DANCE & THEATRE
Jocelyn began her career in experimental theatre and dance, both as a performer with Impact Theatre Co-operative and Lumière and Son and then as a composer with DV8 Physical Theatre and O Vertigo Danse.
She has since worked with a number of artists and companies including: Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company, Phoenix Dance Company, Pete Brooks, Bobby Baker, Jane Dudley, Gillian Lacey, the Royal Shakespeare Company and Wayne MacGregor (for his BBC2 short film, Horizone).
In 2003 she received a British Composer Award (Multi-Media) for the music-theatre piece Speaking in Tunes, a collaboration with visual artist Dragan Aleksic and director Graeme Miller. In 2008 Jocelyn received a further accolade, winning an Olivier Award (Best Music and Sound Design) for the critically acclaimed National Theatre production of St Joan, starring Anne-Marie Duff.
Jungle Book Reimagined (2022)
“An impressive spectacle with a slightly muddy narrative… Further support comes from a score by Jocelyn Pook that blends muscularity, sensitivity and scope.”
Jocelyn is creating the score for a new dance piece choreographed by Akram Khan, based on the original story by Rudyard Kipling with an original score.
Embedded in the roots of Jungle Book is the deep threat that mankind poses towards nature. Khan and his team reimagine the journey of Mowgli through the eyes of a refugee caught in a world devastated by the impact of climate change. They will tell the story of how this child will help us to listen again, not to our voices but to the voices of the natural world that we, the modern world, try to silence. Jungle Book reimagined will speak to all generations as a step to remind, to relearn, to reimagine a new world together.
World Première: 2-9 April 2022, Curve Leicester, UK
Memorial (2018)
Alice Oswald’s poem Memorial is brought to life in a grand scale theatrical experience inside Jocelyn’s score, and had its UK premiere on 27-30 September at the Barbican Centre.
Stripping much of the narrative from the Iliad, Oswald’s Memorial is an elegy for each of the 215 dead soldiers named in Homer’s epic poem. Oswald’s transformative text is embodied by Australian actress Helen Morse, who is joined here by an ensemble of singers and musicians. Directed by Brink Productions’ Chris Drummond, with choreography by Circa’s Yaron Lifschitz, the show stands as a requiem to all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice during conflict and war.
Memorial is a feat of memory for Helen Morse who recites this epic poem in a 90-minute performance. A 215-strong community chorus bring Pook’s haunting and uplifting score to the stage, evolving from battlefield to meadow to starlit sky.
“Memorial’s music is almost literally mind-blowing. I thought, “If death is like this, it might not be too bad.”
“Jocelyn Pook’s transcendent music takes you on an exquisite emotional journey from start to finish. She creates an aural landscape in which each note is filled with such intensity and precision that you can’t help but get lost in the momentum.”
Adam (2017)
Pook’s score for Adam, by National Theatre of Scotland, was an Edinburgh Fringe hit in 2017, and featured a 120-strong, international world choir of trans individuals from across the globe. Adam won a Scottish Arts Club Award, Fringe First Award, was shortlisted for Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award and won a Herald Angel Award (for Adam Kashmiry), and is the remarkable, true story of a young trans man who fights across borders and genders to find a place to call home.
“ It is this moment of unity through music – albeit singing a slightly wishy-washy song – that gives this piece its power.”
“The footage of the individual singers from all over the world is paired with Jocelyn Pook’s compositions. Pook weaves testimonies of trans individuals with music to create a powerful visual and audio message that Adam is not alone in this world.”
Macbeth (2016)
Jocelyn wrote the music for a production of Macbeth at the Globe Theatre directed by Iqbal Khan featuring Tara Fitzgerald and Ray Fearon.
With singer Melanie Pappenheim, musicians Belinda Sykes,
Laura Moody and Ansuman Biswas and the voice of Voya Zivkovic.
“Jocelyn Pook’s affecting original music enhancing a sense of horrible foreboding ... a thrilling, beautifully spoken production, with the richly evocative music a memorable backdrop to two riveting central performances ... How integral the music and Melanie Pappenheim’s haunting singing is to this production.”
“Music by Jocelyn Pook is a highlight. She has a superbly spooky voice, and sings the witches verse in strange harmony and discord with others vocalists. Accompanied by groaning strings, chiming hand bells and woodwind, the music strikes an atmospheric, faintly Celtic air. ”
Chotto Desh (2016)
Akram Khan’s DESH, featuring a score by Jocelyn, was an instant hit with audiences and critics alike when it was first presented in 2011. Akram Khan Company and director Sue Buckmaster of Theatre-Rites have adapted Khan’s much-loved production specifically for children aged 7+ and their families.
