AMELIA CARDWELL (dancer / LES AMOUREUX)
Graduated from Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance class of 2008. Previously she attended the Arts Educational School Chiswick, where she studied dance and musical theatre. She was part of Union Dances youth company Union Two in 2005. She has also performed in a short dance film called “snobs and chavs” choreographed and directed by Georgiana Cavendish which was also performed at the Cocran Theatre in 2007. This is Amelia’s first project with Chordelia Company and she is very excited!
LYNDA COCHRANE (composer/pianist / MIRANDA)
Lynda Cochrane was born in Edinburgh and graduated with first class honours from the joint course of Manchester University and the Royal Northern College of Music. Following postgraduate studies in piano and composition at the college, Lynda gained a Performer’s Diploma from Indiana University. Besides prizes for academic achievement, composition and performance, Lynda received the Franco-British Society’s Vlado Perlemuter Scholarship and a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship. Based in Glasgow, Lynda plays piano regularly with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and contemporary ensemble, Paragon. This work has taken Lynda to Spain, the U.S.A., Iceland and Austria. She has performed with other British ensembles, including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, The Philharmonia and Scottish Opera.
Lynda has appeared as concerto soloist with both the RSNO and BBCSSO and featured as an Associate Artiste of Chamber Music New Zealand. As part of a duo with Judith Keaney, Lynda has performed frequently at the St Magnus Festival to critical acclaim, including Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and in 2008, Messiaen’s Visions de l’Amen. With a keen interest in film music Lynda has featured on many cds and recorded for film composers Craig Armstrong and Rachel Portman.
Lynda has performed many times with Scottish Ballet, including Prokofiev’s 3rd and 5th piano concerti; Hindemith’s The Four Temperaments, Mahler’s Ruckert Lieder with Karen Cargill, John Cage’s The Perilous Night for ‘prepared piano’, Stravinsky’s Capriccio for piano and orchestra and Still Life by Elena Kats-Chernin for the Autumn 2010 tour.
JESSICA COTTIS (music director )
Australian-British conductor Jessica Cottis is assistant conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Fellow in Conducting at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and Artistic Director of Bloomsbury Opera.
Jessica Cottis made her BBC Proms debut in 2010, conducting works by James Dillon with Scotland’s MusicLab Ensemble. She was subsequently invited to conduct the premiere of Dillon’s epic cycle ‘Nine Rivers’ with the BBC SSO and Les Percussions de Strasbourg, described by The Guardian as “unquestionably the most significant new-music event in Britain this year”. Particularly active within the field of new music, Jessica Cottis has conducted over 40 premières and works regularly as associate conductor of the Azalea Ensemble and as guest conductor of Red Note Ensemble. She recently conducted the London Sinfonietta for the Varése Festival and has conducted a number of opera premières including Rory Boyle’s ‘Kaspar Hauser’ (RSAMD & Nuremberg), Martin Georgiev’s ‘The Mirror’ (RAM) and Anna Meredith’s ‘Tarantula in Petrol Blue’ (Aldeburgh Festival). Other opera performances include ‘Die Zauberflöte’, ‘Don Giovanni’, ‘Die Fledermaus’ and ‘Hansel and Gretel’ (Bloomsbury Festival), ‘The Magic Flute’, ‘Il Signor Bruschino’ and ‘La scala di seta’ (British Youth Opera), ‘Hänsel und Gretel’ (RAM), and ‘Le nozze di Figaro’ and ‘Albert Herring’ (RSAMD).
Jessica Cottis was appointed to the BBC SSO in July 2009, conducting their young people’s concerts and working alongside mentor Donald Runnicles.
Jessica Cottis obtained a first class honours degree from the Australian National University; a prize winner in the Australian Young Performer of the Year Competition she continued her studies in organ with Marie-Claire Alain in Paris, and made her European debut at Westminster Cathedral in 2002. She read law at the University of London after a hand injury subsequently halted her playing career. In June 2009 she graduated with distinction from the postgraduate conducting course at Royal Academy of Music in London. www.jessicacottis.com
KATE CRAIK (Producer/Creative Wellbeing Director)
Kate joined Company Chordelia as Creative Producer in 2009 after a successful career as a project manager, programmer and consultant with a range of arts and cultural organisations across the UK. In 1986, as Manager / Director of the Edinburgh Assembly Rooms she created and managed Dance Base, which resulted in Scotland’s first National Centre for Dance. There she initiated the first dance artist in residence programme in Scotland.
