Club Vocale: The Improvisers’ Choir with special guest Cleveland Watkiss
For our third Club Vocale night in the cosy bohemian setting of Earl Haig Hall, we’ve invited another stellar vocal improviser to join us – this time it’s Cleveland Watkiss, multi-award winnervirtuoso vocalist, actor and composer, who co-founded the Jazz Warriors big band and recently starred in Julian Joseph’s ground-breaking jazz operas Bridgetower and Shadowball.
Doors open 6.30pm, start 7pm.
About TIC – The Improvisers’ Choir:
Formed in October 2015 by composer and vocal experimentalist Jenni Roditi, TIC is a mixed-style, cross-genre professional ensemble exploring, through improvisation, what is behind the genre identity accumulated through each singer’s history. What happens when these adept singers, usually separated by repertoires, meet in the same musical space, where there is no repertoire, only the artists themselves? As they sing together they aim to discover how they can meet and make new vocal relationships together beyond any one repertoire.
‘A triumph’
‘Unusual, impressive, weird in a wonderful way’
‘Very impressive and uplifting and courageous. Lots of sensitive communication’
‘Otherworldly. Exceptional’
“A mind-and-voice-expanding evening – life enhancing and pleasantly weird.””Lots of fun. Beautiful voices and very freeing to see such uninhibited playing.”
Watch a video from our Vortex concert in December 2015
Born in the East End of London, virtuoso vocalist, actor and composer Cleveland Watkiss studied the voice at the London School of Singing with opera coach Arnold Rose and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Cleveland was also one of the co-founders of the vastly influential Jazz Warriors big band. He was the winner of the London Jazz Awards for Best Vocalist in 2010 and was voted Wire/Guardian Jazz Awards best vocalist for three consecutive years. Cleveland is also a very keen music educator, working as a voice instructor at workshops in venues, schools, colleges and universities around the UK.
Honouring the history of the building as an ex-British Legion social club, and community, the Earl Haig Hall was reopened in 2013 to give the folk of Crouch End, and beyond something different from their local pub. The Earl Haig Hall has a wonderfully retro atmosphere, bursting with character and charm. Just a short hop from Crouch End (5 minutes’ walk) or Finsbury Park (W3 or W7 bus).
