surtitling & subtitling experience
I’m an experienced surtitler with a musical approach to captioning and translation borne of my conductor background and skillset. I’ve created surtitle builds variously in collaboration with librettists, directors, composers, performers and producers. Key clients have included Barbican Centre, BBC Proms, British Youth Opera, Nevill Holt Festival and Wien Modern. While all jobs are different, my process usually comprises
- Sourcing full scores of programmed repertoire
- Creating word translations of all works from original language
- Checking own translations against existing sung/print translations
- Identifying expected musical phrases and annotating scores for slide changes
- Creating slideshow build in Keynote, Google Slides, Powerpoint, Glypheo or custom surtitle software
- Streamlining build to correspond with artist interpretation/tempi (General rehearsal)
- Running slideshow from sound booth
Referees provided on request
Surtitles; London, UK — 2025
– Barbican Centre: Shirley J. Thompson [Women of the Windrush]
– Barbican Centre: BBC Singers [James MacMillan Ordo Virtutum]
Musical Director & Arranger, Gothic Opera x Grimeborn Festival x Arcola Theatre [Marschner Der Vampyr]; London, UK — 2024
- Hiring & mentoring Assistant Conductor/Surtitle Operator
- Preparing surtitle build (Google Slides, Keynote)
- Annotating surtitling score
- Liaising on English translation with Director and producing company
- Briefing operator
Surtitles, Nevill Holt Festival; Nevill Holt, UK — 2024
– Shadwell Opera [Isabella Gellis The Devil’s Den]
– Britten Sinfonia [Mozart The Magic Flute]
Surtitles; London, UK — 2024
– Barbican Centre: Fatma Said & Joseph Middleton
– Live from the Barbican: National Youth Orchestra [Ascent]
Accessible captioning & surtitles, formidAbility [Song in Sign]; London, Birmingham, Manchester & Glasgow, UK — 2024
- Liaison with D/deaf actors, D/deaf director and BSL consultant/interpreters on captioning requirements
- Liaison with Stage Manager and Production Manager on build requirements and setup
- Creating multi-screen slideshow build in Glypheo (Onstage captioning & accessible surtitles)
- Streamlining build to correspond with BSL phrasing/tempi/artistry
Surtitles; London, UK — 2023
– Barbican Centre: Natalie Dessay & Philippe Cassard [Women’s Words]
– Barbican Centre: Nadine Benjamin, Michael Harper & Caroline Jaya-Ratnam [Songs of Joy]
– Barbican Centre: Europa Galante & Nardus Williams [Nature’s Voice]
Surtitles; London, UK — 2022
– Barbican Centre: Joyce DiDonato [Eden]
– Barbican Centre: Accademia Bizantina [Vivaldi: Sacred and Secular]
– Barbican Centre: Academy of Ancient Music [Bach Johannespassion]
– London Symphony Orchestra [Weill Die sieben Todsünden]
– British Youth Opera [Vaughan Williams Sir John in Love]
– BBC Proms: The Hallé [Puccini Il Tabarro]
– Barbican Centre: Roderick Williams & Andrew West [A Twitcher’s Delight]
Assistant Conductor to Jürg Henneberger x Ensemble Phoenix Basel x Ensemble SoloVoices [Michael Hersch Poppaea]; Basel, Switzerland and Vienna, Austria — 2021
World premiere production of a major new opera by composer Michael Hersch and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann for Festival Zeiträume Basel and Wien Modern
- Mastery of a dense microtonal score
- Preparing surtitles in consultation with librettist and Festival Co-Director
- Operating bilingual surtitles (English, German) for all performances
Surtitles; London, UK — 2021
– Barbican Centre: Jamie Barton & Jake Heggie
Subtitles; London, UK — 2021
– Live from the Barbican: L’Arpeggiata [Monteverdi Vespers]
– Live from the Barbican: Academy of Ancient Music [Haydn The Creation]
– Live from the Barbican: Academy of Ancient Music [Vivaldi’s Four Seasons]
– Live from the Barbican: Dunedin Consort [Errollyn Wallen Dido’s Ghost]
– Live from the Barbican: London Symphony Orchestra [Mahler Das Lied von der Erde]
- Preparing subtitle build from camera scores
- Coordinating slides with camera director cues as required
Subtitles; London, UK — 2020
– Live from the Barbican: BBC Symphony Orchestra [Magnus Lindberg Accused]
– Live from the Barbican: Sir Bryn Terfel & Britten Sinfonia
Surtitles; London, UK — 2018
– Barbican Centre: Academy of Ancient Music [Purcell Dido and Aeneas]
Surtitles; London, UK — 2017
– Barbican Centre: Birmingham Contemporary Music Group [Stravinsky Renard]
