Life Cycle - premiere performance at the Southbank Centre

The everyday wonder and lurking fear of new motherhood is the subject of a new and beautiful collection of songs in Life Cycle, twenty short songs written by acclaimed author Toby Litt and highly regarded young composer Emily Hall. The Opera North Projects commission will be performed by a collection of talented musicians including singer Mara Carlyle, cellist and Southbank Centre artist-in-residence Oliver Coates, and pianist John Reid.

In a time when 'One Born Every Minute' on Channel 4 television draws viewing figures of over 800,000 per episode, birth obviously retains its eternal fascination. Author Toby Litt has an almost uncanny ability to capture female experiences of motherhood, and has returned to the theme of losing and having children both in fiction and in his autobiographical writing.

Rising star Mara Carlyle's song Pianni recently starred in an IKEA advert featuring 100 cats in the chain's Wembley store, which has had around a million hits on Youtube. She is a classically trained singer who often uses more contemporary techniques associated with hip-hop, such as samples and loops. Mara was recently featured on Desert Island Disks when one of her records was chosen by Channel 4 newsreader Jon Snow.

'She's right out there, doing things nobody else is doing.' Jon Snow on Mara Carlyle.

Life Cycle, a staged performance of one hour with music and film, will be performed as part of the WOW -- Women of the World festival at the Southbank Centre on 13 March, at the Norwich and Norfolk festival on 11 May, and the Howard Assembly Room on 27 May.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Life cycle
• Howard Assembly Room
• Opera North
• Opera North projects
• Emily Hall
• Toby Litt
• Mara Carlyle
• Oliver Coates
• John Reid