Darren Abrahams

27 May – 15 July 2010: Music For Life, Brighton

darren — Sun, 30 May 2010 17:25:56 +0000

Darren is training as a musician in the Music for Life programme in a Brighton care home, in its first project outside of London. Music for Life is a project pioneering and developing interactive music workshops for people living with dementia. Work takes place in residential homes, hospitals and special day care centres. The project aims to:

Enhance the quality of life of its participants
Demonstrate to carers the emotional, social and physical potential of people in their care.

It focuses on people who can be isolated and disempowered as a result of the advanced stage of their dementia. During projects, specially trained musicians work alongside small groups of people with dementia and their carers – drawing out individuals and enhancing communication.

Musicians interact with participants – identifying and building on areas still intact within a person suffering the losses associated with the later stages of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia: memory, physical capacities, personality changes and accompanying loss of identity.

Participant’s personalities come through in the work. Carers who are also part of the team can then re-evaluate their care of individuals in the light of their experience and observations during the project.

Music for Life raises awareness of the possibilities for increased quality of life for people in this care sector, and offers three interlinked strands of work:

Music improvisation workshops for people living with dementia
Working with staff to enhance their understanding of the emotional needs of people with dementia as part of a person-centred approach to dementia care
Training and developing professional musicians to work in this field

Music for Life was founded by Linda Rose in 1993 and developed together with an expanding team of musicians in association with Jewish Care. Music for Life is now managed by Wigmore Hall

30 April: The Heavenly Banquet at Southwark Cathedral, London

darren — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 21:20:05 +0000

Recital by Clare McCaldin (mezzo), Darren Abrahams (tenor), Lindy Tennent-Brown (piano) and Stephen Disley (organ)

The programme includes the wonderful Hermit Songs by Samuel Barber, as well as favourites by Schubert and Bach’s famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor for organ. The second half belongs to Darren and Lindy, whose duo partnership is breaking down the traditional concert format and stirring up some unexpected and exciting musical juxtapositions. Clare will be joining them for a splendid finale.

This concert is a fund-raiser for the monastic Community of the Resurrection in Mirfield, Yorkshire, an amazing and inspiring group of individuals. We have deliberately priced the tickets low in the hope of encouraging a large audience. Please come along if you can and if you want to know more about the Centenary Appeal, for which we are fundraising, here is the website http://www.mirfieldcommunity.org.uk/

24 July (postponed from 24 April) 7pm: Modern British Arias – Songs from the Collection at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester

darren — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 21:13:52 +0000

ART MUSIC FOOD WINE

Situated in the centre of Chichester, England, Pallant House Gallery is a Queen Anne townhouse and a contemporary building by Long & Kentish in association with Prof. Sir Colin St. John Wilson. The Gallery holds one of the best collections of 20th century British art in the country, including important works by amongst others; Andrews, Auerbach, Blake, Caulfield, Freud, Hamilton, Hodgkin, Nicholson, Moore, Paolozzi. Piper, Sickert and Sutherland.
Darren and Lindy have picked key works from this amazing collection to take you on a musical journey from Bach to KD Lang. They hope that by stimulating your ears you are sure to see the collection with new eyes. Amongst the works showcased are Gino Severini’s “Danceuse No.5″, Hogarth’s “The Beggar’s Opera”, Michael Andrews’ “The Colony Room” and Henry Moore’s “Two Sleepers”.

A special canapé menu has been created by Sam Mahoney, the renowned chef of Chichester’s premiere restaurant Field and Fork for the evening and this will be served with wine before the concert and during the interval.

This concert allows a rare opportunity to see the gallery, the permanent collection and four temporary exhibitions, whilst enjoying incredible food and beautiful music – not to be missed!

£40. Please apply to Reception for tickets 01243 774557

www.pallant.org.uk

14/15/16/17 April at 8pm: “EXPOSURE” at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

darren — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 20:50:06 +0000

Exposure offers a unique chance to sample bite-sized chunks of new works by up-and-coming composers. For four nights only, ROH2 tunrs the Linbury Studio at the Royal Opera House into a cosy, cabaret setting, featuring recent and future work by composers across a wide range of contemporary opera and music theatre.

Fragments and glimpses of arias, scenes, animated films and ambient music make up two alternating evenings of entertainment. Prop up the bar or grab a table down at the Linbury to see snapshots of this fresh, new and exciting talent.

Highlights include Tarik O’Regan’s forthcoming Heart of Darkness, Deloitte Ignite’s acclaimed Twitter Opera, Ed Hughes’ Cocteau in the Underworld and Jonathan Gill and Stephen Plaice’s Moon on a Stick. Plus works by rising stars Laura Bowler, Sasha Siem and Phillip Neil Martin.

