Pictures from The Mango Tree

Thank You to everyone who attended the recent performance of The Mango Tree performed at Leeds College of Music on Friday 20th June 2014.

The Demon closes in on Princess Jyoti.

The feedback from the event was tremendous.

Princess Jyoti sinking in the water.

There are 2 galleries of photos taken of the performance:

• Gallery 1 photos by Erwan Durand
• Gallery 2 photos by Lizzie Coombes

Princess Jyoti and Raj Kumar.

We are planning on taking this production on tour in the future.

Raj Kumar picking the flower from the water.

Watch this space for future details.

Dilrani Kaur accompanying the soundtrack on her Santoor.

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The Players – Musical ARC.

XXX

All at Musical ARC

The Mango Tree: Performance this Friday (20th June)

Please come to our magnificent, marvelous, mind boggling Mango Tree…

The Mango Tree – Click on the image to see full sized version.

Be mesmerised by the dancers, enchanted by the princess and beware of the demon…

See you on Friday 20th June 7pm at the Leeds College of Music, Quarry Hill, Leeds, LS2 7PD.

You can purchase tickets from the Leeds College of Music box office (0113 222 3434).

Musical ARC are performing a rendition of a classical Indian folk tale, The Mango Tree.

The Mango Tree – Click on the image to see the full size version.

The performance will be signed.

The Mango Tree

Musical ARC are performing a rendition of a classical Indian folk tale, The Mango Tree.

2014-05-12 The Mango Tree flier – front – final printed version

The Mango Tree is the fantasy tale of an Indian king who loses his beloved princess to a demon and yearns for her return.

As a result of a grant award by the Arts Council, Musical ARC, a charity for disabled musicians, has put together a production that combines a mix of musical and visual performances in an innovative way. The story is narrated by artistic director, Lorraine Cowburn and is accompanied with music performed by Musical ARC members. On stage is a large shadow screen on which puppets and live contemporary and traditional Kathak Indian dances are played out. The production will merge shadow and dance; dancers will become shadow puppets, puppets will become dancers in a seamless fusion between what is in front and behind the screens.

The shadow puppetry is devised by Rebekah Caputo. Contemporary dance is arranged by Amy Manancourt. Traditional Kathak Indian dance is by Jyoti Manral.

The performance will be on Friday 20th June 2014 at the Leeds College of Music, Quarry Hill, Leeds, LS2 7PD.

The performance will be signed.

You can purchase tickets from the Leeds College of Music box office (0113 222 3434).

2014-05-12 The Mango Tree flier – rear – final printed version

Don’t forget to check out our facebook page and twitter feed.

The Mango Tree performance is part of the 2014 Yorkshire Festival.

Look forward to seeing you there. 🙂

News: New Performance: Planting the Seed

In spite of the summer heat making its excuses, all at Musical Arc had something to grin / shout / punch the air about. We’d only gone and got the grant from the Arts Council, for another much adored performance of “The Mango Tree”. Waiting for ideas to grow into reality can be painful, but hey, not as much as if we had waited in vain. For, in this fine September of 2013, we planted the seed of our show.

This joyous beginning saw energetic discussions take place at Meanwood, where we confirmed what the process of our year would include. We would be writing the music for “The Mango Tree” ourselves, with the Indian traditions of story and dance inspiring us along the route. We would be welcoming the expertise of collaborative performers, including that of our shadow puppetry artist, Rebekah Caputo and a traditional Kathak dancer. There would be some live music performance and recording opportunities involved too – so not only would we be perfecting every beat and pedal, but we’d experience new professional environments. It became clear that this project would be both fulfilling and crucial to our artistic development. We could not wait to get stuck into part one…

…Light danced from the soft, broken chords of Martin’s acoustic, and we felt the princess tiptoeing into the arc. D.B’s earthy pedals depicted her humming voice, and she began to walk through a lively forest. Shehnaaz was her rhythm, tapping her sparkly toes as she waltzed; and soon we heard the horns, saw the sun beaming down at the girl. Peacefully she wandered, until unwelcome chromatics swore rudely at her face. The story was unraveling; a vicious presence was near…

Melissa Thompson

News: Funding Confirmed for The Mango Tree

The Musical Arc committee are elated to announce they have received funding from the Arts Council for a performance project, “The Mango Tree”.

Re-kindling a past venture, the elements of the show will consist of storytelling, original music composition and live performance, shadow puppetry, and traditional Indian dance.   This array of arts will be displayed by the individuals of Musical Arc alongside collaborating performers, refreshing the insights and senses of all involved.

The journey starts now, with the group regularly meeting at their hub in Meanwood for the writing, direction and rehearsal of the piece. The culminating show commences at The Venue, Leeds, in June 2014.

Further details TBA.

