Celebration Christmas Concert
Melanie Pappenheim, Sarah AnglissChristmas Concert, December 2023
To mark the last Christmas in the old Edward Edwards House building we held a concert devised and performed by singer and composer Melanie Pappenheim and composer Sarah Angliss. The artists spoke with residents about their musical memories of Southwark to inform a programme featuring carols, folksongs and old-time favourites. The evening began with a magical acoustic set in the lamplit courtyard garden of the almshouse before we processed to Christchurch Southwark for the concert.
Melanie Pappenheim & Esme Herbert: Vocals
Sarah Angliss: keyboard, percussion, and the saw
Stephen Hiscock: Percussion
Steven Bentley-Klein: strings and trumpet
Shamus Darke: Jazz Singer
With thanks to Christ Church Southwark
Biographies
Melanie Pappenheim is a singer, performer and composer. She has toured nationally and internationally with many leading UK experimental theatre and dance companies and appears regularly at the National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, The Young Vic, The Royal Opera House, and Glyndebourne. She has premiered dozens of new works for solo voice and collaborates with many renowned contemporary composers, such as Jocelyn Pook, Orlando Gough, Gavin Bryars, Graham Fitkin. Recent highlights include Giant, the new opera composed by Sarah Angliss and a European tour with Brian Eno and the Baltic Sea Orchestra in October 2023 Her voice has been featured on many film soundtrack recordings including Derek Jarman’s Edward II and The Garden, The House of Mirth by Terence Davies and Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York. Since 2015, she has worked with the arts-in-health charity Rosetta Life, co-developing a program of work involving theatre and music for people who have experienced stroke.
Sarah Angliss is an Ivor Novello Award winning composer and sound designer, creating new music and soundworlds for film, theatre, opera, dance, installations and her own live performances. Her film score for Romola Garai’s horror Amulet premiered at Sundance 2020. In summer 2023, her widely acclaimed debut opera Giant opened Aldeburgh Festival and transferred to the Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House. In demand as a live performer she has appeared at The Royal Festival Hall, Union Chapel, Arnolfini, LSO St Luke’s, Supernormal and Supersonic UK. She’s been a recipient of the Ivor Novello Award (category: Visionary Award) and a Paul Hamlyn Award for Composers.