Strath-based composer to feature on Radio 3 this weekend
A remarkable Aviemore-based composer who is deaf and works from a wheelchair is to feature on BBC Radio 3 in a special edition of its “Music Matters” series.
Sonia Allori, an Associate Artist at Drake Music and a community music therapist, will be going ‘on air’ tomorrow.
Linked to International Women’s Day, the programme celebrates women who have done extraordinary things in their communities through music. It will also be available via BBC Sounds.
Allori’s therapy work in the community is based on a model which identifies that it is society which creates barriers for disabled people. She operates in performing venues instead of clinical settings, with sessions guided by every voice present in the room and following both verbal and non-verbal communication.
She told the Strathy: “Drake Music put me forward for the opportunity for BBC Radio 3 for International Women’s Day. It has been recorded and will feature clips from the music I write and perform.
“I work as an electro-acoustic composer, performer, researcher and community music therapist with different organisations throughout the UK. I play clarinet, sax, bassoon, electronic wind instrument and sing – not usually all at once!
“The style of music I write depends upon the commission but is broadly electro-acoustic where I combine recorded tracks, samples or fragments with live material performed on acoustic and digital instruments and voice.
“It’s kind of contemporary classical with folk tinges.”
She holds a PhD in music composition from Edinburgh Napier University and an MSc in Music Therapy from Queen Margaret University.
“I received my first commission as a composer from Drake Music in 2013 and have enjoyed a very busy and varied career during the past 10 years.”
She has enjoyed “many” highlights, including the role of actor/musician in a national tour of the “Threepenny Opera” via Graeae, an inclusive theatre company based in London, in 2013.
“I worked as a development artist with Sonic Bothy, an inclusive experimental music ensemble in Glasgow and have composed for an performed with projects for Open Sessions, which introduces experimental music to adults and young people with an associated learning need, since 2019.”
A particularly special memory was playing in “The Lost Thing” with Candoco, an inclusive dance company, and Royal Opera House in 2019. As artist in residence with Drake Music she wrote “Curiouser” a solo work for electronic wind instrument which was shortlisted for a Scottish New Music Award.
Music Matters ‘The stories that matter, the people that matter, the music that matters’ begins at 11.45 tomorrow morning.
