Trinity Women’s Network Concert and Dinner, Saturday 9 September 2017

Sophie Hannah is an internationally bestselling writer of psychological crime fiction, published in 32 languages and 51 territories. In 2014, with the blessing of Agatha Christie’s family and estate, Sophie published a new Hercule Poirot novel, The Monogram Murders, which was a bestseller in more than fifteen countries. In September 2016, her second Poirot novel, Closed Casket, will be published. In 2013, Sophie’s novel The Carrier won the Crime Thriller of the Year Award at the Specsavers National Book Awards. Two of her crime novels have been adapted for television and appeared on ITV1 under the series title Case Sensitive. From 1997 to 1999 she was Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge, and between 1999 and 2001 she was a fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. She lives with her husband, children and dog in Cambridge, where she is a Fellow Commoner at Lucy Cavendish College.

Angela Leighton is currently Senior Research Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge.  She has worked mainly on nineteenth and twentieth-century literature, on women’s writing, on aestheticism and the aesthetic, and on poetry generally.  She has published many articles and various critical books, as well as four volumes of poetry, most recently Spills (2016), which includes a memoir, short stories and translations, as well as new poetry.

Joanna Sleight (1995) was a choral scholar at Trinity, reading Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic in which she was awarded a Distinction for her MPhil.  After leaving Cambridge, she studied Voice and Alexander Technique in Melbourne, Australia and subsequently trained in opera performance at ENO Baylis.  Within the wide repertoire which she performs, Joanna has a particular interest in new music, creating the role of Catherine Blake in Rachel Stott’s Companion of Angels (an oratorio on the life of William Blake) and premiering songs and oratorios by composers such as Graham Ross, Charles Griffin and Jonathan Dove.  Joanna was a founder member of the experimental performance group Experience Vocal Dance Theatre, where she worked with Experience Bryon and Konstantinos Thomaidis in developing a movement modality allowing for vocal freedom whilst dancing.  As well as performing and recording CDs and film/TV soundtracks, Joanna teaches singing and is currently training to become a teacher of the Alexander Technique. Joanna arranges vocal music for ensembles, in particular for the vocal trio Classique which she directs, and has recently begun composing songs to add to her own concert repertoire.  The Ebb Tide is her first song cycle, conceived as a miniature opera with 3 characters: the woman, her lover and the sea.  The cycle consists of 5 poems by Robert Browning, arranged in a narrative that follows the swell and ebb of their love affair, dominated by the constant call of the tide.

Rebecca Watts (2001) read English at Trinity and currently lives in Cambridge, where she works in a library and as a freelance editor and writer. In 2015 a selection of her poetry was included in the Carcanet anthology New Poetries VI. Her debut collection, The Met Office Advises Caution, was published by Carcanet in 2016 and featured in the Guardian and Financial Times ‘Best Books of 2016’ lists.

In addition to her role of Principal cello of Welsh National Opera, and former cellist of the Zehetmair quartet, Rosie enjoys a busy and varied career as chamber musician, soloist, guest principal, and teacher. Despite a full WNO schedule, playing in the orchestral pit, symphony and chamber concerts, and sometimes in costume and character as part of the opera, Rosie has also guest lead the cello sections of Bournemouth Symphony, BBC National orchestras of Wales and Scotland, City of Birmingham Symphony orchestra, English National Opera and Opera North, and the Royal Northern Sinfonia. Away from the regular classical regime, Rosie has recorded albums with folk musicians Rachel Unthank and Troy Donockley and performed with the German Cabaret show “Ensemble Extravagance!” Rosie studied at Cambridge University and The Cologne Musikhochschule under Maria Kliegel. Now a keen educator, Rosie teaches cello and chamber music at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, coaches for the National Children’s Orchestra, and gives masterclasses annually at Cellofest.

Pianist Christina Lawrie has performed as soloist in live BBC Radio 3 and Radio Scotland broadcasts, and has given solo recitals for Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Leeds International Concert Season, St. George’s, Bristol, Perth Concert Hall. She has appeared as soloist in many concertos including the Grieg Concerto with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Christina has a special interest in performances which combine different art forms. At the Purcell Room in 2005 she curated and played in what is thought to have been the London premiere of “Das Jahr” [The Year] by Fanny Mendelssohn. She presented a multimedia performance of music, fair copy illustrations by Fanny’s husband Wilhelm Hensel, and poetic quotations selected by the composer. She has also collaborated with novelist and Trinity alumnus Conrad Williams in a performance of music and readings from his novel “The Concert Pianist”. Christina is a Staff Accompanist in the Vocal Department of the Royal College of Music in London. She works extensively as a song pianist and chamber musician, collaborating regularly with artists including her violinist husband Marcus Barcham Stevens, baritone Stephen Varcoe and violinist Harriet Mackenzie. Christina studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, RCM and RAM. Her teachers have included Sergei Babyan, Joan Havill, Vanessa Latarche and Yonty Solomon.