Pink Floyd meets Deep Purple in colourful orchestral rock collaboration
by Michael Byrne · Newcastle HeraldThe Fernleigh Orchestral and Arts Network has quickly established a reputation throughout the Hunter for innovative orchestral collaborations with international artists and local musicians.
Under the artistic direction of Dr Ian Cook and the dedicated education of Beth Porter, their string and wind ensembles have come to embody a commitment to artistic development through musical exploration.
When the Fernleigh Wind Ensemble and a band of local musicians perform Pink Meets Purple at the Newcastle University Conservatorium next weekend, it will compose another chapter in a story of collaborative success.
Yet the characters in this tale and the notes that they play are going to look and sound a little different than before. Mystical? Maybe. Joyously evocative of a celebrated era of progressive rock? Definitely.
Even those with only a passing interest in classic and experimental rock can appreciate the impact that Pink Floyd had upon our artistic consciousness.
Like another seminal ensemble who rose in the '70s, Deep Purple, their greatest hits are like the tips of enormous musical icebergs. Most of their most inventive music remains hidden beneath the surface of the commercial mainstream, immeasurable and mysterious in its depths and complexities.
They communicate the profound. They speak to us in entirely new languages. Some have composed music that was once mysterious and strange that has since become instantly recognisable.
Pink Floyd and Deep Purple did all of these virtuosic things. They were both British genre-bending groundbreakers. And they both spent the year of 1968 composing and performing exploratory music that was unlike anything that we'd ever heard before. Yet they still stand alone.
But what if a pair of performances, a single stage and an ensemble of 50 local musicians could momentarily bring these bands back together? What if we could travel back to the sonic inventiveness of 1968? Pink Meets Purple will imagine these possibilities.
Earlier this year, the Fernleigh Wind Ensemble performed alongside a quartet led by another virtuoso, the jazz musician James Morrison.
It was a collaboration between the established and the ambitious, the celebrated and the courageous. It was also a sold-out success.
Yet the real value of collaboration is not always about adoration or even one musician simply looking up to the other. It's hard to find magic in any kind of hierarchy.
It's meaning resides in more subtle and unexpected places, where the communion of talent invents that new language, one that teaches and embraces a wider musical vocabulary to both the performers and their audiences.
One performer who is already familiar with this learning process is Jacob Cummins, a guitarist and composer who will be performing in Pink Meets Purple and who has previously collaborated with ensemble musicians and Cook in 2024.
Cummins will perform alongside other Newcastle artists such as Marty Worrall, a renowned vocalist and musical theatre performer.
"For me, collaboration is where the best of everything happens," Cummins says.
"Whether it's in composition or performance, each person brings their unique experiences to a musical collaboration. There's always so much to be learnt from that.
"I have been playing guitar since I was a young kid and played live in a band for many years. But during the Pink Meets Purple project and in the orchestral setting in which it's performed, I am still discovering so much.
"There are so many things I can learn from the musicians I am collaborating with, and I love that."
As he has done throughout all of Fernleigh's collaborations, Cook will be conducting these performances and is, as ever, inspired by the dedication of his ensemble musicians.
For Cook, this is a concert that will showcase not only the musical versatility of the Fernleigh Wind Ensemble but also their commitment to exploring musicianship in all of its variations.
"The ensemble is embracing the innovative spirit of this concert," Cook says.
"All of the Fernleigh ensembles develop and perform with this innovation as a guiding principle. From the junior and intermediate ensembles, led by Beth Porter, to the orchestra and the wind ensemble, we are always aiming to guide our musicians towards the best that they can be."