Launching our monthly folk concert series at the New Room, we welcome Methera – contemporary traditional music from a ground-breaking quartet.
Cafe open from 6.30pm, doors 7pm, concert starts 7.30pm.
Unreserved seating. Adult £12. Concessions £10 (Over 65s / Student / Unemployed).
Tickets available in the New Room cafe and shop, or on Eventbrite (online booking fee applies).
Methera is a unique ensemble: a string quartet with roots firmly planted in English traditional music. Their national tours, BBC Radio 3 broadcasts and collaborations have helped them establish a reputation as a scintillating live act, blazing a trail through the uncharted territory that lies between folk and chamber music.
Lucy Deakin (cello), John Dipper and Emma Reid (fiddles) and Miranda Rutter (viola) combine a deep knowledge of traditional music with a wide range of other influences and expertise and a deep sense of musical interaction. Newly composed pieces sit alongside timeless traditional material; their music is both sophisticated and earthy, groundbreaking and familiar, enchanting and thrilling – chamber folk at its best.
“Mesmerising performances” – Anthony Sargent CBE, founding Director of Sage Gateshead
“Seriously stylish playing that’s putting the sparkle back into the tradition” – Verity Sharp, BBC Radio 3 Late Junction
Reviews of Methera’s third album Vortex, released November 2016:
Songlines “The invention and interplay throughout is breathtaking, and sets Methera beside the very best instrumental groups of the decade.”
fRoots “Another gem of English instrumentals…Methera is to be celebrated in both folk and classical music worlds.”
EDS “This is the best CD I’ve heard this year.”
FolkWords “‘Vortex’ lives up to its name with spiraling, patterned waves of music. The result is chamber-folk at its best and a treat for the ears.”