Digital programme: Quiet Songs

Audio described performance
Tue 29 Oct, 7.45pm
Audio described by Caroline Burn
Touch tour at 7pm

Ruth Negga
Boy

Ruth Negga’s recent work includes appearing opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in the TV series remake of Presumed Innocent, adapted by David E. Kelley; and in Dan Levy’s directorial debut film, Good Grief. 

In 2022, she made her Broadway debut opposite Daniel Craig in Macbeth, directed by Sam Gold, and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her portrayal of Lady Macbeth. Her role in Loving, appearing opposite Joel Edgerton and written and directed by Jeff Nichols, earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture and several other Best Actress nominations at the BAFTAs, Film Independent Spirit Awards and SAG Awards.

Other films include Passing, adapted for the screen and directed by Rebecca Hall (Independent Spirit Award for her performance and Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for Best Supporting Actress); and Ad Astra opposite Brad Pitt, written and directed by James Gray.

TV includes the role of Tulip O’Hare in the critically acclaimed series Preacher, executive produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Other awards include the 2012 Irish Film and Television Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Shirley Bassey in the TV movie, Shirley.

Ruth Negga’s other work in theatre includes the title role in Prince of Denmark, Yael Farber’s take on Shakespeare’s Hamlet. After an acclaimed sold-out run in October 2019 at The Gate Theatre in Dublin, she reprised the role for her American stage debut in February 2020 at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, New York, again to critical acclaim; she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award.

Fra Rustumji
Violin

Fra Rustumji is a freelance musician. Work includes La Boheme, Le Coq d'Or, La Cenerentola (leader), The Coronation of Poppea (leader), Manon Lescaut and The Rake's Progress for English Touring Opera; The Virtuous Circle, The Nature of Why, Trip the Light Fantastic, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, and Kraftwerk:rewerk for Paraorchestra; works with Multi-Story Orchestra from 2012 to 2023; Xenos for Akram Khan Company; Effigies of Wickedness for ENO/Gate Theatre; V for Viola and Dancer for Joss Arnott Dance, and productions with the Royal Opera House JP Young Artists at Wilderness Festival, Clod Ensemble, Le Gateau Chocolat, Chineke! Orchestra, Engines Orchestra and Decus Ensemble, amongst others. She records regularly for film and TV. She is a member of the Aphasia New Music Group, and teaches violin for a school in Peckham, South London.

Chihiro Ono
Viola

Born in Chiba, Japan, Chihiro Ono is a London-based violinist and violist. Her range includes baroque, classical, contemporary, new, experimental music, and folkloric, noise, improvisation, field recording and art of sounds.

Her live and broadcast performances as a chamber musician include major festivals and venues, with ensembles including Apartment House, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, CHROMA, Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien, London Mozart Players and Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, and composers Georges Aperghis, Friedrich Cerha, Péter Eötvös, Brian Ferneyhough, Helmut Lachenmann, Steve Reich, and more. 

She leads strings workshops for young composers at the Royal College of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Goldsmiths University of London, Royal Holloway University of London, the LSO Composer Scheme (UK) and Tokyo College of Music (JP). 

Since 2018 Chihiro Ono has developed her work as a sound artist through commissioned pieces, collaborating and producing for live performance, radio, film and theatre with various like-minded artists such as ARCO, Forced Entertainment and Waste Paper Opera.

She is a selected artist for Sound and Music's In Motion 2024 composers.

Her creative work also draws on influences from Western and Eastern musical/theatrical methods, elements, techniques and philosophies, with her own strong visions on sounds.

Hoda Jahanpour
Cello

Hoda Jahanpour is an Iranian-Slovak cellist, songwriter and composer interested in musical experiences that generate energy and bring people together. Coming from a background in Western classical music and a student of the Royal Academy of Music, she has performed with notable orchestras such as the BBC Philharmonic, Hallé and Manchester Camerata. Later this year, she will premiere a new piece she composed for her string quartet and will also tour India performing Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time alongside other chamber music.

She loves to explore how the cello can express various musical languages. Some highlights include performing jazz and Middle Eastern fusion music at Manchester Jazz Festival, with Abel Selaocoe in Italy at the Stauffer Music Festival, and working with saxophonist and composer Nubya Garcia at a collaborative music-making residency.

