Silver Swan is a meditation on falling which responds to the space in which it is performed.
Featuring a choir of seven unaccompanied singers and a chorus of people who repeatedly fall over and pick themselves up again, Silver Swan is set to an acclaimed score from Paul Clark which takes two seventeenth century melodies and weaves them into a beautifully haunting texture.
Suzy Willson - Direction & Choreography; Paul Clark - Music; James Keane/Lyndsay Bramley - Conductor
Since 1999, Silver Swan has been sung by:
Adey Grummet; Colin Shay, Charmian Bedford, Clare McCaldin; Deborah Davison; Elaine Tate; Emily Sharp; Helen Withers; Jenny Bacon; Joanna Gamble; Joshua Elmore, Karen Fodor; Karlene Moreno-Hayworth, Lucy Stevens; Lyndsay Bramley; Morag Boyle; Naho Koisumi, Natalie Raybould; Polly May; Rosemary Forbes Butler; Ruth James; Tara Harrison
Since 1999, ‘Silver Swan’ has been performed by:
Alessandra Ruggeri; Antonia Grove; Dan Milne; James Flynn; Jason Thorpe; Linda Kerr Scott; Mel Wilson; Ramona Nagabczynska; Robert Bell; Sabina Netherclift; Sarah Belcher; Sarah Cameron; Satchi Kimaura; Uri Roodner; Zoe Bywater
1999 - Battersea Arts Centre
2002 - The Raphael Court, Victoria & Albert Museum (part of British Architecture Week)
2003 - ‘Festival of Firsts’, Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House
St. John’s Church, Hoxton
2005 - McEwan Hall at Edinburgh Fringe Festival
2011 - Turbine Hall, Tate Modern,
2022 - NOW Gallery, Greenwich Peninsula
"Audacious imagery and soaring voices fill the Tate’s great hall [...] The acoustics are cathedral-like; as these unaccompanied voices penetrate every part of the space, they acquire an awesome, disembodied power."
The Guardian
"The music by Paul Clark is achingly divine. Thrilling textures soar high and sweet, or brush against momentary discords."
The Herald
"A truly timeless experience"
The Stage
"Oddly charming and beautifully sung"
The Times
"A creation that stands out from the crowd”
Three Weeks
‘Silver Swan’ was originally commissioned by Battersea Arts Centre. The initial production was supported by the English National Opera Studio and the National Theatre Studio
Subsequent supporters: the Garrick Charitable Trust; the Leche Trust; PRSF; RVW Trust; the Hinrichsen Foundation