Search Results for: sensing nature

SENSING NATURE PHOTO TRAIL

Photo Trails are produced to help people with, and without, disabilities, better access the countryside.

They show, through photos, the route of a walk and recognise the importance of providing “pre-visit” information on trail features and site amenities, such as whether disabled parking and accessible toilets are available etc etc.

‘Beyond the Image’ photographer Lucy Kayne has produced a ‘Sensing Nature’ Photo Trail for Waveney & Blyth Arts so that you can find out what the walk and the site has to offer before you book your ticket for one of the unique musical performances!

Sensing Nature is on for 4 performances only – 5pm Friday 30th June and 12pm, 2.30pm, 4.30pm Saturday 1st July. Don’t miss it! Book your tickets now by emailing bookings@waveneyandblytharts.com or call 07415 168806.
 
The Sensing Nature’ Photo Trail is here http://www.phototrails.org/default.cfm?walk=Sensing-Nature-Sound-Trail—Thornham-Woods&page=trail&walk_id=500

STOP PRESS! WAVENEY & BLYTH ARTS TO FEATURE ON NATIONAL RADIO

Excitingly we heard yesterday that BBC Radio 4’s In Touch programme are sending a reporter on Friday 30th June to make a short feature about ‘Sensing Nature’ to be broadcast on 11th July.

Fame at last!

MUSIC WORKSHOPS

WEDNESDAY 17th May
Wednesday was spent with Jackie Walduck and Adrian Lee exploring birdsong with our group based at Norfolk and Norwich Association for the Blind.

The musicians responded to the song of birds you might find at Thornham Woods, including the Collared Dove, Great Tit, the Dunnock and the Chaffinch. These bird songs were interpreted by the musicians into sounds and rhythms on their instruments. The idea was to build an improvised dawn chorus in response to the birdsong and in response to each other

Some of the birdsongs were also deconstructed and re built using the participants’ instruments.
Listen to the Chaffinch below….

Listen

Click on this link to listen to ‘ Improvised Birdsong Composition’.

Click on this link to listen to sounds inspired by the Chaffinch

Thank you Jackie and Adrian for an inspiring few days.

TUESDAY 16th May
Jackie Walduck led the Ipswich workshop on Tuesday. The group explored the use of the Guiro (Latin American percussion instrument) to imitate the many stridulating insects found at the Thornham Woods site. Sounds you may experience at Thornham Woods are the inspiration at the heart of the Sensing Nature project. Stridulators produce sounds by rubbing one part of the body against another eg. the grasshopper.

Click the links below to listen to the Guiro interpretations of the Meadow grasshopper, the Speckled Grasshopper and the Water Boatman. All native to the Thornham Estate.

Listen
Meadow Grasshopper
Speckled Grasshopper
Water Boatman

Since 2016 Waveney & Blyth Arts has been developing a project that focuses on the sounds of nature rather than the sights, working closely with Norfolk & Norwich Association for the Blind and Adrian Lee, a visually impaired musician and composer, and member of Tactile Ensemble

We have recruited an amazing ensemble of sighted, blind and visually impaired amateur and professional singers and instrumentalists from Norfolk and Suffolk to work with Adrian and his colleague Jackie Walduck, vibraphone player, composer and leader of Tactile.

Over three months they have created an original music score inspired by the calls of birds, insects and wildlife found on the wonderful mixed woodland site at Thornham Walks, near Eye, Suffolk which has belonged to the Henniker-Major family for over 200 years.

Tactile is :
Jackie Walduck – vibraphone
Adrian Lee – guitar
Matthew Wadsworth – lute and theorbo
James Risdon – recorders
Tom Jackson – clarinet and saxophone
Ben Markland – double bass

“This is a fantastic, innovative project, and I am so excited that everyone will now have the opportunity to participate and experience nature in new ways.”
Tom Shakespeare, commentator, broadcaster and campaigner and Sensing Nature Patron

Click here to read a project update and listen to sound files created during recent music workshops

The Events

Each summer Waveney & Blyth Arts organises a season of events across its patch which reflect the organisation’s central theme of connecting people and places through the arts.

Sculpture in the Valley 2022

W&BA Celebrate programme brochure 2019

Celebrate Waveney & Blyth 2018

Sensing Nature Sound Trail 2017

Sensing Nature Sound Trail – end of project report

Celebrate Waveney & Blyth 2017 

Celebrate Waveney & Blyth 2016

SENSING NATURE – Self-evaluation Report.docx

Legends from a Long Forgotten Land 2016

Celebrate Waveney & Blyth 2015

PARADISE Project 2015

Merry Month of May 2015

Celebrate Waveney & Blyth 2014

Celebrate Waveney & Blyth 2013

Celebrate Waveney & Blyth 2012

Celebrate Waveney & Blyth 2011

Throughout the year Waveney & Blyth Arts organises events and projects that are open to members and non-members.

Our main public programme, Celebrate Waveney & Blyth, usually runs from May to October every year. 2021 has given us pause to take a look at what we can deliver safely and we are working hard to create events that bring you the best of the artists in our wonderful area.

You can join us as member to take advantage of a discount at all the W&BA events

Our annual brochure with details of all the summer events is usually published in the Spring and is distributed around the Waveney and Blyth in cafes, arts and community venues, libraries, and other public places. Our area covers the Waveney river from Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft, to Beccles and Bungay, Harleston and Diss, and covering the Blyth river valley from Southwold to Halesworth, and the surrounding small towns and villages.

We’ve been grateful to Geoffrey Watling Charity and Halesworth & Blyth Valley Partnership for support of the 2019 programme, and to Norfolk County Council for their support of the Sensing Nature Ensemble of visually impaired musicians.

This year we will print as required. With legislation changing so frequently we need to be a bit more nimble!