2018 › Lowestoft

Past event

Guo Yue and Clare Farrow Performance

How did it go?

The Marina Theatre in Lowestoft was packed with over 700 children and their teachers from 8 primary schools from the surrounding area. The hubbub of the children died down as the performance began with the soaring notes of Yue’s bamboo flute filling the auditorium. Clare spoke to the children about Chinese history and showed lots of beautiful artefacts, like tiny shoes, beautiful silk clothes and a bamboo bird cage. Her readings from their book Little Leap Forward and Yue’s retelling of his childhood were fascinating and brought the story to life. A truly inspiring morning ended with more of Yue’s delightful flute playing.

What people said:

What we loved about the show: it broadened the children's understanding of different cultures; the music in the performance was amazing; each child got a copy of the book to take home to read.

Worlingham CEVC Primary School, Suffolk

Guo Yue and Clare Farrow Workshop

Four schools were visited by Clare and Yue who ran creative workshops where the children learned more about Chinese history and made their own paper kites. Every child in the audience received a copy of Little Leap Forward to take home and keep.

Did you go to this performance or attend one of the related workshops? Send us your photos and feedback to be featured on this page

Venue:
Marina Theatre, Marina, Lowestoft NR32 1HH
Date:
Thursday 1st November
Time:
11:00 am
Duration:
Approx. 1 hour
Age range:
Years 4, 5 and 6

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Clare Farrow & Guo Yue

Guo Yue was born in 1958 in Beijing, China. One of six children, and the son of a violinist, he grew up in a traditional courtyard. In 1982 he came to study the silver flute at the Guildhall School of Music, London. As a musician, Yue has travelled extensively, making recordings and playing on film soundtracks (including The Last Emperor).

Clare Farrow, a freelance arts writer, met Yue in 1994. Their first book Music, Food and Love was published in 2006. Little Leap Forward is their first book for children. Clare has curated the exhibition Childhood Recollections: Memory in Design on the theme of childhood, which was shown at the Roca London Gallery in 2015, and most recently, Timber Rising: Vertical Visions for the Cities of Tomorrow.

Quote in praise of Little Leap Forward

One of the many pleasures of this moving story…is its depiction of how a musical child experiences the world as a symphony of sounds… Yue and Farrow… evoke how Little Leap Forward bears witness with the eye of a poet, the ear of a musician and the transformative imagination of a storyteller.

The New York Times


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