Francesco di Fiore – piano
This concert has been organised in tribute to the renowned and award-winning Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto who sadly passed away earlier this year. The concert will include some of Sakamoto’s most popular and enduring music for solo piano including Forbidden Colors (theme from “Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence”), Energy Flow, Amore, Aqua and The Sheltering Sky. It will also include a new composition by pianist/composer Francesco di Fiore composed in memory of Sakamoto.
Sakamoto began his musical career in the late 1970s as a member of electronic band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). In 1983 he starred alongside David Bowie, and also composed the score for, the film Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence. In 1987 his film score for The Last Emperor, in which he also starred, won him an Oscar, a Grammy and a Golden Globe. Over the years, his extensive body of work has embraced collaborations with artists such as David Sylvian, Brian Eno and Alva Noto. Alongside his electronic music, his music for solo piano forms a significant backbone to his vast output.
Francesco Di Fiore, concert pianist and composer, was born in Palermo, Italy. He studied piano and composition variously with Harald Ossberger, Bruno Canino, Peter Toperczer and Eliodoro Sollima, in Vienna and Prague. In 1986 he began his concert career performing hundreds of concerts worldwide. As a composer, alongside music for piano, his compositions include chamber and orchestral music, film soundtracks and stage music. His albums are released by Dutch Label Zefir Records.
NB: Following the concert at 9pm there will be a film screening of the 2017 documentary RYUICHI SAKAMOTO: CODA. Tickets can be purchased separately via this site or can be purchased on the evening of the event.
With self-effacing humour and stories told of growing up on a remote Irish Island Niall McCabe possesses an effortless charm which both captivates and liberates his audience.
His natural distinct voice is earning him a growing loyal fanbase, discovering his music as he travels extensively, with his recent critically acclaimed album RITUALS bringing him to venture off the Island, touring across Ireland, UK, Europe and North America.
An extra-special chance to hear master craftsman Martin Carthy perform and reminisce on his illustrious career in folk song to date, with musical interludes and conversation with his talented friend, musician and journalist, Jon Wilks. Martin has an insatiable musical curiosity, as well as a lifetime of wonderful stories and songs to share.
Martin Carthy is one in a million: one of folk music’s greatest innovators, one of its best loved, most enthusiastic and, at times, most quietly controversial of figures. Now aged 82, he is a consummate storyteller, singer, guitarist and oral historian renowned for his settings of traditional songs as well as his authoritative interpretations of newly composed material. His skill, stage presence and natural charm have won him many admirers from within the folk scene and beyond, including Bob Dylan and Billy Bragg.
Jon Wilks is an acclaimed fingerpicking guitarist and singer of traditional folk songs and broadside ballads from the English repertoire, and a devotee of Martin’s work. His background as a journalist (a former editor of Time Out magazine and contributor to Dazed & Confused, The Guardian and other publications, as well as the founder of the Tradfolk website) means that he has a great eye/ear for a story. The only thing he anticipates difficulty with is keeping Martin on track.
Get ready for an unforgettable evening of Bollywood classics, Indian ragas, ghazals and contemporary music.
Swati Natekar is an illustrious and highly-accomplished singer, composer, and the voice behind hit songs such as ‘Nadia’ (with Nitin Sawhney), ‘Khwaab’ (with Niraj Chag) and ‘Jakatta American Dream’ (No. 3 on the UK charts). She has toured extensively across the world and has collaborated with the likes of Ustad Zakir Hussain, Ustad Ghulam Ali, Talvin Singh, Nitin Sawhney and Sonu Nigam.
After last year’s extraordinarily successful national tour, Swati returns to Liverpool with a brand-new concept – ‘Raag-Rang’ – Shades of Ragas. Accompanied on stage by a collective of the UK’s most talented musicians, she’ll perform Bollywood classics and popular ghazals alongside the classical raga equivalent, giving audiences unique and inspiring insight into how popular songs are developed from classical roots.
Swati will also be paying tribute to India’s legendary vocalist, the late Lata Mangeshkar, with a specially curated selection of her most beloved melodies.
