Orpheon Voices
bringing literature to life

offers talks, workshops and performances that work with literature through the art of the spoken word. The artists work creatively through the lyric, epic and dramatic arts.

Formed in 2004, the first year was dedicated to creating an ensemble of voices, which then performed To Tell the Hours, a sequence of poems from A Shropshire Lad by A.E.Housman, interwoven with reflections on the poet’s biography.

In 2006, two new productions were added to the repertoire, and taken to Brighton Festival:

Pierrot Lunaire, an extravaganza for a cast of 69, using the poems of Otto Erich Hartleben, eurythmy and movement, with an original score.

Virginia and Vita for a Summer’s Evening was a solo-voice, solo-cello production devised and performed by Vanessa Underwood with Ben Hess on cello.

Window on Poetry is a monthly meeting-place for those who love poetry. Eight meetings are held during the year, either in the UK or North America.

Our 2009 season will feature

a new recital Thaw Follows Frost from the poems of A.E.Housman, celebrating the 150th ANNIVERSARY of his birth

a recital Being Shelley from the poems of P.B. Shelley in tandem with a lecture from his biographer Ann Wroe

passages from To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf