CV
Sianed Jones
Composer specialising in Extended Vocal Techniques, Teacher, Performer, Improviser, Programmer. Works as a composer / performer in cross art form projects collaborating with choreographers, writers, film makers and performance artists in site specific performances.
B.A (Hon) Degree in Music, Dartington College of Arts 1980
M.Mus. Degree in Electro-acoustic Composition, University of East Anglia 1997
Research into extended vocal techniques has taken her to Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar, (1987) Mongolia (1994) Kazakhstan, and Kyrgistan (1999).
CURRENT EMPLOYMENT
Musician for The Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2010 production of King Lear and Winters Tale and Romeo and Juliet at The Courtyard Theatre Stratford upon avon, transferred to The Roundhouse London and to New York summer 2011
Vocalist / Composer for Human Music an Octet of a-cappella voices performing contemporary vocal music. Vocalists / Composers, Jonothan Baker, Helen Chadwick, Dave Camlin, Sian Croose, Sharon Durrant, Katherine Zesserson, Becks Mathers
Vocal Soloist for Recording Angel in Norwich Cathedral
A Voice Project and Norfolk and Norwich Festival May 2010 Commission
A three way collaboration between Trumpeter and vocalist Arve Henriksen, sampler/DJ Jan Bang and Vocalist Jonathan Baker
Vocal Soloist for Glossolalia by Andy Sheppard in Coutance Jazz Festival
France with the Voice Project Choir conducted by Sian Croose and Kuljit Bhamra
and John Parricelli 2010
Composer / Performer with story teller Ben Haggarty an intense steam punk interpretation of the story of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, originally commissioned by the Hay on Wye Literature Festival. Frankenstein tours Britain and Canada in 2010 including The Barbican in London with the Crick Crack Club.
Co – collaborator with Capoeirista Carlo Alexandre Teixeira da Silva in a research project Border Country with The Royal Shakespeare company in the RSC Studio platform for developing new work.
RECENT EMPLOYMENT
Performer and composer with The Brecon Project a music group commissioned by the Brecon Jazz Festival with International musicians:- Trumpeter Eric Truffaz, Malian Kora player Sura Susso, Viola player Simon Thorne, Bassist Paula Gardiner, Pianist Hugh Warren, Drummer Mark O‘Conner, Saxophonist / Flautist Lee Goodhall.
‘A unique collaboration….this is the essence of Wales and the world’ Brecon Jazz Festival
Co director and founder with Simon Thorne and Eva Diva of Clwb Hwaet, bi monthly nights of sonic and visual experimentation taking place at tactileBOSCH in Cardiff. Experimenter’s video installationists and performers have included Simon Thorne’s Annapurna Quartet, Reassemble, Japanese koto player Hiroko Sue, Bassist Laurie Scott Baker Sianed Jones and many more. 2010
Vocalist in the 2010 tour of Neanderthal by Simon Thorne, a composition originally commissioned by The National Museum of Wales including a performance at the New Territories Festival in The Tramway Glasgow.
Vocalist, Teacher, Composer, and Performer, (with Human Music) at Vocal Invention weekend of musical experimentation, workshops and performances in Norwich Arts Centre 2010
Vocal soloist for The Guests a composition by Howard Davidson for Clarinet septet and voice for The Holocaust Memorial concert in Bristol Cathedral 2010
Musician for The Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Winter’s Tale at The Courtyard Theatre Stratford upon avon. 2009 season
Vocal Improvising soloist for Salome film sound track by composer Charlie Barber The score performed live by four percussionists’ toured Wales and England with the original film in 2009 including The Drill Hall London.
Composer / Performer for Winterlumens a commission for the opening of the new Studio space at The Point Eastleigh. Aerial choreography by Robyn Simpson, directed and produced by Gregory Nash with a first preview of Akram Khan of Gnosis as part of the progamme. 2009
Recipient of The Creative Wales Award and touring grant 2007 given by The Welsh Arts Council to create Taliesin a 3 Screen Video / Performance / Installation. A collaboration with video maker Henrietta Hale based on the Ancient Welsh 6th Century poems of Taliesin. The work has been performed in Wales and England including the Wales Millenium Centre. A 10 minute version was shown at The Screen on the Hill London in May 2008 and as an installation in tactileBOSCH’s Auxesis:3of3 ‘Through the Lens Media’ 2009 and at The Point in 2010.
