Free reading at the Whitworth Art Gallery on Saturday 24 March at 2.30-4.00.

Anthony Rudolf

Anthony Rudolf was born in 1942 in London , where he still lives. He studied modern languages and social anthropology at Cambridge . He has run Menard Press since 1969. A translator of poetry from French, Russian and other languages, he is lead editor of Yves Bonnefoy’s Poems, Carcanet  2017. Carcanet brought out Rudolf’s collected poems European Hours, also in 2017. He is the author of a trilogy of memoirs, including Silent Conversations: a Reader’s Life. His critical work includes the first extended study in English of Primo Levi. Rudolf has written catalogue introductions and essays about visual artists, including R.B. Kitaj.

Hannah Silva

Hannah Silva is a playwright, poet and performer known for her innovative explorations of form, voice and language. Her solo performances layer up vocal sounds and poetry, creating sonic explorations of meaning and sense. Her latest performance Schlock! splices Fifty Shades of Grey with a novel by Kathy Acker, celebrating ‘the slipperiness of words, reinventing them so that none of them are safe’ (The Guardian). Total Man was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry. She has written award winning plays for Radio 4 and Radio 3. Her poetry collection Forms of Protest (Penned in the Margins) was Highly Commended in the Forward Prizes. Her debut record Talk in a Bit will be released by Humankind in 2018 and has been featured on Radio 3’s Late Junction and in Wire magazine. 

Music from students at the Royal Northern College of Music

Septentrion Duo

Kathryn Mason harp

Alice Roberts harp

Kathryn Mason is in her final year at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, studying harp with Eira Lynn Jones. As an orchestral player, she has worked with many RNCM ensembles including the Symphony and Concert Orchestras, and her work in the New Music North West Festival 2016 and the RNCM Brand New Orchestra has included a number of world premieres of contemporary works. She is also a member of a number of chamber groups, including the RNCM Harp Ensemble, the Septentrion Duo and the Marisca Trio, and has worked with several local amateur orchestras.

Originally from Wakefield, Kathryn studied at Yorkshire Young Musicians with Rachel Jerome from 2006 to 2014. As a soloist, she has performed in a number of concerts presented by the RNCM harp department, as well as providing background music at various functions. She has performed at a number of prestigious venues, such as the Royal Albert Hall, the Palace Theatre in Manchester and Wakefield Cathedral, where she recently had the privilege of performing Handel’s Harp Concerto in Bb with the string orchestra of Wakefield Girls’ High School, from which she graduated in 2014.

Alice Roberts is 21 years old and is a third year student on the prestigious ‘Joint Course’ studying both at the RNCM and Manchester University. Prior to joining the senior college she held a music scholarship at Manchester High School for Girls and was a student at Junior RNCM, and won numerous prizes including the Warburton Music Competition which allowed her the opportunity to perform as a soloist at the Bridgewater Hall. In 2015 she was awarded a Graucob study award for further study.

Alice has a strong interest in contemporary music and in 2016 she premiered several new works for harp, including a composition for harp and chamber orchestra as part of ‘New Music North West’ and a collaborative venture involving music and dance. In June 2016 Alice became a prize winner at the University of Manchester, being awarded the Procter-Gregg Prize, an award given to the first year student who has achieved the highest overall mark in performance.

Septentrion Duo appears by kind permission of the RNCM