Jess Gillam, open-air theatre and the sounds of Simon & Garfunkel
Petworth Festival 2021
If the pandemic has brought one thing into focus for classical saxophonist Jess Gillam, it’s the sheer power of music in our communities.
Jess is delighted to be back on the concert stage with two dates at this year’s Petworth Festival with concerts at
5pm and 8pm on Thursday, July 15 in St Mary’s Church, marking the first-ever tour of her youthful seven-piece Jess Gillam Ensemble.
“This past year has been very difficult for everybody across the world, but for performers not to be able to be in front of a live audience, to feed off that vibe, to enjoy that spontaneous exchange of ideas really has been very very tough. I have tried in different ways to do things digitally, and the technology is brilliant, but it can never replace actually being there in the room with the audience. Nothing can beat that actual live experience.”
But Jess kept busy nonetheless, with a series of highly successful scratch orchestra projects which attracted more than 2,000 people.
“It was about finding something to bring people together and I didn’t expect so many people to take part. It was great. I think there was a real need, especially from young people, to have music in their lives and to feel part of something bigger. You think back to those musical experiences you had at school, playing together. They are the best experiences.”
As for performances now, Jess counts herself as one of the lucky ones: “I had have quite a few live concerts now in front of an audience. I have got a really busy season coming up, but it has been a bitter-sweet experience as well when I think of my colleagues and friends who still can’t work and of the fact that some have actually left the profession.
“I do think there is still a nervousness because of everything that has happened, but there is also an overriding palpable sense of gratitude and relief… a huge relief.
“I think the pandemic has made me much more aware of the role of music in society and of the good that music does in society, of the power to inspire people and to bring them together. Music can be solace for people in difficult
times. It can also inspire them and uplift them. I think I am much more aware of the way that music can amplify our emotions. It can be a very powerful tool… and not being able stand in front of people to perform and to share music was very hard.”
It’s with her ensemble that Jess will be playing in Petworth (saxophones –
Jess Gillam; violin – Roberts Balanas; violin – Michael Jones; viola – Eoin Schmidtmartin; cello – Gabriella Swallow; bass – Sam Becker; percussion – Elsa Bradley; and piano – Leif Kaner-lidstrom).
“And this is our first live tour. We recorded an album just a few weeks before the first lockdown last year. It was at that stage in February where we didn’t think that it was all going to hit the UK and we were a bit oblivious to it all. We were in the studio recording the album and it was one of the most exciting experiences I have ever had. It was great. They are a mixture of friends and musical colleagues. The album came out in October last year. It was strange to put an album out and not to be able to play it live!”
Sounds of G&S
Illyria theatre company bring Gilbert & Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore to this year’s Petworth Festival.
They will be in action on Sunday, July 25 at Bignor Park, near Pulborough, starting at 6pm and ending approx 8.10pm.
Rachel Lea-gray is delighted to be back with the company: “This is my fifth show with Illyria. I did four consecutive seasons and then didn’t work with them and then last year was the pandemic so it has been three years now.
“It is going to be creatively very exciting. There are only six of us that present the whole show. G&S’S usually have big ensembles, but with this one we are doing lots of swapping and lots of muliroling. You are playing all sorts of different parts.”
And it is great to be back with Illyria: “They are a really lovely company to work for, really caring. They really look after you and they comply with all the Equity guidelines. They just make you feel really, really appreciated.
“They are all about making outdoor theatre accessible for all. The tagline is ‘Rain doesn’t stop Illyria!’ And they do things in a really fun way. Especially with G&S it can all be done very seriously and in a very traditional way. But ours is really funny and slapstick and upbeat.
“If you look back at the history of musical theatre, you will see so much that was in G&S, so much that has inspired later musicals, like speaking through songs. But they have become regarded as quite serious pieces when they were not! G&S are sending up all sorts of people in their shows.”
And it’s that sense of fun that the company are keen to bring out. It’s certainly not a case of sending up G&S. They treat the material with huge respect. But it is certainly a case of bringing out all the humour that is there – humour that plenty of other companies have missed over the years.
“There is brilliant humour there,” says Rachel.
At the time of the first lockdown in March last year, Rachel was doing a show called Once Upon A Mattress in Highgate: “Obviously the show closed early. And I was also meant to be doing panto and that got cancelled. But actually I was quite fortunate. I do a lot of teaching so I was able to do a lot of teaching on Zoom during the year. But my husband was working for home so we did get a bit on top of each other at times, but you have just got to adapt.”
And now things have opened up again, with the Petworth Festival date coming as part of a sevenweek tour: “It is very exciting especially after a year of not going anywhere. We are going to Devon and we are going to Scotland and we are going to loads of lovely National Trust properties.”
And Rachel is confident it will all be safe: “Illyria are company that are very very Covid conscious and we will have lots of measures in place, and we are in bubbles. And I think the venues will be very very careful as well, but actually being outdoors is the safest place you can be. And the way the tickets are selling shows that people are just desperate to get back out there and to get theatre back into their lives. I think the tickets are selling better than they ever have done.”
Bring your own rugs or low backed seating and dress for the weather. Grounds open from 4.30pm for picnics.
Classic duo
The Music of Paul Simon – A Celebration will be one of the highlights of this year’s Petworth Festival.
Happening on Thursday, July 22 in Petworth House Stable Yard, it runs from 7.30pm-10.10pm and offers a show of two halves.
The second half is Gary Stewart’s live reworking of the iconic album Graceland with its sequence of songs inspired, amongst much else, by mbaqanga – South African street music. Joyous music will be delivered by a sevenpiece band.
The first half focuses on the Simon & Garfunkel years with a set from the duo that tour as Simon & Garfunkel Through The Years.
Dan Haynes, the Simon of the two, said: “The show is very much a celebration of the music of Simon & Garfunkel, though we perform as ourselves, as fans of Simon & Garfunkel. We don’t dress up as them or pretend to be them. We never felt that that would work!”
Dan got into their music at college: “Peter, the guy that sings Garfunkel’s parts, introduced me. He grew up with their music. Both his parents were big fans. In college we met and he introduced me to the music, and it just all spawned from there. We started playing their songs and our voices complemented one another. We were doing music by other artists, but it was the music of Simon & Garfunkel that really seemed to suit us, and so we started doing the show Simon & Garfunkel Through The Years.
“We first started touring in village halls in 2011 and then we started touring smaller theatres and it has built up from there. We have been quite fortunate. We have done tours in Europe and America and in early 2020 we went to Australia. We just managed to get the tour in. The last week of the tour was a bit of a panic because we didn’t know what was going to happen and whether were going to be able to get home, but we managed to complete the tour. But for a number of the venues, we were the last show.
“(During the lockdowns) we have tried to keep up our presence as much as we could. We did a few online shows which were really good. It was a really nice way to stay connected with people and the feedback was great. Lots of people were really pleased that we were doing it. Everybody had been shut up indoors and they were really grateful that we were offering it. But it has been really great to be back in venues. Nothing can beat that experience of sharing the music together in the same room together.
“Our first gig was at the end of May. It was quite nerveracking, to be honest. We felt like we were starting over again we had been that long away from an audience. Neither of us are the biggest, most confident performers. We always grow into it while doing the show, but actually, it was great and we were soon back into the swing of it.”
As for the music: “I just think Paul’s song-writing is just so good. The songs from the Simon & Garfunkel period have just proved to be timeless classics. Somebody said to us that the music just doesn’t seem to age at all, and I think that that is right.
“And I think the fact that the songs can be so stripped back just highlights the incredible quality of them. You can really strip them back to the bones and they are still really brilliant.”