RNCM TO STAGE MAJOR MUSICAL INSTALLATION AT MANCHESTER PICCADILLY STATION

Wednesday 1 Apr 2009

RNCM TO STAGE MAJOR MUSICAL INSTALLATION AT MANCHESTER PICCADILLY STATION

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The Royal Northern College of Music will present 'The End of the Line (A Brief Encounter)' at Manchester Piccadilly Station on Saturday 4 July at 9pm. Composer Peter Weigold has been commissioned to conceive and direct a unique public musical installation which will be set in the public spaces of the station at the end of the day, with the full engagement of Network Rail and its partners.

Toby Smith, RNCM Director of Performance and Programme said, “The very first time I pulled into Manchester’s Piccadilly, at the time of the Commonwealth Games, I was excited by the space – the shapes, the lines, the mix of old and new, and above all the sound of life. In recent years the RNCM has produced new work in some extraordinary public spaces, and this station site seemed perfect in architecture and atmosphere to be the stimulus for this new music commission.”

Peter Weigold will work with over 200 RNCM students over eight days in the lead up to the event, working on his original material to create the final shape of the piece which will be heard in its entirety for the first time on 4 July. The piece will be triggered by four static couples. As groups of musicians arrive at the station in waves (by train or up the escalators etc) the couples will come to life, bursting into song. After 'A Brief Encounter', the ensembles will pull away, leaving the couples alone as the day ends and they depart.

Duncan Law, Network Rail’s station manager, added: “So far as I am aware, this is the first time in this country that anything on this scale has been staged in a working railway station. Throughout the day musicians will come and go, recreating the vibrancy of the station, until later in the evening when they all come together to perform a major work, after which they will fade into the distance, much as trains do.”

Further information will be available shortly at www.rncm.ac.uk

Notes to editors

1. In November 2008 Peter Wiegold premiered The Zither with 50 strings at the Purcell Room with Matthew Barley and the Silk String Quartet, a quartet of Chinese instruments. In January 2009 a new work called Bow-Wave opened the 2009 Winter Tour of the National Youth Orchestra. Recent works include To the shade of the departed, a saxophone concerto premiered by Tim Garland and the Northern Sinfonia at The Sage International Jazz Festival 2008. He is armoured without was a huge success at the 2007 Proms on Brass Day, performed by the BBC Philharmonic, with soloists Torbjörn Hultmark (trumpet), David Purser (trombone), musicians from Uzbekistan, the Coldstream Guards plus 100 more brass players. It was shortlisted for the Royal Philharmonic Society Prize 2008. 2. The RNCM, formed in 1973 from the merger of the Royal Manchester College of Music with the Northern School of Music, has, for many years, been the first choice institution for a large number of aspiring professional musicians from the UK and overseas. Students’ education and training is supported by an international teaching faculty of the highest calibre and facilities unparalleled among conservatoires in the UK. Four public venues host a performance programme that is unique in its range and quality, featuring a rolling programme of student performances alongside visiting artists and ensembles. www.rncm.ac.uk

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