Burning of the Boats Revisited at University of Kent

PRESS RELEASE

Issued on behalf of Kent Music

March 2014

BURNING OF THE BOATS REVISITED AT UNIVERSITY OF KENT

Young musicians from across Kent and Medway will perform “An afternoon of music from Broadway to Kent and beyond” at a public concert presented by Kent Music.

Kent Youth Wind Orchestra and Kent Youth Choirs will join together to stage the concert at 3pm on Saturday April 12 in the Colyer Fergusson Hall at the University of Kent in Canterbury.

The show will feature a range of music from The Lion King right through to classic choral repertoire. A number of the choral pieces will be conducted by Ciara Considine, the Kent Music tutor and choral director who last year led the P&O choir in Gareth Malone’s BBC TV series The Choir: Sing While You Work.

Conductor David Burridge will lead excerpts from his own composition The Burning of the Boats, premiered at last year’s Deal Festival. The piece tells the story of the night in 1784 when Prime Minister William Pitt ordered boats on Deal beach to be destroyed in an attempt to suppress the burgeoning smuggling trade.

Phill Hyde, who manages the orchestra for Kent Music, said: “We’re looking forward to teaming up with Kent Youth Choirs to present an enjoyable mix of music and song. It is an exciting challenge for today’s young people to take on a new work such as The Burning of the Boats, which so richly evokes a dramatic event in Kent’s history.”

Tickets are £8 (£5 concessions, students and children) available from the Gulbenkian box office. Phone 01227 769075 or email .

Find out more about Kent’s county groups at www.kent-music.com.

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Notes to editors

Kent Music, founded in 1948, is a registered education charity and one of the largest music education services in Europe. It delivers instrumental and vocal teaching to more than 14,000 students; employs some 200 peripatetic teachers both full-time and part-time; and organises music groups and summer schools. Kent Music is a partner in music education with Kent County Council.

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