Differences in Demolition

Programme

Differences in Demolition presents a powerful story of conflict, greed and desire in a world surrounded by desolation. Hassan, a building worker, cherishes a secret love for Sevda. His family Han (an Inn) has been cursed. A mythical woman, Mila, embroiders love, life and fate into a scarf, which becomes torn. The beautiful Sevda begins her journey, which unravels, like the scarf, to reveal a tale of love, longing and hope.

Music

Nigel Osborne

Libretto

Goran Simic

Dramaturgy

Lenka Udovicki/Tina Ellen Lee

Two semi staged concert performances In Srebrenica and in Vienna

10 December 2010
Kulturni Centar, Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Programme:

19.00

Doors Open

19.30

Welcome

19.40

Professor Nigel Osborne OBE, Reid Professor at the University of Edinburgh, on the importance of cultural activity, in particular music, for children and young people.

20.00

The Opera

21.30

End

With special thanks to:
Ambassador Gary Robbins, OSCE – The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, BiH, British Ambassador to BiH Michael Tatham and to Nedeljko Simic, President of Rotary and Advisor for Integrated Development and Cooperation at the Municipality of Srebrenica.

13 December 2010
Hofburg, Vienna, Austria

Under the patronage of Dr Barbara Prammer, Speaker of the
Austrian Parliament, and the Chairmanship-in-Office of the OSCE
Hosted by the Ambassadors of Kazakhstan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria and the United Kingdom to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Head of the OSCE Mission in BiH and the British Ambassadors to Austria and BiH
With special thanks to the British Council.

18.00

Doors open Hofburg

19.00

Welcome address by Ambassador Ian Cliff OBE

19.15

Professor Nigel Osborne, MBE, as above and also founder of the Institute of Music for Human and Social Development and the charity, The Musical Brain, talks about the importance of cultural activity, in particular music, to support children and young people in post conflict situations with a short extract from the film A Gift of Culture.

19.30

10 minutes break

19.40

The Opera

21.20

The End

21.30

Reception at the British Embassy Residence, Metternichgasse 6, 1030 Vienna jointly hosted by Ambassador Ian Cliff, UK Delegation to the OSCE and Ambassador Simon Smith, British Embassy Austria.

Director

Lenka Udovicki

Original production directed by Lenka Udovicki

Producer

Tina Ellen Lee

Production Assistants

Daisy Costello/Tanja Dramac

Film and photography

Robert Golden

Cast

Lore Lixenberg

Sevda

Elizabeth McCormack

Mila

Andy Morton

Mustafa/Balkan

Daniel Norman

Mustafa/Balkan (shared role)

Robert Rice

Hassan

Alen Abdagic

Zlatan

Chamber orchestra

Conductor

Will Conway, (Hebrides Ensemble)

Violin

Paul Barritt

Viola

Aidan Burke

Cello

Belma Alic

Clarinets

Neyire Ashworth

Accordion

Krassimir Sterev

Percussion

Anton Pesikan

Scenario

A “modern-day” Hasan, a demolition worker walks onto a builiding site talking animatedly to someone on a mobile phone (as we find out later, a modern-day Sevda). He sings Goran Simic’s poem Differences in Demolition (see online programme). Hasan takes an embroidered scarf from his bag. Mila begins to sing as she sews. As Hasan begins to sing about the walls of the house, he changes his clothes and becomes part of the wall – the wall moves and sings, and Mila continues her song – Hasan has become a protagonist in his own day-dreaming of a world of Sevdah long ago in a far-off country.
Time passes and the scarf is blown into the hands of Sevda, a young serving girl. A father dies and the three sons rage over his dead body, ripping the scarf into three parts. Each falls into the hands of a brother. Sevda warns that thenceforth their house – an old han, or inn – will be cursed. One son leaves to make money, another to make war and the third son stays to guard the traditions of the han.

Hassan yearns with secret love for Sevda and he begs her to stay, but she replies that the curse obliges her to go; as a parting gift he gives her his fragment of the scarf. The story unfolds as Sevda attempts to rescue the scarf from the remaining two brothers – a greedy mafioso and a haunted war criminal – and hence to lift the curse.