She has worked with or in partnership with the Scottish Government, NHS Boards, local authorities, voluntary organisations and community groups as well as in the Scottish Arts Council’s Drama, Music, Literature and Audience Development Departments. Between 2006 – 2008, Kate was employed as National Development Director for Artfull, an exciting new initiative, created by the Scottish Government & Scottish Arts Council to improve health and wellbeing using the arts as catalyst.
In addition Kate has trained in executive coaching, Gestalt psychotherapy and most recently in the Tamalpa Life / Art practice in California. She has worked as a counsellor and therapist with both private and counselling service clients, with primary school children through Place2Be and with young homeless women at Rock Trust in Edinburgh.
Since graduating from the leadership programme at the Tamalpa Institute in 2009, she has worked with groups in Scotland, Germany and California, including facilitating a Tamalpa movement-based workshop with final year students at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow and a creative workshop with a group of Gestalt therapists in Berlin.
Using her wide range of skills and expertise, Kate is developing a unique programme of creative, coaching and therapeutic workshops for groups and individuals both in Scotland and Europe. The resources offered and created in these workshops has tremendous power to unlock our imagination, our energies, our creativity, and our life stories. This practice can be used in working positively and therapeutically with children and young people, adults and older people and across the fields of education, arts, business, health and wellbeing.
GRAHAME GARDNER (lighting designer/technical director)
Grahame Gardner – Lighting Designer – biography
Born in Glasgow, Grahame studied at Queen Margaret University College in Edinburgh and at the University of Rochester, New York. As Chief Electrician for Scottish Ballet, he designed lighting for many shows including Sonata In Time, Prisoners, Cheri, Carmen, and Esprit. Other dance designs include The Bright-Eyed Mariner and The Winter Room for Tabula Rasa Dance Company; Song of Songs for Scottish Dance Theatre; the award-winning shows Private Dancer for Janice Parker Projects and ME(Mobile/Evolution) for Claire Cunningham; and Cinderella Pilot Error, Les Amoureux, Miranda for Company Chordelia and The Seven Deadly Sins for Company Chordelia/Scottish Opera.
Previous opera work includes The Loving of Etain and An Turus for Paragon Ensemble, and The Magic Flute, Falstaff, and Hansel & Gretel for AIYF Opera Garden. Other music theatre work includes Cryptic’s Black Over Red and Each…And Every Inch; and Glassworks and RITE for Paragon Ensemble.
Grahame is also Associate Lighting Designer for Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, and his work has taken him all over the world. His other interests include dowsing and geomancy, and he is currently President of the British Society of Dowsers.
JANIS HART (designer / MIRANDA, THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS)
Janis trained in fashion and textile design, and was head of dyeing/ printing at Plymouth Theatre Royal. She then took her Masters in Theatre Design and Fine Art at the Slade School of Art. She has designed costumes and sets for many and varied theatre and dance productions and worked as an art director in film, – including BAFTA winning ‘Trouble Sleeping’in 2008.
Theatre credits include residencies at Plymouth Theatre Royal, Theatr Powys, Worcester Swan Theatre, London Bubble Theatre co, South Hill Park Art Centre and Derby Playhouse and freelance work has included companies and spaces all over Britain.
She enjoys working in unusual spaces ( which have included an abandoned hospital in Birmingham, the banks of the Water of Leith, Methil Docks, and many of London’s urban and green spaces!) and interesting collaborations, and has developed methods of working on productions with people from all sorts of backgrounds, often on a very large scale to engage them in the theatre and design processes.
