AN INTRODUCTION TO OFF_CENTRE
AN INTRODUCTION TO OFF_CENTRE
AN INTRODUCTION TO OFF_CENTRE
JACK SHEEN
Croon harvest
ft. KANTOS Choir
Rehearsal & Set-up of Croon harvest
Rehearsal & Set-up of Croon harvest
Public Performance
Rehearsal & Set-up of Croon harvest
Images courtesy of artist
On the 23rd May, PINK was proud to present Croon harvest, the second of two new works from artist-in-residence Jack Sheen, a composer whose immersive performance-installations operate within the hazy space between long-form music and sculpture.
Croon harvest centred on the voice’s potential to create incredible intimacy in its most hushed, unprojected state, a state within which blemishes, grain, and imperfections ornament the resulting sound. The piece was made up of small, breath-long fragments of lamenting gestures, with each singer instructed to perform in a way that is closer to humming or mumbling rather than singing in a projected manner.
Croon harvest invited a celebration of vacancy, placing gentle vocal lamentations in dialogue with lo-fi recordings of domestic silence taken by the large body of singers that performed the work to create a gentle tapestry of ritualistic activity, soft mumbling and white noise.
The performance was one-hour long and audience members were invited to freely walk through and sit within the installation as the performance unfolded.
Performed by KANTOS Choir
Supported by the PRS Foundation, Jerwood Arts, and Marchus Trust
BIOGRAPHIES
JACK SHEEN
Jack Sheen (1993) is a composer and conductor from Manchester. He regularly works with leading orchestras, ensembles, galleries, and artists on concert and operatic performances, commissions, installations, and interdisciplinary projects. 2021 will see Jack debut with the London Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, and FontanaMIX Ensemble, create a new sound-installation for the Venice Biennale Musica, and complete his tenure as Carne Fellow at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance, the first ever composer to hold this position.
Jack’s music encompasses concert works for orchestras, ensembles, and soloists, alongside immersive performance-installations that disperse live musicians, audio, film, and dancers around large, open, non-seated spaces such as galleries or warehouses, blurring the lines between long-durational composition and sculpture. His recent compositions often exist in both formats. He has been commissioned by orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Aurora Orchestra, and Manchester Camerata, ensembles including Apartment House, Les Métaboles and Plus Minus Ensemble, and commissioned by organisations such as Aldeburgh Festival and BBC Young Artists Day. He has held residencies at Abbaye de Royaumont and the Camargo Foundation, has had pieces realised at the Victoria & Albert Museum, British Museum, the Baltic (Gateshead), and Holden Gallery (Manchester), and has appeared numerous times on BBC Radio 3 and NTS.
Awards include PRS Composers Fund (2021), Arts Foundation Fellowship (finalist, 2020), Rovaumont Voix Nouvelle Composition Prize (2018), Royal Philharmonic Prize for Composition (2016), an RNCM Gold Medal (2012) and BBC Young Composer of the Year (2011). In 2019 he was a Jerwood Fellow with Manchester International Festival.
He is the Co-Director of London Contemporary Music Festival (‘the capital’s most adventurous and ambitious festival of new music’, The Guardian, ‘London’s most important festival’, The Wire) and Co-Founder of the critically acclaimed LCMF Orchestra.
KANTOS
Kantos Chamber Choir was founded in 2015 by Ellie Slorach. The choir comprises the top choral singers across the North who have begun or are about to begin their professional careers. Kantos has rapidly risen to the forefront of choral singing in Manchester and the North West by shaking up the long-standing tradition of choral music by presenting well-known works in new and innovative ways and by championing new choral music.
In addition to their own concerts, Kantos regularly records for BBC Radio (Daily Service and Sunday Worship programmes) and performs and records with artists and orchestras including Gary Numan, the BBC Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Northern Ballet Sinfonia.