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Electric Voice Theatre

Electric voice theatre is an award-winning contemporary music theatre acappella ensemble, commissioning and creating cutting edge vocal music for theatrical performance, and participating in creative multi-disciplinary collaborations.

What’s On

The Minerva Scientifica #EchoeScot Tour came to an end on 11th & 12th November 2019 at AK Bell Library, Perth with Echoes from Perthshire

You can find out more about the tour on our Echoes Page where you can find links to all of the places visited so far and details of the projects and wonderful people and places we encountered along the way …. there will be more BUT

in the meantime this year

Brixworth Music Festival, Northamptonshire May 15th
POSTPONED

as is our Essex 2020 Project in Chelmsford

Echoes from Essex September 16th – 18th
POSTPONED

but not abandoned

Be the first to hear some of the new music and art being created for these projects, and follow our Social Media posts on Women Scientists and Composers who have featured in our Minerva Scientifica Projects

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This will help to support electric voice theatre and the wonderful artists who work with us to continue to champion Women in Science and Music during this difficult time

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News

Echoes from Perthshire

March 2, 2020/in Echoes, electric voice theatre, Minerva Scientifica /by Frances Lynch

The final stop in our #EchoeScot tour – we started in June 2018 and it all ended in Perth in November 2019 with some amazing schools and scientists ……

Echoes from Inverclyde

February 16, 2020/in Echoes, electric voice theatre, Minerva Scientifica /by Frances Lynch

What a privilege it was to spend time in Greenock, it really felt like coming home. Every time I visited All Saints Primary School as we prepared for the show together, I drove along the Clyde, crossing it on the Erskine Bridge and feeling its deep waters and beautiful countryside calling me home and to a wonderful opportunity to discover women in science then and now!

Tune In

Minerva Scientifica

…..our sister website revealing the women scientists and composers from electric voice theatre projects – CLICK HERE to find out more

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Echoes from the Engine Shed

This project saw 70 young people from Stirling working with 3 scientists from the Engine Shed – find out what happened when they met! WATCH NOW!

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“The Franklin Effect” on CD

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Presto Classical, Amazon, itunes….

Minerva Scientifica & First Hand Records

Performances:
Highlights include appearing in Florence for Luciano Berio; award-winning film, TV and performance projects with Judith Weir; appearing as part of a Tracy Emin exhibition at MOMA, Oxford; and extensive touring to festivals in Japan, Europe, Scandinavia and the USA – with productions for Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Tete-a-Tete Opera Festival, ZKM in Germany, Gothenburg Opera, IRCAM, Radio France and a Gamelan Dubstep collaboration with the Hallé Orchestra. Current performance projects include Minerva Scientifica which is continuing to develop collaborations and touring throughout the UK.

Creative Learning:
evt has worked on many significant projects UK wide, including “Clothesburger” with Errollyn Wallen, Pegasus Opera, 417 children and the South Bank Centre, London; the Young Composer of Dyfed, Wales; Henley Festival; BBC Education Programmes; English National Opera; The Great Tapestry of Scotland and Historic Environment Scotland. We are currently working on performance and composition projects with a diverse group of primary and secondary schools which focus on the links between music and science.

Research and Development:
evt’s Minerva Scientifica project has seen us working closely with female composers and scientists at King’s College London and Newcastle University. Most recently we have collaborated with the SHINE Project, St. Andrew’s University and we are now progressing a project featuring biochemistry and Alzheimer’s with scientists from the Serpell Lab and Professor Nicholas Till – Centre for Research in Opera and Music Theatre – at the University of Sussex.

Whos Who

Frances M Lynch – Artistic Director, Soprano

Frances is a performer, composer, director, and teacher who has pursued an international career at the forefront of contemporary vocal music, specializing in Music-Theatre, Electronic Music, Opera, and Chamber Music. She is an associate member of the Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble, Lisbon and has appeared as a soloist with Kent Opera, BBCSO, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Moderne, The Lost Jockey, Communicado Theatre Company, Second Stride Dance Theatre, Extemporary Dance Theatre…..and many more, performing music by Kagel, Weir, Wallen, Viñao, to mention a few!

Lynch is a composer supported by PRSF with experience of writing for many levels of skill, working with choirs, orchestras and various instrumental ensembles, music theatre, art exhibitions and plays, and produces commercial recordings for Herbtracks. She has developed a small specialist teaching practice in North London.

www.francesmlynch.co.uk

Mary Phillips – Soprano

Mary played clarinet in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and gained a B.A. in music at the University of York. She won the John Lobb Memorial Prize for singing and worked professionally as actress, singer and musician with Disrepertory Theatre, Soapbox Theatre and Regular Music amongst others. She has sung with London Sinfonietta, BBC Singers, Britten Sinfonia, Synergy, London Voices, Opera Ra Ra, and has been involved in their educational projects. Last November she directed and conducted Benjamin Britten’s Noyes Fludde with a cast of 150 children and adults and is working on The Happy Prince by Malcom Williamson which will be performed in November 2014 in North London.

