"Houses" - Blind Date 2007

Biographies for Blind Date

Gary Carpenter (composer, “Nyanyushka”)
Gary is a Senior Lecturer at the Royal Academy of Music [London] and teaches composition at the Royal Northern College of Music [Manchester]. He has been musical director and/or arranger - orchestrator on many films including The Wicker Man and The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. As well as many commissions and recordings Gary is also a broadcaster. Gary contributed Doggone to Tête à Tête’s first programme of short commissioned operas, Shorts. www.garycarpenter.net. 

Helen Chadwick (composer “Our Feathered Friend”)
Helen Chadwick's song/theatre/story performances have toured in Europe and the Americas.  She has recorded six solo albums and composed for the RSC, English Touring Opera, Welsh National Opera, The Royal Court, the National Theatre, and for Radio drama. She has worked on projects with DV8, Rambert and Complicite, and has sung in projects composed by Meredith Monk and Orlando Gough. She is in preparation for a group song theatre performance for the Linbury. www.helenchadwick.com.

Jonzi D (libretto “The Big But…”)

Jonzi D has been actively involved in British Hip Hop culture, rapping and b-boying in clubs and on the street since its genesis in the early eighties.

Since graduating from the London Contemporary Dance School, Jonzi has been committed to the development of Hip Hop theatre, creating Lyrikal Fearta in 1995, and Aeroplane Man in 1999. He was an Associate Artist at The Place Theatre and has performed and created dance theatre pieces all over Europe, North America, Israel, New Zealand, Cuba and Southern Africa.

In the UK, Jonzi D's new company Jonzi D Productions is an Associate Company of Sadler's Wells and based at the theatre. He is also the curator and host of the acclaimed Breakin' Convention, International Hip Hop Dance Theatre festival, nominated for a South Bank Show Award. He has directed pieces for Robert Hylton, Benji Reid, Jane Sekonya, Loop Dance Co, and ACE Dance and Music. He was commissioned by Walker Arts in Minneapolis to create a solo for Leah Nelson. Jonzi has devised, choreographed and featured in various Hip Hop inspired fashion shows including, 40 degrees at Earls Court, and State Property for Rocawear at The Royal Festival Hall.

As an MC/poet, Jonzi has worked with The Roots, Steve Williamson, Mannafest, Lenny Henry, MC Mell 'O' and toured with Gangstarr. He appeared on HBO's Def Poetry Jam, Channel 4's Faking It, and his short films Silence da bitchin and Aeroplane Man were also screened on Channel 4. In 1995, he was creative consultant on LWT's South Bank Show special documenting the art and culture of Hip Hop. He is creator and host of the successful Apricot Jam and Vertikal Cypher infamous Hip Hop music and open mic sessions. He presented the 2005 4Dance for Channel 4 television and was recently the performance mentor for Urban Classic at Hackney Empire in 2006.

JULIAN GRANT (composer “Anger”)
Operas include: The Skin Drum (winner, National Opera Association of America) Out of Season (ROH Garden Venture) The Queen of Sheba's Legs (ENO Baylis) Heroes Don't Dance (ROH) A Family Affair (Almeida) Jump Into My Sack (Mecklenburgh) and A Very Private Beach (ENO Knack). He has lived in the USA, Canada, Hong Kong and Japan. Since 2002 he has been Director of Music at St. Paul's Girls' School

Christopher Mayo (composer “Houses”) Canadian composer Christopher Mayo was the recipient of the 2005 Royal Philharmonic Society Composition prize. As a result of this he was commissioned to write passed the last river for Michael Collins and the Dante String Quartet, which was premiered at the 2006 Cheltenham Festival and broadcast on BBC Radio 3. His work Nineteen Frames has received a Serge Garant Award in the 2005 SOCAN Awards for Young Composers, was selected in the Continuum Contemporary Music call for works, and has been performed in the UK (Composers Ensemble) and USA (Music06 Festival). Christopher has also been awarded the Richard Sadlier Prize, the William Erving Fairclough Scholarship, and the Glenn Gould Composition Award. Christopher is also a member of the Camberwell Composers' Collective.
Christopher studied at the University of Toronto earning an Honours Bachelor of Music degree. He relocated to London in 2003, where he obtained a Master of Music in Composition from the Royal College of Music studying with Julian Anderson. In 2006 Christopher began doctoral studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Philip Cashian.