The opera ends in the modern world. Mila is sewing together the scarf, a modern-day Sevda struggles across the demolition site in high heels carrying an umbrella, searching for Hasan. The workers tell her that he has left with Mujo (Mustafa) to another job far away and has not even left an address…..

Filled with longing, love, tragedy and a deep and painful joy, this story is inspired by the wild and beautiful Bosnian music of Sevdah.

Reviews:

“His latest opera, Differences in Demolition, has been years in the making and shaping. It reached Wilton’s Music Hall, given by Opera Circus as part of the City of London Festival, as the most lyrically beautiful and stirring new opera I’ve heard in years.” Anthony Porter Times Literary Supplement

“Sevdah is basically cheerful music; Osborne believes its charm could help heal Balkan social wounds. And charm is what he gives us in spades. The Balkan cadences have unlocked a lyricism we’ve not heard from him before. If the plot is convoluted, the music powers the action forward. All the singers perform heroically, with two standing out: tenor Any Morton evinces a lovely sweetness, while mezzo Monica Brett-Crowther has a riveting vocal and physical presence. The band – heroic, with accordion, clarinet, percussion and strings – weave graceful spells.” Michael Church Independent
“…best of all it is breathtakingly beautiful.” Jessica Duchen, Opera Magazine
“..a hauntingly beautiful lament for Bosnia using traditional Sevdah music. One vocal quartet struck me as the most affecting I’d heard since the great quartet in Fidelio” Michael Coveney, What’s On, London.
“Osborne manages in the music to seamlessly incorporate the Sevdah, Balkan scales and upbeat dances with his own contemporary idiom. Often it’s the last that’s most beguiling, with often mesmeric writing especially for clarinet and accordion, who play alongside members of the Mostar Sinfonietta.” Edward Bhesania The Stage.

“The story draws on mythical archetypes which mix deliciously with Simic’s wit and tenderness and the great-heartedness of Osborne’s melodic flow”. Opera Magazine.

“….like Sevdah music, the opera has heart and soul, not merely technique and it has struck a chord that’s profound and true…” The Indepenent.

Nigel Osborne’s music has been influenced by Sevdah, which has been described as “The Bosnian Blues” and draws on the folk traditions of Bosnia, Greece, Turkey and Jewish Sephardic music. The Bosnian poet Goran Simic’s libretto was inspired by his poem Differences in Demolitions, “….Goran Simic’s sparse, lucid
and singable libretto rings true” Neil Fisher The Times

Ambassador Ian Cliff OBE (currently British Ambassador to the OSCE in Vienna and previously Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina) has written the following in support of the Gala Performance of “Differences in Demolition”

“The OSCE is dedicated to promoting stability, democracy and respect for human rights across the space from Vancouver to Vladivostok. It has been deeply engaged in Bosnia and Herzegovina since the end of the war of 1992-95 and currently has a Field Mission presence of some 500 people in the country. This is working in the areas of education, human rights, democratisation, and security cooperation. A key goal is to foster contact and understanding between young people of all ethnic and religious backgrounds.

I am therefore delighted that the OSCE is able to support the Concert Performances in the two very different but poignant locations of Srebrenica and Vienna of Nigel Osborne_s opera “Differences in Demolition” commissioned and produced by Opera Circus. The opera is based on a story of domestic and political disintegration challenged by the power of love, with libretto by the eminent Bosnian poet, Goran Simic. The director is Lenka Udovicki, co-founder of the Ulysses Theatre in Zagreb. It incorporates strong elements of the traditional Sevdah folk music of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Nigel Osborne, who is the Reid Professor of Music at Edinburgh University, has been involved for many years in programmes of music therapy for traumatised children from all the communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Along with Ian Ritchie, he co-founded the Mostar Sinfonietta, in which musicians from all backgrounds play together, and the Pavarotti Music Centre in Mostar. In many ways these Concert Performances are themselves a celebration of the work of the OSCE in the Balkans over the past two decades. Much has been achieved but there is still much to be done to integrate this vital region fully into the European family. One way we can help is by promoting its deep, attractive and varied culture.”

