On the inside, listening out

Ordering my drink in the Bristol Beacon’s bar last week, five minutes before curtain up on Paraorchestra’s latest show, I felt a mild sense of unease. Where was my instrument? Had I tuned up? Concert clothes ironed? Where were all my fellow musicians?! These familiar thoughts vanished when I wandered into the hall at 7.30, pint in hand, for I was there not to perform, but instead enjoy the rare treat of listening to the Paraorchestra as an audience member. 

Clarinet playing duties were in the very safe hands of Matthew Scott, and aside from the odd pang of musical “FOMO” I thoroughly enjoyed the next hour. At Paraorchestra, we’ve birthed several versions of The Anatomy of the Orchestra over the years. In this concept (dreamt up by our Artistic Director Charles Hazlewood) the orchestra plays as the audience roam freely amongst the musicians positioned far apart across a wide open space. Many find it a profoundly stimulating and moving experience - especially those who have never stood next to a cellist drawing their bow across the string, felt the reverberations of a timpani drum being struck at force, or witnessed the amount of air brass players require when playing. 

In this new version of Anatomy, Charles programmed an atmospheric sequence of three works inspired by drone: Rylan Gleave’s exquisite new commission, Straylight, Arvo Pärt’s Fratres and The Last Time by Pauline Oliveros. The latter threw a spotlight on the radiant, celestial voice of soprano Victoria Oruwari, in an enchanting reworking of the original for Paraorchestra forces by Charlotte Harding. Huge congratulations to all involved. 

Other January highlights? I’ve been obsessed with The Traitors. If you’re catching up - don’t panic, no spoilers here! But I loved the first series last year and loved it even more second time round. I genuinely can’t think of anything more gripping, more intriguing, more well-crafted on British television at the moment, particularly in genres outside of scripted drama. If you haven’t seen it already then I expect you’ve already made up your mind not to. If you have, let’s chat on WhatsApp… 

Speculating on the treacherous goings ons at Andross Castle has left precious little time for leaving my flat in the evenings - just as well given I needed to save some pennies this month. But I did make two trips to the cinema and will give honourable mentions to both films here: Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves, a glacially slow but very sweet love story between two strangers in Helsinki (better than it sounds, promise), and Andrew Haigh’s All Of Us Strangers, which also starts off at a low simmer but builds to a powerful ending, aided by Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s The Power of Love - one of the best uses of a pop song to close a film I can remember. The two central performances from Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal are brilliantly magnetising.

Next month, I’m looking forward to getting back in the saddle - no more pre-performance trips to the bar for a while, thank you! I have a number of springtime performances coming up in Plymouth, Manchester and London - all the latest live dates are on my homepage. See you there!

Looking back

2023 has been filled with highlights on and offstage, and as the New Year beckons I wanted to share a few with you. 

In the summer, Paraorchestra toured the ever-joyous SMOOSH! to London and Weston-super-Mare, engaging and entertaining local residents literally on their doorsteps.  It also popped up at Glastonbury - the fourth time I’ve had the honour of playing at Worthy Farm with Paraorchestra. This year was extra special as following our Sunday afternoon performance in the Circus Fields I witnessed musical history as Elton John played his last ever UK performance - a spectacular “I was there!” moment for me and around 100,000 other revellers in front of the iconic Pyramid Stage. 

On 30 November (when the weather was somewhat chillier) the Paraorchestra had the huge honour of reopening the Bristol Beacon after a prolonged closure for refurbishment. I think the venue looks and sounds extraordinary, and as a Bristol resident I can’t wait to experience more shows at the Beacon in 2024. To mark its reopening night, we premiered Trip the Light Fantastic - a major new commission bringing together techno artist Surgeons Girl, Limbic Cinema and Oliver Vibrans, while Oliver’s fellow Paraorchestra composer Asteryth Sloane provided an enchanting opener to the whole evening called Prelude to a Beginning.

