Photo: Lars Bjarnø

Theatre of Voices

Else Torp, soprano
Anna Caroline Olsen, mezzo-soprano
Paul Bentley-Angell, tenor
Jakob Bloch Jespersen, bass

Theatre of Voices is an internationally recognized Danish vocal group which has close to 40 releases and several awards, including a Grammy and P2 awards. Theatre of Voices’ repertoire covers a wide range of genres and stretches from the earliest notated music to modern sound art installations and contemporary opera. The ensemble’s distinct, clear sound and undivided devotion to the musical material has led to many collaborations with composers such as Arvo Pärt, Steve Reich, Stockhausen, John Adams, Kaija Saariaho, Liu Sola, Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, Helena Tulve, Sunleif Rasmussen, Galina Grigorjeva, Michael Gordon, David Lang, John Luther Adams, Line Tjørnhøj, Nigel Osborne, Arnannguaq Gerstrøm, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Hildur Guðnadóttir and many more. Theatre of Vocies has added voices to film music such as as Oscar-winning La Grande Bellezza (Paolo Sorrentino), Arrival (Denis Villeneuve) and most recently with ‘horror sound’ in the Danish film The Suicide Tourist (Jonas Alexander Arnby) with Nikolaj Coster Waldau in the lead role.

The group was founded in London in 1990 by the british conductor, singer and writer Paul Hillier and is considered one of the world’s leading vocal ensembles. After some years in the USA, Hillier moved back to Europe in 2004 to settle in Denmark, where the ensemble is now based. In 2013, the group was nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize. This inspired commissioning of even more Nordic repertoire and resulted in a North Atlantic Tour in 2019 that included works from Greenland, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Denmark and Estonia featured on both concerts and local workshops.

Theatre of Voices performs at prominent international festivals, concert halls and opera houses such as the Teatro Real (Madrid), Palais Garnier (Paris), Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall (NY), Barbican Center (London), Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), and Sydney Opera House. Season 2020 – where the Theatre of Voices celebrated its 30th anniversary – started with a huge celebration at Kings Place in London and in spite of Covid-19 restrictions continued with virtual and live activities in Germany, England, Italy, Greenland, recordings as holograms for 16 performances in Hong Kong, and ended with an online Christmas concert in collaboration with the National Bank of Colombia. The year had a special focus on environmental issues and sustainability.

In 2021, Theatre of Voices is booked for both CD recordings and festivals in Denmark, Finland and Italy (two concerts in the opening weekend of La Biennale di Venezia), and concerts in Germany (premiere by Bernd Franke) and the UK (Cambridge Music Festival and Kings Place) – with continued focus on female composers (premiere by Arnannguaq Gerstrøm), environment/sustainability (premiere by John Luther Adams and also refugee flows (premiere by Nigel Osborne). Collaboration with Rihab Azar (oud) and Naomi Sato (sho). Theatre of Voices is supported by the Danish Arts Council, Holbæk Municipality and the Augustinus Foundation.