A Celtic Ceilidh
From Left: Lara Kirsten (Pianist), Rory Mackenzie (Bagpiper), Me - Emma Farquharson - (Soprano).
On Saturday night, I found myself overnighting in The School Room @ The Overstone Cottages, resting up before my show with pianist Lara Kirsten & Bagpiper Rory Mackenzie. Not only was the room immaculately kept, but the smallest creature comforts had been considered: Several towels and hand towels, soap, hot water bottles, a heated blanket, a throw, and biscotti ... A magical night which turned into an equally wonderful Picnic-Concert afternoon!
As an opera singer, it was unusual, to say the least, to be doing a concert many would consider to be a complete departure from what I normally do. I'd like to speak to this idea, and the reasoning & process behind staging A Celtic Ceilidh.
When I hit "Publish" for my brand's website launch, I had given a great deal of thought to what kind of artist I wanted to be. My bio attested to my fascination with heritage, both musical & ancestral, and how I wanted to celebrate these loves in my professional music life.When it came to planning some concept concerts for 2019, one that leapt into my mind was a classically-rooted Folk concert, celebrating the blood-pull of Scottish, Irish, and Sassenach (Outlander i.e. non-Scot) music, both ancient & more contemporary. And when it came to deciding upon a venue, it took me all of three seconds to decide: The Overstone Cottages, on the farm owned & run by Clan Gordon, related to Clan Farquharson. The rolling green fields as far as the eye could see just screamed of the Highlands! And the family heritage would add an extra-special touch to the concert.
I've spoken about this before, but for those who missed my previous blog (DIY: Concert-Construction), as an artist living & working in South Africa, the name of the game is "DIVERSIFY". Yes, Opera is my focus, my career-defining genre, if you will ... But I don't think it's a cardinal sin to occasionally branch out a tad. It's challenging, jumping from one technique of singing into another, & you have to guard against vocal fatigue. But it's also exciting, as it opens up the space for you to explore another musical avenue within you that you haven't previously (professionally) tapped into. As long as there's a through line of authentic technique & artistry, rather than superficially manufacturing the required style, I believe it's possible to carry shows like this off!
My voice coach stated that the key thing is to establish yourself in your chosen field first, before diversifying in a big way. I toured parts of KZN in 2017 & 2018, and have had several articles in the paper written about me, so i'm well-known in these parts as an opera singer. It isn't risky, therefore, to have staged A Celtic Ceilidh at this point in my young career.
You have to feel the value and power of what it is you're attempting to do, otherwise there's no point in staging #somethingdifferent. I have always felt a deep-rooted pull towards music that I can feel the presence of my ancestry in. Not just Celtic, but Nordic, Spanish, Scandinavian, Russian ... It explains why my music-listening tastes are so diverse! And I always perform those musics better than compositions that I can't directly tap into.
Don't get me wrong, I get there eventually, and strongly believe it's important to engage with and invest in the unfamiliar. There is an incredible musical wealth that has historically been ignored and marginalized because people were not prepared to step out of their bubbles. For example, the traditional warring between Classical & Jazz Departments, and the birth of the field of Ethnomusicology. I LOVE it when people merge several musics together, like YoYo Ma has with his Silk Road Project. There's just an extra something that is brought to the performance when you are psychically as well as dramatically immersed in it.
In opera schools, you experience this all the time. When making repertoire choices for the year, an aria and/or a role will either resonate with you, or it won't. For those that don't immediately grab you, you have to work harder to become emotionally invested in the songs, and who your character is being revealed as, through the score and script. When you start practicing as a professional, you are approached to perform a certain role, and you decide whether or not you'll accept or decline based on this, and other factors.
Luckily, I found two collaborative musicians who were ancestrally invested and/or musically intrigued by the thought of staging a picnic-concert of Irish, Scottish, & other Folk Music. Lara raved about her experience of performing the music, saying that she could feel the Celtic spirit uplifting her, and everyone around her. Despite it being only our second concert together (rehearsals having commenced 28 March), we were the most musically and performatively in-sync that we've ever been! Goes to show ...
Speaking of Sassenach ... Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato embarked upon a world tour celebrating the unifying Power of Music to bring about peace. I strongly agree with this, and so use the word in a very tongue-in-cheek manner. Interestingly enough, on concert day, despite terrible xenophobic attacks which involved truck-burnings in Pietermaritzburg, Howick, and en-route to the Dalton venue, we still had a turnout of 60 people (a full house) - Talk about the power of music!
Equally incredible was how many people banded together to make the concert the success that it was. Apart from the crowd turnout and enthusiastic cheers of support, the Gordons spent days preparing the venue, assisting with getting the word out, and with readying accommodation & catering for both the audience members & artists. St John Haw lent Lara & I his home for rehearsals, and his keyboard with a transposition button, which saved us from forking out a fair few Rands & Cents for the services of transposition-gurus. And, of course, my friends & family, who made my prep-week as stress-free and logistically-smooth as possible
Another special dimension to this show was how I was able to celebrate my admiration for the work of women in music. Most of the music performed was arranged for, or by, a woman. Additionally, I had been gifted most of the original music last year by a man, retired in Grahamstown. He gave them to me during a noisy fundraiser, so I sadly missed many of the details of what he was saying about the woman whose music it was. But from what I can recall, her name was Mary McTavish, & she was an exceptional musician with magnificent vocal & piano skills, with a deep-seated love for songs from Ireland, the Hebrides, the Isle of Eriskay, & the Highlands. I therefore displayed these scores centrally on the stage, dedicating the concert to her memory. I'm in the process of tracking him down, so that I can get the details!
Anyway, this is a short & sweet post. Check out The Overstone Cottages on Facebook @overstonecottages, where they posted some pics & vids from the concert. We're definitely going to "tour" this concert, so stay tuned for a notice near you!
Love and Light,
The Forest Weaver xx
I can be found flitting about on Insta @the_forest_weaver
