Jonathan Cooper | Jonathan Cooper's Cabinet Of Curiosities

Jonathan Cooper's Cabinet of Curiosities

A SONGBOOK OF THE STRANGE,
THE LOST, THE INTRIGUING AND
THE FABULOUS.

28th AUGUST: HUIS TROMPENBURG, RIJKSMUSEUM, AMSTERDAM.
click here to reserve: http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/trompenburg?lang=nl

Intimate tales of the unexpected.

A collection of songs on subjects as eclectic as medieval torture, wandering spectres, the plight of the last polar bear on earth, the tragic downfall of The Biscuit Tin Hero and a host of other stories.

Jonathan has composed scores for The National Theatre, The Royal Ballet, DV8, Theatre Rites, Stan Won’t Dance and The David Glass Ensemble as well as for many television and film productions. As well as new compositions, other songs in The Cabinet are taken from earlier work featured on this site.

The Cabinet is performed live by Kevin Walton (voice), Thangam Debbonaire (cello) and Cooper himself on clarinets and piano.

An evening of subtle and surprising ambiguity.

‘Cooper’s music is haunting in its offbeat eclecticism’ (London Evening Standard)

‘consistently intriguing’ (The Guardian)

‘absolutely gorgeous’ (Fiona Talkington, Late Junction, BBC Radio 3)

'utterly brilliant...hugely entertaining' (Musician)

THE ENSEMBLE

Kevin Walton - voice

Although classically trained as both a singer and an actor, Kevin’s performance career encompasses a wide range of genres from medieval plainsong, to classic Broadway musical theatre, from Mongolian overtone singing to jazz. His credits include several award-winning musicals and films including the European premiere of Sondheim’s Assassins at the Donmar Warehouse and Mike Leigh's Oscar-winning ensemble film Topsy-Turvy. He played Max in the original cast of Sam Mendes' acclaimed production of Cabaret and has performed in seasons for The National Theatre and most of the U.K.'s leading repertory companies. He also has extensive experience as a core member of experimental devising companies such as The MedievalPlayers, The David Glass Ensemble and Lightwork.

In opera, he has sung in classical opera houses in Italy under eminent conductors such as Maurizio Pollini and Gianandrea Gavazzeni and devised new contemporary work with ground-breaking companies such as Opera Circus,
Impropera and Operaction.

Cooper and Walton met while working with the David Glass Ensemble, with whom they spent three years in South East Asia and South America collaborating and performing with local musicians, street children, Buddhist monks, choreographers and performers from all sorts of different disciplines and experiences. Since then, Walton has been a regular featured singer on many of Cooper’s CDs as well as his commissioned scores and soundtracks. Kevin is now based in Amsterdam.

Jonathan Cooper - clarinet, piano

Over the last fifteen years Jonathan Cooper has established an international reputation as a composer for film, theatre, dance, live art and TV. He has had numerous commissions for theatre scores and has collaborated with renowned companies such as the National Theatre, Theatre-Rites, the David Glass Ensemble and Blind Summit; with acclaimed directors (including Jude Kelly, James MacDonald and John Wright); and with cutting edge choreographers and dance companies such as Lloyd Newsome (DV8), Liam Steele (Stan Won't Dance), and Tom Sapsford (Royal Ballet). Jonathan has also produced scores for
companies based in Iceland, Hong Kong, and Vietnam. For television he composed the score for the award-winning BBC docu-drama Pyramid, as well as scores for short films for Channel 4 and television stations abroad.

Over the last five years Jonathan's music has been regularly broadcast on BBC Radio 3's Late Junction and his chamber music has been performed in the USA and Europe as well as the UK.

Thangam Debonnaire - cello

Thangam Debbonaire went to Chetham’s School of Music where she studied the cello with Boris Heller. She subsequently studied solo cello with Raphael Wallfisch for many years and string quartet (with the Apollo Quartet) with Eli Goren. She performed as a soloist with the Oxford University Orchestra and as a chamber musician with many ensembles including Opera Circus and The Cornelius Cardew Ensemble. Her playing has featured in theatre productions including The Chimp That Spoke for the David Glass Ensemble and Beauty and the Beast for the Belgrade Theatre. She performed in Jonathan Cooper¹s The Moon Behind the Clouds at BAC and has appeared as a soloist on many of his recordings. She is also featured on Barb Jungr¹s album Love Me Tender. She combines cello playing with her main work as a specialist in research, practice and training on gender based violence and gender equality, which she does with and for governmental, non governmental and community organisations in various parts of the world.

Guest artists:

Rebecca Brown - violin, viola

Rebecca Brown is from Paris and lived in New York as a teenager where she studied the violin with Sally Thomas at the Mannes School of Music. At 14 she won a place at the Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey where she learned with Professor WenZhou Li. She then attended the Royal Northern College of Music and was a founder-member of the Artemis String Quartet, winning numerous prizes including First Place at the International Chamber-Music Competition in Heerlen, Holland.

As a soloist, Rebecca won the RNCM Concerto Competition, leading to five solo performances at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 1998. Since leaving the RNCM she has freelanced in London, playing with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Soloists' Chamber Orchestra and at the National Theatre.

Since 2003, Rebecca Brown has been a full-time member of the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Special guest vocalists include:

Barb Jungr, Esther Mugambi, Paulien Adriana

Jonathan Cooper's Cabinet of Curiosities

Jonathan Cooper

Kevin Walton

Thangam Debbonaire

Photos by Daniel Brine and Stefanie Gratz