Last night purplefish hosted a media evening with our new client St George’s Bristol, where a few of us and some of Bristol’s finest journalists were lucky enough to see Manu Delago and the Aurora Orchestra perform, “House”.

Delago and the Orchestra roam about the rooms of a house with music including a jazz-infused ‘kitchen ballet’ by Martinů, a major new commission from Delago himself, and Mendelssohn’s Octet, one of the greatest living-room sized works ever penned.

The Delago piece features the percussionist playing the hauntingly beautiful sound of the hang (featured in the promo video above), a reversed steel drum-like instrument made in Switzerland, with only 3000 ever produced. For this part of the show alone it’s definitely worth catching and a list of future tour dates is included at the end of the video.

purplefish’s wider remit and reason for the media evening with St George’s Bristol is promoting its ‘Building a sound future’ major capital appeal to extend the historic venue. St George’s Bristol has reached the halfway point in the building appeal as a result of confirmed grants of £300,000 from the Garfield Weston Foundation and £50,000 from the J.Paul Getty Jr. Charitable Trust. The project was kick-started by an initial pledge from Arts Council England of £1.95m, together with funds raised from a number of private donors. This will provide the world class music venue with a much needed expansion of space and facilities, transforming the visitor experience.

Key features of the project are:
• A bold new contemporary extension to the core building, providing new visitor entrances
• Comprehensive remodelling of all backstage and artist facilities
• New garden facing café and bar
• New education and workshop spaces
• New ramped access directly into the main hall for the first time

Of the total £5.5m required to fully realise the project, £2.68m has now been secured. Further major public and private sources of funds are currently in active negotiation and a public appeal to secure the remaining funds will be launched in early spring 2015.