Previous Performances 2019
27th April DixieMix Jazz Band. The hottest and the best.
25th May R Garland (violin), M Finnissy (piano). Prokofiev and Grieg
8th June Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. THIS IS MY THEATRE (Sussex)
William Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet
THIS IS MY THEATRE (Sussex)
Saturday 8th June 2019, 7.30pm, St Nicholas Church, Swafield
THIS IS MY THEATRE is a Sussex based theatre company which was formed in 2016 from talented young actors and musicians. Their first production was Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, performed in 2016 at St Botolph’s Church nestled in the South Downs near Steyning. Due to the great popularity of the performance This is My Theatre then toured Sussex and Surrey later in 2016 and haven’t looked back since. The company is led by artistic director and choreographer Sarah Slator.
Now THIS IS MY THEATRE successfully tours all over the country and performs in historical paces like medieval churches and National Trust venues. In May 2019 their toor with Makbet received a lot of very positive reviews. Previous productions include The Tempest at Brighton Fringe Festival (2017), Macbeth (Touring, 2017), The Importance of Being Earnest- (Touring, 2018), Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland -(Touring, 2018).
Last year THIS IS MY THEATRE brought to Norfolk (Thorpe Market) A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This production mixed music and theatre in such a magical way and was so successful that the Trunch Concerts committee invited them to perform their most critically acclaimed Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet at St Nicholas Church (Swafield) in 2019.
St Nicholas’ Church that we now see dates from the late 15th century, the same time as when Romeo and Juliet was written (although the tower is from the 14th century). The church is built in the perpendicular style with large windows and a thatched roof. It has a beautiful position on the hill on the road to Trunch and has a lot of interesting features within.
As you enter, look up and admire the unusual carvings of flowers and faces which decorate the apex of the impressive roof. It is possible that these carvings were a part of the earlier roof – or they may have been reused from another church. They must have formed part of a screen or cornice and have tantalizingly broken edges. Because they are high up and difficult to see, there are photographs in a frame on the north wall. On the same wall, there is a beautiful carving of Jesus Christ on the Cross. St Nicholas of Swafield is in the Parish of Trunch.
The Galliard Trio
Handel Britten Bizet Shostakovich
Saturday 22nd June 2019, 7.30pm, St Botolph Church, Trunch
In the thirty eight years since its foundation, the Galliard Trio has established a reputation for presenting very interesting programmes of great variety. Its repertoire is wide, partly because of the different combinations of instruments available (flute, piccolo, oboe, cor anglais, bassoon, harpsichord and piano), and partly because of its arrangements of music from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.
The members live in North London, but the Trio performs regularly outside the capital in churches, arts centres and historic country houses. Concerts are given for music clubs and festivals as well as for charities and good causes, such as the NSPCC and National Trust. The Gallard trio frequently supports church restoration funds and this is its second visit to Trunch – the first was in 2003. The concert in St Botolphs will include Two arias from Julius Caesar by G.F.Handel, Trio sonata in A minor by G.P.Telemann and Suite “L’Arlesienne” No. 2 by Georges Bizet.
Andrew Morris (flute and piccolo) Martin White (oboe and cor anglais)
Alec Forshaw (bassoon, harpsichord and piano)
The Hexachordia Trio
Greensleeves and Yellow Lace
Saturday 13th July 2019, 7.30pm, St Nicholas Church, Swafield
Greensleeves and Yellow Lace: Style, stanza and song in Elizabethan England
The early music trio, Hexachordia (www.hexachordia.com) will perform at St Nicholas Church (Swafield) and present a concert of music and readings inspired by style and fashion in sixteenth-century England.
Singing and playing on lutes, renaissance guitar, viols, recorders and bagpipes, the group presents tunes heard at the royal court by composers such as John Dowland and Francis Cutting, reflecting the upper-class preoccupation with fine lace, dainty slippers and colourful clothes. The trio also play and sing music popular at lower levels of society, including rounds and catches on petticoats, garters and hats!
NORWICH BAROQUE QUARTET
Maria Konoshenko – mezzo soprano
Baroque Gems
Saturday 27th July 2019, 7.30 pm, St Botolph Church, Trunch
The Norwich Baroque Quartet comprises the four principal players of the much-acclaimed Norwich Baroque orchestra.
Jim O’Toole regularly directs Norwich Baroque. He toured extensively with the European Union Baroque Orchestra while completing his post-graduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music.
Liz Skinner completed her masters degree at the Royal College of music with Andrew Manze, one of the most celebrated baroque violinists of our time.
Phipil Trzebiatowski trained at the royal Academy of Music and in the Netherlands, where he played with the Netherlands Ballet Orchestra. He has played with many distinguished London orchestras, the Loveday Trio and with the Esterhazy Quartet.
David Morgan studied composition with Reginald Smith-Brindle and William Mathias and organ with Brian Runnet and Noel Rawsthorne. Since retiring as Programme Manager for Performing Arts at City College Norwich in 2006, he has been the regular harpsichord continuo player for Norwich Baroque.
Maria Konoshenko, the young Russian mezzo-soprano, who studied at the St Petersburg Conservatory, joins the Norwich Baroque Quartet this evening.
The Rocking Bishop & Cutting the Mustard
Music from the Rocking 60s!
Saturday 17th August 2019, 7.30pm, St Nicholas Church, Swafield
The Bishop of Lynn, The Right Revd. Jonathan Meyrick, is held in great esteem in North Norfolk. He visited the area many times, and as The Rocking Bishop performed with huge success at St Nicolas in August 2017.
