Funding Body
The Culture Company
Professor Frank Lyons has composed a twin tribute to this year's UK City of Culture – Derry~Londonerry, on the banks of the River Foyle – and to the City of London on the Thames. The river Still Sings, commissioned to celebrate the 400th anniversary 0f the link between the two communities, is an interdisciplinary project featuring a new poem from Derry~Londonderry's own Seamus Deane, a new score from Lyons, for performance by the Fidelio Trio, sound design and visuals by Professor Paul Moore and narration by actor/Chancellor James Nesbitt.
In Professor Lyons' words, "The piece explores the divisive yet healing potential of rivers and walls and juxtaposes the old and the very new, reflecting the journeys of the two great cities at the heart of the work. The classic chamber-music combination of piano trio shares the performance space with digitally generated 3D images, produced by Tim Redfern, of the narrator and with live-sound processing generated using cutting-edge technologies, co-ordinated by Greg O'Hanlon"
The Fidelio Trio's Irish and Scottish members also perform Nigel Osbourne's the Piano Tuner – First performed at a City of London Festival concert in 2004 and relating to the music of the composer's opera based on Daniel Mason's novel, set in war-torn 19th century Burma. Maurice Ravel composed his Piano Trio at uncharacteristically high speed in1914, racing to complete it before being called up as an ambulance driver in the First World War.