"Ferdinand" (the Bull) - Live Performance
composed for violin and narrator, followed by an interview
Back in December, violinist Ann Bermont and I performed composer Alan Ridout’s piece, Ferdinand, based on the famous children’s story by Munro Leaf with iconic illustrations (even more charming to return to in adulthood) by Robert Lawson.
Our performance is followed by a very sweet, too brief, interview portion, in which Ann speaks lovingly about her mentor, Mela Tenenbaum, whose sheet music is projected behind us and looks dizzyingly magical up close.
This recorded performance, at Brooklyn Art Haus, was part of the live event series I co-produced throughout all of last year with my dear friends, entitled “The Mister Rogers Variety Hour.”
This particular video leaves much to be desired in terms of lighting and balanced sound amplification [Emma tears hair out, screams… … gains perspective on how little this matters, gets over it →], but(!) it’s an utterly unique piece with a great collaborator, which is why I’ve chosen to share it with you here! AND:
Ann and I will be performing this piece anew and including it on a longer program of other narrator/violin pieces:
The Nightingale by Bruce Adolphe and Rumpelstiltskin by Joshua Burel.
(Both Adolphe and Burel are living composers and you will hear in each of these much newer pieces —once we record them for you— a touch of influence from Ridout’s Ferdinand.)
Not many of these types of compositions exist (published, for violinist and narrator). These are the three we know of (after Ann’s research) and we are eager to catalogue them in one filmed package, alongside some jubilant commentary, which we will happily supply to our next live audiences!
There are still tickets left if you find yourself in Brooklyn on April 4th, 5th, or 6th.
Write to me here if you’d like to join us in an intimate recording studio on those nights. Wine and cheese provided, and craft non-alcoholic beer, of course.
Thanks to all who have reserved!
We are eager to capture these recordings with proper audiovisual resources, in their full, innovative, compositional glory, at Douglass Recording Studios.
And here I am embodying today’s persona, serving my best NPR-face, as a kind of classical-music-fangirl-meets-Ms. Frizzle. I hope to see you soon.