WEEKEND COLUMN SATURDAY 14 JUNE 2025
- STEVE COOKE AATA
- 1 day ago
- 10 min read
previews, reviews, interviews, and recommendations with Steve Cooke
WEEKEND COLUMN SATURDAY 14 JUNE 2025
VOLUNTEER CALL OUT – THE HERDS: HEYWOOD
By Steve Cooke
50 to 100 volunteers are being sought from the Rochdale Borough to support THE HERDS HEYWOOD on Friday 4 July 2025. If you have an interest or passion for volunteering, public arts and your community they want to hear from you!
After opening MIF25 in Manchester City Centre on 3 July, 70 life-sized wild animal puppets will explore the streets of Heywood on 4 July. From 7pm, THE HERDS animals will venture the industrial streets that surround Mutual Mill before seeking nature and greenery in Queens Park.
THE HERDS is brought to life by the international team behind Little Amal, created by The Walk Productions and led by Artistic Director Amir Nizar Zuabi.
They are looking for local people from our community to take part and support this truly epic event coming to the streets of Heywood. For more information about THE HERDS, head to: THE HERDS | Manchester International Festival 2025 – Factory International
Great opportunity to be part of a once-in-a-lifetime event in your local area of Heywood!
Meet and have fun with like-minded people from your community.
Experience and learn about the behind-the-scenes of a large public art event
Rochdale Borough council will offer a shopping voucher to those who volunteer in full.
Week commencing 23 June 2025: You will need to attend one 1-hour induction session prior to 4 July.
You will need to be available on Friday 4 July 2025 at various times (the event starts at 7pm; shift times will be allocated based on availability).
Be aged 18 or over and live, work or study in Rochdale Borough
Be available Friday 4 July 2025 (various times, event runs approximately 7pm to 8pm)
Be confident and happy to help the public find THE HERDS, provide wayfinding support, and work alongside other volunteers.
Be comfortable working outdoors in all weather!
The start point is Starkey Street / Rutland Street Heywood, Rochdale OL10
The address for Queens Park is 158 Queen's Park Rd, Rochdale, Heywood OL10 4UY
The production base will be located close by the starting point.
You will help guiding the flow of people following THE HERDS journey from the residential streets of Heywood to Queens Park.
You may be stationed at various locations along the route to signpost and guide the public, artists and participants. You may also be volunteering alongside other MIF25 volunteers.
After the event finishes you will guide people out and around Queens Park.
You may also assist in maintaining a tidy green room for artists, volunteers, and participants, and in public areas after the event.
If you wish to register your interest, they want to hear from you!
Please complete the Google Form to register your interest as a volunteer. If you are unable to access or complete the form, contact: Louis Lisle: l.lisle@investinrochdale.co.uk to receive the questions in a Word document.
For any other queries, please email Louis Lisle with "Volunteering THE HERDS" in the subject line.
Deadline for interest: Midday Monday 16th June 2025
DREAM DIFFERENTLY - PROGRAMME ANNOUNCED FOR 2025 MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL
Preview by Steve Cooke
Factory International presents MIF25 featuring new work from Blackhaine, Eric Cantona, Edgar Davids, Juliet Ellis, FAFSWAG, Andy Field and Becky Darlington, John Grant, Shilpa Gupta, Germaine Kruip, Juan Mata, Ntombizodwa Nyoni, The Royal Ballet, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Rosabel Tan, Santiago Yahuarcani and more.
The Festival spreads its wings with events in Rochdale and Wigan alongside a plethora of guest artists from Manchester and the North West.
Over 1000 local people join MIF25 as participants and volunteers, with hundreds taking to the streets in the opening weekend and over 450 children working on a long term installation.
8000 tickets available for £10 or less alongside free events across the Festival.
MIF25 runs Thursday 3 July to Sunday 20 July 2025 the first under new Creative Director Low Kee Hong.
Working with partners across the city and the world to build on the MIF legacy, the wide-ranging, multi-artform programme of groundbreaking world premieres will inspire fresh perspectives, challenge conventional thought and invite audiences to ‘dream differently’ - envision new possibilities, brighter futures and utopian spaces. Presenting some of the most exciting creative minds of our generation, the programme champions indigenous artists and creators from the Global South, expanding the Festival’s renowned international impact as well as fostering deep connections with local artists and communities in the North West of England.
Creative Director at Factory International, Low Kee Hong says: “It has been an incredible journey building the MIF25 programme with such a diverse range of artists from around the world whose voices are ever more critical in these challenging times. They encourage us to lean into visions of other possible futures, encounter cosmologies unfamiliar to our own, and enter into worlds that propose a re-enchantment of dreaming to rediscover our ability for joy, hope and belief in each other and our communities to build these tomorrows we want to be part of.”
Blackhaine, Eric Cantona, Edgar Davids, Juliet Ellis, FAFSWAG, Andy Field and Becky Darlington, Ryan Gander, John Grant, Shilpa Gupta, Germaine Kruip, Juan Mata, Amir Nizar Nuabi, Ntombizodwa Nyoni, Orchestral Qawwali Project, Paul Pfieffer Keiken, The Royal Ballet, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Rosabel Tan, Ella Toone, Venture Arts, Jonathan
Watkins, Ed Watson, Josh Willdigg and Santiago Yahuarcani are just some of the names who will be contributing to this extraordinary bi-annual celebration of creativity in 2025.
