Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Cevanne is a composer, performer and artist whose work has been described as “wide-ranging, dynamic and utterly unique” (BBC Music Magazine).

Writing for NMC, Caroline Potter has summarised that “Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian’s music is not an abstract art, but one that tells stories of history, people and travel; it has a rare sense of place.” Cevanne’s interdisciplinary practice has been developed through residencies in artists’ former homes, including Mahler & LeWitt Studios, the Handel & Hendrix Museum, Snape Maltings, and 575 Wandsworth Road (National Trust) with the London Symphony Orchestra. This LSO residency was recorded as an album, Welcome Party (NMC Recordings). It features her British Composer Award-winning piece Muted Lines, commissioned by saxophonist Trish Clowes. Based on a line written by Armenian poet Nahabed Kouchag in exile, Muted Lines gradually censors the text until only the direction to ‘sing songs’ remains.

Cevanne creates for orchestra, choir, band, and electronics — such as the 'Sonic Bonnet’ midi- controller made by Crewdson which she played at her BBC Proms debut. She has developed works for theatre, including the Birmingham Royal Ballet and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and for art installation. Her collaborative work Rites For Crossing Water included an outdoor projection on the Coventry canal, EP and augmented reality book, and was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award.

Cevanne has been a Visiting Fellow at Girton College, University of Cambridge, and a lecturer a the Royal Academy of Music in London. She is now pursuing practice-based research in music and sculpture at the Royal College of Art, thanks to the generosity of the Mrs C K Christopherson Scholarship, AGBU Performing Arts Scholarship, and D&S Ouzounian Trust.

THE ENCHANTRESS AND THE NIGHTINGALE (music-film, 4 minutes) transports the world of Hazaran Blbul to my native Suffolk coast to warn energy companies of their ongoing and future destruction of the habitat of the nightingale, and many other endangered species.

Co-Producers — Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian & Seta White; Directed by Seta White; Music by Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian; Libretto & Vocal by Ziazan; Enchantress costume by Alexandra Kharibian; Armenian dance consultation by Shakeh Major Tchilingirian; ’Nightingale’ role by Orson Gulvanessian; ’Enchantress’ role by Ziazan; Shot at Snape Maltings.

RITES FOR CROSSING WATER (outdoor projection, book, music EP) imagines future folklore inspired by the Coventry Canal. It takes ancient water rituals, such as Vijag of Vardavar, alongside recent public signage in the pandemic, to speculate how they might be interpreted by our ancestors when their original meaning has faded.

CREDITS: Music, Text & Concept by Crewdson & Cevanne; Animations by Jessica Glover; Print and Commission by Ludic Rooms for Random String, Coventry City of Culture