The Person
“In the spring of 1982, when I was twenty-one and a first-year music composition student at the Guildhall School of Music, I suddenly had a very surprising experience. I was dealing with acute anxiety – due to a sudden split-up from a boyfriend – when something in me suddenly profoundly shifted. As the stress was building, I decided to go for a walk to try and steady myself. I got downstairs, left the building, and arrived on the pavement. There I asked myself a question: ‘where are you going?’ I just couldn’t answer the question. In the next moment a super-charged, benign, high-energy column of white light, coming from what felt like the heavens, shot through the crown of my head and filled me up from tip to toe. I was immersed in a column of bliss, love, and complete oneness with everything. I remained fixed to the spot and blinded by this light for an indeterminate amount of time. After some time, my sight slowly returned and I could see the world around me. Everything looked brand-new. I felt brand-new. The stress was completely gone! I felt a deep inner peace for the first time in my life.”
Taken from opening paragraph to the chapter Beyond Music Workshops by Jenni Roditi, in “The Routledge Companion to Women and Musical Leadership: the Nineteenth Century and Beyond’ Published August 2024. This experience influenced Jenni’s life and she is a dedicated meditator and practitioner of Tai Chi.
The chapter goes into detail about Jenni’s work finding her own voice, both as a composer and a singer, and helping others to find an alignment with themselves through use of a ‘voice-map’, a drone, a state of grounded presence, and a process-orientated journey into vocal improvisation, meditation, expression, inner responsibility and creative witnessing.
The Musician
Jenni Roditi GGSM MMus Dist. studied composition and piano at the Guildhall School of Music (1981 – 1985) where she then taught improvisation following her graduation. She completed (December 2011) an MMus in composition at Brunel University.
There is a fine fault-line of connection between her three musical activities, composer, improvising singer and artist-leader. They branch off in different ways but are coming from one alignment within her. She calls her voice work applied composing, she calls her composing layers of improvisation, and she calls her improvisation melted composition. Each practitioner-style continues to inform the other in evolutionary ways. For a detailed exposé of Jenni’s development as a teacher of voice work in various projects and studies she undertook, drawing on this fault line within, while being exposed to many teachers and techniques – please see the link above for the in depth chapter she has written on the subject. For further information on access to the chapter please contact Jenni.
The Composer
Jenni Roditi’s compositions are ‘unbound by stylistic convention’ (Musical Opinion magazine – in a review of Spirit Child) exploiting the voice’s potential to its limits in both her composing and her singing. Her compositions are ‘powerful but not aggressive.’ Alexander Ingram, ENO conductor.
Opera is part of her output, and she was commissioned three time during the 1990’s by Odaline de la Martinez of Lontano to write two operas including a Prelude to the second opera. The scores of these works are being prepared for sale at the current time to be announced in due course. Her other compositions includes choral, chamber, orchestral, and long song form with collaboration from players. These scores will also be included for sale in due course.
Her two operas, commissioned by Odaline de la Martinez of Lontano have been premiered in London. The Descent of Inanna, her first opera (1992) was also performed in Zagreb, Croatia (1997), toured England in 1994 and appeared at the Chard Festival of Women in Music in 2000. In 2009 Inanna was then performed at the Grimeborn Opera Festival at Arcola Theatre, in a Bare Bones version, conducted from the piano by Dominic Saunders. Parts of the opera have been filmed in a studio recording, conducted by Alexander Ingram, available on YouTube.
Her second opera Siddhartha Spirit Child was performed as a Prelude (15 minutes) at St Johns, Smith Square (1997) and then as a full length, fully staged production (2 hours) at the Ocean, Hackney (2001). An excellent full review of the Prelude from The Independent’s music journalist Stephen Johnson is available to read in full.
Jenni’s epic choral work (58 minutes in two parts) Devotion that Moves the Heart was premiered in London in 1997 conducted by David Temple and is released on Claudio Records and Spotify. Her song The Riddle was featured on the Cuff Clout album by Kate Westbrook (Voiceprint VP 310 CD).
After her operas with Lontano were no longer in the pipeline and things had moved on in 2002 Jenni was hoping to find more substantial commissioners to work with. Unfortunately by this point she had lost her ‘young composer’ high status which had helped her a lot in younger years, and she found it much harder to get commissioned. She continued to compose from 2003 – 2014 and there are many substantial pieces for piano and voice, with additional parts developed with players, a piano duo in seven movements, as well as choral music and ensemble works. For 9 years 2014 – 2023 she was unable to compose and other activities took over as described below in the ‘artist-leader’ section.