Thea Sayer
Double Bass

Since moving to London in 2017, Thea Sayer has performed as a freelance musician with many major UK orchestras such as Chineke! Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, English National Opera, London Symphony Orchestra and Royal Birmingham Ballet, in some of the best concert venues across the world including the Royal Festival Hall, Barbican Centre, Royal Albert Hall, Lincoln Center in New York and Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, among others. 

She enjoys an incredibly varied freelance career, engaging in a range of projects from recording and performing for various West End productions such as Hadestown, to working with artists like Stormzy, Ghetts, Celeste and LUXE, as well as playing with various chamber ensembles. 

She has both a Master of Arts degree and a First Class Honours Bachelor's degree from the Royal Academy of Music, where she studied on a scholarship. She was a London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Foyle Future First Artists for the 2022/23 season as well as a recipient of the Royal Opera House’s Diversity Scheme for 2023.

Finn Beames
Writer, Composer and Director

Finn Beames is a theatre maker and music facilitator. His current projects include new musical Heavenly Bodies, commissioned by Audrey Productions and supported by Bristol Old Vic. Set in the Cotswolds, it fuses pole dancing with spiritual music, and is inspired by the true story of a failing chapel which played host to a pole dancer and a growing class of students.

He is a founder and leader of the Aphasia New Music Group (ANMG), a co-creative music project delivered with UCL’s Communication Clinic. The ANMG supports adults with aphasia to develop a new music practice, and has mounted two London performances and a national tour to date.

In 2015 Finn Beames won the Genesis Future Directors Award at the Young Vic, and directed Man: Three Plays by Tennessee Williams. Following this he took up the Lina Bo Bardi Fellowship for research into theatre and social housing in the UK and Brazil, appointed by the British Council, Sesc São Paulo and Instituto Bardi. He has written and directed for Britten-Pears Arts, Helsinki Festival, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, London Sinfonietta, The Yard, Camden People’s Theatre and Strike A Light.

After a period of adjustment to living with chronic health conditions, he is glad to be making work again under the banner of Finn Beames & Company.

Samal Blak
Set and Costume Designer

Samal Blak‘s credits include: Till the Stars Come Down at the National Theatre; Castle of Joy at the Barbican with Det Ferösche Compagnie; Sons of the Prophet at Hampstead Theatre; Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro, Carmen and Così fan Tutte at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma; Tosca at the Macerata festival; Hamlet for Gothenburg Opera; Paria at Teatr Wielki, Poland; Dance Nation at the Almeida; The Cord and The Arrival at the Bush; Circle Mirror Transformation at HOME, Manchester; Khovanshchina (Best New Production, International Opera Awards 2015) for Wiener Staatsoper; Otello and Life is a Dream for Birmingham Opera Company; Falstaff and Fidelio for Bucharest National Opera; Anthropocene, The Devil Inside, In the Locked Room and Ghost Patrol, which won the South Bank Sky Arts Award 2013, for Scottish Opera; Svadba at Festival d’Aix- en-Provence; and Les Mamelles de Tiresias for De Nationale Opera Amsterdam, La Monnaie Brussels and Aldeburgh Music.

Bethany Gupwell
Lighting Designer 

Recent work includes: This Much I Know, To Have and To Hold and Little Scratch at Wolf Club at Hampstead Theatre; Larmes de Couteau/Full Moon in March for the Royal Opera House; Shed: Exploded View at the Royal Exchange, Manchester; The Earthworks at the Young Vic; Lady Dealer at the Bush; Quiet Songs, A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction and Lay Down Your Burdens at the Barbican; La Voix Humaine for Opéra National du Rhin; Rice and Little Baby Jesus at the Orange Tree; Wickies and When Darkness Falls at Park200; Here and The Woods at Southwark Playhouse; Talking Heads at Watford Palace; You Heard Me and Trade on UK tour; Brown Girls Do It Too: Mama Told Me Not to Come, Fitter and Wonder Winterland at Soho Theatre; War & Culture, Little Scratch and Keep Watching at the New Diorama; Ignition for Frantic Assembly; The Pirate, The Princess and the Platypus at Polka and The Last Harvest for the National Youth Theatre. 

Awards include Best Lighting Design nominations at the Offies for: This Much I Know at Hampstead in 2023, A-Typical Rainbow at the Turbine Theatre in 2022 and Queen of the Mist at Charing Cross Theatre in 2019. 

Tingying Dong 董汀滢 
Sound Designer

Tingying Dong trained at LAMDA and is a sound designer, composer and theatre maker.  She grew up in Beijing and studied in the Netherlands before moving to the UK. 