Penny Osmond – Soprano

Penny has performed in London’s most prestigious venues as a soloist and in chamber choirs and is a workshop leader passionate about the storytelling and creative power of participatory music. She has designed and led projects with Spitalfields Music, Creative Futures, Wigmore Hall, Hackney Music Development Trust and the Music House for Children. Penny has led choral and creative song-writing projects for Voces Cantabiles Music and BBC Symphony Orchestra and choirs for girls at St Georges Cathedral Southwark, Slough Music Service and an adult choir for Slough Library. In 2013 she founded early years’ music company, Blackbird Music, in West London.

Felicity Davies – Soprano

Felicity graduated from Trinity College of Music in 2010 where she won the TCM Vocal Contemporary Prize. She currently sings with various professional ensembles including: The BBC Singers, Ex Cathedra and The Armonico consort yet she also enjoys having an active solo career. Her highlights so far include singing the solos in Daniel Lésur’s Le Cantique des Cantiques at the BBC Proms in 2010, performing the role of Zerlina in Harrow Opera’s 2013 production of Don Giovanni and taking part in her first EVT project last year Only You 2.0.

Jenny Miller – Dramatic Mezzo

A National Opera Studio alumnus, Jenny Miller sang as a mezzo soloist for major English companies, including Glyndebourne, Scottish Opera and Covent Garden, before moving to dramatic soprano repertoire, singing Brunnhilde (Ring Cycle), Tosca and Witch in Hansel and Gretel for Longborough Festival Opera, and developing a parallel career as a director. Her directing credits include Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Britten’s Noye’s Fludde, L’Incoronazione Di Poppea and ‘Hell Hath No Fury’(17th-century solo cantatas). Jenny has excelled in directing many Mozart Operas for Longborough Festival Opera, and Bizet’s Pearl Fishers for Opera South East. Future plans include developing repertoire for Barefoot Opera and creating Bizet’s Carmen for Barefoot Young Artists Tour. More info at www.barefootopera.com

Margaret Cameron – Mezzo-Soprano

Margaret studied at Trinity College of Music and the Royal College of Music Opera School. She has performed with Kent Opera, English Touring Opera, Music Theatre Wales, National Theatre Studio and for Aldeburgh and Longborough Festivals. She has toured internationally with the Monteverdi Choir and is a soloist on their recording of Vivaldi Gloria for Phillips. She also features on the EMI recording of Rachmaninov Vespers with the Choir of Kings College, Cambridge. A specialist in contemporary performance, as well as her many projects with EVT, she has premiered works by Errollyn Wallen and Andrew Poppy and is a member of the BBC Singers. At the other end of the musical spectrum, she has delved into the earliest known plainchants and melodies to devise a celebration of an Anglo Saxon saint, Eanswythe of Folkestone.

Alexandra Loewe – Alto

Alexandra studied Music at Birmingham University, Arts Management in Education at City University, and trained as a music workshop leader at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Her professional experience ranges from devising and running a large scale Sing Up! project with ErrollynWallen, to co-leading Turtle Key Arts drama, art and music workshops for children with autism, to Moving Music workshops for people with dementia and their carers with the Orchestra of St John’s. She has sung professionally with Polyphony, Ex Cathedra, Orchestra of St John’s, Joyful Company of Singers and teaches singing at primary schools and classroom music at The Laurels Secondary School, London.

David Sheppard – Counter Tenor

David graduated from The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with a BA in Performing Arts (Music) and has since had a varied career singing on the concert platform, the stage and in the studio as well as teaching. He is often asked to sing newly written music, working directly with the composer. David has also sung a great deal of early music with many of the UK Opera Houses. He has sung with English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, and many Choral Societies throughout the United Kingdom, as well as for the BBC and HBO.

Julian Stocker – Tenor

Julian’s career involves a mixture of concert and recording work both as a soloist and choral singer, as well as performing in operas and musicals. He is a full time member of the Choir of Westminster Abbey, and appears regularly with the BBC Singers, The Tallis Scholars, The Sixteen, The Geoffrey Mitchell Choir, Opus Anglicanum and European Voices under Sir Simon Rattle. His repertoire includes works by Monteverdi, Handel, Bach, Britten, Mozart, Menotti and Arvo Pärt. He has appeared with Bournemouth Sinfonietta and Holland Park Opera and recorded with The Cardinall’s Musick. He has also given song recitals in French and English song and German Lied.

