Foundling Museum, London
By Hannah Hutchings-Georgiou
A picture gallery seems an odd place to find a marimba, let alone a pair of bongos and a bodhrán. Yet the Foundling Museum is no stranger to musical instruments. Conceived through the charitable donations of Hogarth and the money-raising concerts of Handel, the Foundling has a long-standing relationship with art. Today, the museum celebrates its artistic roots and past patrons by holding a Young Artists’ Platform for emerging musicians, which, last week, showcased Miriam Kitchener, a newly-graduated percussionist from Birmingham Conservatoire.
Choosing works of a religious-theme or narrative nature, Kitchener embraced the multi-faceted elements of this 250-year-old institution. Her opener was Roberto Sierra’s ‘Bongo – o’, a piece which showed-off her energy and flair for inflecting complex percussive rhythms. She brought colour, vivacity and playfulness into the Georgian surroundings and made the portraits of austere periwig-wearing gentlemen look as though they too were having a good time. Her second piece, however, demonstrated her true virtuosity and versatility as a musician. Ney Rosauro’s ‘Variations over Evelyn Glennie’s A Little Prayer’ united the old and new, much like the museum and Kitchener played it sensitively.
Still, her ability was not confined to impressive marimba sets only and to close her concert, Kitchener chose ‘Ceci n’est pas une balle’, a slightly more experimental work by Alexander Esperet. Imitating a basketball player bouncing a ball, Kitchener beat time on her body and hopped around the space. The result was a clever, clown-like piece that demonstrated the limitless play to be had with music, and spoke to the child in us all. 