Join Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective and guests as we travel back to the Belle Époque and a world immortalised by Proust, Parisian high society, and its glittering salons.
KALEIDOSCOPE CHAMBER COLLECTIVE
Karim Sulayman – Tenor Elena Urioste – Violin Savitri Grier – Violin Edgar Francis – Viola Laura van der Heijden – Cello Tom Poster – Piano
“I wondered whether music might not be the unique example of what might have been – if the invention of language, the formation of words, the analysis of ideas had not intervened – the means of communication between souls.” Proust.
By the turn of the century, the Paris salons were places where composers, poets, playwrights, and authors would come together. For Proust, who loved music, they provided opportunities to encounter the composers he held in high esteem.
One such person is the Venezuelanborn composer, conductor, singer, and writer Reynaldo Hahn – once Proust’s lover – who remained a close friend for life. Their relationship was known in fashionable social circles of late nineteenth-century Paris, but not to the wider public during their lifetimes.Numerous letters signed by Proust show his intimate bond with Hahn, whose exquisite songs and sumptuous chamber music are among the greatest musical gems of the period.
Through music and song, interspersed with readings, we are transported back to the love, life, music, and words of these great men.
The programme includes instrumental and vocal chamber music from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, by Reynaldo Hahn, Gabriel Fauré, Mélanie Bonis, Lili Boulanger, Étienne Moulinié and Jean-Philippe Rameau.
The Kaleidoscope Collective will be joined by:
Schola Cantorum choir Steven Grahl Conductor of Schola Cantorum Adam Cole double bass
“I want you to be here all the time but as a god in disguise, whom no mortal would recognize.” Proust
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We have a limited number of wheelchair spaces. Should you wish to book a ticket for you and a companion please email us at: culturalprogramme@humanities.ox.ac.uk with your contact details and we will get in touch. Please do not buy wheelchair tickets online.
Plan your visit
Sheldonian Theatre, Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3AZ
The Sheldonian Theatre is located in Oxford city centre on Broad Street, OX1 3AZ. It is approximately a 10-minute walk from Gloucester Green bus station and a 15-minute walk from Oxford railway station
Adam is a second-year music student at St Anne’s College, Oxford. Starting double bass lessons at the Royal Academy aged 5, Adam is now being taught by Thomas Martin. As a frequent member of youth music programmes, including the National Children’s Orchestra, Adam has been lucky enough to play alongside musicians such as Nicola Benedetti, Jess Gillam, and Ayanna Witter-Johnson. In 2018 he won the Two Moors Young Musician competition.
At university he is currently principal double bass of the Oxford University Orchestra as well as a scholar for both Ensemble ISIS (the Faculty of Music’s contemporary music group) and the St Anne’s Camerata. Outside of classical double bass playing Adam also enjoys jazz, playing with the Oxford University Jazz Orchestra.
Schola Cantorum of Oxford is the University of Oxford’s premier chamber choir. Schola’s mission is to share the joy of choral music with our singers, our community of alumni and supporters, and with audiences in Oxford and around the world. We challenge ourselves to perform to the highest standards, providing outstanding musical training for young singers and conductors.
The choir was founded by László Heltay in 1960 at a point when there were few opportunities for men and women to sing together to a high standard. Times have changed and Schola’s role has changed too. We’ve now built a reputation as Oxford’s premier concert choir – engaging deeply with complex repertoire, and providing a space for performance outside religious services.
Schola has worked with many of the foremost musicians of the last six decades and has built an international reputation through extensive tours and recordings. We are proud of our alumni who have gone on to lead successful musical careers such as John Mark Ainsley, Emma Kirkby, Christine Rice, Susan Gritton, Ian Bostridge and Roderick Williams – many came to Oxford to study other subjects but developed their musical talents during their time in Schola.
In April 2022 the choir joined with c.100 alumni, including several founder members, for a belated 60th anniversary celebration culminating in an outstanding performance of Bach’s B Minor Mass with Instruments of Time & Truth in Oxford Town Hall. Since then the choir has given a number of concerts in Oxford and London, the most recent of which was an uplifting performance of Brahms’ Liebeslieder Walzer with partsongs by Robert and Clara Schumann in the de Jager Auditorium at Trinity College, Oxford.
Steven Grahl is a sought-after conductor and keyboard player, and has been Conductor of Schola Cantorum of Oxford since 2017. He is also Organist and Tutor in Music at Christ Church, Oxford, an Associate Professor of Music at Oxford University, and Musical Director of Benson Choral Society.
Steven served as Director of Music at Peterborough Cathedral from 2014 to 2018, where he was responsible for training the Cathedral Choir, and for the re-pitching of the Hill Organ, on which instrument he has recorded a solo CD. Peterborough Cathedral Choir’s recording of Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s EvenYouSong, made under Steven’s direction, was released to critical acclaim in December 2017. He also held positions as Assistant Organist at New College, Oxford, and as Organist and Director of Music at St Marylebone Parish Church, London.
Steven was an interpretation finalist in the International Organ Competitions at St Albans (UK) in 2011, and in Dudelange (Luxembourg) in 2013, and completed his term as President of the Incorporated Association of Organists in 2019. He is a prize-winning graduate of Magdalen College, Oxford, and the Royal Academy of Music. He gained the top prizes in the FRCO examination, and is also a holder of the Worshipful Company of Musicians’ Silver Medallion. In 2010, he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.
Associate Professor in French and Comparative Literature, University College London
Jennifer Rushworth
Associate Professor in French and Comparative Literature, University College London
Jennifer Rushworth is Associate Professor in French and Comparative Literature at University College London. Her research interests include mourning, medievalism, and music. Her third monograph, on Proust’s Songbook, will be published by Penn Press in 2024. She has recently been working on a project on translating French art song with Emily Kilpatrick at the Royal Academy of Music. She has previously been a consultant and guest for a BBC Radio 3 programme ‘In Search of Proust’s Music’, and has written programme notes for Proust-inspired concerts at the Wigmore Hall and Kings Place.
Associate Professor in French at Somerville College, University of Oxfrord
Simon Kemp
Associate Professor in French at Somerville College, University of Oxfrord
Simon Kemp is an Associate Professor of French and Tutorial Fellow at Somerville College. He has an interest in the modern French novel and the representation of psychology. His last book, Writing the Mind: Representations of Consciousness from Proust to the Present, included an exploration of Proust’s understanding of how the mind works.
Professor of Literature in French, University of Oxford
Jennifer Yee
Professor of Literature in French, University of Oxford
Jennifer Yee is a Professor of Literature in French at the University of Oxford, with a rich academic background from Sydney and Paris. Her expertise lies mainly in nineteenth-century French literature, exploring major authors from Balzac to Proust, and delving into colonial and exotic writing as well as the nexus between literature and the visual arts. Yee’s teaching spans French language and literature, including graduate teaching on special topics such as nineteenth-century prose and Francophone literature. She is the supervisor for diverse D.Phil theses related to literature, including one current and two past theses on Proust.
Jake Robertson (they/he) is a Clarendon Scholar at University College. Their DPhil thesis, supervised jointly by Dan Healey and Polly Jones, is titled “Stages of Captivity: Professional Theater in the Gulag Capitals of Vorkuta and Magadan.” Jake plans to use their scholarship as the basis for theater work and is passionate about bringing academics and arts practitioners together on research-inspired creative projects. They received a BA in Slavic Languages & Literatures from Princeton and an MA in Acting from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Jake continues to work as a professional theatermaker, voiceover artist, and drag performer, with their next project being Two Gentlemen of Verona at the Oxford Playhouse this May.