History of Opera Circus and the Sevdah Opera

In 2004 Opera Circus were invited to help to realise a dream. A number of years ago several people had been sitting having a coffee in Sarajevo and had thought about the idea of creating an opera inspired by the Sevdah musical tradition of Bosnia. These three, Dragi Sestic the producer of amongst others the great Mostar Sevdah Reunion, Tatiana Palinkesev of The Bosnian Institute in London and Ian Ritchie of Accord International, were all inspired by this idea but hadn’t the framework at the time to realise their dream. Ian, an Opera Circus board member, presented Tina Ellen Lee, the Artistic Director, with the idea and the collaboration began.

Creating the opera “Differences in Demolition”, has not just been about commissioning the chamber opera itself, but about creating an ensemble of artists from many religions and races with the aim of not only finally producing a beautiful chamber opera which will hopefully tour world wide, but spreading a message of cultural collaboration and communication through music and the human voice.

Our instrumentalists and singers live or were born in Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Germany and the UK. We are of many religions, Muslim, Christian, Jewish and non believers and we speak many languages and sing and play music from many countries. Out of this project to develop a contemporary chamber opera inspired by the music of Sevdah, have grown a number of other projects, working with disadvantaged children in Bosnia, creating workshops and residencies with young people and local communities in rural regions of South West England and creating new collaborations with other artistic groups such as Scottish Dance Theatre, Opera North in Leeds, UK and the Scotland’s finest contemporary chamber ensemble, Hebrides Ensemble of which our conductor for these concert performances, Will Conway, is the Artistic Director.

EU Coordination Partnership Project “WAKE UP”

These performances are also part of ‘Wake Up’, a two year culturalcoordination project of Eastern and Western European partners, with support of the European Union Cultural Programme. The project will strengthen partnerships among innovative European cultural organizations, while advocating a leading role for the arts in societies in transition. Project partners include lead partner Opera Circus (UK) Teatar Mimart (Serbia), University of Edinburgh (UK) and Musicians without Borders Netherlands and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This work programme has been funded with support from the European Commission. This document
reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which
may be made of the information contained therein.

Goran Simic’s poem which inspired the opera

RAZLIKE U RUSENJIMA

DIFFERENCES IN DEMOLITION

In the Country where I live
when a house has to be torn down
a few workers arrive with a contract,
tear down the house nin a few days and leave
and later nobody remembers anymore the names of those
who lived there until yesterday

In the Country I came from
before the house is torn down
an armed police squad arrives
and an ambulance for someone who might want
to die grieving under the demolished roof
beneath which he was born long ago.
For months afterwards even the children avoid the place
where once there was a house
because of the ghosts of ancestors who moan
from the spider webs and weeds.
There the demolition ball is heavy as a curse.

In the Country I came from
the chief of the demolition squad was a certain pauper Ivo,
the man without a family but with a pistol in his belt.
For thirty years as he gathered curses,
he`d take a few bricks from each demolished house.
Later he built himself a house with those bricks.

That house is still in place
because nobody lives there anymore,
because the pauper Ivo is now a simple manual labourer
in a squad of people who build houses
in the Country where I live
now.

Biographies

Composer Nigel Osborne MBE*

Professor Nigel Osborne, is the Reid Professor of Music at the University of Edinburgh and the founder of the Institute of Music for Human and Social Development. Nigel Osborne is a major British composer and a world expert on music and the mind and the use of music as a means of helping disadvantaged children and young people. Co founder of the Pavarotti Centre, the Mostar Music Therapy Centre and the Mostar Sinfonietta, an orchestra set up to encourage young professional musicians in Mostar after the Bosnian war. Given the Freedom Award, presented by the International Centre for Peace in Sarajevo to honour his work with children in BiH and his contribution to the country’s search for peace. Continues to develop projects for children and young people in Uganda, Israel/Palestine and BiH. Professor Osborne is a visiting Professor at Harvard, UCLA, Vienna Conservatoire and many others. Nigel Osborne has recently founded the charity The Musical Brain in the UK.
http://www.themusicalbrain.org/
http://www.music.ed.ac.uk/research/imhsd.html

