Free Music on the Market Place

Following hot on the heels of Festival Too (our noisy little sister!) we have a full day of free entertainment on Sunday 15 July, starting from 11am at the Tuesday Market Place in King's Lynn.

The talented local performers will be: The Visibles, Anna Mudeka and her drummers, The King's Morris, Ukulele Orchestra of Spalding, King's Lynn Festival Chorus and Springwood Jazz.  There will also be various art activities and refreshments, and we promise to finish in time for the football!

The Visibles: This a group of young home educated performers (average age @ 10 years), who have been working with a team from The Garage, Norwich, over the past couple of weeks. Today’s short taster set will be their first ever time onstage.

Anna Mudeka and her drummers: Anna will be dancing and singing with a group of 5 African Drummers.  
Anyone meeting Anna Mudeka would soon realise that she is energetic and passionate about her music and cultural roots. Having been awarded the Most Influential Woman in Business and Government in Africa in the Arts and Culture section 2013, it’s very different from her humble beginnings having grown up in a musical family in Zimbabwe. Her musical career has moved from strength to strength.

Anna has embraced all that’s good about the music and culture from all the Sub-Saharan cultures. She has trained with many well known names such as Thomas Mapfumo, Stella Chiweshe, Adzido Dance Ensemble to name a few. She has gathered inspiration from singers such as Ciseria Avora, Casse Alle, Youssou N’dour, Peter Gabriel, Damian Alban and the late Miriam Makeba of whom she has developed a one woman show entitled Senzi’s Spirit. Anna takes her students on a musical journey through Africa with a knowledge collected through years of training and a deep understanding of the different African cultures at its best. The awarded recognition speaks for itself for the contribution Anna has given to the continent in the last twenty years. Anna was also a finalist for Tesco Mum of the Year in January 2014.

Her experience in film and theatre has been on the set of “A Far Off Place” and “I am the Future” in Zimbabwe and on “The Greatest Drummer in the World” with Leon Rusellson and Elisabeth Mansfield in the UK.
Anna currently works with her six piece band, The Anna Mudeka Band playing a fusion of Zimbabwean mbira driven music. The band are currently recording their latest album entitled Dendende which will tour in 2015. Anna has a five piece dance troupe Tambai Ensemble performing music and dance from the Sub-Saharan cultures.

She has just established a duo show with band member Glynnis Masuku working together to create beautiful harmonies in various African languages including Shona, Kalanga, Zulu, Xhosa, Mandinka and Swahili.
Indian Dancers – Taal-Rasa-Bhava Dance Academy: 

Founded 5 years ago and taught by dance teacher Sangeeta De, the Taal-Rasa-Bhava Dance Academy performs the classical Indian dance Bharatanatyam. Bharatanatyam is a style of dance that originates from southern India, known for its graceful postures and rhythmic appeal. Made up of students the dance academy has been extremely successful, performing nationally at such events as the Chelsea Flower Show.
The group worked with the Festival in 2017 as part of demon Barbers performance.

King’s Morris: The King's Morris was formed in 1978 – 40 years ago. 
“We are a revival side; like most modern teams we perform Cotswold Morris dances from many traditions across middle England.  We are members of The Morris Federation, an association of mixed Morris teams, which has about 490 member sides.

The King's Morris present dancing tours in North-West Norfolk on bank holidays, and on some Friday evenings in Summer we dance outside local village pubs. On the second Sunday in September we invite several other dance teams to join us for massed Morris in King's Lynn (as part of Heritage Open Day). Like many other teams we perform on Boxing Day to mark the "re-discovery" of Morris dancing in 1899 by the folklorist Cecil Sharp. And we take great pride in presenting the traditional King's Lynn May Garland on May Day.”
 
Ukulele Orchestra of Spalding: The Ukulele Orchestra of Spalding was established by 18 amateur players in 2008 who had a passion for playing ukulele and shared 11 instruments between them. Since then the group has evolved to include around 70 members aged 10 to 83, who all share the same joy in performing their repertoire of over 200 songs to diverse audiences in diverse venues.   Making a welcome return for the second year – the group will be performing today with 45 young performers from several King’s Lynn Schools who have been brought together by Music Tutor and USOS member Jessica B Just to say that there will be about 40 -45 kids playing on Sunday!

The children are from the following primary schools:  St Martha’s; Watlington; Methwold; Weeting; St Michael’s; St Edmund’s. The biggest group are coming from St Martha’s, and they will actually have both their class teacher & headteacher with them.

King's Lynn Festival Chorus:  An annual fixture in the King’s Lynn Festival, the King’s Lynn Festival Chorus is a choir originating from King’s Lynn with members travelling to join from Norfolk and other counties, led by musical director Tom Appleton. The Chorus pride themselves on a repertoire that spans over 400 years featuring diverse genres of music. The King’s Lynn Chorus have performed alongside numerous professionals including Dame Emma Kirkby, Elizabeth Watts and the European Union Chamber Orchestra and toured the countries Spain, France and Italy, to name a few.   Their performance today features highlights from their forthcoming festival performance on Tuesday night at St Nicholas’ chapel.  ( Tickets still available).

Springwood Jazz:  A regular collaborator with the Festival, we are delighted to invited 16 talented players from Springwood High School who will be playing a selection of well known Favourites.