Lunchtime Concert: Bloomsbury Festival
Sat, 19 Oct
|The Music Room
A costumed song recital with Maryam Wocial (soprano) and Archie Bonham (piano) exploring the mysteries of self-consciousness through the writings of Virginia Woolf and other acclaimed authors.
Time & Location
19 Oct 2024, 13:00 – 14:00
The Music Room, 49 Great Ormond St, London WC1N 3HZ, UK
About the event
Part of Bloomsbury Festival’s New Wave programme, a platform for emerging talent.
The programme aims to convey what it means to be conscious – a quality often thought to be what differentiates humans from other living beings. A broad range of literary styles will be set to music, including poetry, prose, and diary entries. The programme is bookended by songs from Dominick Argento’s cycle ‘From the Diary of Virginia Woolf’ which explores the private writings of Virginia Woolf whose stream-of-consciousness approach is marked through swift changes in subject matter – from war to parental relationships to the recipe for tonight’s dinner! Some songs reflect on shared societal experience whilst others illustrate private mental dialogues. Throughout, there is a contrast between the public and the personal, and listeners are reminded that they can only look at consciousness from a distance and not truly understand all its mysteries. A brief voyage à…