The Festival celebrates Manchester as a global hub of creative innovation, presenting work throughout the city and surrounding areas. MIF25 is a celebration of homegrown artists returning to the region with many of the artists programmed originally coming from the North West. As well as welcoming artists from all over the world to venues across Greater Manchester, the Festival is venturing further out than ever before with new work being presented in Rochdale and Wigan.
This year will be the first edition of the Manchester International Festival hosted within the fully operational Aviva Studios, home of Factory International. The festival will span Aviva Studios, partner venues such as HOME and the Royal Exchange, as well as unique found spaces on the city streets.
MIF25 will continue to build and strengthen its relationship with the people of Manchester and the North West with nearly 800 local people and 600 children taking part in this year’s festival.
On the opening weekend hundreds of participants will join puppeteers in THE HERDS to parade animals made in Manchester through the city streets and beyond to open the festival. 160 young people will participate in a schools showcase taking over Festival Square and 489 school children from across all 10 boroughs of Greater Manchester will work alongside artists to create The Inheritance.
There will also be three specific weekends of community activations curated and hosted by MIF’s Neighbourhood Organisers, who will host afternoon showcases featuring cabaret, performance and comedy.
The buzzing heart of MIF, Festival Square, returns with a free programme of live music and performances outside Aviva Studios, and this year also flowing indoors to the Social.
There will also be a talks programme, to be announced in due course.
Digitally, Factory Settings launches a new project by award-winning design studio Superflux for MIF25. Marking the beginning of a long-term partnership, which will explore the ecological future of Aviva Studios’ post-industrial site, the collaboration will launch with an augmented reality experience on the Factory Settings free AR app.
This year's festival will also see six Factory Fellows working directly alongside creatives and production teams; 15 Factory Sounds artists, as well as 400 incredible Festival volunteers.
John McGrath, Chief Executive and Artistic Director at Factory International says: “It has been such a delight to welcome Low Kee Hong to Manchester and to see his ideas for
the future of MIF develop. With a global outlook and deep local engagement, the 2025 edition of Manchester International Festival, curated by Kee Hong, promises to be an
exciting new step in the story of this unique festival of new work from the world’s great artists. Our wonderful new year-round home, Aviva Studios, will form a joyful centre to the festival, while we also partner with artists and organisations across Greater Manchester to ensure a festival for everyone.”
Rochdale Parish Church ‘Come and Sing Mozart’
Review by Dr Joe Dawson
They say it’s rude to turn your backs on people. But in this case, it was us, the audience who were flies on the wall to witness the conclusion of a choral singing day. Impromptu choral scholars faced their conductor/director, Philip O’Connor (Manchester University and RNCM graduate and organist and music director at Bolton Parish Church). We were privileged to share in the culmination of their day’s musicmaking.
Approximately 50 singers (including 6 tenors and 8 basses, a welcome sight these days) from the borough and beyond, answered the call to ‘Come and Sing Mozart’ and gathered to run through a tight schedule. Registration at 09:45 with intensive rehearsals and short breaks culminated in a public concert at 3 pm; accompanied by Philip Lowe, the enterprising Director of Music at St Chad’s, at the piano.
Artur Schnabel once paradoxically declared Mozart’s sonatas, ‘too easy for children, and too difficult for artists’, highlighting the deceptive simplicity of his music. However, the adult student chorus coped very well with some of Mozart’s choral gems. Their opening Ave Verum Corpus produced a confident rounded harmony, making a wonderful overture. This was followed by the short mass setting, Missa Brevis in Bb K275. The opening Kyrie was sung with authority by the soprano soloist Alicia Cadwgan, a New Zealander based in Manchester, with a master’s from the RNCM. Encouraged by her beautifully phrased, rich and resonant singing, the choristers completed the remaining selected movements with aplomb.
Laudate Dominum (from Vespers) again featured Alicia in a glorious and delightful solo; her final crescendo dovetailed effectively with the resplendent choral Amen.
Leaving the audience enchanted but wanting more, this was definitely a good day’s work.
Back in the day, churches, chapels and choral societies would be making music this way on a regular basis. So, it was great to see that people can still get together in this way.
The Reverend Anne Gilbert, Area Dean of Rochdale was present and must have been rightly pleased to witness St Chad’s, Rochdale’s Parish Church hosting such a venture, as it has done for several years as part of its music provision under Philip Lowe. What next, maestro?
A MAY OF MUSIC AT TLC
Review by Dr Joe Dawson
May 07: Margaret Ferguson soprano & Maria King piano – two extraordinary performers, popular regular soloists at St Mary in the Baum. Both are highly trained and able to cross the apparent divide between serious and popular music. To have them together in one recital was terrific. Lehar, Boncini, Bellini, Verdi, plus Arne and Handel were complemented by lighter repertoire with The Pipes of Pan, Can't Help Lovin' dat Man from Showboat (where a real blues feel came through) and the hysterical One Meat Ball by Zaret and Singer - a captivating number not a usual bedfellow with the classic soprano repertoire! But Margaret embraced that too. Finally, (by request), the hilarious Alto's Lament by Goldrich brought the house down.
