A podcast by Producer and Musical Director, Russell Scott dedicated to performers who want to be their very best.
Each episode focuses on an element to performance to help you be your very best. It also includes vocal tips and tricks, interviews, live music, and exclusive look behind the scenes of a Producer & Musical Director.
THIS EPISODE: AN INTERVIEW WITH JOANNA L’ESTRANGE
Joanna Forbes L’Estrange is a professional soprano and jazz vocalist whose stylistic versatility and consummate musicianship has resulted in a busy and varied international career.
A Master of Arts Music graduate of Oxford University, she was Soprano and Musical Director of the multi-Grammy Award-winning a cappella group The Swingle Singers from 1998 to 2004. She devised her popular choral workshop You can sing…but can you swing?! (with an accompanying set of jazz warm-ups, published by Faber Music) for the 2005 ABCD conference and has since been successfully coaching choirs and a cappella groups all over the UK in the art of singing choral jazz arrangements. As a conductor, adjudicator and workshop leader, Joanna works for corporate training, NYCGB, Eton Choral Courses, BBC Choir of the Year, Association of British Choral Directors, London A Cappella Festival, Ingenium Academy, SingUp and Voice Festival UK, of which she is a patron. She has conducted choirs of 100+ singers for three CD recordings of large-scale choral works by her husband, composer Alexander L’Estrange.
Working with the world’s leading orchestras and contemporary music ensembles, Joanna enjoys a full diary of engagements as a solo artist and has appeared at the Proms, Edinburgh Festival and Glastonbury; she sings for the RPO’s Symphonic Rock concerts and for the Royal Ballet’s acclaimed production of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Specialising in modern amplified music, her concert repertoire includes Howard Shore’s Lord of the Rings, Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts, numerous works by Steve Reich including Music for 18 Musicians, The Cave, Desert Music, Three Tales and Tehillim, Stockhausen’s Stimmung, John Adams’ Grand Pianola Music and Luciano Berio’s Sinfonia, which she has performed over forty times all over the world.
As a jazz/crossover singer, Joanna performs the soprano solos for Will Todd’s Mass in Blue many times a year. “A stunningly flexible voice, flawless musicianship” (Will Todd, composer of Mass in Blue); “A voice so suited to Mass in Blue that Todd might have written it just for her” (Edinburgh Fringe Review, August 2015) With her jazz duo, L’Estranges in the Night, which she formed with her husband twenty years ago, Joanna delights audiences with a mix of original songs, jazz standards, show tunes and cabaret numbers. Their acclaimed debut album New things to say: Songs of L’Estrange & Legrand was launched to a sell-out audience at Soho’s iconic Pizza Express Jazz Club. Joanna is a member of two vocal sextets, London Voices Consort and Tenebrae Consort, with whom she has recently recorded an a cappella CD of original songs and arrangements by former King’s Singer Bob Chilcott.
One of London’s busiest studio singers, Joanna regularly records soundtracks for Hollywood films (over 150 to date), video games and TV. Recent film credits include James Bond: Spectre, Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Kung-Fu Panda 3; TV credits include the theme tune and incidental music for the popular ITV Sunday night drama Home Fires. Joanna has recorded for Take That, Sir Paul McCartney, Jarvis Cocker, Sting, Bryn Terfel, Katherine Jenkins, Yusuf Islam and Florence + the Machine, to name but a few. Her discography also includes numerous choral CDs with the award-winning professional chamber choir, Tenebrae, conducted by Nigel Short.
Joanna lives in Hertfordshire with her husband and their two musically gifted sons.
SHOW LINKS
Joanna L’Estrange: http://www.joannaforbeslestrange.com
Joanna L’Estrange on Twitter: @joannalestrange
Russell Scott Entertainment: https://russellscottentertainment.com
UK Choir Festival: http://www.ukchoirfestival.com
Russell Scott has been in the music industry, professionally, for over 35 years working in the worlds of Classical and Musical Theatre. He is not only a Producer and Musical Director, but an accomplished Singer and Vocal Coach.
As a performer he has performed all over the world, as a soloist and with leading choirs and orchestras. With over 100,000 record sales across his 4 solo albums, he’s also appeared on countless film soundtracks, opera, pop and musical theatre recordings.
His company, Russell Scott Entertainment Limited has developed into a successful and reputable entertainment production company specialising in creating and producing high profile, high-end productions. It has produced a number of hugely successful shows across the UK including ‘An Evening of Don Black’, ‘An Evening of Tim Rice’, ‘The Wonderful World of Ashman, Menken & Schwartz, and ‘From Stage And Screen… And Back Again!’ which raised over £15,000 for charity. He produced the critically acclaimed ‘Godspell In Concert’ at the Lyric Theatre in London’s West End in 2014 which went on to tour the UK in 2015.
Specialising in ‘performance’, he regularly directs masterclasses and workshops, and has worked with choirs and ensembles around the UK including the acclaimed Military Wives Choir. He is Musical Director of Next Stage Choir and Waddesdon Manor Choir.
Russell leads an enormously busy life having achieved great success in the cross-over of genres. Music is his soul and his passion, and he is committed to finding and developing new musical talent, giving opportunity to those with the ability and dedication to succeed at the highest level.
His website: https://russellscottentertainment.com
His YouTube channel: A Life In Music with Russell Scott
His Facebook Page: A Life in Music with Russell Scott
His Twitter account: @RUSSELLSCOTTUK
His Podcast: A Life in Music with Russell Scott
(c) copyright Russell Scott 2016. All rights reserved.
