Education
We are passionate about bringing new histories, opera, and classical song to a wider audience – not just with our innovative programmes, but through workshops and performances devised specially for pupils and students.
Chloë has worked with young people as a vocal coach for several years, both individually and in group settings. Anna has run successful acting workshops for university students based on her work on seventeenth-century theatre. Both have taught in lectures and supervisions at Cambridge University.
Between us, we have a wide academic knowledge base, with degrees in music, languages, and literature. We are also skilled performers. This combination allows us to design material that truly engages the next generation of opera and concert-going audiences and artists.
“Marginalia is an outstanding performance collective that fuses theatre and opera in a fresh and vibrant fashion. Their performances are rooted in profound understanding allied to exceptional vocal and theatrical ability, and are therefore illuminating, inclusive and challenging. They combine irreverence with deep knowledge of the texts and music they perform, which means that they are able to communicate the emotional essence of their chosen subjects with perfect clarity, a palpable sense of humour, searing intensity – and yet they do not take themselves too seriously, relying instead upon the quality of the sources (and the hidden stories within) to convey their message. They are professional, organised and reliable, and their attention to detail extends to providing every resource a promoter or school could need to make the most of their performances, and to advertise them accordingly. I have no hesitation in recommending Marginalia wholeheartedly; I am certain their work would appeal to a wide range of audiences.”
— Richard Saxel, Director of Music at Cranleigh School, Surrey
For schools
We pair tailored workshops with performances designed to be easily adaptable to any space and resources. Some of these directly support Music, English, History, and Language GCSE and A-level syllabuses. They allow pupils to learn new skills and challenge them to think in different ways, as well as giving them exposure to a kind of music and performance that they may not experience elsewhere – particularly live.
For singers and actors
We run workshops for groups of young singers and actors, sharing with them the hugely rewarding experience of preparing a role. Being challenged to think themselves into a character or situation and analysing the text in front of them benefits their performance and makes the experience much more rewarding.
“We loved Marginalia’s talk! It was refreshing to see different ways of presenting musical performances, opened our eyes to new ways of looking at things, and challenged our heteronormative unconscious biases.”
— Caroline Wilkes, Head of Sixth Form at Francis Holland School, Sloane Square, London
Workshop-performances
A rose by another name: Juliet & Romeo
As part of our newly devised production fusing Shakespeare with Bellini, we offer several workshop options for pupils taking Music, English or Drama at GCSE or A-Level. We use pupils’ existing knowledge of the story as a starting point and challenge them to think about theatre, opera, and performance in new ways.