In 2023 she went on a composition workshop with Gavin Bryars in France and the dam burst and the music began to pour through. Her piece The Brimming Stone is the result. The piece is subtitled Four Songs as One and is a substantial coming together of many threads in Jenni’s work. The score was commended to the BBC Singers in February 2024 by conductor Alexander Ingram and composer Dame Judith Weir.
The Wanderer
In 2013, after one of her choral works was performed at Cheltenham Festival she suddenly stopped composing. This stoppage became a composer’s block that continued for ten years until 2023. She turned to a new idea in 2014 to move her along in the mean time – The Improvisers’ Choir.
The Singer-Improviser
Jenni is an experienced free vocal improviser and performs solo, in two Duos, collaborations with harpist Alistair Smith and electric guitarist Adrian Lee and with ad hoc groups. She often employs vocal techniques that she has absorbed from listening and being part of music from cultures other than from her own London upbringing. Her father’s Sephardic Ladino heritage has led her to deeply sense certain kinds of vocal intensity more specifically. Jenni has studied with Flamenco Gypsy singers, North Indian Khyal singing masters, Gamelan musicians and Balinese temple singers.
These influences seep into her compositions, her solo performances, and her Duos.
Jenni sang on the soundtrack of the film Boudicca, for film composer Nina Humphries, starring Alex Kingston premiered on ITV in September 2003. Her part involved both reading the score and improvisation. She sang and improvised again for Nina in a new film called Die Before You Die in 2022.
She has appeared at Peter Wiegold’s Club Inégales, both in her own project with The Improvisers’ Choir as their conductor on three occasions, and from time to time as part of other Club projects.
The Arranger
Jenni appeared with the Home Made Orchestra at the Pizza Express Jazz Club singing her own arrangement of the Joni Mitchell hit All I Want. This track was also recorded on the album Inside Covers (Homemade Label HMR049) with the Home Made Orchestra and Colin Riley.
The Conductor
Jenni founded ‘TIC’ The Improvisers’ Choir in 2015. Using ‘conduction’ she employs a system of hand signals to evoke to music from the singers themselves. In 2018 TIC won the NonClassical Battle of the Bands competing against 5 other acts and judged by eminent music producers: Alan Davey BBC Radio 3, Gabriel Prokofiev NonClassical, Founder and Dominic McGonigal, composer. TIC’s film Land Mass was released via the choir’s website in 2022 and recently won a Sound on Film laurel for best score in a feature film category. TIC has been resting since Covid, waiting for the right opportunity to reset and restart.
The Artist-Leader
Jenni’s work as an artist-leader has taken the form of two main projects: Vocal Tai Chiand The Improvisers’ Choir. These projects have their own websites. Jenni’s most recent project, founded 2015, performing, recording, and promoting, until lockdown 2020, is The Improvisers’ Choir (TIC) and their sister – The Open Choir (TOC). On this link above, there is also further general biographical information about Jenni Roditi.
Jenni has worked for the Nordoff Robbins Centre for Music Therapy on several occasions, running a term of 12 sessions with the MA final year students. Over 30 years Jenni has developed a unique teaching style and method. How this unfolded can be read about in detail in her recently published chapter (number 30) in the The Routledge Companion to Women and Musical Leadership: the Nineteenth Century and Beyond, titled Beyond Music Workshops – a Composer and a Community.
Jenni is also the Artistic Director of a film Land Mass, sung by The Improvisers’ Choir (TIC). The film has won the 2023 Sound on Screen Festival, in the Feature Film category.
Chronology of major compositions, and other projects and roles.
- Guildhall School. GGSM 2/1 Honours Composition and Piano. 1981-1985
- Performing (as singer/actor) with Gemini and Turning Point. 1984-1989
- Round Trip, an opera. 6 voices + chamber ensemble. Commissioned Baylis Programme. Performed Riverside Studios 1986.
