Inclusive vocal acceptance and improvisation workshop with Alya Al Sultani
Doors 7pm
Free entry, advance booking required
Inclusive vocal acceptance and improvisation workshop for anyone who wants to work towards voice acceptance, struggles raising their voice, has a complex relationship with their voice, has felt silenced.
Alya Al-Sultani is a dramatic soprano, improvising vocalist and opera-maker from Basrah, Iraq. Her work is focused on the themes of liberation and love. Her current work includes a trio with Pat Thomas and Khabat Abas (Manara) and with Robert Mitchell and Maggie Nicols, a duo with Maggie Nicols and an underground electronic / opera duo with GRANDMIXXER. She is working on a new opera with Jennifer Farmer and Corey Mwamba, In The Teeth of the Wind, due to be debuted in 2026. She continues to be a student in the life-long study of maqam and Arabic music and has released albums of Iraqi folk songs and interpretations of Arabic poetry by living and past poets.
Her most recent releases include improvised solo opera suites Three Ages of Woman/Mother, Self Lost / Self Found and Return/Exile and a protest album with Maggie Nicols Free, Free. Upcoming releases include Immersion with Robert Mitchell and Maggie Nicols and Manara's debut album, both out on the UK label Discus.
In her ongoing work in using the voice and breath for the purpose of finding freedom, Alya holds masterclasses and workshops for singers and non-singers, to support them to find their authentic voice, and to enjoy it to its full extent. She uses the methods of free improvisation to help musicians and non-musicians to find vocal and emotional freedom.
Alya has run two record labels, including Two Rivers Records and since 2017, South London Space Agency, releasing grime and underground electronic music from UK and Brazil.