Welcome

Welcome to the Pavane website. Here you can find out about our forthcoming performances, discover more about what we do, listen to examples of our performances and order our CDs.

Pavane’s commitment is to recreate for modern audiences the musical world of the 12th to the 17th centuries by playing, singing and talking about medieval, Tudor and Renaissance music, songs and dances.

The band performs wherever people gather - at community events (mostly in and around South Wales), at social events (weddings, parties, banquets), in historical settings and sites (castles, barns, battlefields), in schools, on the street, in the concert hall, in the pub, in the club...

Take a look around, and feel free to contact us if you have any questions or you're interested in booking Pavane for your event. If you'd like to sign up for our free emailing list to be notified of future news and events, please click here.

Pavane adding some authentic musical atmosphere to the beautiful setting of Tintern Abbey.

Instrumentalist Wanted

Because of recent departures of personnel, Pavane is currently looking for an instrumentalist to join the group.

The person we are looking for has:

• enthusiasm for early music (Medieval, Tudor, Renaissance)
• musical competence (ie the ability to hold a line) on one or more instruments, not necessarily early music instruments. String players (bowed or plucked) would be especially welcome
• willingness and time available to commit to rehearsals (once a week) and performances (often at weekends)

For further information, please contact us:

Email bookings@pavane-emc.co.uk OR phone Martin on 029-20493639 or 07941-357089, or Janet on 029-20552595

Forthcoming Dates

Sunday 24th and Monday 25th August 2008, noon – 5 pm

Cosmeston Medieval Fair
Cosmeston Medieval Village, Lavernock Road, Vale of Glamorgan

As usual, we will be performing at this wonderful family-friendly event, which recreates some of the sights and sounds of medieval time. For further information click here.

Saturday 13th September 2008, 3pm – 6.30pm

Penrhys Carnival, Penrhys Pilgrims Festival
Statue Field, Penrhys, S Wales

For the first time, Pavane will be performing at this major annual event. Look out for our familiar red and blue medieval pavilion tent, and listen out for our familiar brand of live, and lively, medieval music on authentic instruments.

Friday 26th September 2008, 7pm

Penrhys Carnival, Penrhys Pilgrims Festival, Closing Event: FIRE!
Canolfan Rhys Arts Centre, Penrhys

We will be sharing the stage with the great Robin (The Incredible String Band) and Bina Williamson for a concert performance, then the Festival will climax on Statue Field with a fire show by Frenetic Engineering.

For full details of the Penrhys Pilgrims Festival 2008 programme please visit www.penrhys.com.

Monday 17th – Saturday 22nd November 2008

with Everyman Theatre Company
“Woyzeck” by Georg Buchner

We will be performing the music, specially composed for this production, in Everyman Theatre’s exciting, new production of the classic German masterpiece Woyzeck, directed by Eric Hadley, who has collaborated with Pavane in some recent ventures, reading poetry and prose in our Canterbury Tales programme and our Renaissance programme.

Details will be posted here nearer to the date, but the production will be performed at a variety of venues, including The Atrium, Llanover Hall Arts Centre, and Neath.

Keep an eye on Everyman’s website, too, for further details when they become available: www.everymantheatre.co.uk

News

Our MySpace page

Thanks to the technical wizardry and patient creativity of Scott Baker, we have another presence on the Internet, which features some never-before-heard rough mixes of our recent recording sessions at The Atrium, Glamorgan University, Cardiff.

If you would like a preview of our unedited tracks, recorded for our forthcoming CD of Christmas music, click here.

As well as the music there are pictures of us,and even a short video clip of our recent performance at Valle Crucis Abbey, Llangollen, in gale-force wind!

Bookmark the link, and keep an eye on future developments.

Recent additions to Pavane’s line-up

We are very pleased to welcome two new faces to our group.

Eli Williams is a keyboard player, who has immediately taken to the virginals in the temporary absence of Robert Edwards (who had taken time off from Pavane to build a house – really!). To underline her value and versatility, Eli has also started to play the harp on some of our medieval pieces, and contributes to some of our vocal numbers.

James Brookmyre now adds his virtuosity on the recorders to our music. He is a student at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, specialising in the recorder (and clarinet), and brings some (much-needed!) youthful vigour to Pavane.

Pavane and Education

We have, by the way, also been running Tudor Music Workshops for schools at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff, as we have for the past year or so, and we will continue with this important aspect of our work, our commitment to bringing to life the music, the instruments, the songs and the dances of the Tudor period, and giving Year 4 and 5 school students first hand contact with this rich cultural experience.

For further information about Pavane’s Tudor Days School Workshops at the Wales Millennium Centre, please contact kirsty.marsh@wmc.org.uk

Tudor Music Workshops in Schools
We are also available to bring our Tudor Music Workshops to schools, and would be willing to adapt our activities to suit a school’s particular requirements.

If you would like to enquire about the possibility of booking Workshops at your school, please contact Scott (sean32_@hotmail.com) to discuss dates and fees.