Goran Simic

Goran Simic (1952) was born in Bosnia-Herzegovina where he published many volumes of poetry, stories, plays and radio plays including ten puppet theatre plays and three opera librettos that were produced in ex Yugoslavia, UK and Germany. Back in Bosnia he was editor of several literary magazines, newspaper book columnist and a book shop owner. After surviving the Bosnian war and siege of Sarajevo (1992-1995) he emigrated to Canada with his two children in 1996. Coming to Canada he was resident of University of Toronto Massey College, Writer-in Exile at the Banff Centre for the Arts and University of Guelph. His poetry books have been translated in more that ten languages and his poetry included in several world anthologies such as Scanning the Century and numerous anthologies in Canada and former Yugoslavia. He was awarded the Helman-Hammet award, PEN-USA Freedom to Write award , the People’s Award in Canada, as well as numerous prizes from the former Yugoslavia. His published books include: Sprinting from the Graveyard (Oxford University Press), Immigrant Blues (Brick Books), From Sarajevo with Sorrow (Biblioasis), Yesterday’s People (Biblioasis). Forthcoming books Looking for Tito (short stories) and Sunrise in the eyes of the Snowman (new poetry). Recently he moved to Edmonton University(Canada) as a Writer in Exile
http://goransimic.com/

Lenka Udovicki Director

Studied at the Academy of Dramatic Arts, University of Belgrade, where she gained her Master of Arts Degree in Theatre Directing. She started her professional career in regional and major Belgrade theatres and in 1992 left her native country. Since than she has lived in London and Los Angeles and works as international director for theatre and opera. Her special interest is developing new work and exploration in musical theatre. Co founder of the Ulysses Theatre Festival and of the Moving Theatre Company in London with Vanessa Redgrave.
Lenka has directed at the English National Opera and at the Globe and also at UCLA Live in Los Angeles. She is currently living in Rijeka with her husband, Rade Serbedzija.

Will Conway, Conductor and Artistic Director of Hebrides Ensemble

William Conway was born in Glasgow and studied at both the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and the Royal College of Music where he was a prodigious prize-winner.
He is a founder-member and principal cellist of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and for ten years held the same position with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, performing regularly as soloist and director. He has recorded extensively including, amongst others, the cello concerto specially written for him by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, a disc of music by John Bevan Baker for Linn Records as well as several recital discs._In 1994 William was a prizewinner at the Leeds Conductors Competition and has since established a dual career as cellist and conductor worldwide. He has conducted most major Scottish orchestras as well as Northern Sinfonia, English Sinfonia, Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the symphony orchestras of Cairo, Zagreb, Antwerp, Phoenix and G_ettingen in all repertoires including operas such as Cavelleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, Die Fledermaus, The Martyrdom of St. Magnus by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and The Seer by John Bevan-Baker.
He is also much in demand as a teacher and chamber music coach: he is Head of Strings and Chamber Music at the specialist music school St Mary’s Music School and regularly gives recitals both as a soloist and with piano. www.hebridesensemble.com

Tina Ellen Lee Producer/Artistic Director Opera Circus

Tina Ellen Lee is a singer, actress and producer. She was the General Secretary of The Association of Photographers in London between 1979 and 1988. She has produced two documentary film series and several separate films with Robert Golden Pictures. She is artistic director of Opera Circus, a successful experimental opera/music theatre company founded in 1991. Tina has performed in concerts, festival operas, fringe theatre, feature films and as a voice over artist. As a performer and producer Tina toured all over the world with Opera Circus in various of the companies productions and has produced all of their work. Opera Circus commissioned Differences in Demolition which continues to tour. The company has recently commissioned a new opera from Nigel Osborne and the eminent writer Ariel Dorfman.
www.naciketa.com
www.operacircus.co.uk

Elizabeth McCormack
Mezzo soprano
Mila

Elizabeth McCormack was born in Fife, Scotland and studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio, London.
For Scottish Opera, she created the role of the Daughter in The Vanishing Bridegroom (also at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden), for whom she has also sung Varvara, Dorabella, Iolanthe, Cherubino and Nigel Osborne’s one-woman opera The Queens of Govan. For English National Opera, she has sung Pitti Sing, Cherubino and Garcia in Don Quixotte. She sang Nancy in Albert Herring in Canada, Melanto in The Return of Ullysses and Tancredi at the Buxton Festival, Pippo and Zerlina for Opera North, Flora in La Traviata and Karolka in Jenufa with Sir Simon Rattle in Paris and La Cenerentola in Ireland. For the Opera Bastille, Paris, she performed in Parsifal and in La Clemenza di Tito she played Annio.
Her concert career includes Purcell’s Dido with Phillip Ledger in London and France. Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with the ECO and Jeffrey Tate. Hindemiths’s Das Nusch Nuschi at the Barbican and Birtwhistle’s The Mask of Orpheus at the Royal Festival Hall with the BBCSO and Andrew Davis, Mozart’s C Minor Mass and a concert performance of Nigel Osborne’s opera arias.

