Manchester Collective: Shaker Loops

Manchester Collective returns to RNCM with a powerful programme exploring themes of life, death, and divine ecstasy. Part of the Legends and Lore and Inspirational Artists series, this performance brings together contemporary classical works with spoken word, ritual, and reimagined tradition.

The ensemble is joined by Christ Bryan—poet-in-residence at The White Hotel—for a new take on John Adams’ Shaker Loops, combining the piece’s ecstatic energy with Bryan’s lyrical reflections on faith and community. The programme also includes Saariaho’s elegiac Terra Memoria, Dobrinka Tabakova’s richly textured Such Different Paths, and a striking arrangement of the ancient hymn Veni Creator Spiritus by Rakhi Singh.

This is music as invocation—modern, mystical, and deeply human.

Programme:

• Dobrinka Tabakova: Such Different Paths
• Kaija Saariaho: String Quartet No. 2 “Terra Memoria”
• Traditional, arr. Rakhi Singh: Veni Creator Spiritus
• John Adams: Shaker Loops with new text by Christ Bryan

Performers:
Christ Bryan – spoken word
Manchester Collective

The Inspirational Artists series is generously supported by The Haworth Trust.