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People along the Tyneside coast got a preview of a light show designed to herald the 2012 Olympics.

American artist Yvette Mattern's Global Rainbow lit up miles of the North East coastline during a rehearsal on Tuesday ahead of its debut on Wednesday.

It consists of seven parallel beams of coloured laser light designed to be projected across large open sites, particularly densely populated areas.

It will be projected from St Mary's Lighthouse, Whitley Bay, until 4 March.

The display has previously only been seen in Germany, France and the United States and was initially created to celebrate Martin Luther King Day on 15 January 2009.

Global Rainbow is the first in a series of high profile Cultural Olympiad projects taking place across the North East during 2012.

Alison Clark-Jenkins, regional director of Arts Council England, said: "Global Rainbow is the perfect way to mark the start of this year's cultural celebrations of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in the North East.

"Not only is the project delivering art on a very large scale to many thousands of people, but it's welcoming an international artist to the region, and is the culmination of a great deal of careful planning and creative programming.

"This is just a taste of what's to come over the course of what is set to be a groundbreaking year for culture in the North East."

The display can be seen between 18:00 GMT and midnight from 29 February until 4 March.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17213422 Video

Virtual rainbow lights up North East coastline

http://twitpic.com/show/large/8qb0tl

cool..... I like it, don't think she needed to go in so deep to explain it etc..I would just have let the piece say is stuff

it would be good if they could use this in the ceremonies somehow

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-17208381
Karl Jenkins Songs of Earth premieres Olympiad concert
1 March 2012
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A new work by Swansea-born composer Karl Jenkins is the highlight of a weekend of live music across Wales to mark the 2012 London Olympics.

The BBC National Orchestra of Wales plays Jenkins' Songs of the Earth at St David's Hall, Cardiff, on Sunday, commissioned for Music Nation.

The live music programme, devised and led by the BBC, aims to be a countdown event for the London 2012 Festival.

Events are held in Cardiff, Caernarfon, Llandudno, Newport, Mold, and Cardigan.

The Music Nation's programme is one of the flagship projects for the London 2012 Festival and the Cultural Olympiad.

Its partnerships and musical performances aim to showcase the best of the UK's musical talent.

Collaborations between music-making professionals and communities sees event taking place from Cornwall to the Shetland Isles and Belfast to Birmingham.

In Wales, they begin on Saturday with a taster workshop in St David's Hall for the Javanese instrument the gamelan.

They include the young people's chamber orchestra Sinfonia Cymru taking its Celebration of Strings tour to Galeri Caernarfon and Clwyd Theatr Cymru.

And they culminate with the 15:00 GMT Music Nation Celebration Concert on Sunday with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the BBC National Chorus of Wales, at which Jenkins is one of the conductors.

Rehearsals of the composer's new commission begin on Friday afternoon and include a dress rehearsal on the morning of the concert.

The concert includes the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, National Youth Brass Band and more than 250 young singers from county choirs.

David Hopkins, communications officer for BBC National Orchestra of Wales, said Jenkins had drawn on the mythology of Ancient Greece, the birthplace of the Olympics, as inspiration for much of Songs of the Earth.

"Many people cite Karl Jenkins as the most frequently performed living composer in the world. To have him writing for us is very important to us," he said.

"Everyone is looking forward to the concert, it is great to have such a high-profile composer writing a piece for us."

Chorus director Adrian Partington added his words of praise for the new work by Jenkins.

He said: "There is the violence of Khaos, for example, where the singers are asked to do very athletic vocalisations; there is the playfulness of the dance of the Titans, where the beat changes all the time - making it very exciting rhythmically.

"Then there is the sensational Pit of Tartarus, where the terrors of hell are described vividly with shrieks from the choir and the ominous rhythms from the orchestra.

"It's all written in Jenkins' unique style - exciting beats, grand tunes and thrilling orchestration. It's a piece that will capture everyone's imagination."

The Music Nation Celebration Concert is broadcast live on BBC Radio Three.

Jenkins most recent collaboration with the BBC was composing and conducting the soundtrack for the BBC One Wales television series The Story of Wales, which started this week.

London 2012 Festival: Helicopters in Birmingham opera

A string quartet will be playing part of the five hour opera Mittwoch from helicopters

An opera involving four helicopters will be staged at a former Birmingham chemical plant as part of the London 2012 Festival.

more at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-17343181

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