What does the Worcester Three Choirs Festival mean to you?

Lots of things, not just choirs. Acoustic Triangle find that two-thirds of its audience are classical music lovers and one-third are jazz and world music fans. Our music is one part classical, one part jazz, in nature, and it is important that it is performed in classical music festivals – we find that those audiences are amongst the most appreciative and knowledgeable. Of the nine musicians in Acoustic Triangle – In Three Dimensions, six have never played jazz, and every member of the group is a classical musician.

What, to you, is special about the Worcester Three Choirs Festival?

Worcester Cathedral is one of the great buildings for performance. It is seen every day on the back of a £20 note and is a hugely important building. On our current cathedrals tour, we are collecting great buildings! Also, what is really special is the knowledgeable audience, the immense sense of history and the Festival’s great tradition.

What can people expect from an Acoustic Triangle performance?

Surprise! Acoustic Triangle play music that is written or re-composed especially for the building that we are performing in, using the particular architectural styles of each building to enhance the performance, so no two concerts are the same. At Worcester Cathedral, we’ll have musicians in different parts of the building, so that the performance will be tuned to the specific acoustics of the Cathedral. It will also be totally acoustic, and the experience will be unique to Worcester Cathedral and the Worcester Three Choirs Festival.

What are you performing at Worcester Three Choirs Festival?

We’ll be performing pieces that were written specifically for large spaces, and particularly for the scale and nature of Worcester Cathedral, including compositions by Tim Garland (Singing in ?) and Gwilym Simcock (Red Sky).

You’ve got some great musicians in Acoustic Triangle - what is your approach to your music, and the contrast and collaboration between jazz and classical music?

Acoustic Triangle – In Three Dimensions consists of four violins, a viola, piano, French horn, bass clarinet, saxophones and double bass. The boundaries between classical and jazz are often perceived, but not felt in reality – it is possible to respect the different genres of music without building fences. To me, there is just good music and bad music! I’ve grown up in the classical world, and I’m now a jazz musician. Acoustic Triangle isn’t about jazzing up the classics, or trying to create a classical/ jazz crossover. It is the composition of new music that incorporates elements of jazz with classical music to create intricate, beautifully written music.

The Three Choirs Festival has an inspiring history and tradition. How has that history translated into the modern Three Choirs Festival experience, in your opinion?

I was a chorister at St John’s, Cambridge, the finest choir in the world, and spent a lot of time travelling, performing and recording, so I’ve enjoyed a choral music upbringing in as fine a choir as it possible to perform with. In 2006, Acoustic Triangle performed in an Ascension Day sung Eucharist at Westminster Abbey, performing ‘Jubilate Deo’, which was written by Tim Garland especially for the occasion. So, I am delighted to be involved in the greatest choral festival in the world, having performed in some of the greatest cathedrals and churches.

What would you say to people who have never attended a Three Choirs Festival?

Don’t miss it – and never forget it. The Three Choirs Festival presents an excellent range of venues, like Worcester Cathedral, which cannot be matched in conventional concert halls – they are three dimensional, which gives the music an amazingly sonorous quality. Acoustic Triangle consider the building in which we are performing, at every stage in the creative process, and we compose pieces specifically with the building in mind.

What are the highlights for the Worcester Three Choirs Festival 2008, for you?

The Christmas Oratorio, Seascapes – particularly Messiaen’s Les offrandes oubilees, and Red Priest.

EB 08/04/07

Jazzwise, July 2008 CD review by Stuart Nicholson

Acoustic Triangle 3 Dimensions

****

On this, their fourth album, Acoustic Triangle have broadened their musical palette with the inclusion of six strings: Ben Hancox’s Sacconi Quartet plus Charlotte Scott and Emma Parker on violins. Tim Garland and Gwilym Simcock have been commissioned to provide a new repertoire, and the result is one of the most imaginative and perfectly realised albums in contemporary music in a long while.

Garland’s two suites, ‘Sanctuary For A Living Memory’ and ‘Singing Stones’ are inspired pieces of writing while Simcock’s three-part ‘Red Sky’ sweeps you along with its imaginative programmatic themes – the pizzicato string episode a special delight. Both aesthetically and conceptually this ensemble is sul generis and has it within them to make a significant contribution to contemporary music in this country.