Manchester Collective: Shaker Loops

Life, death and divine ecstasy. Music and movement are doorways to spiritual experience. Enter the Shakers. A radical Protestant sect with roots in 18th-century Northern England, they harnessed this power for holy connection and transcendence. American minimalist composer John Adams pays homage to their frenzied worship and ecstatic energy in the high-octane Shaker Loops.

Manchester Collective String ensemble / string orchestra
Christ Bryan Poetry

Programme
Tabakova Such Different Paths
Saariaho Terra Memoria
Hymn arr Singh Veni Creator Spiritus
Adams (feat. Christ Bryan) Shaker Loops 

This is no ordinary concert. Weaved into Adams’ oscillating rhythms is freshly-penned spoken word from lyrical force Christ Bryan. The Lancastrian poet emerges from the depths of The White Hotel – the iconoclastic Salford nightclub and arts space – to join the Collective live on stage. In three poems, we wade through the industrial smog of the past and the spiritual malaise of the present to seek salvation.

Before we reach the heavens, there’s a mysterious ode to the departed and an ancient hymn invoking the Holy Spirit. Come, let the light in, and surrender to a force larger than yourself.