Alongside planning our programme of live performances and recordings,  part of my job as Associate Music Director involves working with our amazing musicians to broaden their artistic horizons and develop their individual careers. This took a huge step forwards in the Autumn when we launched Modulate, Paraorchestra’s new Artist Development programme. Conceived as a year-round strand of talks, seminars, commissioning pots, skills development courses and residencies, I’m excited to see how Modulate helps level the playing field for our professional disabled musicians over the next few years.     

It’s been an exceptionally busy 12 months outside of Paraorchestra too. The Colour of Dinosaurs was birthed at Bristol Old Vic’s beautiful Weston Studio during October half-term. This was an idea that grew from a chance encounter between me, director Dom Coyote and palaeontologist Jakob Vinther several yeas ago. Jakob writes more about its origins in a fantastic article titled “Dinosaurs as Ambassadors for Humanity” - recently published in Current Biology journal. And if you missed the dinosaur detectives when we were in Bristol, please come and see us in London next summer when we’ll be at London’s Polka Theatre for a whole month!

The Colour of Dinosuars, Bristol Old Vic (image by Paul Blakemore)

I wrote a new solo piece, Sgraffito, for hornist Isaac Shieh, who also commissioned it. He gave the first performance in September at the Royal Academy of Music. My talented friend Charlotte Harding invited me to play in the ensemble for a new BalletBoyz show, England on Fire, at Sadler’s Wells - a thoroughly enjoyable project making new friends and learning more about the world of contemporary ballet. 

My work as chair of the Classical Council of the Ivors Academy really took a step up this year, most notably around lobbying the BBC to reverse their proposal to close the BBC Singers - a disaster averted (for now at least). I was invited to judge BBC Young Composer for the second time, this competition being another shining example of what the BBC can do so well. For UCAN, of which I’m a trustee, I ran the Cardiff half-marathon and played a gala concert at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama - both raising money during UCAN’s year as the Lord Mayor of Cardiff’s Chosen Charity. 

So, despite a challenging backdrop in the UK arts sector and times of uncertainty for many of us, I’d say 2023 was ultimately a productive and enjoyable one for me, in which I pushed myself to learn and try new things. See you next year!

The Colour of Dinosaurs - opening next week!

Last month I promised to write more on the origins of The Colour of Dinosaurs, my new show being premiered in a week-long run at Bristol Old Vic at the end of October.

The Colour of Dinosaurs began with a conversation I had with my good friend Dom Coyote about three years ago. Chatting over dinner and a bottle of wine, Dom told me about his recent encounter with Dr Jakob Vinther, a Danish palaeontologist at Bristol University. Jakob is world-renowned in his profession as the first scientist to discover how fossilised dinosaurs could be analysed to paint an accurate picture of their colour and appearance when they were alive. By zooming in on melanin pigment preserved in their fossils, Jakob confirmed the dinosaurs were far more diverse and multicoloured than many of us might have first imagined. Forget the grey or brown dinosaurs you see in the movies - many of these creatures were bright, stripy and fantastically kaleidoscopic!

I was immediately hooked - not only by Jakob’s amazing scientific achievement but also because I knew my own body produces very little melanin. My fair skin, blonde hair and vision impairment are caused by a condition known as ocular albinism, and I was curious to understand more how melanin - which governs the appearance of every single one of us - could effectively unlock the appearance of creatures who roamed the earth millions of years ago. The seed of The Colour of Dinosaurs was firmly planted there and then.

Images by Liz Counsell, Bristol Old Vic, October 2023

Ever since that dinner, and a number of explorative conversations with Jakob, the idea has gathered momentum. Dom subsequently set up a new company of makers, musicians and performers called Otic with producer Liz Counsell. Together, we secured funding and support from Ferment, Bristol Old Vic’s new writing programme. Earlier this year, we were over the moon to be awarded a Partner Award from Unlimited and Polka Theatre, which means the show will be presented at Polka’s beautiful London home in 2024. Polka are industry leaders in making theatre for children, and as the idea developed it quickly became clear this would be a brilliant subject to explore for curious audiences of all ages. After all, who doesn’t know a young child completely obsessed with all things related to the Jurassic age?!