Anna Meredith (composer “on such a day”) is a composer, improviser, drum teacher and animateur. From 2004-2007 she was Composer in Residence with the BBCSSO and is currently working on a Trombone concerto for their Principle Trombone , Simon Johnson.  During 2005/2006 Anna was premiered by Ensemble Modern, the LSO, the Presences Festival, the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, the Aldeburgh Festival, the SCO for the Cheltenham Festival, the folk group Horses Brawl, the Gaudeamus Festival the BBCSSO and the Smith Quartet at the Huddersfield Festival. She is also a founder member of the Camberwell Composers Collective who will be performing and premiering their new works with visual artists at this year’s Faster than Sound festival and Kettle's Yard.
2007 saw the culmination of Anna’s part in the London Sinfonietta’s Blue Touch Paper project where she was mentored by electronica artists Matmos.  For the final performance, Anna created a new work with live electronics as well as new electronic pieces with visuals by the Animation Department of Kingston University and flat-e. Anna has produced several works with visual artists and music written by her and Emily Hall to Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon was recently performed by Anna and Emily at the Barbican Cinema. After writing for Tête à Tête with the novelist and playwright, Philip Ridley.  Anna and Philip will then start working on a large-scale youth music theatre work for Aldeburgh Music, due for performance in 2009. She is also planning to continue writing more works with electronics and plans to put together an album of her electronic pieces in the future.

Alasdair Middleton (libretto “Our Feathered Friend”)
Alasdair Middleton's work as a librettist includes: 'Lessons in Harmony', 'The World Was All Before Them', and 'On London Fields'(Winner of an Royal Philharmonic Society Award 2005) all for Matthew King and 'Red Riding Hood', 'The Hackney Chronicles', 'On Spital Fields' (Winner of a Royal Philharmonic Society Award 2006) 'An Old Way To Pay New Debts' and 'The Enchanted Pig' all with Jonathan Dove.

Simon Nicholson (libretto “Nyanyushka”) Simon writes extensively for children's television: his credits include BOB THE BUILDER, TRACY BEAKER,  THE  HOOBS and many other shows. His writing for music-theatre includes CHINA SONG, DOGGONE and FLEA CIRCUS, all with composer Gary Carpenter; also a children's version of THE MAGIC FLUTE for the Unicorn Theatre, London. He has been nominated for Bafta and RTS awards and lives in Winchester.

Meredith Oakes (libretto “Anger”) is an Australian playwright living in London (born 1946) whose work has included The Neighbour for the Royal National Theatre, Faith at the Royal Court Theatre and The Mind of the Meeting for BBC Radio Four. Meredith has also written adaptations of some classic works such as Thomas Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedy presented at the Southwark Playhouse, London in 2006. In 2002 she wrote the libretto for a short opera with music by Des Oliver, Miss Treat and, in 2004, completed the libretto of The Tempest based on Shakespeare's play with music written by the English composer Thomas Adès. The opera was given its premiere performance on 10 February 2004 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Her most recent play, Shadowmouth, was presented in Sheffield in mid-2006.