Melissa Thompson

Stanningley Primary School Christmas Performance

During December 2012, Musical ARC returned to Stanningley Primary School to perform ‘World on a String’ in its entirety for all the children and staff previously engaged in Musical ARC workshops. Using a new double screen technique, professional puppeteer Rebekah Caputo was able to tell the ‘Crows and the Serpent’ story on one screen whilst Musical ARC members took a turn as puppeteers, using specially designed head puppets to bring the story even more to life on the second large screen. As the photos show, the rabbit puppet from the ‘Whale and the Elephant” story was a firm favourite amongst staff and children alike. As always Musical ARC composed and played the accompanying soundtrack and also played live before and after the performance. A fantastic end to the year for Musical ARC.

Shehnaaz drumming whilst the shadow of an elephant is cast behind her.

Stanningley Primary School – Musical Arc members

Stanningley Primary School – Musical Arc members and audience

Stanningley Primary School – Martin and other Musical Arc members

We received some lovely endorsements from the children at the school about the performance that can be viewed on our Testimonials Page.

Equal Sound

Our current project is entitled “Equal Sound” We have been developing our workshop model to take into the community. We have successfully led two workshops in Leeds Primary schools with equal emphasis on two factors – Music and creativity and the promotion of disability equality. The workshops have gone really well and our work is proving to produce amazing results.

We restart our regular meetings in September 2012 after our well earned Summer break.

World on a String

We are currently recording the music for our next show “World On A String” featuring Rebekah Caputo a Leeds based Puppeteer and shadow theater artist. The show combines 3 traditional tales from around the world. The stories are brought to life with narrative, music, and puppetry and the show promises to captivate young and old alike.

As a first-Musical Arc are producing all the music to accompany the show in a recording project to be played within the performances. This is proving to be a great experience for all involved. The resulting CD will be on sale at our performances just in time for Christmas!

Click on the flyers below for performance details.

“Food for Thought”

Leeds Museum Curators visiting with artifacts

Our most recent performance “Food For Thought” was a collaboration between Musical Arc composer Luke Carver-Goss, Leeds Museum, Weetwood Primary and Leeds People’s choir.
The Museum visited Musical Arc back in March 2011 with exhibits from the museum related to food. The pieces inspired the original compositions written by Luke and members of Arc. We visited Weetwood Primary in June and children from the choir joined us in the performance alongside members of Leeds People’s choir.

The performance took place on 28th July at the Leeds City Museum and was a huge success.

Food for Thought

Time To Play

We are now having a rest from performances to pursue our own artistic development. Jason Hird from “The Institute of Crazy dancing has been working with us and getting us into our bodies with some new moves.

We have been working on various aspects of music from triads to improvisation and concentrating on keeping a groove altogether.

It’s a good time for us but soon it must come to an end and then we will be working on a new piece which, so far, is going to include a story teller with a hearing impairment who tells a brilliant tale in an exciting and visual way.

Also Jason will hopefully be directing and performing in our new piece. rehearsals will start on April 20th and we hope to perform around late June early July…… We will keep you posted.

See you tonight!

Devika Rao, dancer and visual arts performer, in rehearsals for The Story Retold with Musical Arc members.

Tonight’s event will see the culmination of several weeks collaboration and rehearsals with Musical Arc members, Fused; and solo artist Devika Rao. Its been a fine balancing act blending the different styles of all our performers, but, if this week’s rehearsals are anything to go by, The Story Retold promises to be a magical mix of improvised fusion and classical Indian folk.

Catch us tonight at The Venue, Leeds College of Music, 3 Quarry Hill, Leeds, 7.30 – 9.00pm.

The Story Retold – Friday 28th November 2008

Devika Rao, dancer and visual arts performer, in rehearsals for The Story Retold.

The Story Retold will see musicians from Musical Arc performing alongside internationally renowned storyteller and dancer, Devika Rao. Since 1991 she has performed at high profile dance events across India and the UK, as well as leading participatory community workshops in Yorkshire. Devika has also collaborated on a number of projects with our friends over at South Asian Arts UK – SAA UK.

This event is going to be a great opportunity for audience members and fellow performers to enjoy Devika Rao’s magical interpretation of the Diwali story.

The Story Retold, Friday 28 November, 7.30pm, The Venue, Leeds

The Story Retold

Join us on Friday 28 November, 7.30 – 9pm at The VENUE, Leeds College of Music for a sparkling evening of storytelling, sequins and Indian sweets to round off the Diwali celebrations. The Story Retold is a great family event to be enjoyed by people of all ages.

Tickets can either be booked in advance or on the door.

The Story Retold: The Festival of Light
Leeds College of Music
3 Quarry Hill
Leeds
LS2 7PD
Friday 28th November 2008.