From 2021-2025 I was funded by the Arts Council’s Developing Your Creative Practice scheme to research and experiment with different methods of co-composing opera in the community.

I interviewed many of the leading practitioners in this field including Jonathan Dove and François Matarasso, and co-composed orchestral songs with North Shields Primary School children which we performed with Royal Northern Sinfonia as part of Tête à Tête’s HOME 2022 and GALA 2024 projects.

The project culminated in two major project in 2025, Rossini and the Overture where the audience co-composed a Rossini Overture live as part of the show, and The Flower of Delight, a 25-minute opera written in collaboration with poet Bob Beagrie, composed and performed by students at Kings Priory School, John Spence School and Percy Main Primary School as part of QUEST 2025. They were joined by students from Whitehouse Primary, North Shields Opera Chorus, violinist Bradley Creswick MBE, pianist Emily Murray and tenor Austin Gunn.