Saturday 9th Nov, 2.30 – 4.00 pm. Poems read by George Szirtes; music and poetry performed by Adam Strickson and Our Liberated Winter (Robin Bowles and Simon Prince)

This was our first event in the Historic Reading Room of the John Rylands Library, 150 Deansgate, M3 3EH.

You can find links to our you-tube videos of the event here:

George Szirtes’s first book, The Slant Door (1979) was joint winner of the Faber Memorial Prize. In 2004 he won the T S Eliot Prize for Reel, and was shortlisted for the prize again in 2009 for The Burning of the Books. His latest book, Bad Machine (2013) is similarly shortlisted. In between Bloodaxe published his New and Collected Poems (2008). His translations from Hungarian have won international prizes and his latest book for children, In the Land of the Giants won the CLPE Prize in 2013.

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I AM THE FERRYMAN

A poetry and music film, preceded by live performance.

Adam Strickson (poet and librettist), Lucy Bergman (artist and film maker) and music duo Our Liberated Winter (Simon Prince, flute and Robin Bowles, piano) have collaborated to make I AM THE FERRYMAN, a beautiful meditative film which explores the marriage between words and music in Benjamin Britten’s work.

This 25 minute film is both a response to the evocative landscape of Suffolk that inspired Britten and a reflection, through a series of poems by Adam Strickson, on the composition of the composer’s Curlew River, the haunting 1964 opera based on a play from the ancient Japanese Noh theatre, with words by poet William Plomer. Taking their inspiration from themes in the opera, instrumental duo ‘Our Liberated Winter’ have created original flute and piano music for the film.

The film will be preceded by a short selection of the poems performed live with the flute, and some music from ‘Our Liberated Winter’.