The second week of the 2016 45th Rye Arts Festival builds on a fabulous first week with many sell out events. Artistes have flown and driven in from around the world to entertain the people of Rye and the menu of top quality international performers continues.
Saturday September 24 will get its first ever taste of Tuareg Blues from the Sahara Desert! On Saturday evening the Milligan Theatre at Rye College will sway to the electric guitars of Terakaft – a band from northern Mali in West Africa. This is world music at its finest and is unmissable.
Rory McLeod will be playing next Friday September 30 at Rye Community Centre with a gig that comes in two halves. Before the half-time break for beer and wine Rory will play a solo set – and as a multi-instrumentalist and story teller he is well used to being on his lonesome.
After refreshments he will be joined on stage by his band The Familiar Strangers, who include a Colombian harpist, playing an instrument that will probably have never been seen at Rye before! Anyway, the music will shift a gear and a fun time for all is assured.
The Classical music programme runs into the second week with a young group called the Kaleidoscope Saxophone Quartet who play on Monday September 26 at the Methodist Church and their programme will include pieces by Grieg, Dvorak and Gershwin.
They will also perform a piece called Ghosts in the Machine which focuses on dark English folk tales against the background of the onset of the dark and satanic mills of the Industrial Revolution. In addition to the music composed by band member John Rittipo-Moore, there will be short films.
La Serenissima return by popular demand with a concert of 18th century Italian baroque music on Wednesday September 28 at St Mary’s Church – a real treat for lovers of the rich and timeless music that came out of Italy. The orchestra, who are the undoubted English masters of this genre and period of music will come 24-strong this time – nearly twice the size as when they were last in town.
Continuing the international theme, the literary programme includes Loyd Grossman, the man who used to look through celebrity’s keyholes on TV, with a tasty side line of cooking sauces to suit all tastes. But he has moved on and become interested in art history with a particular passion for Benjamin West RA.
He will share his knowledge on Monday September 26. West, like Grossman, was born in America but made a career this side of the pond. As official history painter to George III, he revolutionised history painting in England, painting contemporary scenes with characters in contemporary clothes as had not been the norm for this genre.
For example, his picture of the death of General Wolfe in Canada, was strikingly different in subject matter and treatment to the ‘usual’ Dido and Aeneas on the ruins of Carthage fare that was expected!
Moving on to the literary programme the crime novelist Thomas Mogford will be talking at the Mermaid Inn on Thursday September 29. Thomas has written four, extremely well received crime novels featuring his Gibraltarian detective Spike Sanguietti, who finds murders to be solved all around the Mediterranean, with love interest also driving the series of books forward. It is to be hoped that his talk, Murder in a Seaside Town won’t leave Sanguinetti with a homicide to solve in Rye.
The Festival finale on Saturday October 1 will be a fabulous fun-filled performance of Don Pasquale at the Rye Creative Centre. The opera is being performed by the Euphonia Opera Company from London which comprises talented young singers and musicians at the start of their careers, under the artistic and musical director Alisdair Kitchen. Euphonia’s Don Pasquale has already had a highly successful run in London where it delighted audiences and the soprano Lauren Libaw won plaudits for superb singing.
More information on events and tickets is available by telephoning the Box Office on 01797 224442 or checking out www.ryeartsfestival.co.uk. The Box Office is open for personal bookings at Phillips & Stubbs in Cinque Ports St, from 9:30am to 12:30pm Monday to Saturday – otherwise you can book tickets online .
Photos from Rye Arts Festival