Philip Ridley (libretto “on such a day”) Philip was born in the East End of London where he still lives and works. He studied painting at St Martin’s School of Art and his work has been exhibited throughout Europe and Japan. As well as three books for adults - and the highly acclaimed screenplay for the The Krays feature film - he has written six adult stage plays: The Pitchfork Disney, the multi-award-winning The Fastest Clock in the Universe, Ghost from a Perfect Place, Vincent River, the controversial Mercury Fur and Leaves of Glass, plus a further five plays for young people; Karamazoo, Fairytaleheart, Moonfleece, Sparkleshark and Brokenville. He has also directed two films from his own screenplays: The Reflecting Skin – winner of eleven international awards – and The Passion of Darkly Noon (winner of the Best Director Prize at the Porto Film Festival). Philip has also written many books for children including Scribbleboy (shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal), Kasper in the Glitter (nominated for the Whitbread Prize), Mighty Fizz Chilla  (shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award), ZinderZunder, Vinegar Street, Zips’Apollo and Krindlekrax (winner of both the Smarties Prize and WH Smith’s Mind-Boggling Books Award), the stage play of which – adapted by Philip himself – was premiered at the Birmingham Rep Theatre in the summer of 2002.  Philip has won both the Evening Standard’s Most Promising Newcomer to British Film and Most Promising Playwright Awards. The only person ever to receive both prizes.

Jason Yarde (composer “The Big But…”)
Composer, arranger, producer, mc and saxophonist Yarde writes across a variety of styles and media (jazz, classical, hip-hop, broken beats, soul, reggae). Jason participated in the 2006, LSO's Discovery Panufnik Young Composers Scheme and is now a LSO Sound Adventure Artist.

Blind Date Production Team

Bill Bankes-Jones (Director)
Bill Bankes-Jones is founder and Artistic Director of Tête à Tête, and Chair of the UK's umbrella body for opera companies, the Opera and Music Theatre Forum.  He has directed more than 30 world premieres of operas, as well as many revivals, plays and other events.  He was one of The Times' "ten faces of opera 2005."
While studying philosophy at the University of St Andrews, Bill Bankes-Jones was Chair of the Scottish Student Drama Festival for two years.  Subsequently, he ran the Scottish National Association of Youth Theatre while working with community groups all over Scotland. 
He then joined the ITV Regional Theatre Young Directors' Scheme before working for the English National Opera, the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Opera and the Salzburg Festivals.
As founder artistic director of Tête à Tête he has championed new audiences for new opera, and directed all of the company’s productions to date: THE FLYING FOX (Strauss' "Die Fledermaus"), SHORTS, ORLANDO PLAYS MAD (Vivaldi's "Orlando Finto Pazzo"), SIX-PACK, Britten's CANTICLES in conjunction with Streetwise Opera at Westminster Abbey, FAMILY MATTERS, PUSH! and ODYSSEUS UNWOUND.
Other opera productions include the UK Première of Prokofiev's MADDALENA and a new work for the ENO - SEVEN DEADLY SINS, DIE FLEDERMAUS for English Touring Opera and A NITRO AT THE OPERA and REVIVAL! for ROH2/Nitro (televised on BBC4) as well as revivals of FIGARO'S WEDDING and MADAM BUTTERFLY for ENO and OTELLO for the Royal Opera & Seoul Arts Centre, and New National Theatre Tokyo; DIE ENTFÜHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL for Läckö Slottsopera in Sweden (also televised), ANOTHER AMERICA: EARTH, by Errolyn Wallen for Trinity College of Music, and most recently, LES DIALOGUES DES CARMELITES for TCM, and a huge community production of CARMEN for Blackheath Halls involving over 550 performers.
Theatre includes Frayn's NOISES OFF, Thorndike Theatre Leatherhead; Shakespeare's RICHARD II, HENRY IV 1&2, HENRY V, Tennessee Williams' KINGDOM OF EARTH and Ayckbourn's BEDROOM FARCE (nominated in best director category, TMA Regional Theatre Awards) Redgrave Theatre, Farnham, and THALIDOMIDE: A MUSICAL!! at the Battersea Arts Centre and on UK tour.
Plans include Artistic Direction of another compilation of short world premiéres for Tête à Tête, Mozart’s DIE SCHULDIGKEIT DES ERSTEN GEBOTS for the Classical Opera Company at Wilton’s Music Hall, LA CANTATRICE CHAUVE, a new opera by Jean-Philippe Calvin for the Genesis Foundation, Orchestre les Amoureux, Theatre des Champs-Elysées and Tête à Tête, and libretto and direction of David Bruce’s new opera THE TAMING OF THE SHREW.

