‘Gardens can provide a meeting place for our innermost dream-infused selves and the real world’ — Sue Stuart Smith
Step into the Apple House for this innovative performance of music and words surrounded by Anne McKenzie's beautiful Flower Light exhibition.
This immersive project brings together piano music and spoken texts from Dr Sue Stuart-Smith’s book, The Well Gardened Mind, offering a multi-sensory exploration of wellbeing.
This is a private event - any public tickets will be made available nearer the time.
About the event
Pianist Annie Yim presents Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s newly commissioned Dance Suite, inspired by The Well Gardened Mind, which she premiered at the Presteigne Festival in August 2024. Following the premiere, the The Well Gardened Mind concert has been performed in Birmingham, London, and Oxford, sharing reflections on themes of care, growth, time and nature connection with audiences across the U.K. The programme also includes works by Claude Debussy, Raymond Yiu, Lili Boulanger and Johann Sebastian Bach.
About Sue Stuart-Smith
Sue Stuart-Smith is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist who worked in the NHS for many years, becoming the lead clinician for psychotherapy in Hertfordshire. Until recently, she worked as a consultant clinician at DocHealth, a not-for-profit service that helps doctors suffering from stress and burnout. Her bestselling book, The Well Gardened Mind, analyses the relationship between gardening, nature connection and mental health and has been translated into eighteen languages. In 2023, Sue Stuart-Smith co-founded The Serge Hill Project for Gardening, Creativity and Health as a Community Interest Company (CIC).
About Annie Yim
Annie Yim is a Hong Kong-born Canadian pianist, creative collaborator, and founding member of the Minerva Piano Trio (Dance!, SOMM, 2022). The Times describes her playing as “the most beautiful sounds, radiantly coloured, thoughtfully articulated.”She founded MusicArt in 2015, an initiative to create original, artist-led performance projects. She has collaborated with contemporary artists including Sir Christopher Le Brun PRA, composers Cheryl Frances-Hoad and Raymond Yiu, poets Zaffar Kunial and Kayo Chingonyi and with leading art galleries in Europe. Recent highlights include a collaboration with the writer, Dr Sue Stuart-Smith, on The Well Gardened Mind concert at the Presteigne Festival, as well as a celebrated Shostakovich concerto. Annie continues to captivate audiences with her solo and collaborative projects.www.annieyim.com
About Flower Light
Flower Light is the inaugural art exhibition in the Apple House, an installation of work by our Artist in Residence, Anne McKenzie. Spanning dream and real worlds, Flower Light presents a visual response to the Plant Library, exploring gardens as spaces where inspiration and experience intertwine. Rooted in the ethos of the Serge Hill Project, the exhibition celebrates the powerful connections between people, plants, and creativity.
Visitor Information
Parking
Parking is limited so please car-share or use public transport wherever possible. Details of how to find us are here.
If you arrive by car, as you turn into Featherbed Lane, the gravel lane off Sergehill Lane, please drive all the way to the end of the lane, and park in the field as signposted. Please do not park in residents only bays which are along Featherbed Lane.
Please note this event will be recorded.
Please note this is a no smoking and no vaping site.
Assistance dogs only allowed on site.
Accessibility
Accessible parking for those who require it is available directly outside The Apple House. There is step-free access to the building and all areas. However, there are many potential trip hazards and uneven surfaces that may be encountered whilst visiting the gardens, along with gravel paths that aren’t suitable for walking frames with wheels.