Ilenia Cipollari singing traditional song ‘Tribbiera’ alongside the Idrîsî Ensemble for the beautiful audience at Norfolk and Norwich Festival
Ilenia Cipollari is an Italian-British vocalist and performance-maker whose work builds contemporary ritual through voice, archive, and Mediterranean polyphony. Her practice moves between tradition and experimental composition, exploring myth, memory, and trauma-informed vocality with a body-centred approach.
She has performed internationally at major festivals and venues including the International Festival of Chamber Music (São Paulo), Yale Repertory Theatre (No Boundaries), Tbilisi International Theatre Festival, Edinburgh Fringe, and BRAVE Festival (Wrocław). Recent work includes Sounding the Archive (British School at Athens) and Tuning Dimensions (Bloomsbury Festival), alongside ongoing collaborations across performance, theatre, and new music.
She is known for collaborations spanning experimental practice and contemporary composition, and has worked with Song of the Goat Theatre, Musarc Choir, and Idrîsî Ensemble.
Ilenia Cipollari in The Last Seven Years
For one night only, Jay Bernard presented an experimental performance informed by the voices of people across the UK who opened up to the artist about the last seven years. In collaboration with Musarc, one of the UK’s foremost experimental choirs and multi-instrumentalist Petero Kalulé (petals), a performance was devised that presents memories of people across the UK from the post-Brexit landscape, and thoughts on how they and the country have changed. Bernard’s work spans poetry, audio-visual media, graphic illustration, theatre-making, archiving, and film programming. Their work brings together personal recollections with grand political narratives presenting themes of injustice, queerness, family relationships and state surveillance, in critical and unexpected ways. The Last Seven Years was presented in collaboration with Bold tendencies.
The Last Seven Years by Jay Bernard was produced by Artangel and presented in collaboration with Bold tendencies in September 2023. A prelude to the digital commission, it was devised and delivered by Joseph Kohlmaier and Musarc with Petero Kalulé (petals). Performers include Temitope Ajose-Cutting, Jeni Be, Thomas Boudier, Serena Braida, Elizabeth Chan, Ilenia Cipollari, Raphel Famotibe, Rozhina Ghasemizadeh, and Loren McK.
The Last Seven Years Recording credits:
Directed by Anthony Comber-Badu
Camera Operators: Jack Barraclough, Radford Nicholls
Sound Design and mixing: Panos Chountoulidis