Lore Lixenberg
mezzo soprano
Sevda

Mezzo-soprano LorО Lixenberg is renowned for the warmth, range and agility of her voice as well as her total absorption in any role. Her rich experience in the area of music theatre includes performing the lead role in Bent S_rensen’s opera Under Himlen at the Royal Opera House in Copenhagen as well as performing in many projects with Th__tre de Complicit_. She has performed throughout Europe at numerous festivals including Wien Modern, Oslo’s Ultima and the festivals in Salzburg, Lucerne, Edinburgh, Witten, Huddersfield, Donaueschingen and Aldeburgh. Lor_ has performed as soloist with many distinguished orchestras and ensembles including BBC Symphony Orchestra, Hall_ Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble InterContemporain, London Sinfonietta, Klangforum Wien, BCMG, Cikada, Northern Sinfonia, Ensemble Aventure and Apartment House. Television programmes Lor_ has featured in include the BBC2 television series Strings, Bows and Bellows, with Joanna MacGregor; the avantgarde comedy series Attention Scum, with performance artist Simon Munnery, also on BBC2; the Channel 4 documentary What made Mozart tick; and Kombat Opera Presents…, a set of six television comedy operas commissioned from Richard Thomas by BBC2. In 2008, she sang the world premi_re of Dai Fujikura’s — as I am — with Ensemble InterContemporain and, a year later, performed the work again, with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2010 Lore will be singing in the premiere of Mark Anthony Turnage’s Anna Nichol Smith. Her busy programme in 2011 includes performing a John Cage programme at Bayreuth.
http://www.haferkornassociates.com/english/lore_lixenberg.html

Andy Morton
Tenor
Mustafa/Balkan

Andy Morton lives in Bristol and is a regular performer in Impropera with Anthony Ingle. More orthodox roles include Ecclitico in The World on the Moon for Opera East, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus for Opera della Luna, Canio and Turiddu in Cav and Pag for Lakeland Opera and Fenton in Falstaff for Music Theatre London and Capriol Films. He performed the role of Balakin in The Enchantress for Grange Park Opera, and Ralph Rackstraw in HMS Pinafore for Opera della Luna at Buxton Opera House, for whom he also played Paris in La Belle H_lene and Nanki Poo in The Mikado. He also played Remendado in Carmen for Garden Opera in Kenya and Nemorino in L‘Elisir for Pegasus Opera. He previously created the roles of Jole and Balkan in Nigel Osborne’s Bosnian-inspired Differences in Demolition for Opera Circus at the London Festival. Other contemporary roles he has performed include Bill Dayton for English National Opera, Joe the Fossil Hunter in the World Premiere of Graham Treacher’s Darwin’s Dream at the Royal Albert Hall, Professor Winklebeam in Pinocchio for the Royal Opera House, as the lead man in Battersea Arts Centre’s notorious gay thriller Black and Blue, Lore Lixenberg’s Glass Hotel also at BAC, Cage’s Europa 5 and Maxwell Davies’ classic Eight Songs for a Mad King at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow. He has sung as a lead soloist with a number of leading contemporary ensembles including the Hebrides Ensemble, Paragon Ensemble and the Fibonacci Sequence and has collaborated on new works from Complicite’s A Dog’s Heart to The Aspern Papers (Helen Porter) for The Royal Opera House. In musical theatre, he has appeared in the West End in Les Mis_rables (Jean Valjean) in Boy George’s Taboo and on national tour with Martin Guerre and Jerry Springer the Opera. His other credits include Riff (West Side Story), Macheath (The Beggar’s Opera), The Sailor (Dido and Aeneas) at Holland Park, Serano (La Donna del Lago) for Midsummer Opera at St. John’s Smith Square, Bardolph (Falstaff) for Pegasus Opera and Basilio (Figaro) for English Pocket Opera.