Tickets £10 (students £8)
DISCOVER MORE

5 December 2009: Beethoven’s 9th at St John’s, Smith Square

darren — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:46:35 +0000

ROYAL ORCHESTRAL SOCIETY FOR AMATEUR MUSICIANS*
LONDON CHORUS*
Orlando Jopling conductor
Katerina Mina soprano
Anne Marie Gibbons mezzo-soprano
Darren Abrahams tenor
James Cleverton bass

Beethoven Coriolan Overture;
Symphony No.9 in D minor Choral
Vaughan Williams Toward the Unknown Region

£30.00 / £20.00 / £15.00

In aid of Crisis*

Click here for more information and to book tickets.

November 2009: Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

darren — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:46:07 +0000

Darren returns to Italy to sing Pirelli in the first Italian production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. Performances are 8th and 10th of November at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and 15th and 17th of November at the Teatro Comunale di Piacenza.

23 – 29 September 2009: Somatic Experiencing Training

darren — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:33:04 +0000

Darren begins part 2 of his training in Somatic Experiencing. Somatic Experiencing® is a body-awareness approach to trauma being taught throughout the world. It is the result of over forty years of observation, research, and hands-on development by Dr. Peter Levine. Based upon the realization that human beings have an innate ability to overcome the effects of trauma, Somatic Experiencing has touched the lives of many thousands. SE® restores self-regulation, and returns a sense of aliveness, relaxation and wholeness to traumatized individuals who have had these precious gifts taken away. Peter has applied his work to combat veterans, rape survivors, Holocaust survivors, auto accident and post surgical trauma, chronic pain sufferers, and even to infants after suffering traumatic births.

Darren hopes to use this modality to inform his work with traumatised individuals and in his work as an animateur and workshop leader, especially with regard to Circular Sounds, the transformative training programme he has devised with Joellen Lily.

1 – 9 September: Arts For Wellbeing – Children of the Balkans

darren — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:13:07 +0000

Darren returns to Bosnia and Herzegovina to spend a week with Nigel Osborne at the Arts for Wellbeing summer camp.

Every year volunteers travel to various locations in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to assist at residential holiday camps, led by Professor Nigel Osborne of the University of Edinburgh, which are held for young people who have been directly affected by recent conflicts in these areas. These camps provide arts, sports and games activities for the children, with a focus on music as a means for healing. Artistic outlets like these offer young people of all ages, stages and abilities a restorative holiday, which gives them the space and time to relax, have fun and develop.

The main camp is held in a beautiful 15-acre mountain retreat that has been created and developed, over the past 10 years, through the efforts of Jean Claude Carreau. The Land of friendship and peace is a mountain retreat that specializes in recreational and therapeutic horseback riding for children who have suffered from the many post-war traumas and losses. Mr. Carreau has dedicated his energies and resources to developing the centre and welcomes our group each year, giving us a wonderful space where the children can be creative and free.

This is Darren’s fourth visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Whilst there he will be working directly with the children making music and running a training workshop for youth workers from Srebrenica to teach them skills to use in their own work.

1st of August 2009 8pm – Haydn Celebration: Coronation Hall, Ulverston

darren — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:34:28 +0000

To mark the bicentenary of Haydn’s death, LDSM (Lake District Summer Music) presents a programme of some of his greatest works under the authoritative baton of Denis McCaldin, Director of the Haydn Society.

Northern Chamber Orchestra, LDSM Festival Chorus

Denis McCaldin: Conductor
Tracey Redfern: Trumpet
Lesley-Jane Rogers: Soprano
Clare McCaldin: Mezzo Soprano
Darren Abrahams: Tenor
Simon Preece: Bass

REPERTOIRE

Haydn Te Deum, Hob XXIIIc:2
Haydn Trumper Concerto in E Flat, Hob Vlle:1
Haydn Miss Brevis in F, Hob XXII:1
Hayd Nelson Mass (Missa in Angustis), Hob XXII:11

Tickets £14, £17, £20.50 book online at www.ldsm.org.uk

4th of July 2009 – “Salt Sings”, a concert of songs inspired by Salthouse 09

darren — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 12:02:01 +0000

An evening of songs inspired by Salthouse 09, a contemporary art exhibition taking place within the historic Church at Salthouse on the North Norfolk Coast. Darren and Lindy Tennent-Brown have responded to this year’s theme, Salt of the Earth and directly to many of the pieces commissioned with songs ranging from the Baroque to the West End stage. Surrounded by the art works themselves, Darren and Lindy hope that this will bring the exhibition to life in unexpected and enjoyable ways, adding the missing dimension of music to complete curator Simon Martin’s theme. We hope to see you there.

Repertoire includes: If Music Be The Food of Love – Purcell; Les Berceaux – Fauré; Moondance – Van Morrison; Finishing the Hat – Sondheim.

Artists exhibited include: Maggi Hambling, Colin Self, Ana Maria Pacheco and Marcela Trsova.

Tickets £8 – available from mid-May from Holt and Wells Tourist Information Centres, on the door on the night, or email a request to: salthouse09@googlemail.com

For more information go to http://www.northnorfolk.org/salthouseartandevents/