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One Voice Sings at the Festival of Ideas 2009
University of Cambridge & Anglia Ruskin University

One Voice Sings comprises a programme of song exploring music from lamentation to love, with vocal works written, arranged and performed by Anne L Ryan. She is joined on this occasion by Stuart Russell, electro-acoustic sound composer. Together they have composed The Necessary, a light-hearted vocalised reflection on the current recession, offering a little gentle advice for posterity.

Saturday 24 October at 7.30pm Anglia Ruskin Drama Centre, Covent Garden (off Mill Road), Cambridge CB1 2HR.  Tickets: £6 (£5 concessions) Booking 0845-196-3826 or festivalbookings@anglia.ac.uk

Moving Tone is grateful to Anglia Ruskin University Arts Council for assistance in funding this performance.

Anne L Ryan is a charismatic singer whose influences draw on various modern and world musical styles, composed and improvisatory. She produces performances of profound intensity that can be deeply meditative as well as highly enchanting. Her captivating singing is a celebration of the power and versatility of the human voice. Inspired by the sean-nós of her Celtic roots, with neatly tempered world and new music influences, she sings both a cappella and with accompaniments - electro-acoustic soundscapes, quartz crystal sound bowl, spatial sonics and acoustic instruments. 

Parting from the Cambridge Folk Club in 2005 to develop her vocal ambitions, Anne moved into a new area of music following the release of her solo album "Moving Tone". This was produced by composer, double bass player, and improviser Simon Fell who accompanies her, together with the late Eric Roche, finger-style guitarist, on this delicate and innovative album. Through this collaboration Anne gained a new confidence in modern music styles which led her into a much deeper exploration of her vocal potential. In the years since 2006 she has been focussing on vocal theatre work, and broadening her composition horizons through learning about contemporary music making. Slowly building up a vocal and sound healing practice in Comberton, Cambridgeshire with one-to-one sessions, voice workshops, Anne is working on developing a wider range of musical knowledge as an artist, composer, performer and teacher.

Anne's musical interest lies in writing composition and song for voice. The genre of music that best describes her taste is vocal theatre, new music, and world music.     

Biography

Vocalist Anne L Ryan has been involved with acoustic music for over 25 years, performing in clubs, pubs, concerts, festivals since she was 14. A self-taught musician, she has an outstanding sensitivity for the interpretation of song a cappella. Her innovative approach has been strongly influenced by the Irish sean nós (old style) tradition, particularly singers such as Shósamh O hÉanai and Máire Mac an tSaoí; and Dublin street singers Liam Weldon and Frank Harte. She is interested in all areas of new music, music composition and ethnic music, most particularly Irish, Spanish, Yiddish, Georgian and Eastern European polyphony and a cappella voice.

Raised in Dublin, she formed an all girl trio "Velvet Trend", performing in pubs, concerts and on Radio Teléfis Eireann (RTÉ) as a teenager. One of the highlights of their music alliance was being runner up in the original song competition at the Kilkenny Beer Festival with "Life is too short". She joined "Pangur", a five-piece band playing traditional Irish music, as female vocalist, playing the Irish music scene for three years. Parting from Pangur she formed a duo with Tomás Lynch, songwriter and Uilleann piper, contributing their own subtle style to the same scene. Living for three years in the West of Ireland Anne became involved in the local traditional Irish music and sean nós scene, meeting performers such as Dé Danann, Mary Bergin, Mary Black and Maura O'Connell in the famous Hughes Bar in Spiddle, county Galway.

Work with the United Nations brought Anne to Vienna. Whilst there she performed solo in cafés and bars, teasing out a new following locally for her music style. Regular appearances at "Tunnel" and the "Podium Café" brought about a musical collaboration with Suzanne Chawner, an English songwriter recently settled in Vienna. Moving to England, where the folk club scene beckoned, Anne lived in Oxford. She played as a solo performer initially and eventually teamed up with Colin Edwards, using the name Pangur once more. Playing locally they recorded an 8- track cassette called "Out for the night" in 1988. It was around this time that Anne founded the Oxford Acoustic Music Club at the Jericho Tavern, Oxford and promoted such artists as Frankie Armstrong, The Oyster Band, Dick Gaughan, Martin Carthy, June Tabor and Martin Simpson, Richard Thompson, and Clive Gregson & Christine Collister.

A move to Cambridge in 1990 meant all work and very little time for music. Singing was put on the back boiler for a few years. A slow and gradual involvement in the Cambridge Folk Club gave Anne an opportunity to sing once more --- at least a few songs a month. Eventually the organisation baton of the CFC was passed over to her in 1997 by then organisers Andrew Webster and Myke Clifford, and once more, Anne was promoting the best in acoustic music, extending the organisational committee to eight members in all. It was during this time that she founded two other clubs, the Cambridge Blues and Acoustic Club and Acoustic Routes, with Bernard Hoskin, Jim Schwabe, Alan Bailey, Richard Wildman, Howard Roscoe and Tom Colborn.