This Is London 4 September 2020

Tom Herring. Photo: Resonus Ltd.
AWARD-WINNING SANSARA
LAUNCHES RE:CREATE
Sansara is an award-winning vocal
ensemble focused on the performance of
a cappella choral music. As a collective
body of voices, a choir is a living,
breathing instrument with unparalleled
expressive potential. Sansara realises this
through direct and honest music-making,
always striving to conjure compelling
atmospheres, communicating with clarity
and integrity.
Sansara works as a chamber ensemble
without a single director or conductor. The
result is a highly engaged and versatile
group of professional musicians, working
together with a unified voice to express a
shared artistic vision.
2020 has been a challenging year for
the music industry due to the pandemic,
but Sansara has responded with
characteristic imagination and creativity
by launching a new project that aims to
get everyone involved in music making
and to be creative with their voices.
Funded by Arts Council England,
re:create is a long-term digital co-creation
project designed for people to be actively
involved in the production of new music.
Sansara is building a vocal sound library
consisting of crowdsourced material and
recordings by the group’s professional
singers. This resource will then be used
by music creators to produce new
music, including several specially
commissioned pieces.
This cutting-edge project stands as a
musical metaphor for collaborative
regeneration that aims to inspire,
engage, and connect with audiences in a
new way, making innovative and positive
steps forward in the current social
climate and beyond.
Sansara has commissioned
composers from across genres including
Jasmin Kent Rodgman and Chris
Williams, to each write a piece using
only the sounds from the library. These
commissioned responses aim to inspire
others to create their own new music
when the library is made publicly
available for voluntary responses in
September 2020, as well as possible
further commissions.
Tom Herring, Artistic Director of
Sansara, said: ‘The main lesson from the
last few months has been that times of
immense change and uncertainty force
shifts in perspective. Whether conscious
or unconscious, the way people think and
act is evolving. I wanted to reflect this
change in Sansara’s artistic responses to
the crisis, taking the opportunity to
experiment with the digital networks – on
which we have all become so reliant –
with positivity, ambition and inclusivity.
Our mission to inspire, engage and
connect people through choral music is
central to this work and embodied in
re:create; a virtual choir with a difference.’
Audiences can still contribute to the
re:create library by submitting their
vocal recording online.
PIPPIN TICKET NEWS FLASH!
After launching as a new outdoor
London theatre venue with the sold-out,
critically acclaimed musical ‘Fanny and
Stella’, The Garden Theatre will next
present a new production of the
Broadway musical ‘Pippin’, featuring an
exceptional cast of West End performers.
There’s magic to do when a prince
learns the true meaning of glory, love
and war... Pippin is an unforgettable
musical masterpiece. It features an
infectiously unforgettable score,
including ‘Magic to Do’ and ’Corner of
the Sky’, from four-time Grammy winner,
three-time Oscar winner and musical
theatre giant Stephen Schwartz, who has
given his blessing to perform the show
with an ensemble cast of six. Pippin will
play The Garden Theatre at The Eagle
from 8 September until 11 October.
Director Steven Dexter said: ‘Pippin
originally opened on Broadway in
October 1972, however Stephen
Schwartz started writing an early version
of the show while a student at Carnegie
Mellon University in 1967. Flower power
was at its peak, war was raging in
Vietnam and ‘Hair’ opened on Broadway.
It was the year of the Summer of Love.
My take on the show – which I have
been lucky to direct twice before at
drama schools – is told by a group of
hippie travellers. A huge thank you to
Stephen Schwartz and David Hirson for
embracing this approach and granting
us the rights for a new version of Pippin
with a cast of six players.’
Bookings www.pippinmusical.co.uk
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