Event One

Cassie Yukawa-McBurney has created, and performs in, an evening where she invites you, through participation, to listen to the spaces that hold us. It is neither a conventional concert nor an act of theatre. In her own words she describes it as

“…an evening where Sound, Space and Seasonal food will invite us to spend time listening in a way that tends to our connection with the invisible.”

Where ::: In the space of a north London Piano Factory, that once produced pianos which transformed the houses of people who needed music, this invitation extends beyond that of a musical performance.

“…. We all have a relationship with the dead. We all have ‘our dead’. Mine are very close to me. But for many that is not always the case.

So I would like to invite you, as well as coming to listen, to taste, that you also come with the intention to share this time… with our, with your, beloved departed - this maybe people you love and name…

But it could also be a memory, landscape, an animal, a lost dream, sacred tree, part of our earth or any being that has vanished. Something which you long to connect with, and is no longer in physical form. This I see and feel as an intimate honouring, and an invitation to acknowledge what is valuable to your soul.”

In 2009 the birth of her first child, shifted the direction of her growth in ever branching ways. The experience of child birth radically shifted consciousness through a direct experience of feminine nature, liminal realms and the divine feminine as nature itself. Cassie began making rituals where the invisible guided and carried her Mothering, whilst also evolving her playing, binding her home-making with her soul journey. Through the creativity needed to craft portals in everyday domestic living, a new chapter emerges, marrying her pianism with activism, the everyday with the mystical.

Fruit ::: As an offering of gratitude, the benefits and proceeds from the evening’s ticket sales will be contributed towards Polly Paton-Brown’s remarkable service. The evening has also been inspired by the work of Polly Baton-Brown: Doll-Lady, Artist and Sacred Scribe, who has worked intimately with the wisdom of her herd of horses. In the week that this “Honouring for the Dead and the Living” was imagined, Polly’s beloved horse Bouncer crossed over. Bouncer, alongside many horses, trees & elementals, have profoundly inspired the Elder wisdom of Polly’s teachings - which has been a huge influence on the creation of this event.