As sound designer/composer, productions in the West End include Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder, Lyonesse and The Crucible (Content Sound Design/The Stage Debut Award for Best Creative West End Debut); and My Son’s A Queer (But What Can You Do?).  Elsewhere, work includes London Tide and Dear Octopus at the National Theatre; The Secret Garden and The Tempest at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre; Rock’n’Roll, The Breach, Peggy For You and Folk at Hampstead Theatre; Twine at the Yard Theatre; Macbeth for ETT on international tour; A Doll’s House and Scissors at Sheffield Theatres; Black Superhero at the Royal Court; Watch on the Rhine at the Donmar; The Beekeeper of Aleppo at Nottingham Playhouse and on UK tour; Klippies at the Young Vic; After the End and The Sun, the Moon and the Stars at Theatre Royal Stratford East; A Christmas Carol at Nottingham Playhouse, Alexandra Palace and the BBC (Composer); and Two Billion Beats at the Orange Tree. Radio composition includes Humane and BURP. Short film composition includes Medea/Worn and My Last Duchess. 

Her work as a creative collaborator and making sound and music includes Walking Cats at VAULT Festival (Origins Award) and Imaginarium, an online tour.

Zoe Phillips
Creative Armourer

Zoe Phillips is a mixed media artist with a background in film, theatre and technical arts. She served as Head Armourer at the Royal Opera House for over 12 years and supported the Royal Opera and Ballet globally, after which she returned to freelancing. Her clients include Birmingham Royal Ballet, Opera North, and Hamilton, and she continues to collaborate with the Royal Opera House. She also teaches at Henshaw’s Arts and Crafts Centre, supporting adults with additional needs and PMLD.

Having recently completed an MA in Creative Practice, Zoe Phillips’ work centres on the ‘theatre of craft’ and the ‘narrative of objects,’ exploring the significance of objects within her artistic practice. Her art, influenced by museum aesthetics and artefacts, is narrative-driven, exploring how objects connect with human experiences and histories. Her inclusive approach encourages sensory and tactile interactions, bridging the gap between observer and object. Known for her innovative use of materials and techniques, she blends various craft disciplines to challenge traditional boundaries. Her work fosters reflection on inclusion, disability, and broader life narratives, earning her third place in this year's SCAF Awards for Emerging Artists.

Bret Yount
Fight Director

Recent work theatre and opera includes: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold at Chichester Festival Theatre; Carmen at Glyndebourne; Machinal at the Old Vic; The Birthday Party, The Deep Blue Sea and A View from the Bridge (also West End), and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf at Theatre Royal, Bath; The Harmony Test, Between Riverside and Crazy, Akebah at Hampstead Theatre; The Hungry Body at the Donmar; My Beautiful Laundrette at Leicester Curve; King Lear at Wyndham’s and The Shed, NYC; The Witches at the National Theatre; Cruel Intentions at The Other Palace; The Hunt at St Ann’s, NYC; Sleuth and Closure at Theatre Royal, Windsor; Shooting Hedda Gabler at the Rose Theatre, Kingston; Macbeth at Shakespeare’s Globe; The Crucible at the Gielgud; Mates In Chelsea, Hope Has a Happy Meal and Imposter 22 at the Royal Court; Village Idiots at Nottingham Playhouse and Theatre Royal Stratford East; Dirty Dancing at the Dominion and on national tour; A Beautiful Thing at Theatre Royal Stratford East; Itch at Opera Holland Park; and A Little Life at the Harold Pinter.

@bretfights

Malik Nashad Sharpe
Movement Consultant

Malik Nashad Sharpe, also known as Marikiscrycrycry, is a choreographer and movement director known for his provocative and formally engaging performance works that address themes of violence, alienation, horror, melancholia and the horizon. He holds a BA in Experimental Dance with highest honours from Williams College and a certificate in Contemporary Dance from Trinity Laban Conservatoire for Music and Dance, where he won the Simone Michele Prize for Outstanding Choreography. 

He has received commissions and shown his work at venues and festivals across the UK, Europe and Canada, and is currently an Associate Artist at The Place and a studio resident of Somerset House Studios. He has held artistic residencies at Sadler’s Wells, Barbican, Performance Situation Room, Dance4, Duckie and Tate Modern. In 2019, he was named a Rising Star in Dance by Attitude magazine and in 2022, was featured on the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his unique and pervasive choreographic achievements. He currently lives in London and is a guest professor in dance and performance at the Stockholm University of Arts in Sweden.