Mark Doubleday (Lighting Designer)
Mark trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art where he won the Richard Pilbrow Prize. Mark worked for a year and a half with London Contemporary Dance Theatre before getting his first position as Lighting Designer at the Redgrave Theatre where he lit over fifty productions.
Opera: Tannhauser, Los Angeles Opera; Lysistrata, New York City Opera; Odysseus Unwound, Tete a Tete; La Vie Parisienne, D'Oyly Carte; Eugene Onegen, MTL; Die Fledermaus, Orlando Finto Pazzo, Shorts, Six-Pack, Family Matters, Tete a Tete; Falstaff, RAM; Le Nozze di Figaro, Opera Zuid, Netherlands; Hansel and Gretel, Scottish Opera on tour; Manon, Die Fledermaus, English Touring Opera; Ariadne auf Naxos, Albert Herring, Aldeburgh; Le Torreador, Messalina, Amadigi, I Giardini della Storia, Batignano, Italy; La Fanciulla del West, Norma, Opera Holland Park; The Rape of Lucretia, Cosi fan Tutte, RCM; Nitro, Royal Opera (BBCtv) Linbury Theatre; Lysistrata, Houston Grand Opera; The Knot Garden, Istituto di Musica di Montepulciano.
London Theatre: Elling, Trafalgar Studios; The Birds, The Colonel Bird, The Gate; Retreat, Each Day Dies with Sleep, House Among The Stars, Lips Together Teeth Apart, Orange Tree Theatre; The Danny Crowe Show, The Bush; On The Piste, The Garrick, It Runs in the Family, The Playhouse; Kit and the Widow, Vaudeville and Ambassadors; Gogmagoggs “Gobbledegook”, Lyric Hammersmith; Shadow of a Gunman, Tricycle; Easter, Riverside Studios (Oxford Stage Company); Out of Our Heads, ATC.
Regional Theatre includes: Behzti, Birmingham Rep; Tall Phoenix, Belgrade Theatre Coventry; Broken Glass, How The Other Half Loves, The Deep Blue Sea, Get Ken Barlow, Palace Theatre Watord; A Chorus of Disapproval, The Beggars Opera, Henry IV pt. 1 & 2, Old Vic Theatre, Bristol; Privates on Parade, New Vic Theatre Stoke; Present Laughter, A Streetcar Named Desire, Misery; Mercury Theatre Colcester; Forty Years On, West Yorkshire Playhouse.
Mark has also lit plays in many, many other regional theatres including: Derby Playhouse, Nottingham Playhouse, York Theatre Royal, Wolsey Theatre Ipswich, Greenwich Theatre, Churchill Theatre Bromley, Queens Theatre Hornchurch, Everyman and Playhouse Theatres Liverpool, Nuffield Southampton, Northcott Exeter, Salisbury Playhouse.
Future Plans include: Die Schuldigkeit des Ersten Gebots at Wilton's Music Hall, and Hansel and Gretel for Opera North (education)

Tim Meacock (Design)
For Tête à Tête: Family Matters, Six-Pack, Orlando Plays Mad, Shorts. With Bill Bankes-Jones: Revival!,(ROH2), Die Entführung aus dem Serial (Läckö Slottsopera), Die Fledermaus (ETO). Other designs: A Touch of the Sun, Five Finger Exercise, Rutherford and Son, See How They Run (Salisbury), Betrayal (Exeter), Blood Wedding, The Tempest, Waiting for Godot, The Crucible, The Provoked Wife, The Duchess of Malfi (Colchester), Birdsong (RSC), Many shows at the Orange Tree.

