About This Live Project

The Church of the Nazarene on Victoria Street, Sheffield, is currently a disused, grade II listed building owned by the University. Despite the music department moving into the adjacent Jessop building and new, purpose-built SoundHouse, they are still lacking a space for performance. The vision is to adapt the empty church into a licensed performance space for music, which can become a home for music and a face for musicians to present their music to the city of Sheffield.

The music department engages in a diverse range of performing activities from classical chamber music, to opera and contemporary music theatre, including world music performance, electroacoustic music and mixed media. The proposed performance space will be central to the day to day functioning (rehearsing, performing, teaching) as well as knowledge transfer and community activities, of the music department. Ensemble in residence Ensemble 360 and world music performer in residence John Ball would perform there, along with a steady stream of internationally acclaimed visiting performers.

Tuesday 13 October 2009

"And That's What Firth Hall Sounds Like!"

Last night saw us sit in on a rehearsal of the University Symphony Orchestra in Firth Hall; a venue much discussed as the only real rehearsal and performance space for large orchestras in the University.

It was great to hear the acoustic, varied through a number of different pieces, as well as to see the spacial limitations set by the space and staging, points reiterated by a number of people we spoke to. Although this is a significantly bigger orchestra than envisioned to play in The Naz (60-80 rather than 40) nearly all of the points remain the same.

A 'post rehearsal pint' with the musicians was an informal way to get introduce ourselves further, gaining thoughts and personal narratives of the space (as well as allowing myself to reminisce on my former playing days!) Essentially, it has allowed us a chance to speak about the project and gain some recognition - really important for future collaboration.

Thanks to everyone we spoke to - your enthusiasm was excellent and we look forward to working with you more through the next month! Please get involved and stay in touch!

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