Hark, who is this? Street Cries of York

Wednesday 8th March 2023, 2:00pm - 3:00pm 29-31 Coney Street

Join Vivien Ellis in a ballad walk down Coney Street as she sings ballads associated with York and street vendors' songs from The Cries of York, printed by J. Kendrew of Colliergate around 1810. The walk starts and finishes in the StreetLife Hub and takes a circular route down to Judge's Lodgings (on what was Old Coney Street), then through St Helen's Square, along Davygate and Parliament Street, down through High Ousegate, and returning via Spurriergate. We anticipate the walk will take around an hour, but participants are welcome to leave (or join) us as they wish.  All of these streets are footstreets. 

Biography

Singer Vivien Ellis draws on her work as a performer of early and folk music, and a community music leader, to create enjoyable, social, relaxed, historically informed, and inclusive singing events with people of all ages and experiences.

Vivien has performed early, traditional, and new music with groups including The Dufay Collective, The Broadside Band, The Mellstock Band, Sinfonye, The Carnival Band, and the duo Alva. She has appeared in seasons with The Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, and her voice has featured on radio, film, and TV. She has toured throughout the UK and Europe, North and South America, Canada, and Australia, appearing in major festivals and concert series. She has made numerous recordings as a soloist, including 'Cancionero', a program of early Spanish music with The Dufay Collective, which was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Vivien also works extensively as an educator and community music leader with a wide range of groups, alongside being a part-time care worker. Since 2014 she has worked with a user-led charity, The Mental Fight Club, based in the London Borough of Southwark, where she has led a free, drop-in singing group, The Dragon Café Singers, supporting health and wellbeing through singing and song-writing. Vivien has developed new models of community music engagement drawing on early & folk music, including 'ballad walks', and has created a new model of GP education in arts and health, on which she co-wrote a paper, ‘Creating Health’, for the journal of the Royal Society for Public Health.