Daniel Norman
Tenor
Mustafa/Balkan

After reading Engineering at Oxford, Daniel Norman studied singing in Banff, Tanglewood and at the Royal Academy of Music. He has an international career of concert, opera, broadcast and recording engagements, and has appeared in the opera houses of Paris, Verona, St Petersburg, Munich, Wexford, Lyon, Boston, Glyndebourne and Covent Garden. He lives in Oxford with his wife and their three sons.
Amongst his recent highlights are Borsa/Rigoletto at the Royal Opera House, White Minister/Le Grand Macabre for ENO, Judas/Last Supper (Birtwistle) with the London Sinfonietta in Milan and Turin, Britten St Nicolas for BBC radio and television, Messiah with the Minnesota Orchestra and David Hill, the Britten Canticles with Julius Drake at the Oxford Lieder Festival, the title role in Peter Maxwell Davies Taverner with Martyn Brabbins for the BBC, Basilio/Nozze di Figaro at Garsington, Holst Savitri with the London Sinfonietta, Britten Canticle III at Kings Place, The Lost Chord for Opera North, Delius Mass of Life with BBC Philharmonic, Carmina Burana in Bogotá and his first performances of Elgar Dream of Gerontius and Janáček Glagolitic Mass. 
His latest recording credits include Britten Winter Words and Who are these Children?, Beethoven 9th Symphony (Minnesota Orchestra/Vanska), Arne Artaxerxes (Classical Opera Company) , The NMC Songbook, and Argento’s Jonah and the Whale (Boston Modern Orchestra Project).
Future plans include Stravinsky Renard with Avanti in Helsinki and Paris, Britten Serenade in Cobham, a second CD of Britten songs (including all five Canticles), War Requiem in Coventry and Westminster Cathedrals, the title role in Vaughan Williams Hugh the Drover with New Sussex Opera, Goro/Madama Butterfly and Tchekalinsky/Queen of Spades for Opera North, Messiah at the Brighton Dome and Moser/Meistersinger and Basilio/Nozze di Figaro at Glyndebourne.

Alen Abdagic
baritone
Zlatan

Born on the 7th December 1977, graduate of the Academy of Music in Sarajevo – Opera Course. Recipient of the First and Special Award at the Federal competition for students of Music in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Theatre and opera experience includes “Aska i Vuk , “La Boheme” and ” Srebrenijanke” produced by the National Theatre in Sarajevo. On numerous occasions he performed at the Academy of Music Sarajevo and internationally in Vienna and Italy. Most recently he performed at “Ravenna Festival 2010″ in Italy, directed by Cristine Muti. Alen has been offered a Scholarship for Vocal Studies at the Academy of Music in Modena, Italy.

Robert Rice
baritone
Hassan

Robert Rice studied at Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music, London, and with Richard Smart and Sheila Barnes. He sings regularly in concert around the UK and abroad. Concerts in 2010 have included Elgar’s The Kingdom in Sherborne Abbey, Mendelssohn’s Paulus at Snape, Brahms’s German Requiem and Orff’s Carmina Burana. He is experienced in the field of contemporary music, having sung premieres of works by Judith Bingham, Shiori Usui, Jacques Cohen and Christopher Steel among others. Stage work includes Herakles The Birds, Tempter The Martyrdom of St Magnus (both for The Opera Group), title role Darwin’s Dream (RAH), King Eight Songs for a Mad King (South Bank). For Opera Circus: the Priest Arcane and Hasan Differences in Demolitions, touring BiH and the UK. Recordings include The Play of Daniel, Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 and Elgar’s Kingdom. Robert has a thriving singing teaching practice based in Cambridge, Oxford and London. http://www.robertrice.co.uk/

