IMPORTANT NOTICE
In light of the current novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, our touring performances of The Birds have been suspended.
For more information, please visit our dedicated information page.
With the world’s bird populations facing extreme peril from climate change and loss of habitat, this is our love song to birds in music.
The Birds is an intimate, total music experience, for which Olivier Messiaen’s epic Catalogue of the Birds has been set against music by electronic wunderkind Erland Cooper. Messiaen’s unique and spectacular work for solo piano is a 13-movement tribute to tawny owls, blackbirds and kingfishers in all their hopping, soaring and flitting glory.
The Birds was originally commissioned by Opera North Projects for Leeds Light Night 2019, in association with the Churches Conservation Trust. On the night, audiences were invited to step into a symphony in St John’s Churchyard as the trees came alive in music, birdsong and light. The installation took flight from Finnish composer Rautavaara’s Swans Migrating, in which swelling orchestral melody mix with the sounds of whooper swans as they fly south. Following the path through a forest of light, visitors then stepped 400 years back in time inside the ancient church of St John’s, where Manchester Collective curated an immersive experience of Messiaen’s masterpiece.
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Past Events
for Light Night Leeds
St John the Evangelist
for Light Night Leeds
St John the Evangelist
Programme
Rautavaara Swans Migrating (Leeds Only)
Messiaen Catalogue d’oiseaux
Cooper Vignettes (World Premiere)
“The Birds” is created by Manchester Collective
”Swans Migrating” is created by Opera North & Urban Projections.
Creative Team
The Birds
Reinis Zarins Piano (Lancaster / Bristol)
Kerry Yong Piano (Leeds)
Erland Cooper Composer
Brendan Williams Sound Engineer
Jamie Birkett Sound Design
Manchester Collective Lighting Design
Swans Migrating
Rebecca Smith Production Design
Joff Spittlehouse Production Design
Urban Projections Production Design
Reinis Zarins
Ever since his concerto debut at the age of ten, Latvian concert pianist Reinis Zarins has performed as a recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist throughout Europe and North America. Equally at home in classical and contemporary repertoire, his passion lies in the creation of programmes and interpretations that explore the deeper reasons and purposes behind music.
Some of the highlights in Reinis’ 2019/20 diary include his debut with London Philharmonic orchestra, several new collaborations, including Elbphilharmonie’s titular organist Iveta Apkalna, and Bang on a Can cellist Ashley Bathgate, Beethoven’s Triple concerto with his Trio Palladio, as well as Messiaen's Catalogue d’oiseaux in UK and a recital on the world’s largest piano in Ventspils.
Laureate of 11 international competitions, Reinis Zarins has performed in prestigious music festivals including Lucerne Festival, Bath International Music festival and Scotia Festival of Music. His thoughtful virtuosity has delighted audiences at London's Wigmore hall, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, New York’s Weill Recital hall at Carnegie hall, and the Tchaikovsky Concert hall in Moscow. Reinis has collaborated with leading orchestras including London Philharmonic orchestra, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Kremerata Baltica, and the Ostrobothnian Chamber orchestra (Finland), and with conductors Pierre Boulez, Peter Eötvös, Pablo Heras-Casado and Diego Masson, among others. His performances have been broadcast live by BBC Radio 3, NDR, Polish National Radio and King FM, and in 2018 he was Artist in Residence both with Latvian Radio 3 and in the Cēsis Concert hall with his Trio Palladio.
Reinis’ passion for seeking exchanges of beauty in all artforms has resulted in various multimedia projects including the show Seasons in collaboration with choreographer Kirill Burlov, and a performance project with visual artist Maryleen Schiltkamp.
Away from the piano, Reinis enjoys playing chess with his children and getting lost in the woods.
Photo: Alex Kozobolis
Erland Cooper
Hailing from the archipelago of Orkney in Scotland, award-winning composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Erland Cooper explores the natural world of birds, the sea and landscape in his music.
Exploring a balance between alternative, electronic and classical music, his debut solo project Solan Goose (2018) began as a gentle response to ease anxiety and claustrophobia working in a large city, aiming to create a sense of balance and calm for both himself and the listener, while connecting identity, memory and place through music and cinematography.
Erland believes that music often reflects the landscape surrounding a composer, be it rural, urban, real or imagined. While Solan Goose paid homage to the birdlife of Orkney with each track name taken from Orkney dialect words for its native birds, Erland turns his attention to the North Sea in Sule Skerry (2019), the second in his Orkney triptych.
Previous projects include The Magnetic North, which blended orchestral arrangement, rock, and electronica and his early work as lead to progressive folk-rock band Erland and the Carnival.
Photo: Holly Birtles
Kerry Yong
Kerry is a musician who lives in East London. He trained as a pianist and now also performs on keyboards and live electronics.
Kerry has performed at Audiograft, Chisenhale Arts Club, Kämmer Klang, Rational Rec, Borealis Festival, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, ISCM World Music Days, Kings Place, City of London Festival, Music We'd Like To Hear, Nonclassical and in groups Apartment House, ELISION, Plus-Minus Ensemble and Ensemble Offspring.
Kerry studied piano with Stephanie McCallum at the University of Sydney (where he also studied composition) and at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He completed a doctorate at the Royal College of Music where he studied piano with Andrew Ball and researched Performance practices of music for piano with electroacoustics. He has also dabbled with the other side, playing with bands Apopalyptics, Casiokids and Half-handed Cloud and the Welcome Wagon.
Kerry also directs music at Grace Church Hackney (which meets in Hoxton), where they are happy to use ancient chants, traditional hymns and new works with choirs, bands, electronics, objects and the like.