Manchester Collective traverse threatened environments with ‘musical tour-de-force’ WEATHER at RNCM

Joining the Royal Northern College of Music’s 50th Anniversary celebrations as one of their new artists-in-residence, Manchester Collective breathes new life into Michael Gordon’s seminal 1997 piece for amplified string orchestra, WEATHER, on Fri 23 Sep.

A collaboration with pioneering sound artist Chris Watson and Spanish filmmaker Carlos Casas, the ‘musical tour-de-force’ will transport the audience from East Asian rainforests to the world’s oldest desert; Icelandic glaciers to sunken medieval English towns and beyond.

An electrifying alchemy of live performance, film and real-world sound, WEATHER serves as direct and immersive documentation of threatened environments across the planet. Field recordist Chris Watson, having worked on critically-acclaimed nature documentaries including David Attenborough’s Frozen Planet, complements the string orchestra’s hour-long performance with a range of natural sounds from his vast archive.

The evening will also feature artwork created by local artists Molly Major, Sophie Broadgate and Mary Griffiths, produced as a response to WEATHER and presented alongside the performance. Their art also appears as part of RNCM’s Northern Voices, an initiative in which fourteen artists respond creatively to the wider work of Manchester Collective.

On Fri 2 Dec, Manchester Collective return to RNCM with Places We Know, a show from superstar Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto, and once more in February 2023, with vocalist Alice Zawadzki performing BAG OF BONES.