FREYA JEFFS (dancer / LES AMOUREUX)
Freya Jeffs trained at Elmhurst School for Dance and Central School of Ballet, during which time she performed with the Royal Ballet, English National Ballet and the Birmingham Royal Ballet. In 2007 Freya Toured the UK with Ballet Central, dancing works by choreographers such as Christopher Bruce, Rafael Bonachela and Will Tuckett. Since graduating with a BA Hons in Professional Dance and Performance, Freya became a founding member of Two’s Company – Dance and Music, and has performed with Scottish Ballet in Sleeping Beauty and Romeo and Juliet.
KIMBERLEY LAWRIE (dancer / MIRANDA and CABARET CHORDELIA)
Kimberley is from Glasgow where she trained at The Dance School of Scotland before going on to Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance where she graduated with a 1 Class BA Honours Degree. Theatre credits include Scottish Ballet (The Nutcracker and La Sylphide), Harlem Ballet (Firebird), Pacific Northwest Ballet (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and Vienna Festival Ballet with roles such as Odile in Swan Lake and Blue Bird in Sleeping Beauty. She has also performed with Scottish Opera in the recent production of Manon and The Italian Girl in Algiers. Kimberley has also worked with E4 dancing in the drama Nearly Famous and with MTV on a Samsung Ad.
LINDA DUNCAN MCLAUGHLIN (associate director/performer / LES AMOUREUX)
Linda trained at Guildford School of Acting, and has worked in theatre all over the UK for companies including Birds of Paradise, Citizens’ Theatre, Complete Productions, Dundee Rep, 7:84, Licketyspit, Oldham Coliseum, Oran Mor, Plymouth Theatre Royal, Reeling & Writhing, TAG, Take Two, Theatre Highland, Vanishing Point and Attic Wimbledon, among others. Her TV and film work includes: Jess the Border Collie, Still Game, Monarch of the Glen, Murder Rooms, Rab C Nesbitt and The Key (all BBC), Scrap It! (Discovery), Taggart (SMG), Burns: Alive & Kicking (Channel 4), Bumping The Odds (BBC Screen Two) and Solid Air (Solid Air/Momentum Films).
EMMA PARK (Education Artist)
In July 2007, Emma graduated from Edinburgh’s Telford College with a first class BA Hons in Dance and shortly after performing with the Edinburgh International Festival was invited to New York to train with Lynn Simonson, grand master of the Simonson Technique. Upon her return Emma undertook an apprenticeship with Company Chordelia and has since performed with Firebox Dance Theatre, Litza Bixler, Dante or Die and New Raw Soul Dance Theatre. She established Black Swan Dance Theatre in July 2008 and is part of the trinity that is working to establish Foundations Dance Collective; a Scottish platform company for new dance graduates in Scotland. Emma lectures at the Adam Smith College and teaches for Y Dance amongst other freelance employers.
KIRSTY POLLOCK (dancer / MIRANDA, CABARET CHORDELIA, THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS)
Kirsty Pollock graduated with a distinction from the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance in 2003; whilst at Rambert, she was privileged to work with world-renowned choreographer Robert Cohan, performing solo in his production of ‘Stabat Mater’. She has gone on to dance with Spinal Chord Projects, Company Chordelia, and Martial Dance and has toured throughout Scotland; her teaching and choreographic experience includes teaching ballet, jazz and contemporary classes at the Edinburgh Dance Academy and leading weekly dance workshops for children and choreographing a ballet performance for Benbecula Projects, Uist. Kirsty was invited to become an apprentice with David Hughes Dance in May 2009, and took on her first major role with the company in their Edinburgh Fringe Festival production of ‘The Red Room’ at the Traverse Theatre the following August. Originally from Alloa, she is now based in Glasgow. Kirsty is glad to be working again with Company Chordelia.
TOM ROGERS (designer / LES AMOUREUX)
Training: Motley Theatre Design Course, 2003-2004
Tom was a finalist in the 2005 Linbury Biennial Prize for Stage Design, working with Random Dance at Sadlers Wells, and was also shortlisted for the 2005 Jocelyn Herbert Award for Theatre Design.
