now showing in Bristol

very pleased to have made the soundtrack and written the songs for this hilarious play that's currently selling out every night at the brand new Wardrobe Theatre in Old Market, Bristol.
http://thewardrobetheatre.com/

ghost opera

"ghost opera" is now on tour.
script by Fellswoop & me
music by Josephine & me

more info here

audrey (a choral ekphrasis)

'audrey'
by Josephine Stephenson
text by Ben Osborn
performed by The Portrait Choir
National Portrait Gallery, Sept 18th/19th

written for the National Portrait Gallery's exhibition Audrey Hepburn: Portraits of an Icon

http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/late-shift-1/live-music-18092015.php

"The text was written as an ekphrasis on Audrey Hepburn, perceiving her solely through a multiplicity of images. Looking at them it can feel, in time, like we are getting further and further away from the person beneath: we are shown, instead, a striking face and body both manipulated and manipulating, a framed gaze that draws attention to our own, a looped image that distorts as it is magnified.

The music was written as a direct response to the text, giving it precedence and striving to reflect its content: it is characterised by having a circular shape at both micro and macro level (small looping circular cells as well as an overall Rondo structure), while its mellow harmony occasionally tends towards eeriness."

- JS & BO

Taras Shevchenko

You can read an interview about my research in Ukraine here

Info about the project about Ukraine I am working on is here

Calamity Again
("Mii Bozhe mylyi, znovu lykho!")

Dear God, calamity again! ...
It was so peaceful, so serene;
We but began to break the chains
That bind our folk in slavery ...
When halt! ... Again the people's blood
Is streaming! Like rapacious dogs
About a bone, the royal thugs
Are at each other's throat again.

Taras Shevchenko
"Mii Bozhe mylyi, znovu lykho!"
("Мій Боже милий, знову лихо!")
1859, S.- Petersburg (С.- Петербург)

Translated by John Weir

Original publication:
Taras Shevchenko. Zibrannia tvoriv: U 6 t. — K., 2003. — T. 2:
Poeziia 1847-1861. — S. 303; 712-715

Source: http://www.infoukes.com/

on false perspective

A short opera by Josephine Stephenson.
Libretto by Ben Osborn.
Performed last year at the Britten Theatre.
More of me and Josephine here