Vocal soloist for I Prefer The Georgeous Freedom by Gwilym Simcock and The Voice Project Choir for the London Jazz Festival at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. It was originally commissioned by Norwich and Norfolk Festival 2009
Vocalist in the leading role of Jenni Roditi’s opera Innana, originally commissioned by Lontano for the ICA in 1990 and reborn in a bare bones version for The Arcola Theatre’s Grimeborn International Festival of new and revolutionary opera’s in 2009
Vocalist / Composer for Human Music an Octet of a-cappella voices performing contemporary vocal music. Vocalists / composers, Jonothan Baker, Helen Chadwick, Dave Camlin, Sian Croose, Sharon Durrant, Katherine Zesserson, Becks Mathers Originally formed for a site specific Singing the Building commission by The Sage Gateshead as part of their Jazz Festival in 2005.
SELECTED PREVIOUS EMPLOYMENT
Working as Actress / Composer / Performer for The Royal Shakespeare Company’s Olivier Award winning History Season of 8 plays:- Richard II, Henry IV part 1 and 2, (Sianed played the part of Lady Mortimer and composed the Welsh on stage song ) Henry V, Henry VI part I, II, III and Richard III directed by Michael Boyd in Stratford upon Avon, and transferred to The Round House Camden London 2008
Member of the London Bulgarian Choir. Recorded the soundtrack to Warner Bros Troy in Los Angeles 2003.
Composer and performer for Lliwio’r Gair The Colour of Saying
a bi-lingual Welsh English installation / Exhibition of Mary Lloyd Jones’s visual work Lliwio’r Gair CD released on Sound and Language label 2000
Composed, arranged and performed music live on set for the Mike Figgis film, an adaptation of a Strindberg play Miss Julie (‘99)
Performer with Garam Masala a cross-cultural meltdown of Asian and European music and languages. Sianed performs with Samia Malik, clarinet, and bassist Cris Cheek and tabla player Sukh Deep Singh. “Passionate and easily understood across international frontiers” Asian Times. “Renditions in both English and Urdu capture in poignant writing the struggle faced by women” Daily Jang. Garam Masala debut CD released on Sound and Language Label (‘98)
Composer / performer with Slant collaborating with turntable artist Philip Jeck and performance poet cris cheek. Toured Europe and the UK including the ICA London. 1988 – 1997 Debut Hive album 1989 on These label ‘What impresses is their sensitivity to sound, where electronics blend incredibly with acoustic, layered into sensitive, subtle and strange songs, flowing or gently frantic with a wonderful lyric sense and delivery. My pick of the issue’ Fact Sheet Five. Slant CD on Sound and Language label ‘They transform everything they touch’ Mixing It BBC Radio 3 The Canning Town Chronicle CD ‘Slant cuss and spit at convention creating a sophisticated mess, revelling in textures, poetry and performance art’ Lowestoft Journal ‘The Beautiful Clove Street, a tropical east end fantasy with cicadas and Gamelan’ The Wire
Composer / Performer for solo for voice violin and electronics The Bait opening the 3rd Annual LMC Festival of Experimental Music 1992 Broadcast live on Mixing It Radio 3 and performed at St Johns Smith Square London ’97
‘In their very different ways Sianed Jones’s The Bait and Jenni Roditi’s Spirit Child both had the energy, the urgency and the directness of expression that so much well-intentioned new music lacks! ‘ The sour wit and the strength of Jones’s performance are unique.’ Sianed Jones brought all her hard-edged passion and skill to bear on the vocal part’. – The Independent 97
Composer in residence with choreographer Emilyn Claid at the South Bank Centre’s Ballroom Blitz performance of Parched Swallows 1992