Hands Off has quickly grown into a thousand-hand, all embracing, theremin convergence of players, builders, and aficionados from across Great Britain and the globe. This year will feature performances by Lydia Kavina, who will also give a talk and master class, and ThereminWorld Memebers(!): Chris Conway, Alexander Thomas, and Beat Frequency, aka Gordon Charlton, founder-director-publicist-&-handyman of Hands Off. There will be a Theremin Cello duet too, and a Grand Finale of twenty thereminists! A public interactive theremin installation will up up for the week. The installation uses 16 custom built theremins by Fred Mundell of Fundamental Designs Ltd. I couldn't possibly thank and congratulate GordonC (and Mrs. GordonC too I'm sure!) enough for Hands Off. It has become a major and inspiring theremin event and has been the most consistent and fastest growing festival for the theremin. Saturday, 17 April 2010 Clore Ballroom, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre Belvedere Road SE1 8XZ, London
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It certainly helps that thereminists are the best people in the world - and have had a lot of faith in these little ventures, right from the start.
Gordon
SkyWave Theremins for Ether Festival (http://www.skywavetheremin.com)
I will not have time to post anything more on this - but just thought folks at TW might be interested.
Fred.
I particularly enjoyed the Flower Duet performance, it was brilliant!
Did anyone happen to get a recording of that? Is there an official one? I would really like to hear it again! Where might I get hold of a copy? YouTube/Vimeo?
Thanks Chris for letting me try your E-Pro, I want one, it's not fair! :'(
Extra thanks to Lydia for the entertaining, informative and reassuring masterclass. So even she doesn't know exactly where the notes are! Phew! ;)
Once again, thank you all for putting on such a fantastic show! I hope to see you all again at the next one! :D
Dan
I focused on the Theremin Cello.
Theremin Cello (http://mikebuffington.net/?p=882)
I have some video, but am waiting for an ok from the performers before making it public.
Mike
For the benefit of those not there, the ballroom was an open foyer type affair. Due to the nice weather, there were plenty of people around (and using the bar). I think the cons (glasses at the bar clinking, people being a bit too loud) were outweighed by the bewildered look on people's faces - I think I enjoyed watching people's reactions as much as watching the event! (E.g. an elderly gentleman who couldn't get his head around the fact it wasn't being touched; or the group of cellists who were bemused by the theremin cellos).
Got to echo the appreciate for the Flower Duet - I hope some recording does surface (although the irony of it being associated with airlines can't have been missed!).
Special thanks go to the actual real [i]literally the[/i] Archbishop of Canterbury coming in during my set, staring for a moment and walking straight back out again.
I can't help wondering what the Most Reverend and Right Honourable Rowan Douglas Williams thought of this: http://www.youtube.c...!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OWuVrUOoZc
And a bit of me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uxtye8KGEw
And here's the verbal score for "Icelandic Volcano (http://www.scribd.c...; - one of the pieces played by the theremin circle (18 theremins and 2 theremin cellos) which I must blushingly report was very well received.
Special thanks go to the actual real literally the Archbishop of Canterbury coming in during my set, staring for a moment and walking straight back out again.
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WHAT? The Archbishop walked out?
I think this is an unfortunate result of the current dangerous rapprochement between the Roman Catholic Church and the C. of E.
As everyone knows, traditionally the Church of England has agreed with a HANDS OFF policy but the Roman Catholic clergy, as recent news events have clearly shown, has been most definitely HANDS ON.
The Archbishop's regrettable exit from HANDS OFF does not bode well.
We must petition the Queen!
O.K. - all kidding aside, you guys were SENSATIONAL!
I was left out of the group pic because I wasn't in the room when it happened. :o(
Which makes me think I have probably dreamed the whole thing up. Was I actually there? Because it does feel kind of like a wonderful dream...
Alexander Thomas was wonderful. The Archbishop of Canterbury has no taste!!
Overall... we did a great job with the situation we were dealt!;o) And the soloists were amazing. Well done guys, and well done Gordon!!!!!
Oh yeah... and I should say who I am because I hardly ever post on here(shame on me). Hi, this is Greta.:o)
Or was it "Simple... [b]so[/b] they worked"
A random picture of Thorwald and Lydia that I found on Flickr.
http://www.flickr.co...
I imagine the Archbishop saw God and got scared. Or something.
...could there be a connection?
Lydia was so great - she worked all day - I didn't even see her take a break from 10 til 6.
The sound of performances relayed over the whole floor if one went wandering around was amazing.
I didn't see the archbishop of canturbury but I coulda swore I saw Russel Brand in the crowd...or a lookalike.
My own set went as well as I couldve hoped on 4 hours sleep apart from my usual absentminded "oops I left that switch on" moments.
One of the main things I'll take away was just what nice people all the thereminists were. A pleasant cameraderie was felt from players from many different places and different walks of musical life on a day when the theremin was the star.
I also thought Sindy/Cindy who looked after us from the South Bank was very helpful and friendly.
Thanks to Gordon and all the players for another fantastic event.
I have some vid footage that I'll post links to as soon as I can get it sorted.
Indeed. There is a spiritual aspect to theremin playing that seems to transcend personal musical beliefs. Quite unlike the fragmentation of organised religions over trivial issues. Perhaps [i]that[/i] is what scared the Arch-Bish.
1. last notes of one 20 theremin improv and intro and the start of Christian Mason's text piece A Night By The River 0010 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tjutKN-8ns)
2. Chris Conway improv 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQMBjIpj_5A)
3. Chris Conway improv 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcfIYT8HOJ4)
4. Chris Conway improv 3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX6H4k43W2E)
th th th thats all folks...
http://qik.com/video... Chris Conway
http://qik.com/video... Lydia Kavina
http://qik.com/video... Theremin Cellos
http://qik.com/video... warming up and meeting some of the performers
There is also photos a-plenty and some more video on Facebook.
Links in the comments for the Hands Off event page.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=332098201329
[i]Glissandi[/i] improvisation. http://www.youtube.c...
http://www.youtube.c...
http://www.neokitsch.com/archives/1158
And a couple of theremin-cello and theremin pieces with Lydia and Thorwald.
Schillinger electroquintet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpBvWzob41w
Eric Satie - Gymnopedie No. 3
http://www.youtube.c...