Part of Indika Festival 2023, see here for full listings
J. S. Bach’s Cantata 101 ‘Nimm von uns, Herr, du treuer Gott’ [Take from us, Lord, severe punishment] which is essentially a prayer for peace and tranquillity for the nation, performed by Liverpool Bach Collective on Remembrance Sunday.
There are few songwriters to ever surpass the gifts he’s brought, either on his own, with The Pale Fountains, Shack or The Strands, but Michael Head and his Red Elastic Band start to unwrap the fifth decade of his artistry with some of his finest work.
His 2022 album, Dear Scott, as cohesive and coherent as any album he’s made and this time in the company of producer, Bill Ryder-Jones, is the luminescent result of Head’s star collapsing before morphing to illuminate the skies twice as brightly as before. A dizzying constellation of carefully-crafted songs, pin-sharp playing and deft, life-bringing production, Head’s latest masterpiece, according to the man himself, was a simple matter of his band leading by example and honing their craft, requiring him to up his game.
Dear Scott’s title refers back to a golden age of show business, writing and movie-making, a million miles from a pandemic-shrouded Liverpool, that captivated Head in recent years. It’s a place of escape. It is a rewarding journey, made special by its ocean-deep depths. Is there another, living songwriter who can make us feel quite this way?
The show is part of Knowsley Music Festival 2023, tickets are also still available for their Late Night Lillies show, featuring Lapsley on 16 November, see here for tickets.
Låpsley has finally found a balance. ‘I’m now in this beautiful middle space’, she says. ‘But you need to experience the extremes to learn where that is.’
After an explosive rise to fame as a teenager, when she first uploaded her minimal, mournful self-produced electronica to SoundCloud, Merseyside raised Holly Fletcher’s debut album Long Way Home was released to critical acclaim on XL in 2016. Singles Hurt Me and Falling Short confirmed her as one of the most exciting new songwriting talents, whilst DJ Koze’s disco edit of Operator produced an instant dancefloor classic.
Extensive touring followed as Holly honed her craft as a writer and performer, her first proper gig was at Glastonbury, she’s since gone on to play Coachella, All Points East and countless other festivals.
The show is part of Knowsley Music Festival 2023, tickets are also still available for their Michael Head and The Red Elastic Band show on 10 November, see here for tickets.
This October, the Hope Metropolitan Orchestra in Liverpool will perform a concert of music illustrating the diversity of old rural communities.
Imagine a village surrounded by deep countryside. At the centre is a church. Beyond are a couple of unmade roads, a tavern and a scattering of houses. Most people rise early to work on the land.
These are the pictures described in music by the Czech composer Dvořák and the Hungarians, Bartók and Kodály. There is a strong folk element, particularly of the lively dances which were such an important part of the workers’ leisure time. Vocal pieces follow traditional melodies whose origins date back centuries.
Dvořák takes a benign view of village life. Bartók and Kodály are much more realistic. While acknowledging the strengths of country customs, they point also to back-breaking work done in all weathers.
Many villages had a fiddle player and this concert highlights pieces for the violin, notably in the world premiere of More Imaginary Folksongs by Stephen Pratt, written for the orchestra’s leader, Leo Byrne.
Don’t miss what’s set to be an enchanting evening of live orchestral music as the Hope Metropolitan Orchestra invite you to “step back in time to a fast-vanishing world”.
‘Village Scenes’ will take place at The Great Hall on Liverpool Hope University’s Creative Campus on Saturday 28th October 2023 from 7.30pm. Tickets are available now via The Capstone Theatre Website.
Liverpool band The Cheap Thrills play a special show at CONTENT.
The Cheap Thrills are a great indie rock band from Liverpool. Formed in 2010, the band signed to Eighties Vinyl Records in 2017 and have released 7″ EP, Glare, in January 2017, and 12″ mini album Vue Du Monde, in November 2019 in both the United Kingdom and the United States.
Singer-songwriter Maisie Peters is playing a special show at CONTENT.
She began her professional career independently releasing two singles. In 2018 she signed with Atlantic Records, releasing two EPs and the second series soundtrack to the British comedy series Trying.