Bryony Fayers
Costume Supervisor

Recent work includes Samal Blak’s last two shows in London: The Cord at the Bush Theatre; Sons of the Prophet at Hampstead Theatre; and The Son at Kiln Theatre.

Previous work as Supervisor/Assistant Supervisor include: Billy Elliot for Working Title; Faust for Punchdrunk; Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (for Sonia Friedman Productions) in the West End; Nation, Dara, Amadeus and wonder.land at the National Theatre, and several shows at the Young Vic.

Fascinated by the semiotic nuances of dress, she enjoys the challenge of making a costume feel like the ‘clothes’ each character would really wear, or of using garments or looks as signifiers.

Claire Shovelton
Creative Producer

Claire Shovelton is a producer with over 35 years professional experience in theatre, opera, dance and classical music including the Barbican, the Young Vic, Riverside Studios, operafactory, Sadler’s Wells, Early Opera Company and the commercial West End. With a focus on new work she produces the award-winning ensemble CHROMA and collaborates regularly with the Royal Ballet and Opera, Britten Pears Arts and Tête à Tête: the opera festival.

She also has a focus on inclusion and wellbeing, with roles including Creative Producer for BEAM and Quiet Songs, both addressing access provision, equity and collaborative processes in live performance practice, and Rough for Opera, the series from Second Movement developing opera practitioners and new opera. Consultancy work includes Citizens of the World – a choir for refugees and their allies, and disabled-led theatre company Graeae. She serves as chair for Filament Theatre.

claireshovelton.uk

Ian Taylor for eStage
Production Manager

Theatre includes: Fiddler on the Roof at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre; A Chorus of Disapproval at Salisbury Playhouse; Kim’s Convenience and The Marilyn Conspiracy at Park Theatre; The Hypochondriac and Accidental Death of an Anarchist for Sheffield Theatres; The Way Old Friends Do and Tartuffe at Birmingham Rep; Here, The Funeral Director, Trestle, Orca, After Independence and Tom Cat for Papatango; and A Single Man, Sweet Science of Bruising, Rasheda Speaking and Dear Brutus for Troupe Theatre Company. Opera includes: Albert Herring for the Royal Academy of Music; Pandora’s Box, Ever Young, Shadowtracks, The Cutlass Crew, Eliza and the Swans, Deep Waters and The Fizz for London Youth Opera/W11; The Power of Paternal Love, Raising Icarus and L’Agrippina for Barber Opera; Giulio Cesare and Così fan Tutte for Bury Court Opera; and Oedipus Rex and L’Enfant et Les Sortilèges for The Philharmonia Orchestra.

Graham Michael
Stage Manager 

Graham Michael has worked as a company and stage manager since 1997. Recent theatre includes Fiddler on the Roof, Carousel, Jesus Christ Superstar and Little Shop of Horrors at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre; The Picture of Dorian Gray at Theatre Royal, Haymarket; The Lehman Trilogy at the Gillian Lynne Theatre; Crazy for You at the Gillian Lynne Theatre and Chichester Festival Theatre; Traplord for 180 Studios; The Shark is Broken at the Ambassadors Theatre; Uncle Vanya at the Harold Pinter Theatre; Vassa, The Writer, Mary Stuart, Medea and Our Town at the Almeida; Salomé and Les Blancs at the National Theatre; Alys, Always at the Bridge Theatre; The Railway Children at King’s Cross Theatre; Peter Pan at Kensington Gardens; and The Lorax at the Old Vic and in Toronto.

Luke Madams
Composition Assistant

Luke Madams is an award-winning, Canterbury-based composer and pianist who studied at Goldsmiths, University of London. He has worked with CoMA, is an LSO Soundhub associate, and has composed for and performed in projects around Europe. He is currently working with Finn Beames & Company as a composition assistant.

The Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award helps the development of emerging practitioners engaged in bold, challenging and innovative performance, encouraging a new generation of creative artists.

The Award is for a company or individual based in the UK or Ireland to create a show for the Barbican’s studio theatre (The Pit), which premieres as part of the Barbican Theatre & Dance season. 

The Award is designed for artists who are at the stage in their career where they can demonstrably benefit from moving on to a fully resourced and funded production. It is there to help artists move on to the next level in their professional career.