Chotto Desh, meaning “small homeland”, draws on Khan’s unique quality of crosscultural storytelling, creating a compelling tale of a young man’s dreams and memories from Britain to Bangladesh. Using a unique mix of dance, text, visuals and sound, Chotto Desh celebrates the resilience of the human spirit in the modern world and promises to be a magical, thrilling and poignant dance theatre experience for families to enjoy together.
“... beautifully scored by composer Jocelyn Pook, is deeply moving. An absolute triumph.”
“Here is a bona fide great piece of dance, clearly within the expectations of its dance audience with resonances that go deep beneath its surface moves – yet as a piece of dance for children and their families it allows the festival to explicitly programme for that audience.”
She Said (M-Dao) 2016
She Said by English National Ballet, with the piece M-Dao choreographed by Yabin Wang featuring Jocelyn's music, was performed at Sadler's Wells April, 2016. English National Ballet’s triple bill features new pieces created by world-class female choreographers: Aszure Barton, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Yabin Wang.
Yabin brings the Greek heroine Medea into the realm of classical China, set against a flowing silk backdrop and to new music by Jocelyn, who uses Western and traditional Chinese instruments. Costumes are by Kimie Nakano (Akram Khan’s Dust). Yabin is a leading figure in contemporary dance in China and an international performer. She produces works which foster collaboration between Chinese and international artists.
“A soulful Armenian song of love and loss (Dle Yaman sung by Tanja Tzarovska) is woven into Jocelyn Pook’s limpid lyrical score, which also includes a basso profundo voice plumbing the depths. Clouds and sea, life flows and life comes to an end. ”
“Gathers real power… and rises to a pitch of terror”
King Charles III (2014)
King Charles III, released in 2017 with a critically acclaimed score by Jocelyn Pook, was a television film adapted by Mike Bartlett from his play of the same name. It was directed by Rupert Goold, director of the original play, and starred most of the play's original cast including Tim Pigott-Smith as Charles (filmed before Pigott- Smith's death on 7 April 2017 and released posthumously). The “provocative and controversial” (Huffington Post) play is based on the premise of Prince Charles ascending to the throne and the ensuing drama of the King’s defence of the British media. The original play premiered at the Almeida Theatre, London in 2014 before transferring to the West End and Broadway. It was named Best New Play at the 2015 Olivier Awards, won the Theatre Award at the Sky Arts Awards and Best New Play at the 2014 Critics’ Circle Awards. The TV film was broadcast on 10 May 2017 on BBC Two in the UK, before being broadcast on 14 May 2017 on PBS Masterpiece in the US.
Jocelyn Pook won her first BAFTA TV Craft Award for her film score to the Drama Republic/BBC Two movie King Charles III.
“The tone is set cleverly by composer Jocelyn Pook’s minimalist Requiem”
“The evening opens to a fine ceremonial chorus composed by Jocelyn Pook.”
“Jocelyn Pook’s musical composition is spine-tingling and gripping from the beginning of the play”
Lest We Forget (Dust) 2014
Jocelyn created the score for a new dance piece choreographed by Akram Khan for English National Ballet marking the centenary of the First World War. Her source material includes an archive recording of Edward Dwyer, a corporal in the British army. In 1916, Dwyer was recorded talking about his life as a soldier and singing a marching song, ‘We’re Here Because We’re Here,’ invented by soldiers. He was killed in action later that year, making the scratchy archive recording even more poignant. In Jocelyn’s piece, the voice of counter-tenor Jonathan Peter Kenny acts as a counterpoint to the recording of Dwyer singing. Her works will be performed by the English National Ballet orchestra.
Lest We Forget included commissions by award-winning British contemporary choreographers Akram Khan, Russell Maliphant and up-and-coming classical ballet choreographer Liam Scarlett reflecting the moving and powerful impact of the First World War on those setting off to fight and those left behind.
“Jocelyn Pook’s percussive score hit the chest:
with the hollow punch of a gun report.”
“The women whirr and stamp,
following the beat in Jocelyn Pook’s impressive score.”
“Jocelyn Pook’s new score is perfectly in tune with the dance, her beautiful melodies astride a train of thrilling percussion.”
iTMOi (2013)
© Richard Haughton
Following the success of their award-winning collaboration DESH, Jocelyn worked with Akram Khan again for a new production, iTMOi (in the mind of igor). Jocelyn Pook and fellow composers Nitin Sawhney and Ben Frost created an original score to commemorate the centenary of Igor Stravinsky’s seminal ballet The Rite of Spring, which was performed exactly 100 years after the original, riotous premiere in Paris.
The Rite of Spring caused uproar when it opened at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on 29 May 1913, due to the avant-garde nature of Stravinsky’s music, Vaslav Nijinsky’s anarchic choreography and Nicholas Roerich’s vibrant costumes and stage designs. The work depicts a pagan ritual – an imaginary ancient tribe sacrifices a young virgin to appease the god of spring, by forcing her to dance herself to death.
iTMOi forms part of a Stravinsky-led trilogy of works at Sadler’s Wells entitled A String of Rites. The piece received its world premiere at MC2: Grenoble in France, where Khan is an Associate Artist in a special co-operation with Sadler’s Wells.
