A lot of fun was had creating this trailer with the good people of Silk Factory for hit series The Great on Lionsgate Plus, which just happens to land, by strange coincidence, on the weekend of the coronation. I was pleased to add the right royal voiceover. Huzzah!
We are delighted to announce that tickets are now on sale for the West End performance of An Exquisite Harmony at Jermyn Street Theatre, 16b Jermyn Street, London SW1Y 6ST on Sunday 16th July at 5pm. My piece about the lives, loves and music of Robert & Clara Schumann & Johannes Brahms is performed by me with the wonderful Fenella Norman and long-time recital partner the brilliant pianist Gamal Khamis.
www.jermynstreettheatre.co.uk/show/an-exquisite-harmony/
Audience comments from the premiere at St Mary's Perivale last November:
"absolutely brilliant… an amazing performance"
"an unforgettable afternoon"
"wonderfully life and love-affirming… will live long in the memory"
"an intriguing story with terrific piano playing"
"the script is brilliant... a magnificent triumph"
This was an interesting spot to work on for the new EGO Battery TV spot. The visuals and graphics from Refinery Marketing and Greenroom Films are really imaginative and their brief for the v/o was that they wanted something sophisticated and European sounding, rather than specifically UK or US, with IKEA and Audi branding as reference points. We were all really happy with the way it turned out. Kudos to director Michael Kearns…
Episode 12 of my studio poetry diary: Shakespeare’s “Wretched Strangers” Speech from the The Book of Sir Thomas More. Never have his words felt more contemporary:
“This is the strangers’ case; And this your mountainish inhumanity.”
New year, new demos I promised the team… and, well, here’s the first of them, only two and a half months late: the pick of some recent TV commercials.
I’m delighted to be teaming up with my friends the Bridge String Quartet again for a spring mini-tour. We first performed Haydn’s Seven Last Words in 2019 and have revived it each Easter since. Haydn originally wrote the work for the Good Friday service at the the Oratorio de la Santa Cueva in Cadiz in 1786 and we follow his original intention by interspersing its nine movements with spoken word readings, in our case classic and contemporary poetry by Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Philip Larkin, Mary Oliver and many others. Forty years later Beethoven had just recovered from serious illness when he wrote his immortal late quartet in A minor opus 132 and called the central slow movement “A holy song of thanksgiving to the deity from a convalescent recovering from illness”. We intersperse the movements with readings from his letters and diaries and poetry by TS Eliot, who cited the work as a particular inspiration for his own Four Quartets.
Tuesday 21st March, 7pm (London venue TBC) - Beethoven’s Holy Song of Thanks
§Thursday 30th March, 7pm Chester Road Baptist Church, Sutton Coldfield, B73 5HU - Haydn’s Seven Last Words
*Friday 31st March, 7pm Holy Trinity Church, Dilton Marsh, Wilts BA13 4DP - Haydn’s Seven Last Words
*Saturday 1st April, 7pm St Mary’s Church, Boyton, Wilts, BA12 0SS - Beethoven’s Holy Song of Thanks
*Tickets £15/£8 via boyton7lw@gmail.com
§Free with retiring collection
I was intrigued to be asked recently to voice a new trailer campaign for Screen X and delighted then to attend a Screen X screening last week of Ryan Coogler's brilliant Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. I have to say it is an amazing experience for a movie of that scale and spectacle. Screen X is an immersive format using 270-degree additional screens on the side walls which effectively operate as your peripheral vision so that often you feel like you’re within the action or things are flying past you (I ducked more than once!). V gratifying too to see and hear our trailer played before the screening in its full Screen X glory (congrats to the creative team at CJ 4DPLEX). I highly recommend seeking out a Screen X cinema if there's one nearby.
It’s nice sometimes to voice trailers for lighter films as well as the big blockbusters. I must admit I was a bit resistant to the charms of Mrs Harris Goes to Paris as a theatre piece, but it makes a very diverting movie, to which I was pleased to lend my voice for the trailers. The brilliant Lesley Manville is on top form (as ever)...
Regular recital partner Gamal Khamis and I are delighted to be joined by actress Fenella Norman for An Exquisite Harmony, our latest livestreamed collaboration from St Mary's Perivale on Sun 6th November at 3pm. An Exquisite Harmony tells the moving and fascinating story of the relationship between Robert and Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms, drawing on their letters and diaries and including piano repertoire by all three artists.
When Robert tried to commit suicide in 1854 and was subsequently committed to an asylum, his wife Clara, celebrated across Europe as a virtuoso concert pianist, was left at home with their six young children. The young Brahms, then aged only twenty, rushed to offer his support to Clara. What happened next has been the subject of speculation ever since. Clara was later to describe their relationship as “an exquisite harmony of souls”.