- Six Coins in a Fountain for Orchestra. Commissioned by Schoenberg Sym Orch. Perf. Conway Hall. 1987
- Devil and the Deep Blue album of guitar songs. Performed small gigs. 1989
- No Argument music theatre performance. voice, keyboard, flute. Commissioned by Voice Over Festival. Perf. Chat Palace. 1990
- Inanna an opera. Commissioned Lontano. 8 voices, 8 players. Perf. ICA 1990-1992
- Trained in Voice Movement Therapy 1992
- Began professional practice in VMT 1993- 2009
- Tour of Inanna, The Place, Bath Manchester. Lontano 1994
- Devotion that Moves the Heart for chamber choir – in 2 parts, part 1: 24 minutes, part 2: 30 minutes. Setting Buddhist text in English translation of the devotional prayer. Performed October Gallery. Conductor David Temple. 1995
- Spirit Child, the Prelude. Commissioned Lontano. female voice, Armenian duduk and chamber ensemble. Perf. St Johns Smith Square. 1996-1997
- Inanna performance in Zagreb Bienalle of Music Theatre. Lontano. 1996
- SOS! Songs of Seduction. BBC 2 Sound on Film Commission. 2 solo voices (fm+m), backing singers from gospel choir, string trio , bass guitar, cosmic scorpion. Collaboration with After Image. 1998
- Siddhartha Spirit Child an opera Commissioned by Lontano. 7 voices and large chamber ensemble. Performed, The Ocean. 1998-2001
- Opened “The Loft” , my home studio space – and private venue to promote new music, all styles. Ran over 100 events in 8 years. 2002-2008
- Long Songs and Simple Songs. fm voice and piano. additional parts devised by violinist and cellist. Series of compositions, sung by the composer, presented at The Loft 2002-2008
- Fully revised the score of Inanna 2006
- Recorded and filmed parts of Inanna. Available on You Tube Conductor Alex Ingram 2007
- British Composer Awards – invited to be a judge in this competition 2007 – 2017
- Formed the Roditi Trio. voice/piano, violin, cello/clarinet. Performed various small gigs. 2008
- Taken up by music agent Red Orange – promotion in the UK and Europe offered. 2009.
- Jenni Roditi Ensemble open LIFEM Festival Kings Place. Hall One. Curator Red Orange. 2009
- Inanna selected to open Grimeborn Festival Arcola Theatre. New ‘Bare Bones’ version performed. 5 singers.Reduced instrumentation, excerpts, August 2009.
- Inanna selected by International Society of Performing Arts for pitch session in New York to 300 producers in Live Arts 2010.
- Inanna taken up by opera producer based in Seattle – West Coast tour proposed for 2011/2012
- Crouch End Festival Chorus perform ‘Life’ – words and music by JR. at St James’ Muswell Hill 2011.
- MMus Brunel University – distinction awarded for compositions and essays 2010-2012.
- Between the Octaves (Piano Duo) for MMus. 40 minute piano suite in 7 movements.
- I was going to tell you my story’ (Choir, Brass Quintet, Organ) for MMus, submitted to John Armitage Music competition.
- Selected to join the Arts Council 21st Century Leadership Programme with Battersea Arts Centre, Sage Gateshead and Bristol Watershed 2012
- Elected to serve on the Classical and Jazz Executive Committee for the British Academy of Composers, Songwriters and Authors 2012 – 2015
- Vocal Tai Chi New Vocal Improvisation and Solo Performance Project with regular workshops and one to ones 2012/ ongoing.
- Fall Leaves Fall – composed for Genesis Sixteen, performed at Cheltenham Festival summer 2013. Independent Music Award Winner of the Vox Populi vote in the Instrumental Song category Aug 2013
- ‘Not This’ (2014) For Trittico Trio: flute, oboe and piano, premiered September 17th at the 1901 Arts Club.
- ‘Geo Muso!’ (2014) for Ignite/Shiva Nova double ensemble: eleven players. premiered on September 20th, Kings Place.
- Elected to serve on the Board of BASCA (British Academy of Composers, Songwriters and Authors) as an interim member for one year. 2015.
- Formed The Improvisers’ Choir – with funding from ACE. – debut at The Vortex Jazz Club, Dalston. 2015
- Formed The Open Choir 2016
- Gigging with TIC and TOC extensively, including SBC, Instanbul Koc University, Vortex Jazz Club.
- Recorded Land Mass – with TIC. Funds from PRS Foundation.
- Released Land Mass, available on all platforms.
- Collaborated with Sara Pozin on film for Land Mass. Premiere on Zoom – May 1 2021.
- 2020/21 Wrote chapter for “The Routledge Companion to Women in Musical Leadership – from the Nineteenth Century to the Present Day” due out in 2023, within which Jenni Roditi has contributed a chapter “Beyond Music Workshops – A Composer and A Community.”
- Land Mass invited to be part of a new festival of Arts and Ecology in Highgate.
- 2021 Joined Inside Out Musician performing regularly as a solo looper-vocalist for their online Ceilidhs.
- Lead the first Apprenticeship in Vocal Tai Chi 2023.