Paul Barritt
Violin

PAUL BARRITT (violin) is Permanent Guest Leader of the Hall_ Orchestra, having previously held the position of leader of the Northern Sinfonia and the English Chamber Orchestra.. As a concerto soloist Paul, has regularly appeared with the ECO and the Northern Sinfonia. He directed Isaac Stern’s 75th Birthday Concert at the Barbican and played the Bach Double Violin Concerto with Maxim Vengerov at the London Proms, and in Germany, Spain and Switzerland with the English Chamber Orchestra He is a member of the Divertimenti Ensemble. His numerous recordings for violin and piano include the complete violin sonatas of Howells, Ireland, Stanford and Schoeck as well as the salon pieces of Albert Sammons (‘The English Kreisler’). During the 2005-6 season he recorded the complete Beethoven violin and piano music with pianist James Lisney which has received unanimous acclaim. In 2008-9 he gave performances of Beethoven Triple Concerto with the Hall_ Orchestra, and regularly appears as soloist and director with the Guildford Philharmonic. Other activities have included adjudicating the Feis Ceoil in Dublin and giving concerts with the Zimro Clarinet Trio. A recording of the Brahms Violin Sonatas on the Woodhouse label will be released later this year. . Violin: Antonio Stradivari 1695

Aidan Burke
Viola

After completing his Bachelor of Music degree at Edinburgh University, Scotland, and postgraduate viola studies with Yuko Inoue, Aidan lived and worked in Mostar, Herzegovina for six years, working intensively at first with a local team of musicians and teachers in a wide-ranging project of music-making in schools and kindergartens. Performing regularly with Mostarian musicians, notably Teo Krilic and Sanel Maric, he became a founder of the Mostar Sinfonietta in 1998, which he managed until leaving for Berlin in 2003, and, despite the Sinfonietta’s lack of regular funding, remains a guest leader and conductor for their collaborations with Ulysses Theatre in Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia throughout the year. A freelance violist and music workshop leader, for example at the Orpheus Centre and with the Papworth Trust in England, he teaches viola, violin, piano and infant music education in various institutions in Berlin, and is currently playing with Erich Schachtner, Kemal and Metin Kahraman, and Mavis Guneser. He will join the Chuckerbutty Ocarina Quartet for their tour of Japan next year.

Belma Alic
Cello

Belma Alic graduated in 2004 at the Sarajevo Academy of Music in cello studies. Her teacher, Yevgeny Xaviereff continued thereafter to instruct her till the completion of her post-graduate in 2007 at the same institution.
Belma was member of the International Youth String Orchestra of the World Symphony Youth Orchestra. Since 2006 Belma has been a member of the British based Opera Circus Company with whom she has toured England, including performances for the City of London Festival, as well as throughout Scotland and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Belma is also 1st prize winner at numerous national competitions within the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.In 2001 she won first prize at the International Val Tidone Competition. As a soloist she has appeared with the Sarajevo Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Zenica, Chamber Orchestra of the Sarajevo Music Academy and the Mostar Sinfonietta. Belma has performed at the following music festivals and organisations: Ba__ar_ijske no_i Festival, Zeni_ko Prolje_e, Sarajevo Art, Music Academy Sarajevo, Modus Vivendi Zenica, Sonemus Contemporary Music Ensemble, Centre for Culture Niksic.
Since 2004 Belma Alic was chosen as assistant cello professor at the Music Academy in Sarajevo. She also holds position of artistic director of the Mostar Sinfonietta. She is currently a member of the Symphony Orchestra of South East Europe.

Neyire Ashworth
Clarinets

Neyire Ashworth is one of UK’s most versatile clarinettists working as performer, composer, writer and music director. Currently with National Theatre’s award-winning production, ‘War Horse’ in London’s West End. As busy chamber musician, was founder member of Britten-Pears Ensemble (CDs – Andre Jolivet and Frank Martin for ASV). With clarinet quartet, No Strings Attached won Royal Overseas League Chamber Music prize, prize winners in Gaudeamus International Contemporary Music competition. Now with The New London Chamber Ensemble (CDs of John Woolrich and Carl Nielsen – Meridian) and The Zimro Trio, and often appears with UK’s finest chamber orchestras.. Her passion for combining music and theatre has led to search for innovative, performances which immediately connect with audience.
Her latest solo show, ‘Stolen Voices’ (music/words Neyire Ashworth), supported by National Theatre Studio, premiered to critical acclaim at London’s Tete-a-Tete and Grimeborn music theatre festivals, Buxton Fringe (Winner Best Performer Award) and Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Neyire is clarinet professor at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama (juniors).

