Share the Stage: Tippett’s A Child of Our Time
The Glasshouse stage set to be packed with hundreds of local musicians and singers alongside Royal Northern Sinfonia and Chorus in one of the region’s biggest ever musical moments.
Share the Stage: Tippett’s A Child of our Time
Sunday 24 November, 3pm
The Glasshouse
Tickets – https://theglasshouseicm.org/whats-on/a-child-of-our-time/
Royal Northern Sinfonia and Chorus, as well as a starry line-up of soloists, share the stage with local amateur musicians from across the North East to perform Michael Tippett’s choral masterpiece A Child of Our Time on Sunday 24 November at The Glasshouse International Centre for Music.
A Child of Our Time also marks the launch of The Glasshouse’s 20th birthday year, kicking off a season of celebrations that will unfold over the next 12 months and culminate in the 21st anniversary in December 2025. Highlights will include a new Share the Stage project, a digital artist-in-residence programme, and a young people’s celebratory event.
Share the Stage celebrates community through the joy of performing music together. Singers and instrumentalists of all levels and abilities from the North East are currently rehearsing to become one of the biggest performing groups the region will have ever seen, building on a previous landmark occasion, The People’s Requiem, in November 2020.
Over 300 vocalists and musicians will squeeze onto the stage. Two thirds of these being passionate locals between the ages of 18 and 85. The event will mark one of the largest musical gatherings ever on the Sage One stage, bringing together amateur musicians and seasoned professionals from across the region and beyond.
Sharing the stage with Royal Northern Sinfonia, its chorus, and conductor Dinis Sousa, local participants also perform alongside some of the world’s most celebrated singers – soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly, tenor Nicky Spence and bass-baritone Sir Willard White.
Tippett’s A Child of Our Time is one of the most challenging 20th century works, renowned for its depth and demanding vocal passages, making it a thrilling showcase of talent. This extraordinary opportunity encourages different communities to understand one another more deeply through a collaborative performance of Tippet’s poignant work, A Child of Our Time.
A Child of Our Time was written in the early 1940’s by British composer Michael Tippet (1905 – 1998). He started it on the day WWII was declared, influenced by his strong political beliefs. Musically, it has been compared to a 20th century take on Handel’s Messiah, following the same structure and using a lot of traditional classical techniques but with a more modern sound.
Tippet’s links to North Yorkshire continue the theme of community in the project. Tippet led the musical activities of the miners’ work camps in Cleveland, near Boosbeck. In the summers of 1932 and 1934, as part of his work there he premiered his ballad opera, Robin Hood in Boosbeck church hall, performed by an amateur choir of miners, local villagers and students
Share the Stage was imagined by Royal Northern Sinfonia’s Principal Conductor, Dinis Sousa, a dynamic young conductor who has recently made acclaimed debuts at Salzburg Festival; Musikfest Berlin; Carnegie Hall, New York; and Harris Theater, Chicago.
Dinis Sousa said, “This project is a celebration of music as a central part of our community. As with our Verdi Requiem in 2021, we want people to have the time and space to really get inside the music, with support from our wonderful orchestra and chorus, as we prepare for a monumental performance at The Glasshouse. Making music together, in such a welcoming but stretching environment can be a life-affirming experience, and I know that we will all treasure these weeks we spend together bringing “A Child of Our Time” to life.”
The singers have been supported through a series of weekly rehearsals by the friendly, fantastic Chorus of Royal Northern Sinfonia and their Director Tim Burke.
Throughout choral rehearsals there have been two rehearsal groups: one for confident sheet-music readers and one for those who learn by ear. Share the Stage’s focus on enjoyment and enthusiasm has encouraged a wide variety of performers to take part.
Helen Walker, amateur trumpeter said, “The project is great fun and has inspired me to improve my playing. I’ve had a couple of lessons with Peter Francomb, horn section leader of Royal Northern Sinfonia. I’m also learning some French Horn pieces written by female composers, and there are quite a few. They’re all extremely challenging.”
Mark Bryant, amateur vocalist said, “I sang quite a bit growing up but hadn’t sung in a choir for nearly 50 years. In retirement, I’d been considering joining a choir and jumped at the chance of singing at The Glasshouse with Royal Northern Sinfonia. I sang A Child of Our Time over 50 years ago, but nothing prepared me for how extraordinarily contemporary the work feels today.”
Get ready to be moved by this joyful celebration of the power and humanity of great classical music.
/ENDS
Press contact: Susie Gray, Premier | Susie.gray@premiercomms.com | 07834 073795
Visual assets:
To view a selection of relevant photographs from passed large scale singing events at The Glasshouse use the link below.
Share the Stage: A Child of Our Time gallery | The Glasshouse (theglasshouseicm.org)
Share the Stage: Tippett’s A Child of our Time
Sunday 24 November, 3pm
The Glasshouse
Tickets – https://theglasshouseicm.org/whats-on/a-child-of-our-time/
Dinis Sousa conductor
Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha soprano
Sarah Connolly mezzo-soprano
Nicky Spence tenor
Willard White bass-baritone
Tim Burke chorus director
Chorus of Royal Northern Sinfonia
Royal Northern Sinfonia
Massed Musical Forces of the North East
Richard Jackson British Sign Language interpreter
About The Glasshouse International Centre for Music
The Glasshouse International Centre for Music is a home for live music lovers.
It’s a place where you can hear rock legends or pop icons on the same night as folk trios or string quartets. Where new musicians are nurtured and showcased on the same stages as platinum-selling performers. And where youth choirs and tambourine-shaking toddlers practise in the same spaces as its acclaimed orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia.
Because as an international centre for music they’re focused on creating and celebrating outstanding music – whether that’s unearthing or growing talent from the region or bringing the world’s best artists to their stages. And as a charity they’re focused on making sure all of that is available to anyone – no matter where you’re from, how old you are, how much money you have, or what challenges you face.
Which is why every year more than 2 million people are able to join for top-notch gigs, concerts, and classes – in their venue at Gateshead Quays, out in communities across the North East, and through livestreamed performances and digital lessons.
Whether you’re making it up or taking it in, you’ll find music lives and grows there.
More about The Glasshouse International Centre for Music
- From global stars to artists starting out, The Glasshouse has hosted 10,022 performances, totalling 4.7m tickets. To have seen every performance would have meant seeing one show every day for 27 years.
- It’s hosted over 220,000 music lessons for North East folk. The region’s young people have learnt to play, sing or produce with us, on over 1.7m occasions.
- Royal Northern Sinfonia perform at The Glasshouse, tour the region, and have played to international audiences on four continents, with livestreams reaching people across five.
- Like stepping stones, artists like Ward Thomas have worked their way from their free stages to selling out its big hall and getting global recognition.
- The Glasshouse regularly opens its doors to a wide range of conferences and events. Since 2004, they’ve welcome over 400,000 delegates from the likes of Greggs, NHS and British Engines, and many, many more.
- The charity is one of Gateshead’s biggest employers, and so far it’s generated £500m of economic value to the region.
- The charity has been the proud guardians of The Glasshouse for almost 20 years, safeguarding it when live music was put on hold during the pandemic.
- The centre, standing 40 m tall, has 630 panes of glass on its exterior.