After a set of sold out shows at the Brunel Museum in Rotherhithe, The Quorum bring The Swarm to Vault Festival for a limited run of performances.
In The Swarm the queen bee is deposed by her daughter and forced to leave the hive, she takes half the honey bee colony with her and so they embark on a perilous journey of migration through a busy city. The Swarm follows the bees in the search for a new home as they encounter a deadly extractor fan, a thunder storm and a fierce debate over two potential sites on which to build a hive. With just one last meal of honey for energy, how will they reach a collective decision on where to relocate?
This euphoric and mesmerising performance will bring audiences closer to nature, stretching the boundaries of choral music, sound and movement. The operatic queen bee and the nine-piece choir deliver unique complex polyrhythms accompanied by an immersive urban soundscape.
The Swarm composer Heloise Tunstall-Behrens is a bee-keeper in London which is how her interest in the sounds of the hive was originally sparked. Bees provide a fertile subject for musical composition; not only are sound and vibration central to their communication and cooperation within the hive, but inspiration can be found from the forms and patterns generated by their social organisation.