Krassimir Sterev
Accordion

Krassimir Sterev was born in Bulgaria. His first accordion instruction was at the Music School in Kazanlak. In 1991 he enrolled in the University for Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria. From 1994 to 1996, Sterev had a scholarship at the Royal Danish Music Conservatory.
Krassimir Sterev performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician as well as in ensembles and orchestras. He has played as a guest at many renowned festivals (including steirischer herbst in Graz, Wien Modern, Salzburg Festspiele, Musica Nova in Sofia, Huddersfield Festival, Musica Strasbourg, Takefu International Music Festival in Japan). Since 2003, Krassimir Sterev has been a member of the Klangforum Wien. He has also worked for many years with the Vienna Philharmonic, the RSO Vienna, the DSO – Berlin, musikFabrik, and the ensemble PHACE | CONTEMPORARY MUSIC.
Krassimir Sterev is especially interested in developing accordion repertoire and performing world premieres of new works written for him.
http://www.phace.at/en/about/ensemble/krassimirsterev/

Anton Pesikan
Percussion

Anton Pesikan (born 1977) is an Bosnian percussion musician. His
critically-acclaimed work combines Bosnian traditional music “Sevdah”
Brazilian Samba, West African, Asian and other worldwide influences and
often explores themes such as multiculturalism and improvisation.

Anton was raised in Sarajevo and was influenced and taught by Peter Vilk,
Eugene Skeef and prof. Nigel Osborne, and gained vast knowledge and skills.
He plays on all Latino percussion instruments Conga, Djembe, Tarabuka,
Bongos, Cajon, Shakers and Orf’s instrumentary (hand percussions).
Along with his education he joins prof. Nigel Osborne and works in schools
as a teacher of music education in the form of a new system of education, as
well as work with special needs children in Mostar and Sarajevo. He
performed and conducted workshops throughout Europe Georgia-Tbilisi, Italy,
Turkey and Hungary. Presently he is engaged with Musicians without Borders
Bosnia and Herzegovina as a music workshop leader/trainer on the project
Music Bus/Children’s Music Theatre Srebrenica working with youth and
children.

He has performed with Peter Gabriel, Massive Attack (Horace Andy), Jovanotti
(Lorenzo Cherubini) and Luciano Pavarotti. Anton was one of the original members of The Sevdah Opera Project and was involved in the development of the work from its beginnings in 2005.

Anthony Ingle
Musical Director Opera Circus

Anthony Ingle has been musical director of Opera Circus since 2002, and pianist and musical director of Impropera, the world’s only established free-improvisation opera company (which began as an Opera Circus project) since 1997. He has composed over sixty scores for music-theatre works of all kinds, and is also director of music for productions at LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art), a post he has held for many years. As MD of Opera Circus, he worked on the world premi_re of Nigel Osborne’s previous opera, Differences in Demolitions; he is now editing that score for publication. He is also currently working with the vibrant UK opera company Tete a Tete as musical director.

Robert Golden
Film and Photography

Opera Circus has been extremely privileged to have collaborated with the international film maker and photographer Robert Golden. The short extract of the film A Gift of Culture was shot in the mountains above Sarajevo in Bosnia where each year Nigel Osborne runs a Summer Music Camp for around 40 children from the Mostar orphanage Los Rosales. The film can be found on www.objectivecinema.net Full details about the work of Robert Golden can be found on his web site www.robertgoldenpictures.com

Opera Circus thanks

With thanks to Hans Michael Plut and all the staff at the Hofburg and the OSCE for their generosity and support, to Colin Munro, Nedeljko Simic, Baya Corlija, Milena Nikolic, Tanja Dramac, Vedrana Kocevic, Dragana Jovanovic, Mrs Amila Effendic, Ian Ritchie, Claude Kieffer, Elbay Alibayov, George Nickson, Jan Hauskas, Abdullah and Avdo Purkovic , Spike Golding, Gertie Munro, Ambassador Ian Cliff OBE, Ambassador Gary Robbins and Ambassador Igor Davidovic of the OSCE and the British
Ambassadors Simon Smith in Vienna and Michael Tatham in Sarajevo, Biljana Ilic, Ruth Gursch-Adam, Florian and Annette Kitt, Jonathan Irons, Ediba Kapic, Amila Lagumdzija, Adnan Calkic, Aleksandre Prieto and many others for their unstinting support and help.

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