbul Festival, NYYD festival (Estonia), Musica Ficta Festival (Lithuania), the CREA and 38eme Rugissants Festivals (France), Settembre Musica (Italy) and in Canada (Banff residency), the USA, Sweden, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.

pianocircus has made numerous radio and TV appearances including the BBC's National Lottery Show, The Score, What's That Noise?, The Late Show, Radio 3 In Tune, Late Junction, Mixing It, Radio 4 Kaleidoscope, World Service International Recital and Meridian, as well as appearances on Classic FM and numerous stations worldwide. Features on pianocircus have appeared in The Independent, The Guardian, The Observer, Time Out, BBC Music Magazine, The Wire, Scotland on Sunday, Classical Music Magazine and The Piano.

pianocircus will be offering a concert at King's Hall on Friday 18 April at 7.30 pm. Tickets are £5 and £3.

The programme will include Steve Reich's ground-breaking Six Pianos of 1973, the work that inspired the creation of this ensemble in 1989. For nearly twenty years pianocircus have been working closely with composers and instigating what now amounts to a whole new repertoire for this unusual combination.

Alongside the Reich we will hear works by Nancarrow, Martyn Harry, Sarunas Nakas and others, including a Prs Foundation supported premiere of Lynne Plowman's Hall of Mirrors

Most special for us, they will première two new works, one by one of our own advanced composition students and the other by a student at Durham. We don't know who they are because they will be chosen at a workshop the previous day, where seven pieces from Newcastle and two from Durham will be rehearsed and discussed. This is the second visit of pianocircus made possible by I3, the composition strand of our CETL.

Published: 14th April 2008