SOUTHWOLD ARTS FESTIVAL ~ Suffolk's Songs

Robert Gildon, baritone, Nathan Williamson, pianist & composer, Robert Jellicoe, poet & narrator.

A programme celebrating the wealth of folk song, poetry and music inspired by Suffolk’s landscapes, culture and history.

Whilst the work of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears - and their assistant Imogen Holst, a masterful composer in her own right - is the most obvious example of this wonderful legacy, other connections abound. Ralph Vaughan Williams and George Butterworth collected numerous folk songs from fishermen in Suffolk and other working people. These have in turn influenced Nathan Williamson in his own settings of poems by Suffolk writer Robert Jellicoe, based on tales of Southwold fishermen from bygone years.

Doreen Carwithen, ground-breaking film composer and significant contributor to the song repertoire, lived in Blythburgh from the 1950s. Songs by Martin Shaw will also be part of the programme. Shaw was a resident of Southwold, remembered for his famous hymns like my personal top favourite Hills of the North, Rejoice. He composed some very moving songs, setting Edgar Allan Poe and W. B. Yeats, among others, which are long overdue a revival.

Robert and Nathan will guide us through the programme with introductions, background, and readings of certain poems. Robert Jellicoe will also be present to introduce and read some of his own work.