Casts Courts -New Project at the V & A

September 14th 2012 7.3opm Cast Courts

Victoria and Albert Museum,Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL

Peter Sheppard Skaerved-Violin

Guest Artist-Carly Lake-Horn

Drawing my way into the space. 28th August 2012

Peter has collaborated with the V & A twice before, giving lecture/performances linked to the ‘Baroque’ and ‘Cult of Beauty’ Exhibits. However, this event will mark the initiation of a major new programme of creation, research and performance, linked to the restoration of the Cast Courts, and collaboration with the Royal Academy of Music, where he was recently named Viotti Lecturer in Performance Studies. This event will be part of the V & A’s London Design Week programme.

A very Viking view of the Romanesque- 28th August 2012

This first event will include new and old works for solo violin and solo horn, exploiting the extraordinary atmosphere and themes of the Cast Courts. Works by Bach, Biber, Messiaen, David Gorton, Michael Alec Rose. Guest artist, virtuoso young horn player, Carly Lake began collaborating with Peter this year, and is gaining a reputation for her virtuoso playing and exploratory approach to the horn in extraordinary venues  ‘Urban Canyons’. 

Developments and conversations: 25th June – sitting with Lucy Trench the V & A’s Intepretation Editor, and  a writer that I very much admire. Ideas flitting around the conversation-the North-South European cultural dispute, Viking patterning to Ottoman meanders, cast lines on statues, Mary Shelley. Questions of scale, both of size and acoustic…Napoleon gazing on Trajan’s Column…a procession, a chaconne, around the graves of medieval monarchs…a crucifix, wrapped in foam and tape for transport, quite literally Christo redux….the wonder of Copenhagen’s Kongelige Afstøbningssamlingen, where I have sat drawing with my family, and from where we brought, a decade ago, a newly cast ‘Foot of Hermes’…

On the side of the cast of Trajan’s column

Carly Lake and Peter Sheppard Skaerved with composer Michael Alec Rose in Nashville. February 2012