I’m so proud of the team we’ve assembled. Dom is both performing and directing with dramaturgical assistance from Kyla Goodey. Jakob is stepping onto the theatrical stage for the very first time and is a complete natural. Our brilliant band of dinosaur detectives is completed by musician/actors Victoria Oruwari, Roxana Vilk and Harry Miller - all extraordinary artists. The beautiful script has been crafted by the writer Malaika Kegode - whose autobiographical show Outlier knocked my socks off when I saw it a few years ago. I’ve been deeply moved by the generosity, energy and creativity not only of the performers - who are all performing versions of ourselves - but also the production team behind the scenes too. I hope the joy and creativity of the rehearsal room comes across in the images accompanying this blog post, taken by producer Liz.

I believe we are making something truly unique: a prehistoric science pop gig that will move, enthral, educate and entertain people who see it. I hope audiences will go home not only humming the songs and music I’ve written - which take influence from a huge range of music from 70s disco to reggae, glam rock to synth pop - but also gently prompt them to reflect on a number of themes including the accruement of scientific knowledge, race, disability, identity and difference.

The Colour of Dinosaurs runs at Bristol Old Vic’s Weston Studio from 20-28 October, during schools half term. Age guidance is 6+. If you plan on joining us, don’t delay getting your tickets as all the shows are selling well and capacity is limited.

And don’t forget… bring your own dinosaur!

Deep breath... here we go

With the arrival of autumn comes the inevitable heatwave for the UK, and a plethora of exciting projects for me to get stuck into before Christmas looms!

First off - on Sunday 10 September we have the final outing (for 2023, at least) of SMOOSH! in Weston-Super-Mare. This is Paraorchestra’s glorious human jukebox - a noisy, playful, inclusive, warm hug of a show featuring a wind, brass and percussion band of professional musicians alongside musicians drawn from local communities, playing British pop classics ranging from Kate Bush to Massive Attack. We will do two shows along the seafront in WSM, bookending a day of free activities and entertainment at Whirligig festival at 11am and 4.45pm.

Image by Paul Blakemore - SMOOSH! in Knowle West, September 2021

Immediately after that, I plunge into rehearsals for The Colour of Dinosaurs - a personal project that has been over two years in the making. I’ll post about this separately at some point in October - but this has been made possible thanks to Unlimited funding with Polka Theatre, support from Bristol Old Vic and a whole range of amazing collaborators on and off stage. Brace yourselves for a colourful, science pop gig for humans of all ages during October half term, digging into the wonderful and fascinating world of palaeontology. I’m so chuffed to be writing and performing the music, produced by Otic and directed by my amazing friend and mentor, Dom Coyote.

Isaac Shieh, a fabulous natural horn player who is doing a PhD at my alma mater the Royal Academy of Music, will premiere a new solo piece of mine, entitled Sgraffito, at RAM on 27 September. Isaac is a true champion of composers and contemporary music, and I can’t wait to hear him play it as part of his Caprices Reimagined project.

There are also some huge new projects brewing - Trip The Light Fantastic at the end of November will see Paraorchestra reopen the Bristol Beacon concert hall - a hugely significant moment in the cultural life of the city I’ve called home for the last five years. And just before that I’ll be at Sadler’s Wells in London to play in the onstage chamber ensemble for England on Fire - a new show by the amazing BalletBoyz -  featuring yet more new music by my good friend (and frequent Paraorchestra collaborator) Charlotte Harding.

All this means after a reasonably quiet year for performing so far (save for SMOOSH! in London and Glastonbury) I’ll be playing lots this Autumn. For more info on any of the performances and tickets - click through the links on my homepage live dates diary. Hope to see you on the beachfront or theatre or concert hall somewhere soon!