For centuries cats have been venerated and mistrusted in equal measure. Through memoir, fiction, letters and poems, the writers in these pages celebrate cats and their curious ways.
Author: Suzy Robinson
Singer, writer, mother, corgi enthusiast
Friday night in August is not a good time to die
Friday night in August is not a good time to die #RobertRobinson
Forgetting how to big wide world
I have forgotten how to big wide world.
Philomel In Short @ Richmond
Richmond Unitarian Church hosted Philomel In Short on 31 October 2020, for a socially distanced concert
A Musical Advent Calendar
Without all the carol services and cheering Christmas music to look forward to, a group of freelance musician mothers decided to create an online musical advent calendar showcasing their talents. It is a joyous thing.
Musical Miniatures: recording workshop
Philomel is back with some socially-distant workshop-recordings of newly written musical miniatures. Stay, O Sweet from Virelais is a setting of words by John Donne by Canadian-born Glasgow-based composer Emily Doolittle. Recorded in Richmond Unitarian Church, August 2020. Suzy Robinson, Janet Oates and Michael Keen perform. Stay O Sweet (video) Emilydoolittle.com Philomel.co.uk
Entr’acte
Small acts of kindness: flour, a battery,
Saying hello in the street to a stranger, and smiling
Like on Christmas Day in another life.
A painful silence
All on my own in Lockdownland, I can’t recreate the sound that I and my fellow choristers make on Maundy Thursday when we begin Duruflé’s sinuous and reflective setting of the Tantum Ergo; or when we lean together into the achingly plangent suspensions of ‘Jerusalem desolata est’ in Byrd’s Civitas Sancti Tui
Birth Day: trauma and gratitude
Today it is my darlingest daughter’s 7th birthday. I don’t think I could ever love someone more than I love her.
Most years I find myself staying on high alert throughout the night before her birthday in a kind of post-traumatic vigil, a retrospective anticipation of her birth. The body holds trauma in such a way that it can’t tell past from present, and an anniversary or a reminder can whisk one back to the event itself which seems still to be happening, or to a replaying of the narrative.
Folle Cor: Philomel at the Barn Church
Philomel’s last performance was an evening of 17th century passion and intimacy. ‘Folle Cor’ presented duets and trios from the courts of Northern Italy, by composers including Mazzocchi, Strozzi, Monteverdi, Luzzaschi and Casulana, on the themes of love and obsession. This was Philomel’s first programme of purely historical repertoire. Here is a short video of… Continue reading Folle Cor: Philomel at the Barn Church
Suzy Robinson soprano 