RADIUS - Key Persons

Anthony Peter taught English and Drama for 37 years. For 10 of those he was Director of Drama at Wellington College where he directed once a year and produced 5 or 6 other plays. His interests now lie in being the "extra pair of eyes in the room", working with Tim Benjamin on libretti, and helping Radius productions to be happy ones for the cast and crew.

Danae Eleni is a lyric soprano, who enjoys performing a range of repertoire, from Baroque, through Classical and Romantic, to Jazz and Music Theatre and Contemporary Classical Collaborations. Equally at home on the operatic stage and the recital platform, Danae has most recently performed in Singapore, London, Berlin, Oxford and Bahrain. A dedicated ambassador for contemporary repertoire, Danae often collaborates with composers and directors to devise new pieces of Music and Theatre. She is in the process of recording an album dedicated to works which are unaccompanied or accompanied by solo non-keyboard instrument. Danae is delighted to work with fellow performers of all ages to encourage new ways of approaching singing. Danae's Science and Maths background inspires her to constantly search for links between Science/Maths and Music, developing links with Professors in both fields, and occasionally coaching Science and Maths also. Danae also enjoys recommending colleagues to potential collaborators for the benefit of Art and Science.

Job Titles:

• Music Director
• Musical Director of Chester Festival Chorus

Ellie is the Musical Director of Chester Festival Chorus, Stafford Choral Society and St Peter's Church, Hale, the Associate Conductor of Manchester Chamber Choir, and is the Founder and Artistic Director of Kantos Chamber Choir. Ellie regularly directs for the BBC Radio 4 Daily Service and Sunday Worship broadcasts. She is the Assistant Director of the Hallé Youth Choir and regularly assists Jonathon Heyward with the Hallé Youth Orchestra, and has also worked with the Hallé Choir and the BBC Philharmonic. Ellie holds a First Class degree in Music from the University of Manchester and a Masters degree with Distinction in Conducting from the Royal Northern College of Music, where she took part in masterclasses with Sir Mark Elder and David Hill. A prize winner in Romania at the 2018 Gheorghe Dima International Choir Conducting Competition, Ellie is also selected for the 2018 Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme with Marin Alsop in Aldeburgh, and the Royal Opera House's Jette Parker Women Conductors programme.

Job Titles:

• Director and Designer ( 2012 )

Job Titles:

• Member of the BBC Singers

Based in London, Rebecca enjoys a busy and versatile career, performing across the UK and abroad with some of the most exciting conductors and ensembles. As a soloist she has appeared with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Ensemble 10/10, Psappha, The Northern Sinfonia, Manchester Camerata and performed at the BBC Proms, Oxford Lieder Festival, The Wigmore Hall, The Royal Festival Hall, Cadogan Hall, The Purcell Room, King's Place, The Lake District, Salisbury, Buxton and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festivals. Rebecca is a member of the BBC Singers and also Exaudi, with whom she performs a diverse range of repertoire at venues across the UK and abroad. She also performs with Britten Sinfonia Voices, Stile Antico, The Choir of the Enlightenment, The Dunedin Consort and Oxford Baroque. She is also Artistic Director of the award-winning theatre company Re:Sound. Rebecca grew up in Macclesfield, Cheshire and read Modern Languages at The Queen's College, Oxford, before going on to postgraduate study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the Royal Northern College of Music, completing an MMus with Distinction. She has been the grateful recipient of the Oxford Lieder Festival Scholarship, the RNCM Contemporary Music Prize and the Liverpool Opera Circle Bursary.

Job Titles:

• Artistic Director
• Director

Tim Benjamin's Radius ensemble comprises some of Britains most decorated young new music performers, and since its début in 2007 the group has become known for its polished recitals of contemporary and 20th-century repertoire. For their latest Purcell Room appearance, Radius flanked a major new piece by Benjamin, Mrs Lazarus, with early works by Berg and Schoenberg, drawing together old and new incarnations of expressionism. Mrs Lazarus is a setting of Carol Ann Duffy's poem, the story of a widow haunted by her dead husband as she seeks solace with a new lover. Benjamin is making a speciality of semi-staged music theatre works, and Mrs Lazarus - directed by Lewis Reynolds - was a particularly successful example. The staging was extremely light, with piano, violin, cello, flute and clarinet placed in a square around the soprano, Danae Eleni, who had a license to move as she wished. I was especially struck by the instrumental prologue, which seemed to encage the vocalist before she had even had a chance to sing. Some of the coloristic effects recalled horror movie soundtracks, and the overall impression remained suitably spooky. At the crucial point where the poem shifts from past to present tense Benjamin's fluid writing locked into tense, even phrases, like becoming suddenly aware of ones own breath. Tim Benjamin is a composer, known for his work in opera, as well as in film and TV. His works include the critically acclaimed RIP and Silent Jack (presented together as Life Stories, 2015),Madame X (2014) and Emily (2013), along with music for the concert hall, a substantial body of chamber music and the large-scale oratorio Herakles (2016). He is also an award-winning director for screen and stage, a writer, and a public speaker. Tim studied at Oxford University with Robert Saxton, at the RNCM with Anthony Gilbert, and privately with the late Steve Martland, in whose memory he created the SAM Summer School's Steve Martland Scholarship.