Available on CD: www.somm-recordings.com/recording/richard-strauss-narrator-piano/
And streaming platforms: listn.fm/enochardencastle/
A very exciting moment in the Kent household as the new CD arrives. It was launched a couple of weeks ago and has already been picking up some very nice reviews….
“A wholly exceptional and thoroughly engrossing achievement.” Robert Matthew-Walker, Musical Opinion
“A magnificent performance… rarely have I been so moved.” Christopher Axworthy, Music Commentary
"The performance by Gamal Khamis and Christopher Kent had me totally transfixed." Alexis Paterson, CEO Three Choirs Festival
So you’re on a road trip round the western US and the team at CBS Sports need an urgent recording session for a promo for the celebrated Coppa d’Italia in two days time and it just has to be your voice… What do you do? Well, the travel recording kit, a hotel room pillow fort and a spot of early morning Zoom are all it takes. Here’s the temp studio and the end result. Nice work everyone!
Hmm… electric motoring is starting to spice up a little. This was a very nice spot by the guys at Monarch as a pitch to Porsche US, and it was very nice of them to invite me along for the v/o ride.
I am delighted to be giving a special performance with pianist Gamal Khamis at the CD launch of our forthcoming recording of ENOCH ARDEN and THE CASTLE BY THE SEA for SOMM Recordings on Tuesday May 31st 2022 at 7.30pm at 1901 Arts Club, 7 Exton Street, Waterloo, London, SE1 8UE (just opposite Waterloo Station). We will perform both works (about 75 mins) and look forward to sharing a glass of wine with friends, press and supporters. Tickets are available here: https://www.1901artsclub.com/31-may-2022-christopher-kent-and-gamal-khamis.html
Audience responses from our tour of both works last year:
“What a tour de force… an electrifying performance.”
“A magnificent performance from Christopher Kent with the very difficult piano part played by Gamal Khamis… rarely have I been so moved."
“Stunningly good…so well done and so moving.”
“An extraordinary achievement.”
"The performance by Gamal Khamis and Christopher Kent had me totally transfixed."
One of the great moments of European soccer excitement arrives with the celebrated Derby d'Italia between Juventus and Inter - the “Bianconeri” vs the “Nerazzurri”. But sometimes it pays to go under the noise. Hats off to @Luke Van Patten at CBS for this simmering beauty and thanks for asking me to voice it.
Many congratulations to all at Modern Storyteller on their BAFTA Game of the Year 2022 nomination for the brilliant narrative game The Forgotten City, in which I was pleased to play the devious Roman politician Malleolus. The Forgotten City is a narrative-driven time loop adventure set in Ancient Rome which invites the player to discover the ruins of an ancient underground city, travel 2000 years into the past, and unravel the mystery of its destruction by cleverly exploiting the power to wind back time. Here is a taste of the game including the character introduction to slimy old Malleolus….
I'm delighted to be giving a special performance this Easter with the celebrated Bridge Quartet at the beautiful church of St Mary’s Boyton in Wiltshire on Friday April 1st. The concert will feature Joseph Haydn’s timeless, soul-searching string quartet The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross, originally commissioned in 1786 for the Good Friday Service at the Oratorio de la Santa Cueva, with the movements separated by devotional words and meditations. This special performance recreates Haydn’s original plan by interspersing the movements with readings by me of classic and contemporary poetry, including works by Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Mary Oliver, Philip Larkin and others. The programme was performed to acclaim in London during Easter 2019 and revived for a memorable livestreamed lockdown performance on Good Friday 2021.
Friday 1st April at 7pm
St Mary’s Church, Boyton, Warminster, BA12 0SS
Tickets: £10/£15
Available by email from William Mitchell (boyton7lw@gmail.com)
It’s been a busy year for trailers with major campaigns for No Time to Die, Artemis Fowl and Frozen 2, among many others, with Marvel Studios Shang Chi still to come. Here’s my latest demo compilation of recent work.
Good to be back in the booth at IMG narrating the latest episode of the long-running hit documentary series The Spirit of Yachting for BBC/Sky. This episode featured the spectacular Rolex Middle Sea Race round the island of Sicily and then on to Malta, due for broadcast Sat 23rd November.
And finally… after the aborted trailer campaigns for No Time to Die in March and November 2020 it was third time lucky with the movie finally opening to rave reviews last week. This is one of my favourite radio spots this time round, featuring the haunting theme song by Billie Eilish. Congrats to all at Universal and Chinagraph London and thanks for asking me to voice the campaign in each of its iterations.
A few more mics than usual… Recording in the beautiful Menuhin Hall with pianist Gamal Khamis for our forthcoming CD release by SOMM Recordings of works for speaker and piano by Richard Strauss, including his setting of Tennyson’s epic poem Enoch Arden which made such an impact with audiences recently at London's Jermyn Street Theatre and the Three Choirs Festival in Worcester. An actor's life is never dull...
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chris@ckuk.com
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