May 14: The Nightingale Singers founded in 1987, are based in Middleton. Since 2004 they have been directed by Ken Greaves, and during this time have performed in the North of England, Midlands and North Wales. This was a packed mixed programme of popular numbers and more serious ones from throughout the history of music, some sung a capella (unaccompanied). Fine soloists Alyson Brailsford and Jennifer Workman, Liz Creagh, Freda Farnworth and Martin McLoughlin also stepped forward from the choir, well supported by piano accompanist Brian Mulligan, who also sings in the tenor section. Today’s presenter was Suzanne Mather.
May 21: Louise Taylor soprano and Jonathan Ellis piano … Mendelssohn’s opening aria, Hear Ye, Israel from Elijah, O for the Wings of a Dove and On Wings of Song were all comfortably within her grasp.
Then operetta songs from The Land of Smiles by Franz Lehar, a role relished along with the same composer’s Vilia, from The Merry Widow.
She was partnered today by award-winning pianist Jonathan Ellis who works extensively around the NW as soloist, accompanist, repetiteur, and chamber musician. Not only did he accompany superbly but also gave piano solos from his early days - Valse in A Flat Major, Op 69, no 1 by Chopin and The Rustle of Spring by Sinding, played with affection and panache.
Their final set was devoted to songs by George Gershwin culminating in Summertime from his magnificent all-black opera, Porgy and Bess.
May 28: Dmitra Ananiadou violin and Richard Whalley piano … two sophisticated exponents presented a superb duo recital of Manuel de Falla’s Danse Espagnol, Ravel’s Pièce en forme de Habanera, Richard Whalley’s own Butterflies, Alex Apostolopoulos’ Rhapsodia Alpha (composer in the audience), and Beethoven’s Violin Sonata Op 23. Flavours of Spain (also by a Frenchman), Greece and Britain and Austro-German dedicated to a Russian Tsar! A fascinating world tour united by brilliant playing and communication. Contemporary music brought our 1935 heritage Challen piano successfully into the 21st century.
The Queen’s Award-winning Toad Lane Concerts are every Wednesday at 12.30 pm at St Mary in the Baum, Toad Lane, Rochdale, OL16 1DZ. Entrance fee is £6. Contact 01706 648872 for further information.
RECOMMENDED
Saturday 14 June 2025
Drag Me To The 80's
Meet our cast of 80s divas and join us on an unforgettable journey as this amazing production delivers a dazzling fusion of nostalgia, empowerment and a celebration of the extraordinary.
Get ready to dance, sing and be captivated by the powerhouse vocals of the queens who redefine the stage and bring the spirit of the 80s roaring back to life.
Featuring an incredible full live band and the music of Kylie, Madonna, Whitney, Bananarama, Queen, Abba, Rick Astley, Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, Duran Duran, Wham, Tina Turner and many more.
Watch the trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D3BADWpySg
From £26.00
Middleton Arena LCpl Joel Halliwell VC Way, Middleton, Greater Manchester M24 1AG
Saturday 14 June 2025
Lego Club – Rochdale Central Library
Every other Saturday. Get creative with Lego and join our free club, suitable for all the family. There's Duplo available for younger siblings.
For families with children aged 2 and over, and teenagers.
You can just turn up.
Free
12pm - 1pm
Rochdale Central Library, Number One Riverside, Smith Street, Rochdale OL16 1XU
Saturday, 14 June 2025
Assheton of Middleton Archive Collection Talk - Middleton Library
Come along to Middleton Library where Manchester Archives will be hosting a talk about the Assheton of Middleton Archive Collection.
The collection sheds light on local life in the medieval and early modern era. The collection includes the earliest surviving written document, the Articles of Agreement dating from 1197.
This is an exciting chance to hear about and see some of the oldest and most historically significant documents relating to the Assheton Family and Middleton’s medieval history.
You can just drop in
Free
1pm - 2.30pm
Middleton Library, Long Street, Middleton M24 6DU
Tuesday 17 June 2025
Organ Concerts at Rochdale Town Hall
Organist: Gordon Stewart
From £8
Phone: 01706 924797
3pm
Rochdale Town Hall, The Esplanade, Rochdale OL16 1AZ
Your Trust open: 6:45pmTickets from
Wednesday 18 June 2025
Toad Lane Concerts - Rochdale's Weekly Music at Lunchtime
This week we have - Ying Cheng piano (Tunghai University Taiwan, RNCM)
The concert series has been held at St Mary’s since 2001 and was granted the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2020.
Running every Wednesday, Music at Lunchtime is a weekly live classical music concert series that has been going since the 1960s. The sessions were initially run at the old Rochdale Art Gallery by the local authority, but since May 2001 have been run by volunteer-enthusiasts and artistic director, Dr Joe Dawson.
celebrating creative arts and artists - an oasis of positivity supporting individual and community wellbeing.
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