In this interview the composer Joel Baldwin talks about his new opera, Fish, which premieres at Bristol Aerospace on 24 June. Fish brings to light the work of early twentieth century Bristolian cartoonist, illustrator and caricaturist, Anne Harriet Fish, who for many years contributed to Punch, The Tatler, Vanity Fair and Harper’s Bazaar. Her flattened caricatures and satirical drawings of the Jazz Age were all the rage amongst the fashionable elite on both sides of the Atlantic in the first half of the last century.
Joel Baldwin is a British composer who has worked with a wide range of artists based in the UK and internationally. In recent years, he has focused on dramatic multidisciplinary projects, including a monodrama and three operas. Among the groups that have performed his music are Ensemble Klang, Villiers Quartet, CHROMA, Explore Ensemble and ANIMA.
Baldwin often incorporates elements of visual art alongside textual and narrative drama into his work, and has explored the relationship of sound, multimedia, and texts in music theatre settings through research as well as in his own composition work.
Baldwin read Music as an undergraduate at the University of Southampton before studying for an MMus in Composition at The Royal College of Music with Jonathan Cole. He went on to complete a DPhil in Music at the University of Oxford.
Baldwin is Lecturer in Music at St Hugh’s College, University of Oxford, and Musicianship Tutor at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. He has been involved in the management and programming for multiple performance venues in England and Wales, and currently serves on the board of Ludlow Piano Festival alongside Alistair McGowan as Co-Artistic Director.
To find out more about Joel Baldwin, visit www.joelbaldwin.com. To find out what’s on at the Ludlow Assembly Rooms, visit ludlowassemblyrooms.co.uk.
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