THE FRIENDS OF ELY SINFONIA PRESENTS TOUCHABLE DREAMS IN THE KEY OF LOVE
Local celebrity duo intertwine violin, electric violin, loops, guitar and voice in a profound homage to love. Presented by the Friends of Ely Sinfonia, Ely Methodist Church, Friday 10th September 2010, 7.30pm

Celebrated local musician, Steve Bingham, is teaming up with wordsmith Jeremy Harmer on Friday 10th September for an evening dedicated to love. Presented by the Friends of Ely Sinfonia and taking place at Ely Methodist Church, the event combines classical and electric violin, loops, guitar and voice, demonstrating the passion, tenderness and agony of deep feeling, as they are brought out by both music and the spoken word.

Touchable Dreams explores the symbiosis between words and music and the ways in which they echo and complement each other. Sometimes words follow the music; at other times music follows the words; and sometimes the words and the music are intertwined in an almost physical interdependency.

“This is an event unlike any you'll have experienced before,” says Roz Chalmers, who chairs Ely Sinfonia. “When I first heard Jeremy and Steve with their unique combination of modern and classical music and words, I was completely bowled over.”

Jeremy Harmer says: “We try to show how music and words, the very bases of human emotion, can co-exist and enhance each other in expressing one of the greatest emotions of the human experience – love. We describe romantic love, transient love, ridiculous love, bitter love, lost love and sublime love.”

The programme includes music by J S Bach, Steve Bingham, Nick Drake, Andrew Keeling, Johann Pachelbel, Astor Piazzolla and Eugene Ysaÿe, among others. The words are drawn from the poetry and plays of writers such as W H Auden, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Elizabeth Bishop, e e cummings, Carol Ann Duffy, Jeremy Harmer, Ted Hughes, Elizabeth Jennings, Jenny Joseph, Roger McGough, Brian Patten and William Shakespeare.
The evening takes place at Ely Methodist Church, 32 Chapel Street, Ely CB6 1AD starting at 7.30pm. Admission is free to members of the Friends of Ely Sinfonia. Tickets for non-members are £5, available on the door (refundable to anyone signing up to become a Friend of Ely Sinfonia on the night).

The Friends of Ely Sinfonia are dedicated to supporting the orchestra, both through funding and also by helping to run its concerts and events. The annual subscription is £10, which qualifies members for discounted tickets to Ely Sinfonia concerts, as well as free entry to Friends events such as “Touchable Dreams”. Further information can be obtained from the Friends Secretary, Charlotte Dean, at friends@elysinfonia.co.uk.