We are looking forward to Saturday 16 October, when a magic mix of dance, music and theatre will bring Stravinsky’s thilling The Soldier’s Tale to vibrant life. Read on and meet some of the brilliant performers and musicians who are busy rehearsing…
Benjamin Oliver
Music Director, Conductor
Miriam Higgins
Theatre Director
Zoie Golding
Choreographer, Movement Director
Benjamin Oliver is a composer, conductor and jazz pianist, whose music has been performed internationally, broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and his ‘Loop Concerto for jazz trio and large ensemble’ was nominated in the Contemporary Jazz category of the British Composer Awards 2017.
Ben is Associate Professor in Composition and current Head of Music at the University of Southampton.
Miriam Higgins has directed numerous productions including Mercutio and Tybalt (BTStudio, Oxford 2019 and 2017), Dreamscape (OffBeat and Buston Festival), Railway Children (UK tour) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Oxford), and has been assistant director for Deathtrap (Salisbury Playhouse), Romeo & Juliet: Unzipped (Salisbury Playhouse), Hitchcock Blonde (Hull Truck), Aladdin and the Magical Lamp (North Wall, Oxford) and The Merchant of Venice (Oxford).
Zoie Golding is an Artistic Director, Producer and Choreographer, and founder and Artistic Director of FuzzyLogic Youth Dance Company and ZoieLogic Dance Theatre. She specialises in bringing people together for exceptional and innovative dance experiences, and reaching those least likely to take part in the arts. Zoie is Associate Artist at Mayflower Theatre, Discover Artist at Pavilion Dance South West, an Honorary Fellow of University of Winchester, and Resident Company at MAST.
Gabriel Fleary soldier 
Alex Harland devil 
Alex Evens prince
Gabriel Fleary graduated from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. His theatre credits include Don Quixote (Garrick/RSC), Richard III (Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre), and Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre/Birmingham Rep). His film and television credits include; Charismata (Hydra Productions) Red Tails (George Lucas Films) and Ashes to Ashes (Kudos/BBC)
Alex Harland trained at Cambridge University and Drama Studio, London. His theatre credits include Blood Brothers (West End and Royal Alexandra, Toronto); Enduring Song (Southwark Playhouse) and One for the Pot (Theatre Royal, Windsor). His television and film credits include The Crown (Left Bank Pictures: Season 4), Killer on the Line (Thumbs Up) and Sky Sharks (Fuse Box Films).
Born in Southampton, Alex Evens started contemporary dance at the age of 14. He graduated NSCD and joined Company Chameleon as an apprentice dancer, later performing throughout central Europe as part of their production Beauty Of The Beast. Alex now works with ZoieLogic as a performer and is the company’s Youth Coordinator.
Cornelius Clarke narrator 
Caroline Balding violin 
Mercedes Cartwright double bass
Cornelius Clarke‘s theatre credits include Macbeth, King Lear, The Crucible, and A Christmas Carol. His film and television credits include Holy Water, Holby City, Belly, The Borsalino Experiment, Art of the Garden, 13 Hrs, The Laura Marlin Mysteries – Dead Man’s Cove and All the Pain in the World. He has written 11 books, of which Tales by Candlelight is also available as an audiobook.
As the violinist with the chamber ensembles Lontano, and Gemini amongst others, Caroline Balding has given recitals throughout the world and gave the Taiwanese premiere of Quartet for the End of Time. Often to be heard on BBC Radio 3 and numerous other European radio stations, she also participated in the series Women in Music for Channel 4 television, and in a series about Beethoven for the BBC (dressed as a man).
Mercedes Cartwright is a busy double bass player and teacher, based in Southampton. She is a proud member of the Workers Union Ensemble, a pioneering contemporary music group who commission acclaimed and emerging composers including Michael Finnissy, Joe Cutler and Matthew Kaner. Her varied career includes historically informed performance, rock and roll, and early years instrumental teaching at the Royal Academy of Music.
Alison Hughes clarinet 
Anthea Wood bassoon 
Julian Poore cornet
Alison Hughes grew up in Southampton and was a member of the Southampton Youth Orchestras and Wind Band. A founder member of the Manchester-based Fell Clarinet Quartet, she has held positions as Principal Clarinet with the State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra, Principal E flat and Bass Clarinet with the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, and is a member of the Mayflower Ensemble. Alison also works as a teacher, music therapist and workshop facilitator, and is the Director of PACS.
Anthea Wood studied at Huddersfield University for her BMus Hons, and was the sole recipient of the Laurence Turner prize for contributions to Orchestral playing. She has now worked the length and breadth of the U.K. and beyond, with orchestras, opera companies, and chamber ensembles now too numerous to mention.
Her other passion is teaching/instructing and also coaching wind chamber music, of which she now runs her own annual bassoon course on the beautiful Hebridean Isle of Raasay in Scotland.
Julian Poore studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, and has been a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe since its inception in 1981, playing regularly with many world class artists. He is Head of Brass at Peter Symonds College in Winchester, teaches at Southampton University, Winchester College and the Pilgrims School, and participates in the Crescendo Summer Institute in Hungary. He is the trumpet tutor for the Hampshire County Youth Orchestra and directs the music at his home church, the Salvation Army in Alton.
Joley Cragg is a percussionist based in London, having trained at the Royal College of Music. Orchestral work includes the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia, London Mozart Players and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Chamber music credits include the Berkeley Ensemble, Workers Union Ensemble, and performing as a soloist in Karl Jenkins Miserere alongside Britten Sinfonia. Theatre credits include The National Theatre (musician and Musical Director), Shakespeares Globe (musician and MD), The Royal Shakespeare Company, and West End shows. Joley is currently performing in Twelfth Night at Shakespeare’s Globe, and in November moves over to a new show at The National Theatre, Hex.
Tom Barton began playing the trombone aged 14, and accepted a place at the Royal College of Music as a Michael Quinn Scholar studying with Lindsay Shilling, Byron Fulcher, Amos Miller and jazz with Richard Edwards.
He has combined varied professional playing commitments with arranging work and teaching at Winchester College, Bryanston and Bedales Schools and on the Hampshire Specialist Music Course at Peter Symonds College as part of a busy portfolio career.
When not doing something musical he can be found running, cycling very slowly up any given hill or playing cricket for the RCM Alumni team, the Prince Consort XI.
In a year that sees the 50th anniversary of Stravinsky’s death, join this sparkling cast on Saturday 16 October for a fully staged version of his darkly thrilling score The Soldier’s Tale.
A soldier, on leave from the army, is persuaded by the Devil to trade his treasured old violin for a magic book that can tell the future and make him rich beyond imagination. We follow the Soldier on his journey as the world as he knows it changes around him, the Devil returning in different disguises as the Soldier continues his hunt for happiness. But what force will win in the end?
Whilst in exile in Switzerland during WW1, Stravinsky met the Swiss writer Ramuz. The two worked collaboratively to create the original script and score and in 1918 The Soldier’s Tale premiered in Lausanne. The subsequent tour was cancelled due to the 1918 flu epidemic spreading across Europe.
Featuring a cast of Southampton-based directors and performing artists, PACS’ production of The Soldier’s Tale incorporates dance, music and theatre to bring this inspiring story to life.
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