Award-winning composer/performer Gwyneth Herbert and leading video artist Will Duke create a captivating new show that takes audiences from a blank piece of paper to the joyful sharing of voice. Co-commissioned by Snape Maltings and OCM, Letters I Haven’t Written brings together an exceptional creative team from across contemporary music and theatre to explore, in a world of status updates and limited characters, a more meaningful way to speak with – and listen to – each other. An album release will coincide with the premiere of the live show.
Reaching far beyond a nostalgic homage, Letters I Haven’t Written uses the personal act of letter writing as a vehicle to ask: How, in an age of so much noisy communication, can we be more connected? Drawing on jazz, folk, contemporary classical music and storytelling, a collection of original new songs by Herbert form musical letters about love, loss, the body and more. Through her collaboration with video artist Will Duke, Director Susannah Tresilian and designer Tom Rogers, Herbert develops her musical letters into an exciting new multidisciplinary performance that investigates the politics of belonging.
The live performance and album feature Herbert alongside her band which includes some of the UK’s most creative musicians: bassist Sam Burgess is part of internationally acclaimed Ronnie Scott’s All Stars, piano trio Curios and has performed with artists from Jamie Cullum to the Pet Shop Boys; a member of Mercury Prize short listed quartet Dinosaur dynamic drummer Corrie Dick can also be heard with Elliott Galvin Trio and the Rob Luft Band; as well as regular performances in the West End, guitarist Al Cherry has toured with the likes of Paloma Faith and Cat Stevens; on piano and saxophone Ned Cartwright has performed and recorded with a diverse array of artists from cult-hero poet John Hegley to Tony award-winning actress / singer Frances Ruffelle.
As part of the project’s exploration of dialogue, Herbert will run a series of creative workshops with various community groups, including people within the criminal justice system, young women, teenagers from Hastings and BAME elders from Deptford. During these sessions, participants will devise their own letter songs, and then as part of some of the tour dates, a new song will be composed by Herbert in response to her time with each group, and performed with participants as an encore.
Composer, lyricist, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, Gwyneth Herbert continues to redefine and challenge expectations. She has worked in collaboration with writers, musicians, directors, choreographers, visual artists, academics, clowns and young people to create an enviable canon of genre-defying interdisciplinary work. This includes: released six critically acclaimed albums (including the first Blue Note UK release in 30 years) and touring the world with her band; the title role in the Bristol Old Vic theatre’s acclaimed production of The Snow Queen (for which she was also composer, lyricist and musical director); major new commissions for London Sinfonietta, Mahogany Opera, Aldeburgh Music and The Palace That Joan Built for Art on the Underground with artist Mel Brimfield; co-creator of five musicals.