About

A programme of creative response to the music and life of Hildegard Von Bingen, including new performance commissions for Fem Engine. Fem Engine will also perform their own brand of mystic vocal improvisation.

All works are created by established and emerging University of Sussex composers including Catherine Ireton, James Longcake, Benjamin Michael Turner, Tim Young and Max Worgan and Lecturers in Music and Music Technology, Dr Mimi Haddon and Danny Bright

Fem Engine, is a fresh collaboration between three of the most adventurous vocal musicians in the south east: pioneering live looper Bunty Looping, UK beatbox champion Bellatrix and Hannah Miller of The Moulettes.

As a trio they conjure sonic spells with influences ranging from Pigmie singing and Bulgarian folk music to Hip Hop and Glitch. Triangles are the strongest shape. Any weight placed on them is evenly distributed between all three sides. Fem Engine explore the idea of interconnectedness with complete autonomy in a kaleidoscopic universe of vocal experimentation.

The concert will be preceded by a reflection on women in twentieth-century popular music by Dr Mimi Haddon (University of Sussex): Nico, Hildegard of the Twentieth Century? Music, Poetry, and The Marble Index.

Join us for Viriditas: the music and life of Hildegard von Bingen, a unique series of events exploring the contemporary resonances of the music and life of one of the most remarkable women of the middle ages. Hildegard von Bingen (1098 - 1179) was a visionary, mystic, poet, healer, naturalist and theologian. She was also the world’s first named composer – and the most prolific and original musician of her time.

Viriditas (Latin for “green truth” or “greening power”) speaks to the intrinsic and vital relationships that exist between all living beings. The concept is central to the systematic botanical and medicinal texts - for which Hildegard is recognised as the founder of German naturalism - and is a theme key to her life-long ecstatic visions that are strikingly documented in the poetic lyrics and soaring melodies of her music, and in the texts and illuminations of her theological and cosmological treaties.

General Information

Access

The following access tickets can be booked online: spaces for wheelchair users, seats with flat floor access, best seats for sightlines of captions / BSL interpretation (when applicable). For guidance about online booking and for further information about accessibility at the venue see our Access page here.

If you have access requirements that you would like to discuss with us or would like to book a ticket for a Personal Assistant please contact the box office on 01273 678 822 or email boxoffice@attenboroughcentre.com.

Pay What You Decide

There is an allocation of Pay What You Decide (PWYD) tickets available to guests on a first-come, first-served basis. Come and see the show without paying anything in advance, and then pay what you think is appropriate at the end of the show. Maximum of four PWYD tickets per person. Please phone the box office on 01273 678822 or email boxoffice@attenboroughcentre.com for further information.

Concessions

The concession rate is available for students, University of Sussex staff, Over 60s, and people in receipt of JSA or DLA/PIP. Proof of eligibility may be required on the door or at the box office (if collecting). Personal assistance tickets are available for free for customers who would otherwise be unable to attend the venue. Please contact the box office on 01273 678822 or email boxoffice@attenboroughcentre.com for further information.

Box Office Opening Times

The box office (phone line and drop-in service) is open from 10am to 4pm, Mondays to Fridays. The box office is also open one hour before the advertised show start time.