Elizabeth Bacon (Project Manager on Snapshot Songs) interviews composer Stuart Hancock, conductor Peter Ash, and artists and facilitators Olivia Bradbury and Luke Crookes ahead of the first official Snapshot Songs rehearsal.
Hello. Who are you?
Stuart Hancock.
Describe your role in the project.
Lead Composer on Snapshot Songs.
What brought you to Snapshot Songs?
The SHM Foundation took me on as their first Composer-in-Residence following my work for the Holst Singers at the Voices Now Festival at the Roundhouse in 2011. They proposed the idea of creating this new British “song-cycle” based around the zeitgeist. They passed me the ball, and I’ve been running with it ever since!
What else do you do with your time?
Most recently, I’ve composed the orchestral score for a two-part TV movie called “Unknown Heart” (starring Jane Seymour, Greg Wise and James Fox), the new arrangement of the theme music to “This Morning” on ITV, and music for a number of adverts, including Carling, 3 Mobile (“pug”), and the deliciously sarcastic Harvey Nichols Christmas ad.
If you had to listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
If I had to pick one awesome song that gets me every time I listen to it, it would be “The Flood” by Katie Melua. It’s just a brilliant piece of song-writing in every respect – great melody, beautiful arrangement/production, interesting/mysterious lyrics, and a good dose of darkness and exoticism.
Hello. Who are you?
Olivia Preye Bradbury.
Describe your role in the project.
Choir Leader and Artistic Associate.
What brought you to Snapshot Songs?
I was invited by Barbican-Guildhall Creative Learning and agreed to get involved as I think it’s a unique and important project and really relevant to what we should be thinking about and addressing at this time, in this ever growing city. I feel excited to be involved in something progressive and inclusive.
What else do you do with your time?
I have just finished the second run of my solo show “Finding Frank”, a multi media devised theatre piece based on a true story about music, mental health and the effects of funding cuts in the arts therapies. I run the trio Goodbye Leopold performing and recording regularly with them and I work part time as a music facilitator/therapist, mainly in mental health.
If you had to listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
That would make me really ill, but I love: the Beatles, Bjork, Radiohead, Wayne Shorter, Benjamin Britten, most bands from Bristol, Erykah Badu, and a lot of underground U.K. Hip Hop.
Hello. Who are you?
Peter Ash: Conductor and Composer: Artistic Director of the London Schools Symphony Orchestra.
Describe your role in the project.
I am conducting the final rehearsals and the two performances.
What brought you to Snapshot Songs?
I was asked to be involved by Stuart Hancock, our wonderful composer.
What else do you do with your time?
I am preparing the next LSSO concert at the Barbican Concert Hall in January. I am also writing a song cycle called Survival of the Fittest for tenor and piano, based on English animal poems.
If you had to listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Bach’s ‘Goldberg Variations’, an hour long ‘song’ arranged for string trio by the great violinist Dmitri Sitkovetsky and recorded by him with Gerard Causse and Misha Maisky.
Hello. Who are you?
Luke Crookes: bassoonist and workshop facilitator.
Describe your role in the project:
Workshop leading and being a member of the team to help it come together.
What brought you to Snapshot Songs?
I stepped in one day to lead the choir.
What else do you do with your time?
I make music in the Royal Free Hospital, Evelina Children’s Hospital, and the St Thomas’ Hospital choir. I also lead the workshop and collaborative student elective at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
If you had to listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
‘In Paradisum’ by Gabriel Faure.