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KLC ONLINE CONCERT:
Full Circle: From Lament to Praise and Back Again

Zoom Event: Saturday 15 May, 7-9PM U.K. time

Full Circle: From Lament to Praise and Back Again

Leon Kass observes that “The artists are God’s prophets for the eyes. The beauty they cultivate becomes the skin of the good and the holy.” 

KLC warmly invites you to join us for our first Concert entitled Full Circle: From Lament to Praise and Back Again. Hosted in partnership with Deus ex Musica, this virtual concert will feature a smorgasbord of rich music, dance, drama, and poetry. Book your ticket now and join us as our artists help us to see and develop skins of the good and the holy amidst our current challenges. 

Come hang out with us following the end of the event for the “after-party” where you can meet and connect with us and some of the wonderful artists. 

PLEASE NOTE: If you have any difficulties with booking tickets please contact us at events@kirbylaingcentre.co.uk.
 
FREE tickets are available, as we do not want costs to stand in the way of anyone attending the event! Email us at events@kirbylaingcentre.co.uk for a promotional code.

Artist line up

Gemma Freitas Bender, from Buffalo, New York, is a 2014-2015 recipient of the Princess Grace USA Award, and a graduate of The Juilliard School. At Juilliard, Gemma had the opportunity to study a plethora of styles. She performed repertoire by Martha Graham, Jose Limon, Eliot Feld, and Murray Louis, as well as new choreographies by Monica Bill Barnes, Emery LeCrone, Darrel Grand Moultrie and Larry Keigwin. She has performed as part of the Guggenheim Museum’s Works and Process, at The Chicago Dance Festival, and the Dizzy Feet Gala, in LA. During her time at Juilliard she was also very involved in workshops, performing works of other students, as well as her own.

Following graduation, Gemma joined Les Ballet Jazz de Montreal where she had the privilege to travel throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, performing works by Andonis Foniadakis, Barak Marshall, Wen Wei Wang, and Rodrigo Pederneiras. She was fortunate to fulfill her teaching passion as well, conducting masterclasses in various cities.

In 2016, Gemma received a choreographic grant through Cleveland Public Theatre’s DanceWorks to create and perform an original work. In May of 2017, Gemma joined GroundWorks Dance Theater and danced with the company until she moved to London, England with her husband, and baby. Gemma’s husband is a violist with The Philharmonia Orchestra, and Gemma enjoys being a mother to Louisa, while she continues to make dance a part of her life. 

Delvyn Case is a composer, conductor, scholar, writer, and speaker whose works explores the intersections between music and the Christian tradition.  His works have been performed by over 80 orchestras, including the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Atlanta Symphony, the Toronto Symphony, and Germany’s Philharmonie Sudwestfalen, as well as by numerous Grammy-winning artists. His writing on the theological dimensions of classical and popular music has appeared in The Christian Century, Sojourners, and The Biblical Mind, various academic publications, and his Patheos blog Alleluia: Music and the Christian Life. He is the founder of Deus Ex Musica, an international ecumenical organization that promotes the use of sacred music as a resource for faith formation. 

Genevieve Wedgebury

Genevieve studied Theology at King’s College London, before doing an MA in European Classical Acting at Drama Centre London.  She formed her own production company, touring the acclaimed one-woman drama Asena against sex trafficking (BBC Radio Northampton).  She worked for three years as Development Officer at KLICE, which has now become The Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology in Cambridge and of which she has recently become a Fellow.  Alongside managing her father’s small business, in the last year she has been presenting for Radio Maria England, including Faith and Family in the Time of Covid-19Questions of Faith, and co-producing and presenting Women Together, which is now entering its second series.  

