Alumni Round Up August 2022

Mon 12 September 2022

Our monthly round-up of some of the successes for Trinity Laban alumni.

Alumni have been the subjects of exciting announcements this month. Sarah Golding and Yukiko Masui are part of the new cohort of DanceEast Associate Artists, and will be working closely with the organisation until April 2025.

Edwin Pitt Mansfield has been elected Chair of the Association of Teachers of Singing, the leading representative body for singing teachers in the UK, for 2022-2024.

Nikki Iles has been announced as composer-in-residence for 2023 with NDR Bigband.

Ezra Collective (the jazz-grime group featuring Femi Koleoso and Joe Armon-Jones) has announced their new album Where I’m Meant To Be, which will be released in November. They have also released a single this month, Life Goes On, a musical collaboration with rapper Sampa the Great.

Ayanna Witter Johnson has been nominated for Best Live Performer at the 2022 Association of Independent Music Awards 2022. Ayanna was also one of several alumni with notable features in August, appearing as one of Andi Oliver’s guests for the BBC Prom Cynthia Erivo: Legendary Voices at the Proms.

Akram Khan featured on an episode of the BBC podcast This Cultural Life.

Dance Magazine’s performance recommendations for August featured Oona Doherty’s Navy Blue, in Hamburg and touring Europe. Fellow alum Emily May’s review in Frieze calls the piece “a cathartic and cleansing outburst of dejection and anxiety”. Navy Blue is set to premiere in the UK in October.

Many alumni have released new works this August. Oscar Jerome has released a new single, Berlin 1, and announced his second album, The Spoon, which will be released on 23 September.

Kokoroko (the jazz band featuring alumni Sheila Maurice-Grey and Cassie Kinoshi) have released their debut album Could We Be More this month, which is already receiving great reviews from the likes of the Guardian and Gigwise.

Partikel, the jazz trio featuring alum Duncan Eagles on saxophone, released their new album Anniversary Song this month, to very positive reviews. Duncan was also interviewed by London Jazz News on the release, and the band’s belated ten-year anniversary.

Made Kuti has released a new single, No More Wars.

Dai Fujikura has released a new album, Aquarius.

Olie Brice was interviewed in London Jazz News, ahead of his album launch this September.

Alumni also contributed to major stage successes this month. James Darch has starred in Identical at Nottingham Playhouse, a new musical based on The Parent Trap that has drawn positive reviews.

The hit play Cruise returned to the West End this month ahead of a tour later this year. Sarah Golding’s movement direction is a highlight.

Opera Holland Park’s HMS Pinafore took to the stage this month, with John Savournin as Captain Cocoran and directing. The production earned very positive reviews including Operawire and Britishtheatre.com

John also directed a production of Iolanthe at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival this month, and Charles Court Opera’s Patience at Wilton’s Music Hall throughout August.

Nardus Williams sang solo soprano in Ethel Smyth’s Mass in D Major at the BBC Proms this month, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. The performance was well reviewed in the Guardian.

Ashley Beauchamp was musical director for Janacek’s The Diary of One Who Disappeared at Waterperry Opera Festival in August. Trinity Laban students also featured in Johnathan Dove’s Figures in the Garden at the festival.

Tali F. Bowers brought her one-woman show Monoslogue, a piece about the challenges of life with chronic pain, to the Edinburgh Fringe this month.