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There are at this point about 10 tickets available at the door. Doors 7pm Show 7.30pm. The cafe is serving food 3pm-9pm. Dress up warm!!!!

Briony and Michiel will offer an evening that honours this time of the year: inwards, reflective but also with a great sense of warmth.

Expect dreamy and evocative improvisations with piano and vocals. Briony’s soul stirring songs alternated with Michiel’s jazz infused, contemplative piano pieces. Join in vocal explorations and let yourself be carried away in the worlds of harmony and colour that these versatile musicians are bringing. 

The nearest car park is Mardle Way.

Doors 7pm, Show 7.30pm; food is available at the cafe - wholesome, warm, affordable - and drinks.

Tickets £8-20 sliding scale.

A Little Background….

It’s a rare thing when highly experienced improvisers (HEI) meet. Being a HEI is like being a footballer, and having spent thousands of hours honing your skills, to live in a culture where the thing is basketball and most people aren’t that sure what football is. You kick a ball about a bit in your own back yard; it’s quite nice, but lonely, and after some time, other things take more priority.

One day you get chatting to someone; by the swings, in the grocery store - and gradually realise that you’re talking to another footballer. A date is made. Someone begins….

And whoosh!!! The world comes alive! Beauty rises up and enfolds you both! Everything you’ve been doing in all those pockets of timeless time when everyone else was doing Important Things or Earning Money or something and you were engulfed in seas of music theory and endless technical and creative practice Over There Where People Play Football, all of that is still there and maybe your knees are a bit creaky but the ball / the music soars and goes here and there and you can go everywhere and anywhere together because You Are Both Footballers.

This is the story of singer Briony Greenhill and pianist Michiel De Koening, whose lives, and settling down and making families found them both landing in Buckfastleigh. Michiel is a Dutch music graduate, mullti instrumentalist, producer, singer songwriter and jazz pianist who manages The Seed Organic Food Shop by day and collaborates with local jazz musicians by night.

Briony is “One of the world’s leading proponents of Collaborative Vocal Improvisation (CVI)” - The Guardian - who note the “power and intimacy” of her artistry. Mojo sees her “like Marvin Gaye crossed with a funky earth mother.” She’s sung with Bobby McFerrin, co-founded the UK Vocal Improvisation Festival, the Devon Singers Collective, The Well Global Vocal Improvisation network, and she’s taught the likes of Charlotte Church. You’ll see her in Buckfastleigh looking after the more famous Baby Robin with bags under her eyes and a shopping trolley.

The two are sharing their love of “football” with Buckfastleigh at the beloved Moor Imagination Collective (MIC) with a Winter Warmer Concert on December 14th. Each will share some songs, and they’ll improvise together. Briony would like to get you singing sometimes.

There’ll be wholesome, yummy, warm healthy food available at the cafe, non alcoholic drinks.

Park… somewhere (good luck). Nearest carpark is Mardle Way, a short walk to MIC.

Anthropocene Motherhood

Doors 7pm: Show 7.30 - 9.45 or so with an interval.

New Work performed on the grand piano

Deep, thought provoking, genre-defying, interdisciplinary, solo music originally improvised through my soul.

What is it to bring a child into this world, country, culture at this time?

“You better be a shapeshifter, a mourner, a griever, a builder a co-creator….

We will need you this time.

Don’t get swept off to war

It is not what I brought you here for.

Get your building kit out

And we will learn how to shape our lives into the limits of this sacred earth…..

Some favourites from the last album, some singing along, some improv if we’re lucky :)

Stay over, camp out, there’s a vocal improv workshop the next day 11-2. Feel free to bring your cosy things to the concert and snuggle.

Anthropocene Motherhood

Doors 7 Show 7.30pm

Since leaving the Bay Area in 2017 Briony has moved to the UK, released an album that was featured in The Guardian, Mojo, BBC Radio 3 and 4, and even pleased her mother with a spot on Woman’s Hour. (It’s a British thing.) (She’s also helped to spread vocal improvisation around the UK, co-founded the UK’s Vocal Improv festival, and helped a little bit to create the world’s wonderful new global vocal improvisation network - The Well).

Now she’s mama to baby Robin; and with Robin came a whole new body of work on what it is to bring a child into these times. This collection, Anthropocene Motherhood is now morphing into the name Symbiocene Mama - because let’s hope that this time of wicked problems morphs us into a new phase of symbiosis between all of life: The Symbiocene :). Let’s mother that!

Tickets $20 - $30 sliding (n.o.t.a.f.l.o.f.)

Briony is a folk-soul improvisational artist, using voice-piano improvisation as a means of composition.

“Briony’s voice touches something so deep inside, something that’s hard to communicate as a parent of a young one in this world at this time. Her tone is enchanting, old and unique, and her lyrics speak poetry to the unspeakable – the unique experience of being awake and aware to the plight of the world, but trying to live in joy and action, purpose and care. She has something special to say. And the way she brings it to parenting makes it especially unique for us – who struggle to feel a sense of community and shared experience with others. For a short time, her art gave us that.” – Abel Pearson of Glasbren

“Greenhill’s jazzy, languid lyrics groove on the healing beauty of song, the planet and your own heart and soul, like Marvin Gaye crossed with a funky Earth mother…. This is sensual music that, if you want them, could give extra reasons to live.” – Mojo

“As I watched and listened to Briony I found my soul and heart transfixed. When we sing and commune with Briony, we experience an artist coming to us straight from her soul, unfiltered, direct, and all who listen are transformed and feel ourselves and our connection to the world so much more deeply as this tremendous, once-in-a-decade artist brings us deep into her world, a world which is all of our world.” – Yari Mander

“I came home with a wide-opened heart” – Svieta 

Briony is also playing at the Point Reyes Dance Palace on 15th December, with JoJo and the Wildflowers

A Midwinter Snuggle Down Concert

With Briony Greenhill & JoJo and the Wildflowers

Bring pillows and cozies and snuggle in. We'll sing songs together ‘til our bodies are relaxed and humming, then you can close your eyes and rest while our music washes over. 

Briony will tinker the ivories of the grand piano and share new work on the theme of Anthropocene Motherhood, along with some favourites from the last album.

Jolana will be joined by a lo-fi acoustic gathering of a few of her band members for some gentle, soulful numbers.

We’ll have herbal teas and homemade cacao to drink.

We hope you can join us for some warm community time, good music medicine, and restful replenishment.

To swell musical beauty around the midwinter cup.

Doors 7pm, Concert 7.30 - 9.45ish…

Suggested contribution $20-40 per ticket. Pay what is comfortable. Kids come for free. n-o-t-a-f-l-o-f.

“Briony’s voice touches something so deep inside, something that’s hard to communicate as a parent of a young one in this world at this time. Her tone is enchanting, old and unique, and her lyrics speak poetry to the unspeakable – the unique experience of being awake and aware to the plight of the world, but trying to live in joy and action, purpose and care. She has something special to say. And the way she brings it to parenting makes it especially unique for us – who struggle to feel a sense of community and shared experience with others. For a short time, her art gave us that.” – Abel Pearson of Glasbren

“Greenhill’s jazzy, languid lyrics groove on the healing beauty of song, the planet and your own heart and soul, like Marvin Gaye crossed with a funky Earth mother…. This is sensual music that, if you want them, could give extra reasons to live.” – Mojo

“As I watched and listened to Briony I found my soul and heart transfixed. When we sing and commune with Briony, we experience an artist coming to us straight from her soul, unfiltered, direct, and all who listen are transformed and feel ourselves and our connection to the world so much more deeply as this tremendous, once-in-a-decade artist brings us deep into her world, a world which is all of our world.” – Yari Mander

“I came home with a wide-opened heart” – Svieta 

For Tickets, see the Ashburton Arts Centre Soon!

The Devon Singers’ Collective is a group of local singers who collaborate, improvise together and support one another, personally and professionally. On 2nd October they’ll share songs, be each other’s backing vocalists in harmonious uproar and delicacy, improvise live together and get everyone singing. 

We are:

Emily Roblyn is a singer, teacher, composer, and arranger who runs choirs, workshops and retreats in SW UK. Audiences fall in love with her warmth, enthusiasm and heart connection, which is woven through all her work.

Briony Greenhill is a folk/soul/jazz improvisational artist and teacher. She teaches CVI - Collaborative Vocal Improvisation - from beginner to advanced levels; she’s also a healer, ceremonialist and change-maker.

Charlotte Mabon is a medicine singer-songwriter with a magnetic, healing voice.

Rob Carney is a singer-songwriter and singing coach who leads community singing in Totnes. His songs of freedom and love have melted and inspired so many that his first album is long overdue - but coming!. Support his crowdfunder here: https://igg.me/at/robcarney

Bella Lilley is a singer and improviser with influences from Africa, British folk, the journey of motherhood and our deep indigenous roots and connection to earth. Bella is passionate about the voice as a gateway to healing, she holds 1-to-1 therapeutic voice work sessions and teaches CVI - Collaborative Vocal Improvisation. Facebook@Arabellavoicemedicine

Anna Ling is a poetic and confessional songwriter and an engaging performer, whose influences include community choirs, British folk music, Bulgarian singing, and a great love for nature. She’s also a local choir leader.

Bringing effortless cascading vocals, mellifluously heady and peaty raw as the Dartmoor landscape she hails from, Holly Ebony traverses folk, soul and blues in a sensual serenade to Earth that speaks to a profound love affair with life.

Taz Babiker is a singer and songwriter bringing together the threads of nature, belonging and community into his songs. Influenced by soul, as well as his East African heritage,  Taz touches his audiences with raw emotion.

Anna Ling & Briony Greenhill in Concert

Anna will do a set, I will do a set - solo, with singing along <3.

There’ll be a big stew you can eat there for about £5, veggie options available.

Very cosy!

Doors 7.30, start 8.30.

Anna Ling is a poetic and confessional songwriter and an engaging performer, whose influences include community choirs, British folk music, Bulgarian singing, and a great love for nature. 

Briony Greenhill is a folk/soul/jazz improvisational artist. This evening at Hatch she presents a rare solo voice / piano performance combining improvisation, songs from the recent album, and new material on the theme of Anthropocence Motherhood. Briony's work is tender, deep, gets the audience singing and may draw a tear or two.

"This is sensual music that, if you want them, could give extra reasons to live" - Mojo

"The power and intimacy of her new album, Crossing the Ocean" - The Guardian

Doors 7.30 show 8pm

I will be playing with the Full Band - including strings, horns and singers - as well as bass, drums and me - at St John’s Church for the Totnes Festival.