Known for his energetic rhythms, rich harmonic language, and striking colors, Josh Rodriguez (b. 1982) continues to gain recognition as an emerging composer and collaborator on a national and international scale. Born in Argentina and raised in Guatemala and Mexico, Rodriguez’s musical imagination has been formed by the colors and cultures of his childhood. Rodriguez is composer-in-residence of the Corona Symphony Orchestra, and currently serves as Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition at the Collinsworth School of Music at California Baptist University. He regularly contributes to various arts & culture blogs and is co-director of Deus-Ex-Musica an initiative that brings musicians, pastors, and non-musicians together for concerts and conversations about the intersection of faith and new music.

Josh Rodriguez

Mary Vanhoozer

Mary Vanhoozer is a creative and engaging multi-instrumentalist (piano, violin, hurdy gurdy, and hammered dulcimer) and melodist. A classical pianist by trade, she has performed solo recitals and taught workshops throughout the United States. She is dedicated to the craft of live music and loves to organise concerts around themes, oftentimes lending a dramatic, almost narrative element to her performances.

Mary released her debut album for solo piano, From Leipzig to LA, in 2018. Released to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, this 3-CD set features the complete partitas of J. S. Bach juxtaposed with a newly commissioned work by Josh Rodriguez: Partita Picosa. Mary has produced three albums of original music: Songs of Day and Night, Bard and Ceilidh, and Jubilate. The melodies reflect her love of renaissance dance music and baroque counterpoint, as well as European folk traditions.

Her goal for her melodies is to create a sense of wonder so that listeners will be able to recognise and celebrate the beauty and small miracles of every day life. Each album explores an aspect of what it
means to be present to the mystery and beauty of the every day. Her first official music video The Sandman’s Sailboat is dedicated to ‘the child in each of us.’

Mary received her degrees in piano performance: her BM from Wheaton College Conservatory, her MM from the Eastman School of Music, and her DMA from the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Julian is an artist-theologian who plays, speaks, and writes at the intersection of music,  faith, and story. A pianist and producer, he is a founding member of the jazz-fusion group  The JuJu Exchange, whose latest project is The Eternal Boombox EP. Along with Nova Zaii  and Nico Segal, Julian creates exploratory and nuanced music that calls us all to wonder  and trust. The JuJu Exchange’s music blends acoustic and digital instruments to further  meaningful exchange among seemingly disparate cultures. Alongside his band are his two  personal projects: INHERITED, a solo show that interweaves piano and original fables,  and A Creative’s Word, a devotional grounded in Scripture, infused with music. 

Julian also works at Fearless Dialogues, a grassroots organization committed to creating unique spaces for unlikely partners to engage in hard heartfelt conversations about taboo subjects. He studied theology & the arts at Candler School of Theology at Emory University and philosophy at Yale University. He and his wife Carmen are based in his hometown, Chicago.

Neil is a writer, director, producer, actor, singer, musician and he’s even been known to dance as well!

Neil studied Performing Arts and Religious Studies at the University of Gloucestershire where he earned a BA Hons degree before spending a year working with Youth for Christ as a member of Activate, a touring theatre company. He then spent two years working in New Zealand, as part of Detour Theatre Company. Neil is a fully accredited Minister with the Assemblies of God church and has been involved in church leadership for the past 20 years.

He has a passion to creatively communicate the Christian faith and in 2010 established the charity Martis Productions (formerly E-QUIP Arts). Over the past decade the charity has staged large outdoor productions to audiences of up to 9,000 people at times, and toured one man shows around schools and churches. More recently, Neil has been developing online video content that continues to engage people with the Christian faith.

Sarah (Frangenberg) Knapp, is a Catholic dancer and artist whose home is Wichita, Kansas, USA. She married her husband, Patrick Knapp, on April 24, 2021 and now resides with him in St. Joseph, Missouri. While in college and after graduating with her BFA from the Conservatory at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, she performed with Wylliams-Henry Contemporary Dance Company, and was privileged to tour and perform at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, as well as to South Carolina and Florida. She has been blessed to travel and perform all over the world.

