Ikon Arts News

Miss Marple, Sex and the City? - The popular theme tune takes on a new twist

Surely this year's most extraordinary chart contender is the single Evensong - a winning collaboration between legendary hit composers Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley and award-winning a cappella octet VOCES8, which aims to propel choral music into the national best-sellers.

The result is Evensong - an intriguing version of Howard and Blaikley's unforgettable theme tune from BBC TV's Miss Marple featuring a haunting new lyric, combined with the glorious, beautifully blended voices of VOCES8.

The association between composers and group sprang from a serendipitous meeting at a charity concert which began with expressions of mutual admiration and quickly turned into a discussion as to how they might all work together.

The song tells the tale of a sophisticated teenage girl's attempt to lure a younger chorister away from his choral duties to the bright lights and temptations of the big city.

Just as Evensong dramatises the very contemporary conflict between traditional and permissive values, so the eponymous CD album reflects many facets of life in a wide spectrum of musical styles - ranging from pop to jazz to liturgy, enhanced by Jim Clements' innovative arrangements.

For more information please contact Costa Peristianis: costa@ikonarts.com evensong.org.uk

Read the latest ikon arts news in our autumn 2008 newsletter - click the link to download.

The Tippett Quartet will perform the opening concert of the new Swedish Hall Concerts series, based at the Swedish Church near Edgware Road.

Swedish Hall Concerts has been recently set up in order to showcase the best of Swedish classical music, and will feature some of today's finest established musicians and young stars. The opening concert will be on Tuesday 9 September at 7pm, and the quartet will be performing music by Haydn, Tippett, Ravel and one of Sweden's most loved composers Lars-Erik Larsson.

Programme:

• Haydn String Quartet Op. 20 No. 2
• Tippett String Quartet No. 2
• Ravel String Quartet Op. 11
• Larsson Intimate Miniatures for String Quartet Op. 20

Please visit swedish-hall.org.uk for more information about the concert series, or ikonarts.com for more details about the Tippett Quartet.