Opera credits: La Cenerentola for Scottish Opera, Let’s Make An Opera/ The Little Sweep at Aldeburgh, Flight for the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama, Eugene Onegin at the Peacock Theatre for British Youth Opera, The Magic Flute & Broomstick, an opera for children at The Wigmore Hall, Alfonso Und Estrella at the Bloomsbury Theatre for UCOpera, Die Zauberflote, La Finta Semplice, The Long Christmas Dinner and A Dinner Engagement all for the Guildhall School Of Music and Drama.
Theatre credits: The Chimes at Southwark Playhouse, Death and The Maiden at The New Wolsey, Ipswich, The Man Who at The Orange Tree, Richmond, Laughing Gas at the Theatre Royal Plymouth and National tour, The Librarian’s Joke at the Pleasance London and National tour, Phaedra’s Love, Sheppey and Protection for Arts Ed, Chiswick, Letters Of War for the National Youth Theatre on board the HMS Belfast, The Winters Tale, Tale Of Two Cities, Certain Young Men, Black Comedy and The Real Inspector Hound all for the Guildhall School Of Music & Drama.
Future projects include: The Secret Marriage for Scottish Opera and City of Angels for the GSMD.
DANIEL MURFIN (sound / stage manager)
Daniel has worked in theatre for a number of years, in various areas of expertise ranging from Lighting Design to Stage Management. Qualifying with a BA (Hons) in Lighting Design from Rose Bruford College, Daniel has also studied Singing at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and has a particular passion for Opera, Dance and Music Theatre; having also performed in works such as Prokofiev’s Love for Three Oranges and Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In addition to his work on traditional theatre productions Daniel also has experience in corporate and outdoor events. Beyond his design skills, Daniel is also an able Stage Manager and Production Electrician. Lighting Designs include The Misanthrope, As You Like It, Sombrero Fallout and The Bucket Rider, a collaborative project with SPNM. Daniel has also worked as Production/Chief Electrician and Assistant Stage Manager on numerous productions. Daniel has operated surtitles for Opera productions including Dialogues des Carmelites and Cosí Fan Tutte. Daniel is delighted to be working with Company Chordelia on this exciting new production.
DAMIAN THANTREY (singer/performer / LES AMOUREUX and CABARET CHORDELIA)
Baritone Damian Thantrey trained at the RCM with Margaret Kingsley. On leaving the RCM, Damian received the Tagore Gold Medal and held the Mills Williams Junior Fellowship. He is continuing his studies with Paul Farrington. 2008 saw Damian sing Chau Lin A Night at the Chinese Opera for Scottish Opera, Gong Gong Confucius Says for the Hackney Music Development Trust and Toby The Cumnor Affair for Tete-a-Tete, as well as a major solo recital at Pollok House in Glasgow, accompanied by Malcolm Martineau. Operatic highlights for 2007 included The English Clerk Death in Venice at the Aldeburgh and Bregenz Festivals, a role he will sing again in 2009 at the Opéra de Lyon, Pastore Orfeo for Opera North, Eisenstein Die Fledermaus on tour with Scottish Opera, The Duke of Rothsay La Jolie Fille de Perth for Chelsea Opera Group, as well as a series of roles in new opera specialists Tete-a-Tete’s Blind Date. Future plans also include Maxwell Davies The Lighthouse for Psappha at the Orkney and Buxton Festivals. Damian’s other operatic roles have included Marullo Rigoletto at the Royal Opera House, Flemish Deputy Don Carlos for Welsh National Opera, the Traveller roles Death in Venice at the Theatre de Metz, Shaunard La Boheme for Scotttish Opera, and Sadik Der Stein der Weisen and Nardo La Finta Giardiniera for Garsington Opera.
SUSANNAH WAPSHOTT (pianist / CABARET CHORDELIA)
Susannah is from Shropshire and studied music at Manchester University and the Royal Northern College of Music, gaining a Masters Degree with a rare distinction in both performance and dissertation. Since graduating, she has worked as a pianist, accompanying in recitals around the UK, and as a vocal coach. Susannah now works as a repetiteur for Scottish Opera and Opera North, amongst others, and has recently branched into conducting as Music Director for Edinburgh Studio Opera.
