Turning the Elements performs spirited and lyrical music with “stunningly fluent performances” (The Herald) for voice and clarinet, taking music both new and traditional, and turning the elements of each piece to fit the forces of the duo, putting a unique slant on their performance.
Turning the Elements has appeared at festivals around the country: StAnza Poetry Festival (St Andrews), Fringe by the Sea (North Berwick), Sound Festival (Aberdeenshire), Book Week Scotland (Jedburgh), and taken our programmes to the Isle of Arran, Campbeltown, Dundee and Aden Park in Mintlaw (with assistance from the Hope Scott Trust).
Frances Cooper began her singing studies at the North East of Scotland Music School in Aberdeen and continued studying privately with Johanna Peters and Patricia MacMahon. She has sung countrywide with Cappella Nova and Dunedin Consort and worked extensively with various small ensembles, including Fires of Love, who released three critically acclaimed recordings with Delphian Records. Most recently she has been instrumental in forming a new ensemble, Fliskmahoy!, for three female voices and violin, a perfect foil for her duo performances with Joanna.
Joanna Nicholson was a junior student at the then Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and on leaving school won a scholarship at London’s Royal College of Music. She pursues a freelance career encompassing orchestral, chamber and solo playing and has written and performed several musical stories for children. This summer she was artist in residence at The Barn, Banchory, where she worked on the two pieces for soprano and clarinet you will hear tonight, Do we? We do and Lux Perpetua.