Tim Murray (Musical Direction)
Tim graduated from the Royal College of Music in 2000, where he was a major prize winner. He also studied at Cambridge University and at the Tanglewood Music Centre.

Tim was appointed Music Director of Tête à Tête in 2007, following the highly successful premieres of Push! by David Bruce, and Odysseus Unwound by Julian Grant. He has also conducted The Silent Twins for Almeida Opera, The Gentle Giant for Royal Opera House, The (Little) Magic Flute for English Touring Opera, Tobias and the Angel for English Touring Opera / Young Vic, The Turn of the Screw for Pigott’s Music Camp and Down by the Greenwood Side for Clarion Music Theatre. Previously he spent several years as an assistant conductor for opera companies such as Broomhill Opera, Spier Festival (Cape Town), Opera Holland Park and UCL Opera.

A strong interest in contemporary music led to the foundation of the highly-praised Clarion Ensemble. He has assisted Oliver Knussen (Britten-Pears Orchestra), and Thomas Adès, making his BBC Proms debut aged 21 in the European premiere of Nancarrow's Study for Orchestra with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. In 2000 he conducted part of Le Marteau sans Maitre for Boulez during his 75th birthday visit to the RCM. He returned to the Proms in 2002 for the Julian Anderson Composer Portrait Concert.

Since 2002 he has been principal conductor of the Salisbury Sinfonia. Tim has also performed with BBC Singers, Psappha, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Pigott's Music Camp, RCM New Perspectives Ensemble, and Nottingham Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as at the Aldeburgh Festival and the RCM Tippett Festival. He has recently made his South Bank Centre debut with The New Professionals, and his ballet debut conducting Will Tuckett's The Wind in the Willows at the Royal Opera House and on tour.

CHROMA
Chamber Ensemble
Associate Ensemble for Tête à Tête

Founded in 1997, CHROMA is a dynamic, critically acclaimed chamber ensemble featuring some of Britain's most outstanding musicians, known for the passion it brings to contemporary works, its vivid renderings of classic pieces and its diverse programme of education work.

Following its debut at the Purcell Room CHROMA has become most closely associated with the performance of contemporary music and has forged close links with many prominent British composers through an extensive series of premières and collaborations.

Recent projects have included the world premières of Jonathan Dove's award-winning On Spital Fields - a Community Cantata for Spitalfields Festival, and Marcus Barcham-Stevens’ music for contemporary dance piece Tela/Bride with Lantern Dance Company. With Tête à Tête, for whom CHROMA is Associate Ensemble, recent premieres include Julian Grant’s “knitting opera” Odysseus Unwound and the six opera shorts Blind Date.

CHROMA has an active outreach and education programme, including ongoing collaborations with Spitalfields Festival and Tête à Tête opera company, and is resident at the University of London’s Royal Holloway and Bedford College.

CHROMA: STUART KING (artistic director, clarinet)
Stuart King enjoys a diverse, challenging and rewarding career that incorporates performing, teaching, animateurship and directing. A graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Stuart studied clarinet with Dame Thea King and Joy Farrall.

Stuart’s passion lies in the realms of chamber music and contemporary performance. He has worked with many of the leading talents of his generation and thrives on innovative creative collaborations with artists from many disciplines, including most recently Brief Candles a collaboration with Rolf Hind, David Alberman, SPNM & the Richard Alston Dance Company.

Stuart is a founder member and Artistic Director of acclaimed chamber ensemble CHROMA. From relatively modest beginnings over a decade ago, the ensemble has evolved into a vibrant, multi-faceted and multi-skilled team who passionately deliver concerts and outreach work of the highest standard. Stuart has lead the ensemble into lasting relationships, residencies and associations with organisations such as the Spitalfields Festival, for whom CHROMA is currently Ensemble-in-Residence for Education, Royal Holloway University of London, Ensemble-in-Residence and Tête-à-Tête Opera, Associate Ensemble.

