St Andrews Voices, October 20-23, various venues in St Andrews
The only Scottish festival for the voice and its many forms, spoken and sung, St Andrews Voices takes place between Thursday and Sunday next week.
The fifth festival, it will continue to showcase the versatility of the voice through a wide array of musical genres, including opera, choral, cabaret, indie singer-songwriting, early music and storytelling.
Artistic director Sonia Stevenson is delighted to be marking five years of St Andrews Voices with music from some of the finest performers in the UK.
“With I Fagiolini as artists in residence, a new production of The Magic Flute with a difference, and King Creosote performing on his home ground to name but a few of the events, we have a vibrant and colourful programme which I hope our audiences will enjoy experiencing, as much as I have enjoyed programming,” she smiles.
The Scottish premiere and only the second ever performance of an innovative production Mozart’s The Magic Flute will take place in the Younger Hall.
The singers’ dialogue has been replaced by a specially commissioned narration for St Andrews Voices by Scottish author, Janice Galloway, who will also narrate the performance.
“Music IS storytelling,” says Janice, “and I’m looking forward to being right inside the music. Live music with good words is one of the most thrilling things there is,” she continues.
“I hope audiences will laugh as well as feel moved and root for the characters. It’s one of the great approachables done shoe-string style, very easy to feel part of.”
Mezzo soprano Jessica Walker, who has sung in opera across Europe, has written a new cabaret show for St Andrews Voices which takes the audience on a journey through a century of popular song from the 1920s to the present day, conjuring up the unique musical atmosphere of each decade.
Jessica, who has loved singing anything and everything – from the Muppets and Fats Waller to Mozart – since she was a young girl, loves the direct line of communication between her and her audience.
“That is what singing is for, in my view. It’s not about me, but about how I can make people feel.”
Her performance for St Andrews Voices, in the Hotel du Vin, will take the audience on a sweeping, emotional journey.
“There are songs about love, about the futility of war, and about loss. But I promise there are some laughs along the way,” she says.
“I’m looking forward to sharing some amazing songs with a new audience.
“I hope they will be moved and that I’ll spark some memories of the past.
“I want to send them away humming!”
www.standrewsvoices.com
