STABLES - Key Persons

Hannah White began 2023 standing on the winner's podium at the Americana Music Association UK Awards, as a hugely popular winner for UK Song of the Year with the goosebump-inducing 'Car Crash.' But the London-based singer-songwriter is one of those artists who is always about the next thing, and the year will culminate in the release of a completely fresh adventure in her fast-expanding career: the exciting new album Sweet Revolution. The record expands hugely on the outstanding song craft and "Americana noir" ambience of 2022's widely-praised About Time, of which Maverick wrote: "The emotion she conveys in her vocal delivery gives you chills as her words tug at your heart strings." Acoustic magazine called White "arresting and wholly believable. A voice you will want to protect and become besotted with," while W21 Music wrote of "the restraint, the range, the softness, the clarity...a masterpiece." Indeed, when Deacon Blue's Ricky Ross heard the album's breezy, country-leaning track 'Broken Bird,' he was not only moved to play it immediately on his BBC Radio Scotland show, but to invite Hannah to open on his 2022 solo tour. They became fast friends, and long lines of new converts waiting to meet Hannah and buy her music at each show were testament to her persuasive performing talents. Follow all that, you might say, and she is. The opening single from the new album, 'Chains Of Ours,' is infectious with a percussive mood winning comparisons to a modern-day Fleetwood Mac. Both single and album are produced by Michele Stodart of the Magic Numbers, and the full-length, due in November, will delight new and existing fans, including the thousands who will see White with husband and guitarist Keiron Marshall as special guests on Paul Carrack's autumn UK tour. Ahead of that, she and the band were delighting audiences throughout festival season at Black Deer, Glastonbury, The Long Road Festival and more. All of that is a long way, and yet a short hop, from Sidcup, where Hannah was born and started picking up instruments at an early age. "I played piano and violin," she says. "I got to learn because our borough gave free music lessons to families on benefits. I first picked up a guitar because my cousin had one and showed me a few chords. Although I couldn't do much on it, I ended up playing it more than the other instruments because of how portable it was and great to write with." White remains passionately committed to the idea of music as a force for good, and it's that genuine belief, which reaches far beyond her own musical ambitions. "Music has such a power over me," she says. "It's got me through some of the darkest times and I don't know what I'd be doing without it. I feel so strongly that if everybody had that opportunity, so many people's lives could be transformed." It's that down-to-earth sincerity that is stamped on Hannah's personality just as it is on her music. When people talk about her songs, they talk about her combination of autobiographical honesty, social conscience and joyful musicality, and that conversation is getting louder all the time.

Jim Rice - Chairman

Job Titles:

Chairman
Theatre Trustee
Wavendon Allmusic Plan Trustee

Joana Cooper

jo..@stables.org

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Finance
HR Manager

Julia Upton

Job Titles:

Theatre Trustee
Wavendon Allmusic Plan Trustee

Katherine Dilks

ka..@stables.org

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Financial Controller

Kirsti Roberts - CFO

ki..@stables.org

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Finance Director
Theatre Trustee
Finance Director & Company Secretary / Professor Lynette Ryals

Lal Tawney

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Theatre Trustee
Wavendon Allmusic Plan Trustee

Mark Atterbury

ma..@stables.org

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Marketing Co - Ordinator

Matthew Sanders

ma..@stables.org

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Head of Marketing & Communications

Maya de Vitry

Maya de Vitry's dynamic and vibrant voice seems to rise out of some necessity of bringing songs to life, embracing listeners with what Folk Alley calls a "soulful intimacy". She grew up in a musical family in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, understanding music to be a place of gathering, a way to spend a summer night around a campfire. Maya first traveled and performed as a fiddling street musician, and then in bars, theatres, and on festival stages as a founding member of The Stray Birds. When the band parted ways in 2018, Maya embarked on an ever-evolving musical path of solo work and new collaborations. Her recordings and live performances embody both sincerity and playfulness, and a compelling reverence for the power of songs to be a place of gathering - whether played on stage, or around a campfire. Maya tours in a variety of formats, each featuring a fluid lineup of inspired collaborators. She also enjoys the art of warming up the stage for other artists and she has been invited to support a variety of tours, from innovative singer-songwriters like John Craigie and Aoife O'Donovan, to bands like Mighty Poplar and The Wood Brothers. While on a tour in April 2023, Maya felt deeply moved by the musical chemistry, emotional immediacy, and joyful spontaneity of her live band. She reached out to Nashville-based engineer Lawson White to arrange a recording session for this specific ensemble. But as far as the material for the session, she felt certain of only one song. Stacy, In Her Wedding Gown - a captivating portrait of a deeply creative working mother, inspired by one of Maya's former co-workers at the Nipper's Corner Starbucks - had become a staple in her live show and could be a centerpiece of the collection. With the band booked and the session on the calendar, Maya wrote several new songs with the ensemble in mind, and chose one cover song for the collection. The resulting EP, Infinite, is performed with astonishing depth and tenderness, shimmering with a loose, human beauty from start to finish. Produced by Maya and engineered and mixed by Lawson White, Infinite features Maya (acoustic guitar, vocals) and members of her touring band - Joel Timmons (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocals), Hannah Delynn (vocals) and Ethan Jodziewicz (upright bass, fretless electric bass). It is a powerful 23 minute journey that invites listeners into the space of warmth and freedom that Maya has so devotedly created.