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revelationashford · 8 years ago

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Artist in the Hotseat: Emily Burn from ‘Voice’

How long have you all known each other? How did you meet?

2016 is Voice’s ten-year anniversary so a real milestone for us. Our musical friendship began much earlier than this as we all met during our school days when we were members of the Oxford Girls’ Choir. The choir is directed by Richard Vendome and it gave us the opportunity to sing such a variety of music and to work with some inspiring musicians.

What prompted your decision to start singing together as a trio?

In 2006, we realised that we were all living in London. It was Clemmie who put it out there: “We’re all here, we love to sing so let’s meet up”. We didn’t have an agenda or any plan at that stage; it was just a desire to sing with friends and see what happened. Clemmie and Victoria were both students at SOAS in the very early days so we would meet in one of the music practice rooms and share a piece of music we’d just found or bring along an old favourite that we wanted to sing again.

What has been your favourite part of performing the ‘If Music Be the Food of Love’ programme? Is there anything unique we can look out for during the performance?

Can we have more than one favourite part? Overall, it’s been about working with a sensational musician and thoroughly nice person, Matt Haimovitz, and developing a unique programme that is full of new music. There really isn’t that much, if any, repertoire out there for three high voices and cello so with this programme we’ve actually built a new body of work for our quartet.

It started when Oxingale Music ran a competition for composers anywhere in the world to write for us, with the only proviso that they had to set a Shakespeare sonnet, chosen by us. Out of that competition we got three new works, all setting Sonnet 60 – Like As the Waves – and each one is so completely different to the others. Since this competition we’ve had pieces written for us by Luna Pearl Woolf and Marcus Davidson and we have arranged our repertoire so that we can perform it as a quartet. It’s been an exciting voyage of discovery to see what’s possible with this formation of voices and cello and each piece that’s been written for us, and each piece we’ve arranged is unique.

And what to look out for? Hildegard as you’ve never heard her before, an unusual rendition of a beautiful Philip Glass piece, and some thrilling cello solos from Matt Haimovitz.

Are you working on anything new at the moment since the success of your USA tour with Matt?

Working with Matt, discovering new sounds and new works inspired us to ask Roderick Williams to write for Voice and cello, and so we now have the beginnings of an exciting new programme with yet more new repertoire. The programme centres around a suite of pieces by Roderick Williams which set the poetry of Ursula Vaughan Williams and will see Voice collaborating with Matthew Sharp on cello. So we have more new works and exciting collaborations in the pipeline.

Are there any other solo artists that you are interested in collaborating with?

We’ve been so fortunate to collaborate with some fantastic groups in the past such as The Dufay Collective, Sinfonye, Baladeste, Quest Ensemble, and the poet Jasmine Ann Cooray. We see collaboration as a hugely important part of the trio’s work as it offers new experiences, musical influences, and performance opportunities.

Just recently we performed alongside Mark Padmore in Janáček’s The Diary of One Who Disappeared, in the role of the trio at the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, which was a wonderful experience. So basically we embrace opportunities to work with different performers, writers, composers and we’re always on the look out for new collaborations; get in touch with us if you’re interested.

Which composers’ works do you enjoy performing the most?

We’re committed to commissioning new works and have really tried to promote female composers so it’s always special when we get to perform pieces that have been written for us by Stevie Wishart, Emily Levy, Helen Chadwick, and Ayanna Witter-Johnson. That said, Marcus Davidson has been an incredible friend to Voice for many years now and has written a total of seven pieces for us, all of which challenge us musically and are a joy to perform. If Music be the Food of Love features pieces by Wishart, Davidson, and Witter-Johnson.

How has your performance evolved since you first began singing together as Voice?

We are three different personalities with three very different voices and maybe that was more apparent to our audiences when we were first starting out but those differences quickly evolved into a single sound that is distinctive to us and one that we think is quite striking in its blend.

In the early days we still performed with scores but we soon found that performing everything from memory freed us up to engage with our audience, with each other, and really be immersed in the music rather than thinking about the notes on the page. There are times when we do still use a score such as some of the quartet pieces but this is rare and our goal is always to get off copy as soon as possible.

What has been your biggest challenge as an ensemble so far? Have you been able to overcome that challenge? If so, how?

We don’t have a manager so this means that everything to do for Voice’s promotion and development is down to us, from the website and social media, to writing funding applications and sourcing performance opportunities. This has its advantages in that we are totally in control of the trio but the challenge is having the capacity do it all. We’ve developed more efficient ways of doing things just from learning as we go and accepting a bit of trial and error. We’ve developed relationships with venues and promoters, which really help when it comes to finding gigs and getting people through the door. And whatever the turnout, no matter how small or big, we give the performance our all.

What advice do you have for young musicians who want to start their own ensembles?

Go for it! Don’t worry about getting it right the first time or about having a grand plan; try stuff out, explore new repertoire and with time, see where you feel most comfortable, most musical, and happy performing. Then perform as much as possible to build your confidence and hone your craft.

Is there anyone you'd like to acknowledge for offering financial or emotional support?

So many people have supported Voice over the years. We have musical mentors in Stevie Wishart, Richard Vendome, Vivien Ellis, and Moira Smiley. We are unbelievably fortunate and grateful for all the music written for us by Marcus Davidson, Stevie Wishart, and others. We have received funding from Arts Council England and our audience members to make projects like new commissions and programmes possible. Clemmie’s parents have given up their home more times than we can possibly remember for a rehearsal space and all the home-comforts you could wish for to accompany an intense rehearsal schedule. Then our families have provided so much support and encouragement including their critical listening ears when we need to test-run a programme on an audience that won’t pull any punches.

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