Gwion Thomas – Baritone

Born in Swansea and studied at the RNCM, Manchester where he won many song and opera prizes. An opera and concert soloist for many years – he has sung Figaro in The Barber of Seville for WNO. He has become particularly linked with contemporary opera and has created many new roles with companies such as Music Theatre Wales and Frances Lynch’s EVT. With the former he has sung Mr Punch in their widely acclaimed production of Birtwistle’s Punch & Judy and Dad in the recent award-winning Greek by Turnage. He has been involved in many new pieces with electric voice theatre, and he created the role of Mr Scipio in Weir’s Scipio’s Dream with them for BBC2. He also teaches singing at Birmingham Conservatoire.

Aris Nadirian – Bass

Born in Isfahan(Iran), Aris studied piano and singing at London College of Music. He has sung with many Opera companies in a variety of roles including Don Carlo, Macbeth, Escamillo, Figaro, Guglielmo, Sid, Marcello, Papageno, Zurga, Belcore and Magnifico, Dulcamara, Don Jose. Aris enjoys conducting and has conducted L’Elisir D’Amore and The Pearl Fishers for Swansea City Opera on tour. As founder and artistic director of London Armenian Opera he has produced the premiers of A. Tigranian’s Anoush and T. Chouhajian’s Garineh in London. Since 2005 he has held the post of Chorus master at St. Yeghishe Church, London.

Herbie Clarke – Marketing Manager

As well as being the marketing manager for electric voice theatre l am also the sound engineer, music producer, photographer, video editor and concert promoter for the company. When l am not working with electric voice theatre l compose music in various styles that is played worldwide through numerous Media Companies, you will find examples on my website www.herbtracks.co.uk.

Miranda Melville – Designer

Miranda studied at The Motley Theatre Design Course with Percy Harris, and has designed extensively for theatre, opera, film and dance. Film work includes Owen Wingrave by Benjamin Britten, Cross Channel with the Cholmondeleys and the Featherstonehaughs, & Outside In with Candoco. Design for dance includes productions for Vtol Dance Company, Yolande Snaith Theatre Dance, and PLanb Creative. She has co-designed a gold medal winning garden at Chelsea Flower Show and an earthwork at Westonbirt International Garden Festival. Other projects include the move-me booth, an interactive video/dance booth, for Ricochet Dance Company, an outdoor touring installation project for Volcano Theatre Co. and How to Live for Bobby Baker at Barbican Theatre.

Performance Team

Mary Phillips – Coloratura Soprano
Frances M Lynch – Soprano/ Artistic Director
Penny Osmond – Soprano
Felicity Davies – Soprano
Jenny Miller – Dramatic Mezzo
Margaret Cameron – Mezzo Soprano
Alexandra Loewe – Alto
David Sheppard – Counter Tenor
Julian Stocker – Tenor
Gwion Thomas – High Baritone
Aris Nadirian – Bass Baritone

Production Team

Alan Burgess – Sound Design
Charlotte McClelland – Lighting Design
Miranda Melville – Design
Elizabeth Dawson – Costume Design

MINERVA SCIENTIFICA

Minerva Scientifica sets out to shine a light on Women Scientists and Composers in history and the present day, telling remarkable stories of women who have succeeded against the odds, inspiring the next generation of women to smash through the glass ceiling.

Minerva Scientifica – ECHOES

ECHOES is an ever-growing touring project with and for local communities which focuses on the lives and work of women scientists and composers from each area we visit. New music is created with school groups, community choirs, instrumental ensembles and orchestras in collaboration with local scientists and the evt composers and performers. Contact us now to discuss how to bring the project to your area.

Minerva Scientifica:- Performance Programmes

Minerva Scientifica has developed a wide range of flexible performance and lecture recital programmes perfect for Music and Science Festivals, Concert Venues, Theatres, Exhibitions, Conferences, Rural Touring, Schools, Universities and anywhere women in music and science are celebrated.

Audience Workshop British Science Week 2016

Minerva Scientifica:- Outreach

Minerva Scientifica has created a series of outreach projects associated with the Performance Programmes in collaboration with the Museum of Life Sciences – King’s College London, and with individual composers and scientists. Have a look at our contribution to British Science Week 2016.

Minerva Scientifica: – Get Involved!

Minerva Scientifica is currently developing a number of new projects featuring women scientists past and present in collaboration with institutions, composers and scientists. If you would like to find out more about developing a new project with us please contact us now.

ECHOES - MINERVA SCIENTIFICA