Visions of Blue Heaven Cathedrals / Words Sung and Spoken: James D'Angelo and Friends, and Gina Fergione and Lawrence Ball (double concert)

Planet Tree Music Festival No. 12 · Colet House, London · Sat 7 November, 14:00–18:15

The festival opens with an afternoon double bill. At 14:00, pianist-composer James D'Angelo, with soprano Jennifer Walker and clarinettist Stephen Bennett, presents his own songs and clarinet music. They sit alongside the composers who shaped his tonal and jazz-inflected voice: Copland, Prokofiev, Debussy, Poulenc and Catoire. 

At 16:30, Gina Fergione and Lawrence Ball present a new medium in which poems are both sung and spoken with music. Their semi-composed pieces open up the fullness of each poem's meaning, alive in the moment. Part of the twelfth Planet Tree Music Festival. Also streamed live online.

James D'Angelo, an American composer, pianist, and educator, holds degrees from Manhattan School of Music (BMus, MMus) and a PhD from NYU. Mentored by Vittorio Giannini and Gunther Schuller, he taught at NYU and City University of New York before joining Goldsmiths College, London. There, he explored Indian music (Three Portraits of Krishna) and performed semi-improvised piano suites (1985-1994), influenced by Ravel, Debussy, and jazz. A published composer, he’s written “third stream” songs blending classical and jazz, plus choral and chamber works. His Three Portraits of Krishna was recorded for Virgin Classics, and Blow Out, Ye Bugles marked the 9/11 anniversary. His 2014 album The Holy City features sacred music, and he debuted Festival Fanfare at the 2013 Three Choirs Festival. In 2010, he formed Trio D’Angelo, arranging songs by Brahms and Ravel. For 20 years, he’s led sound therapy workshops, authoring The Healing Power of the Human Voice.

Gina Fergione is a singer, composer, teacher, artist and festival and choir director based in North London. She read music at Dartington College of Arts, specialising in performance and composition, and holds a Post Graduate Certificate in Education from Goldsmiths College, University of London. As a singer she is drawn to releasing tension in body, mind, spirit and emotion in order to sing with freedom and authentic expression. In 2007 she founded the Community Choir at St Joseph's Hospice in Hackney, which rehearsed weekly and performed regularly in and around the Hospice. As a teacher she guides musicians of all ages towards their  own expression.