Chris Coe
Last appeared at the Grove: April 28th 2006
This is a new booking, and we will update this page in the near future.
Sam and Ed
Chris Coe: March 13th 2009
Chris Coe has been a professional performer since 1971, originally in a duo with Pete Coe, & linking up with various stalwarts of the Folk Music world in groups such as Magic Lantern, New Victory Band, English Country Blues Band, Tiger Moth, Bandoggs, Hooke’s Law & Red Shift. She sings, step dances & plays hammered dulcimer, duet concertina, Appalachian dulcimer & percussion. She has a BA (Hons) degree in Fine Art, Sculpture from Sheffield University and has worked as artist on many community arts projects since 1991.
Her most recent CD “A Wiser Fool” is a collection of mainly traditional (mainly British) material plus several of her own distinctive compositions, and has been described by reviewers as a classic.
She now works solo, with John Adams & Pete Coe as a trio, teaches dance/movement & voice/singing (community and music festival workshops and projects, and undergraduate tuition), and as a visual artist/designer. In Autumn 2001 she began a 6-month stint working at the National Theatre with John Tams in the production “The Good Hope” by Herman Heijermans. Directed by Bill Bryden, it opened in London in early November, and toured England and Scotland for 6 weeks. Chris was dance arranger/teacher and soloist, singer and musician.
2003-04 projects include researching and arranging traditional songs from the collections of Percy Grainger (“Windmills” Lincolnshire ? Firebird Trust) and Vaughan Williams (“Blyth Valley Voices” Southwold, Suffolk ? East Anglian Traditional Music Trust) to teach to individuals and singing groups from the respective local communities. Both projects involved working with children to “tell” songs using voice and movement/gestural language, and writing new material based on local oral history.
The Vaughan Williams project continues in 2005 and moves into Diss and King’s Lynn, Norfolk. It involves lifting the songs directly from the pages of RVW’s notebooks and teaching them to groups of local singers.
Chris is a member of the Natural Voice Practitioners’ Network and the Voice Care Network.
At present, in addition to her performance work, (summer festivals: 4 FOOLS and TOWERSEY), she is a Performing Arts/Media Voice tutor at Salford University, an occasional visiting Voice/Drama tutor at Huddersfield Uni, and tutor (Traditional singing) on the Folk Degree at Newcastle University. She is working on:
- a second solo CD
- a Yorkshire Arts - funded project researching and developing a multi-media performance piece based on “The Wife of Usher’s Well”, (one of the traditional ballads)
- development of a portfolio of stories with soundscapes (“Bespoken”) in collaboration with the writer and performer Debbie Middleton.
Solo CD “A Wiser Fool” is available direct from Chris
21 Halifax Rd. Ripponden, West Yorks. HX6 4AH. Tel: 01422 822413 Mobile: 07747 500 985 Email: chris_coe2@yahoo.co.uk Or distributors:MRS CASEY MUSIC — ROCKING CHAIR:
rc@mrscasey.co.uk .Dr. DEBORAH MIDDLETON
Dr. Deborah Middleton is a writer, academic and performer. A Senior Lecturer in the Department of Drama, Theatre and Performance at the University of Huddersfield, she is also an Associate Lecturer in the Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University. Deborah’s performance writing is informed by her extensive experiences as a physical theatre practitioner, as well as her academic researches into the related fields of theatre and ritual.
A highly experienced workshop facilitator, Deborah is currently researching and developing courses in enhancing creativity through writing practice and performance improvisation. With her creative partner, the singer and musician, Chris Coe, Deborah is currently working on a series of texts for live and DVD performance projects.
BESPOKEN
is a creative partnership between singer and musician, Chris Coe, and writer, Deborah Middleton. Drawing on their extensive combined experience in writing, creating and performing stories, songs, and theatrical works, BESPOKEN is also the result of academic research into, and artistic exploration of, indigenous performance traditions, such as the ballad form. BESPOKEN employs a unique blend of knowledge, skills and contemporary media to explore the rich and still highly relevant symbolic languages of our cultural heritage.