In addition to concerts both nationally and internationally, Stuart curates and delivers a broad portfolio of bespoke outreach work. Past projects range from single-visit composition/performance work in primary schools from Shetland to Shoreditch, 6-month composition projects with GCSE/A level students, composers’ & opera performance workshops with graduates & post-graduate students at the Universities of Durham, Coventry, Nottingham and The Royal Northern College of Music to work with vulnerable young adults on the Princes’ Trust TEAM programme and clients at a London Homeless Shelter.

Such is the quality of these projects that the ensemble will continue to have an active presence with the Spitalfields Festival through to 2009. The relationship with Tête-à-Tête stretches over the next three years with CHROMA forming the performing ensemble and continuing to coordinate all the outreach work that accompanies each new touring production nationwide and abroad.

Stuart teaches clarinet and chamber music at the Westminster Cathedral Choir School and has given masterclasses both in the UK and abroad.

CHROMA: HELENA WOOD (violin)
Helena Wood was born in 1979 and began playing the violin at the age three. In 2001 she graduated from the Royal College of Music with a first class Honors degree. Helena freelances through out the UK as a chamber musician and orchestral leader. She has also been received with great acclaim as a soloist at the Wigmore Hall, the South Bank Centre, the Barbican and many other major venues and continues to enjoy a busy recital and concerto schedule both in Europe and the UK.

CHROMA: EVGENY CHEBYKIN (French horn)
Evgeny Chebykin was educated at the Purcell School and the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied with Richard Watkins and Michael Thompson. Whilst at the Academy, Evgeny won numerous chamber music and solo prizes, including the coveted Dennis Brain Prize. As an orchestral musician he appeared with Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta, City of London Sinfonia and Britten Sinfonia. As a soloist Evgeny performed at  BBC Proms, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Mostly Mozart and Presteigne festivals, and with artists such as Nash Ensemble, CHROMA, London Winds, Composers Ensemble and the Albion Ensemble.

CHROMA: MIRIAM LOWBURY ('cello)
Miriam Lowbury studied at Bristol University, the Royal Collage of Music, and with the Amadeus Quartet on a Leverhulme Scholarship. As a chamber player she has toured widely, played on radio and TV, and appeared with artists including Raphael Wallfisch, and Jack Brymer. Her highly acclaimed recordings have been nominated for a Gramophone Award, and gained the top rating of five stars in the BBC Music magazine.  Miriam is a member of Double Image, which has held residencies at Southampton University and the University of the Third Age. Her education work includes workshops in schools, universities and prisons, and teaching at the Junior Royal College of Music. Miriam plays on a cello by Thomas Dodd made in 1812.

CHROMA: SARAH O'FLYNN (flute)
Sarah is co-Principal flute with Britten Sinfonia and her work with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Royal Scottish National Orchestra have both included European tours as Guest Principal Flute.
As a chamber musician Sarah is a member of CHROMA and The Marais Ensemble with whom she has performed at The Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Bridgewater Hall and live on Radio 3.
Sarah runs a Summer Music Festival with The Marais Ensemble in her home town of Potton, Bedfordshire.
Orchestras include: BBC Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Britten Sinfonia, Chroma, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, English Festival Orchestra, English Sinfonia, Galliard Ensemble, Marais Ensemble, Opera a la Carte, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Education Work: Britten Sinfonia Education, English Sinfonia Education.

CHROMA: NEILL HADDEN (tenor tombone)
Originally from Scotland, Neill began playing the trombone at the age of 10. Lured by the prospect of spending his life blowing into a giant paperclip, he moved to London and graduated from Trinity College of Music in 1999 before beginning a freelance career including spells in Spain and Germany. He has considerable theatre and recording experience and a particular interest in contemporary and commercial music as well as a commitment to education work. In particular he is keen to promote the trombone as it is now an ‘endangered species’ in schools.