After living in New York City and pursuing a dance career post-college, however, she realized God was calling her to live a more hidden life, and work as a local artist, dancer, and teacher. She hopes to dance and create within her vocation of marriage, moving and glorifying Him in prayerful dance, and hopes to start a family. 

Sarah Frangenberg

William Bender is the No. 3 Viola of the Philharmonia Orchestra. Prior to  moving to London, William played regularly with the Cleveland Orchestra  and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in addition to frequently  performing chamber music (both old and new) around the US. William studied at The Juilliard School and the Cleveland Institute of Music with Heidi Castleman and Robert Vernon. He was principal viola of the orchestras at both schools and studied chamber music with Sylvia Rosenberg, Joseph Lin, Michael Tree, Earl Carlyss, Toby Appel, and Natasha Brofsky, among others. Summers were spent attending the Heifetz International Music Institute, the Aspen Music School, and the Perlman Music Program. As a teacher, William has coached the students of Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, Trinity-Laban Conservatoire, the Australian Youth Orchestra, and the Columbian Youth Philharmonic. William has a deep love for reading and ice hockey. He is originally from Nashville, Tennessee.

Oddo Bam is the stage alias of South African singer-songwriter Otto Bam. A lover of literature, he holds a master’s degree in English Studies from the University of Stellenbosch. His proclivity for crafting meaning through metaphor and story is woven into his unique brand of poetic indie-rock. Otto’s first full-length album, “The Fox and the Furrow”, drew on the theme of pilgrimage in the Gospels, as well as in the works of John Bunyan and J.R.R. Tolkien. In October 2020, he set up a studio in a family beach house in Klein-brakrivier on the southern coast of South Africa to record his second full album titled Gethsemane, set for release in the latter half of 2021. If The Fox and the Furrow represented a neat albeit abstracted accompaniment to the idea of pilgrimage, emerging from a season of stability and certainty, Gethsemane represents a descent into – and reemergence from – the depths of one’s own humanity. In John the Evangelist’s account of what transpired in the garden Gethsemane, all the pain, lostness and suffering – and yet, mystery and grace – of the human story are condensed and concentrated with sublime intensity. From the olive press which is Gethsemane, the place of crushing and bruising, emerges mysteriously – inexplicably – beauty and new life.

Kathy Hassinger

 Artistic Director of Dance Currents Inc., Kathy taught “Perspectives in World Dance” at Emerson College for eight years.   She was head of the Dance Department at Newton Country Day School from 1990-2007.  Kathy has produced a number of full-length dance concerts, including: “Drawn In” (2015), “Charge the Air” (2013), “Three Modern Choreographers” at Triskelion Arts in New York (2005). Mrs. Hassinger received a NULA (Newton Universal Legendary Award) June 15, 2019, for “committing her life to excellence by impacting her community through the performing arts”.   Dance Currents has recently finished a movie entitled “Living the Legacy of Modern Dance” which includes a number of Boston dancers, teachers, and choreographers. 

Kathy has just finished an educational documentary titled, “Living the Legacy of Modern Dance.” Her and her film editor along with their permissions specialist have been at this for about 10 years, and it is finally done. The film is about 40 minutes long and uses a tree as the central image, placing the pioneers and prime movers in relation to the people who came before and after them. The main reason Kathy did this was to show how this fragile but important movement has grown, but is in danger of becoming lost. Dance as intelligence and feeling, expressing that which cannot be said and highlighting the individual is a uniquely American story. The film shows dance as life, and natural movements as the material of dance. There are a number of famous Boston teachers, and choreographers in the film who trained, danced and knew some of the great Modern Dancers (Denishawn, Graham, Weidman, Sokolow, Cunningham, and Tharp). There is also footage of a number of famous dances. They are in the final stages of checking permissions, sound and color.