Bench, by Jennifer Muller (2013)
ODERNE MEISJES (Cats&Withoos)
Bench by Jennifer Muller is inspired by the film An Inconvenient Truth, by the former presidential candidate Al Gore and includes impressive film images. Muller’s choreography is about guilt and grace and depicts the ecological devastation of the earth as a consequence of destructive human behaviour. It’s a work of enchanting beauty that will not fail to move audiences.
Bench, a new choreography by Jennifer Muller, was set to 11 of Jocelyn’s works and toured in Holland and Belgium as part of MODERNE MEISJES.
In the sparkling programme MODERNE MEISJES, Introdans presented three ‘grand old ladies’ of American dance: Lucinda Childs, Jennifer Muller and Twyla Tharp.
DESH (2011)
In 2011, Jocelyn collaborated with Akram Khan on his new project, DESH (homeland), creating a “musical score that surprises at every turn, mixing found material from field trips in Bangladesh with lyrical chants and hymns” (Luke Jennings, The Observer).
“We began in the capital, Dhaka, a place full to bursting with vividness of life and colour. All around there were teetering piles of freight pushed on bicycles, tangles of wires overhead and a loud soundtrack to all this chaos and hustle and bustle of human toil: bells and hoots, car horns, ship sirens, clanks and clashes of metal in the shipyard; then in quieter moments, the sound of children singing, and the gentle squealing of hungry river otters.”
This is a visceral and evocative collection that moves from fragile, intimate works to large scale orchestral pieces, lifting rhythms from the urban chaos captured in Jocelyn’s field recordings. Featuring the singers Melanie Pappenheim, Sohini Alam, Natacha Atlas and Tanja Tzaragoza, the work includes Jocelyn’s piece, Hallelujah, described by one critic as “so beautiful it could break your heart” (The Times).
This album of the soundtrack to DESH, composed by Jocelyn, is available to buy through jocelynpook.com – click the PayPal button below to reserve your copy.
“Jocelyn Pook’s recorded score is haunting and magical, excited and angry…”
“I have no hesitation in making Jocelyn Pook’s Desh my album of 2012.
Dramatic, emotional and a fusion of soundworlds,
Desh is the kind of music you never want to end.”
“[Through] Jocelyn Pook’s beguiling score, [Akram Khan’s] yearning for his ancestral home finds a perfect expression…”
£12.99 with free UK mainland delivery
Order your copy with PayPal by selecting your region from the drop down menu and then clicking the ‘Buy Now’ button.
CREDITS
DESH is a new full-length contemporary solo and the most personal work to date from celebrated choreographer and performer, Akram Khan. DESH meaning ‘homeland’ in Bengali, draws multiple tales of land, nation, resistance and convergence into the body and voice of one man trying to find his balance in an unstable world. www.akramkhancompany.net
Featuring singers Melanie Pappenheim, Sohini Alam, Natacha Atlas, Labik Kamal, Jeremy Schonfield, Tanja Tzarovska, Jocelyn Pook
Viola violin piano Jocelyn Pook
Cello Sophie Harris
Dotara Labik Kamal
Bulgarian orchestra recorded at Graffitti Studio, Sofia
Score preparation Jon Opstad and Ayanna Witter-Johnson
All music composed and arranged by Jocelyn Pook except:
07 Ami Opar Hoye by Lalon Shah arr. Jocelyn Pook
06 Ave Maria composed by Jocelyn Pook/Natacha Atlas
Music produced by Jocelyn Pook and Steve Parr
Recorded and mixed by Steve Parr
Out of Water (2012)
Jocelyn composed a sound-score for Out of Water.
The singers are out of breath
The swimmers are out of their depth
At Holkham Beach in Norfolk the sea glistens mirage-like in the distance. In the early morning light a group of singers and swimmers strike out towards the water’s edge until they span the wide expanse of beach. They each look towards the sea, eyes intent, focused on the horizon, searching for something. Is somebody lost at sea?
Created by Helen Paris and Caroline Wright. Stories of endeavour, of swimming, of sinking, interweave with haunting music, lifeguard drills, calls for help and struggles for breath.
Out of Water was part of the London 2012 Festival. It can next be seen on Portobello Beach, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, from 8-10 August 2014.
www.artsadmin.co.uk
King john (2006)
King John, believed to be written around the 1590s, is one of Shakespeare’s least performed plays. The story explores inheritance and illegitimacy and the subsequent political deals and struggle for power.
In 2006, director Josie Rourke brought the play back to the Swan Theatre, with Richard McCabe in the title role and Tamsin Greig as Constance, mother of the doomed Arthur.