Voices Under Pressure: Oskar McCarthy (baritone) and Ben Smith (piano)

Voices Under Pressure brings together four British song cycles by living composers, exploring how poetry, testimony, correspondence and documentary texts are transformed into compelling musical narratives.

The programme explores four distinct forms of pressure - emotional, environmental, interpersonal and social - tracing how the human voice responds to experiences that shape both individual lives and collective memory.

Admission

General admission: £5 - please sign up to attend here.
City students, staff, unwaged and concessions: Free admission - please sign up to attend here.

Programme:

• Eleanor Alberga, The Soul's Expression (2017)
  Text: George Eliot, Emily Brontë and Elizabeth Barrett Browning
• Michael Parsons, Three Arctic Songs (1989, reworked 2025)
  Text: Fridtjof Nansen's Arctic expedition journals
• Yshani Perinpanayagam, Cage Letters (2020)
  Text: Letters between John Cage and Merce Cunningham
• Cameron Biles-Liddell, Below Ground (2023) UK premiere
  Text: Testimonies and words from Welsh mining communities

About Oskar McCarthy

Oskar is a dynamic actor-singer performing new music and old music in new ways. He has premiered operas by Avner Dorman (Wahnfried at Longborough Festival opera), Robert Reid Allan (Bermondsey, 1983 at Tête-à-Tête) and Bertie Baigent (Paradise Lost at Shipwright); commissioned work including Laura Bowler's Lines, Letters and Disinformation for baritone and tape, performed at Snape Maltings and Café OTO; and recently premiered Philip Venables and Jennifer Walshe’s music theatre work The Alonetimes in Paris. His acclaimed 2020 performance of Peter Maxwell-Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad Kings with Red Note Ensemble was called a “tour de force… mesmerising” (The Herald).

He has recorded works by Meredith Monk and lon Marmarinos, improvised operatic monologues with composer/violist Zeo Fawcett, and collaborated with Rufus Elliot on durational six-hour improvised vocal installations. A regular collaborator with pianist Ben Smith, together they have performed works by Iannis Xenakis, Cheryl Frances-Hoad and Annelies Van Parys.

Oskar trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and was part of the inaugural cohort of Juliet Fraser’s VOICEBOX programme for advanced contemporary singers. He is co-Artistic Director of Festival Voices, a vocal ensemble  performing at venues including Kings Place, Bold Tendencies, and Southbank Centre.

About Ben Smith

Hailed as a pianist of "extraordinary precision and insight" (The Guardian), Ben is in demand as a soloist and chamber musician (An Assembly, Apartment House, Athelas Sinfonietta, Explore Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, Riot Ensemble, Uproar Ensemble).

Known for daring, virtuosic performances across the extremes of contemporary repertoire, he has premiered dozens of works across the UK and Europe (Aldeburgh Festival, BBC Total Immersion, Cafe OTO, CMF, inn:pust festival, LCMF, Transit Festival, and venues including Barbican, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Wigmore Hall).

Ben has conducted premieres of Sarah Angliss's Giant (Royal Opera House, Aldeburgh Festival) and Alastair White's RUNE (Tête-à-Tête), and works regularly as Associate MD on Operation Mincemeat (Fortune Theatre). His recordings include works by Leo Chadburn, Nomi Epstein, Paul Newland, Brian Ferneyhough, Alastair White, and Evan Johnson. He was a Junior Fellow at Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 2020-22, where he previously studied with Laurence Crane, Rolf Hind, and James Weeks.