“…for having acknowledged that they are Strangers & Exiles on this earth…

…people who speak like this make it clear that are seeking a homeland…”

Hebrews 11: 13-14

Strangers & Exiles is the performance ministry of Stephen Bathurst, a professional actor and former YWAM missionary. Encompassing both theatre shows and a YouTube channel, the stories are designed to get people thinking, debating and asking the big questions. Shows have been performed in festivals and theatres around Britain, with international performances in places as diverse as Kyrgyzstan, Canada, Norway and Hawaii.

Follow the YouTube channel or support the work on Patreon.

Stephen Bathurst

Stefan is a UK actor who had a big dream: to take the greatest of all stories ever told, the Gospel of Mark, and perform it as it was originally intended: live, and in one sitting. Stefan’s one-man-show I AM MARK has proven to be a stunning success all over the UK, selling out and filling up churches, cathedrals, conferences, schools. Following a sell out run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, it is now available in the U. S. on global TV station CMAX. Stefan is continuing to rehearse and perform one man shows as much as he can. Several projects are being prepared at the time of writing, including a solo word-for-word dramatisation of the Book of Jonah called THE BIG FISH, and St John in Exile, Don Berrigan’s moving but humorous fictionalised memoir of the Apostle John. 

Byron Townsend is a singer-songwriter, teacher, church musician, community leader, carpenter, and former parish pastor. Born in Louisiana (southern USA), he was raised in West Africa and Brasil, among the petroleum industry community. Byron began his church music journey as a teenager singing in the local choir, then joined a travelling Christian rock band in his 20s before settling in as a musical worship leader for local congregations. Full-time work in the local church soon led to a decade-long pastorate where he – by the grace of God – helped to revitalize a Baptist congregation. Byron attended seminary at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Byron lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with his extraordinarily patient and lovely wife, Cynthia, and their five wonderful children. They are parishioners of St Alban’s Chapel located on the campus of Louisiana State University. Byron has expressed the beauty of music through recordings and live performances, and resonates with the quote often-attributed to St Augustine, “He who sings prays twice!”

Byron Townsend

Whitney Cover

Whitney is a movement artist, educator, and scholar whose training and performance work has led her throughout the US, Europe, and Middle East.  She has performed a wide range of dance works and is currently focused on ritual and performance in site-specific projects while working and living in Berlin, Germany.  Ms. Cover earned her Ed.M., Arts in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, her M.A. Dance Performance from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (London, UK) and B.A. in Dance from the University of California, Irvine. Over the six years she lived in the Boston area, Whitney danced with Boston Dance Theater, Weber Dance, Emily Beattie, Rebecca Rice, Quicksilver, Jimena Bermejo, Joy Davis, Dance Currents, Brian Crabtree, and Audra Carabetta. She was the Teaching Fellow for Harvard’s Theater, Dance, and Media concentration and Teaching Artist for the Harvard Dance Center from 2014-2019 and is currently teaching both contemporary dance and somatic practices in Berlin.

Alexander Jimenez is a native of Boston, MA and started his dance training at Jeannette Neill’s Dance Studio under the guidance of Jim Viera. He then went on to study dance at Marymount Manhattan College in New York City. While in Manhattan, Alex was awarded scholarships to study at the Martha Graham School of Dance by his teacher Denise Vale. Alex was also awarded scholarships by Alexandra Wells to study and perform at Springboard Danse Montréal which Ms. Wells established in 2001. Alex has worked as a dancer in the movie ‘Little Woman’ and has recently obtained his GYROKINESIS® movement method teacher license. 

Alex Jimenez

Kirsten Glaser

Kirsten Glaser is a native of Cape Cod who began dancing at age 3 with Cape Cod School of Ballet.  She then went on to attend Nutmeg Conservatory for the Arts which she graduated from in 2009.  After graduation she attended the New York International Ballet Competition and was given the opportunity to dance with Colorado Ballet’s studio company. After a season in Colorado she moved to Charlottesville,VA where she danced with the Charlottesville Ballet for several seasons.  In 2014 she moved to Boston after having her son and currently dances as a freelance artist .