All taking from that concerts went to conservation and restoration projects at St Nicholas and St Botolph’s. This summer the much loved ROCKING BISHOP will be back at Swafield Church displaying his musical credentials once more. The Right Revd. Jonathan Meyrick hopes the collection of 1960’s hits will help to raise funds to restore the roof of St Botolph’s church in Trunch. Bishop Jonathan is a natural on the stage, noted for his persuasive performances of rock classics. His 2013 album included Wild Thing, Satisfaction (I Can’t Get No), Nights In White Satin, I’m A Believer, Words, Happy Together, I Can’t Control Myself and much more.
Cutting the Mustard is a very popular Norfolk band from Sheringham. Lead singer Tina Blaber-Wegg, Brian Eade and Ervin Munir will bring you their blend of harmonies, piano, bass, percussion and acoustic guitar.
The band mixes old and new music with skilled musicianship, harmonies and stunning energy. The band performs songs that range from the 1940’s to the present-day. Cutting the Mustard regularly performs in Sheringham, Cromer, North Walsham, East Runton and the local areas.
The Hoffmeister Ensemble
Mozart – Piano Quartett K478 G minor
Edward Elgar – Piano Quartet Op 84
Benjamin Britten’s English Folk Songs
Saturday 31st August 2019, 7.30pm, St Botolph Church
The Hoffmeister Ensemble is named after 18th century composer and music publisher, Franz Anton von Hoffmeister. It’s members are noted chamber music players and enjoy exploring a varied repertoire. Based in East Anglia, the Hoffmeister Ensemble also performs in London.
Jane Faulkner – Violin 1, held a superb principal position in a London orchestra before relinquishing this to concentrate on chamber music. She is the violinist of the English Piano Trio with which she performs extensively throughout Britain and Europe.
Douglas Abrams – Violin 2, studied violin with Eva Grunbaum of the London Mozart Players and with Brian Stait at Reading University. He has featured in the early Trunch Concerts with the Degani String Quartet and has performed the Telemann Viola Concerto with them. He has played a number of concertos with orchestras including the Brahms and the Khachaturian and he has partnered his father in the Brahms Double Concerto for violin and cello. He is in demand to play in a number of ensemblesand is delighted to be playing once again in Trunch.
Frank Cliff – Viola, was a member of the Halle Orchestra under Barbirolli. While there he won a BBC conducting competition, and was subsequently the first music director of the Manchester Camerata. Latterly he was a sub – principal viola in the English National Opera Orchestra before retiring to East Anglia.
Ursula Pank – Cello, worked as a freelance and studio cellist in London before moving to Norwich. She is currently principal cello in the Norwich Philharmonic and a well-known teacher and chamber musician.
Mary Howard – Piano, received a B.Mus. from the University of Victoria in Canada, then continued her study in Italy and the Royal Academy of Music in London. She lives in Wymondham, where she is a well-known chamber music player, accompanist and teacher.
Benjamin Britten’s English Folk Songs will be performed by Russian mezzo-soprano Maria Konoshenko.
SOUTHREPPS CHORALE
Candlelit Christmas Concert
Gilbert & Sullivan’s comic one-act opera “Trial By Jury”
Christmas Carols
Saturday 7th December 2019, 7.30pm, St Botolph Church
Southrepps Chorale is a community choir founded by Musical director, Stephen Richards, in 2011. He is a well-known Norfolk musician, B.Mus. LGSM. After a career in music publishing, Stephen is active in music making as a conductor of choirs and music theatre and as a performer and teacher of clarinet and saxophone.
Southrepps is famous for its own music festival each summer and the Chorale takes part each year, joined by professional soloists. In 2012 Southrepps Chorale performed Gilbert & Sullivan; 2013 was music from Broadway and the West End; 2014 was madrigals and the jazz cantata Captain Noah and His Floating Zoo. In August 2015 Faure’s Requiem was coupled with choral’s first commission as they gave the world premiere of The Nightingale by Norfolk-based composer Geoff Cummings-Knight. The Summer 2016 programme saluted William Shakespeare in the 400th anniversary of his demise, including Songs and Sonnets by George Shearing, West Side Story by Bernstein and Double Trouble by John Williams (from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkeban). 2017 featured the stirring and enormously popular extended work by Karl Jenkins The Armed Man coupled with a beautiful cycle of spirituals Feel The Spirit by John Rutter.
Southrepps Chorale maintains a close relationship with the beautiful church of St. James Southrepps and performs as a church choir in some key village events such as Remembrance Sunday and an annual Carol Service.
Trial by Jury (music by Arthur Sullivan, libretto by W. S. Gilbert) was first produced on 25 March 1875, at London’s Royalty Theatre. The story concerns a “breach of promise of marriage” lawsuit in which the judge and legal system are the objects of lighthearted satire. Critics and audiences praised how well Sullivan’s witty and good-humoured music complemented Gilbert’s satire. The success of Trial by Jury launched the famous series of 13 collaborative works between Gilbert and Sullivan that came to be known as the Savoy Operas. According to the theatre scholar Kurt Gänzl, it is “probably the most successful British one-act operetta of all time”
All concert proceeds will continue to be donated to restoration and conservation projects for the churches of Trunch, Swafield and Bradfield. The Church and community would like to thank both the audiences and the performers for their generosity. Since 1998 the concerts have raised over £30,000 towards these projects.
Thanks too to the dynamic Trunch Village Society for its support for TRUNCH CONCERTS.
Performers reserve the right to change their programmes from those indicated in the brochure or website.
The organising team will take reasonable steps to give notice if any concert has to be postponed or cancelled. Please check this website for up to date information closer to the dates of the concert.