about / biog
Stage direction, scenography, film/moving image, performance, creative direction, digital art
Opera Direction for Aldeburgh Festival, Almeida Opera, Aurora Orchestra, Batignano Opera Festival, Bayerische Staatsoper Festspiele, BBC Proms, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Brighton Festival, Bühnen Graz; Channel 4 TV, Dublin Grand Opera, English National Opera, English Touring Opera, Festival Alternative Lyrique Paris, Glimmerglass NY, London Artists Projects, London Sinfonietta, Opera North, The Royal Opera, Sage Gateshead, South Bank Centre, Staatsoper Hannover, Teatro Dell’Opera Roma, Theatre Basel, Welsh National Opera, Wexford Festival.
Productions include historic and contemporary opera and new projects created solo or in collaboration. Also Creative Director (BBC Proms Music Walk; Occupation WNO/The Space; et al). National Endowment for Science, Technology and Arts Fellow (2001-2005); Arts & Humanities Research Council Fellow, Centre for Research in Opera and Music Theatre (CROMT), University of Sussex (2007-2012). Relationship with Sussex continues part-time as Principal Research Fellow, in experimental music theatre.
Recent: States of Innocence; Empathy Machine, with composer Rob Thomas, Opera in Virtual Reality addressing conflict, (ACE and partners V & A Museum, Glyndebourne, Artists and Engineers, CROMT); Melancholy Artefacts (1418Now); Encore! (London Sinfonietta 50th Anniversary show) Les Barricades Mystérieuses – augmented reality pieces in Paris; Kagel – Présentation (London Sinfonietta).
Current: The Big Reveal – adaptive mobile storytelling; sRobot Opera / Perform AI– with composer Evelyn Ficarra; Four Quartets on Film – film responses to work by John Woolrich, Judith Weir, Joe Cutler and Helen Grime (NMC / Strangelove / Arts Council England.) Aldeburgh 2023.
New: Contest Music (2026) film response to Gavin Higgins’ Concerto Grosso for Brass Band and Orchestra.
Four Quartets on Film (2023)
“Beautiful, following the form of the music with real insight:
Very moving in many places, an ingenious balance between sound and vision.” – Judith Weir