Richard Cherns
Sun, 12/08/2007 - 15:22 — admin
RICHARD CHERNS
Almost entirely self-taught, Richard was the first Musical Director of THEATRE WORKSHOP, Edinburgh. He subsequently worked with theatre and dance and played with folk and rock bands (including Finn MacCuill / Medium Wave Band), also teaching and performing as a solo guitarist. From 1981-86 he played keyboards for the Gaelic rock band RUNRIG and also in 1981 co-founded THEATRE ALBA with Charlie Nowosielski. He wrote or directed the music for all - bar one - of Theatre Alba's productions while their reputation was being established before and during the heady days of Arts Council funding, and all but a few of the adult Edinburgh Fringe productions since. The main use of music, in the unique style for which Theatre Alba was known, was to complement Charlie's remarkable flair for visual expression with music interwoven to support both text and subtext. Press response varied from: "the most gifted musical director in Scotland" to "hauntingly beautiful", "mystical, magical", and "[music]…which wafts under scenes like incense for the ears". He worked with Charlie for five years from 1986 as resident composer/MD at the BRUNTON THEATRE and, likewise, at the LYRIC THEATRE in Belfast 1991-93, where the Ulster Newsletter kindly accorded him this surprising accolade: "Richard Cherns joins the ranks of eminent composers who have supplied incidental music, his more suited to our time, evocative and integral", an endorsement gratefully received but which he doesn't expect to be repeated.
Almost entirely self-taught, Richard was the first Musical Director of THEATRE WORKSHOP, Edinburgh. He subsequently worked with theatre and dance and played with folk and rock bands (including Finn MacCuill / Medium Wave Band), also teaching and performing as a solo guitarist. From 1981-86 he played keyboards for the Gaelic rock band RUNRIG and also in 1981 co-founded THEATRE ALBA with Charlie Nowosielski. He wrote or directed the music for all - bar one - of Theatre Alba's productions while their reputation was being established before and during the heady days of Arts Council funding, and all but a few of the adult Edinburgh Fringe productions since. The main use of music, in the unique style for which Theatre Alba was known, was to complement Charlie's remarkable flair for visual expression with music interwoven to support both text and subtext. Press response varied from: "the most gifted musical director in Scotland" to "hauntingly beautiful", "mystical, magical", and "[music]…which wafts under scenes like incense for the ears". He worked with Charlie for five years from 1986 as resident composer/MD at the BRUNTON THEATRE and, likewise, at the LYRIC THEATRE in Belfast 1991-93, where the Ulster Newsletter kindly accorded him this surprising accolade: "Richard Cherns joins the ranks of eminent composers who have supplied incidental music, his more suited to our time, evocative and integral", an endorsement gratefully received but which he doesn't expect to be repeated.
Since then he has continued to work as composer, arranger and performer with other companies (e.g. Fifth Estate, Tant x Tant Barcelona, Steven Mc Nicoll & Mark McDonnell), and artists (e.g. Donald Black, Fiona Kennedy), and a little for film (Icarus at NFTS, Ghost Dancer - McTaggart Award 1993) and exhibitions. "Fields of the Young" which he co-wrote with Donnie Munro, was first heard in Theatre Alba's "The Wallace", but is now a touring favourite with Donnie's band. Some of Richard's music is now in the Scottish Theatre Archive, and he plans to record two CDs of his music for theatre before too long.
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