Past Projects

2023

• 9 February: Bow and Bellows (Sally Davies and Martina Schwarz) perform at the Betsy Trotwood in Clerkenwell.
• 27-28 January: Martina plays at the Gravesham Light Festival: Octopus’s Garden.

2022

• December: Martina is one the year’s most booked accordionists.
• 27. November: Once upon a time celebrating 25 years of the Wonderful Beast Theatre Company.
• 7 November: German songs about climate change released on Bandcamp.

• 9 October: a celebration of the Butterfield Green Community Orchard N16.
• 31 July: Martina joins Merlin Shepherd and the Brighton Ghetto playing Klezmer at the Castlefield Follies in Manchester.
• 8 July: “The Summer of Love“, a celebration of Sixties counterculture, from Laing to Leary and the Doors. Readings, live music, wild anecdotes, part of the Crouch End Festival, more info here.
• 23 & 24 June: Wonderful Beast and 80 Suffolk school children joined forces in First the Dance, then the Feast. Balkan music complemented by Martina Schwarz’ original compositions. Thorington Theatre, Suffolk.
• 17 June: James Joyce’s Ulysses – readings and live music provided by Bow & Bellows  to mark the centenary of Joyce’s masterpiece, a Blacktooth production.
• 4 June: Palavah performs at the Robin Hood pub in Enfield.
• 28 May: One Moment in Time performs The Enormous Turnip at Norwich Theatre.
• 3 May: Klezmer plus Live Stream in Hitchin with Freylekh Klezmer Dance Band, led by Ilana Cravitz.
• 17 March: Palavah perform for St Patrick’s day 2022, playing all our favourite Irish toe-tappers with a full band in the newly refurbished Robin Hood pub in Enfield.
• 27 February: One Moment in Time performs The Enormous Turnip in Brighton’s Komedia.
• 10 February: Licoricia of Winchester unveiled,  not by Prince Charles, but WE were right there, here with Sarah Moore, Oliver Presman and Simon Roth and the beautiful statue! Just about to play some more Klezmer with Ilana Cravitz, Matt Bacon and Rupert Gillett to mark the occasion.

2021

• 5 December: Chanukah Festival Leytonstone with Freylekh Klezmer Dance Band.
• 14 November 10:30-11:30am: Remembrance Sunday at Abney Park Cemetery.
• 24 October at 2:30pm & 3:30pm: The Enormous Turnip @ Meadow Orchard Project, Crouch End N4 4BN with one moment in time storyteller Bronia Evers and live music by Martina Schwarz.
• 10 September: Martina performs with Blacktooth Production’s Wish You Were Here. 7-9pm outside St Mary’s Church Tower, Hornsey High St, London N8 7NT. Celebrating 2000 years of holiday shenanigans in words and music…
• 14 August: Unlocking Life: a celebration of older people’s creativity, dance performance with original live music & songs by Martina Schwarz; Guild of experience, Studio 3 Arts, Greencandle Dance Company at the Becontree 100 Festival.
• 10/11 July: Martina Schwarz performing her compositions with Christopher Allan (cello), Kate Conway (violin), Tatiana Pook-Aleksic (vocals) and Hackney Song Works at Music@Clissold.

  

• Composition of music & song for the film “Stone Soup”, produced by One Moment in Time Storytelling in association with Little Angel Theatre / composer, musician, recording artist.
• Wonderful Beast theatre company: “Bubblewrap” (pilot) / online workshops session leader, composer.

2019/ 2020

• November 2020: Online-concert with cellist Christopher Allan in support of Abney Park Trust
• “Ohrwurm”, online ensemble performance at Little Angel Theatre / composer, recording artist,  co-writer, puppeteer
• 17 October 2020: live solo gig in Lancing, Sussex: A  musical journey around the world, including Martina’s own compositions
• RADA production of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”: vocal compositions for the three witches in the RADA production of Macbeth / composer & singing tutor
• “Martinas Musik Mosaik”,  series of language learning videos for Hueber Verlag, Madrid
• 5 September 2020: “Northern Lights”, a Blacktooth Production: ‘A celebration of London N8 in readings, ribald anecdotes and live music’, provided by Palavah band,  a socially distanced outdoor event
• July 2020: Creative Retreat with the Britten-Pears

  

  Foundation in Aldeburgh, Suffolk

• February 2020: Creative Retreat with the Britten-Pears Foundation2019
• Accordion composition commissioned by sculptor John Doubleday & solo performance
• 7 November 2019: Palavah in Northern Lights, a Blacktooth production
• October 2019: Creative Retreat with the Britten-Pears Foundation in Aldeburgh
• 29 June 2019: Palavah at the Royal Greenwich Community Festival
• Palace Club singers in person & online choir sessions for over 65s community choir leader
• 22 June 2019: Accordion Extravaganza at St Gabriel’s Church,Pimlico
• London Intermediate Accordion Orchestra presents a relaxed afternoon concert of fun music, featuring a world premiere from composer and accordionist Martina Schwarz
• Palavah band performed on 21st June and 26th July at the Wonder Pub in Enfield and Sunday 30th June 2019 at Lavender Primary School garden party and fayre

  

• 16 June 2019: Bow & Bellows (Martina Schwarz & Sally Davies) playing at the Gospel’s Mission Hall at 4pm to help to save the lovely building
• 11 May 2019: Hackney Song Works at Abney Park Chapel
• 16 April 2019: A NIGHT IN EUROPE with Bow & Bellows
• March 2019: Creative Retreat with the Britten-Pears Foundation in Aldeburgh

2014 – 2018

• residential singing workshops & performance in Walpole Chapel (2018)
• 11 November 2018 Abney Park Cemetery: Commemorating 100 years since the end of the First World War. With Hackney Song Works, Hackney Singers, Sing17 Choir, Wing It Singers, Tatiana Pook, Bow and Bellows, The Volunteers, Carola Emrich Fisher, Colin Emrich Fisher, Susie Evans.

  

• 27-30 September 2018: ‘Memorial’ at the Barbican; Brink Productions UK premiere; Martina’s choir Hackney Song Works will be part of the 215 strong chorus; staging is based on a poem by Alice Oswald, with an original score by the wonderful composer Jocelyn Pook
• 7 October 2018: Apple Day with Bow and Bellows
• 15 June 2018: Bow and Bellows perform in Crouch
  End Chronicles, a Blacktooth Production
• 17 September 2017: Martina’s composition “L’eau de l’eau!” at Sing for Water London as part of the Thames Festival Programme, a spectacular concert for large choir  led by Katie Rose and Michael Harper

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  27 April 2017: May Daze at Hornsey Town Hall, a Blacktooth Production,
  combining anecdotes, jokes, stories and live music, provided by Bow & Bellows, with readings from DH Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, Robert Browning, the Bible, Kenneth Grahame and many others. Read and  performed by Kate Walsh and Daniel Dresner

• Feb.- Mar. 2017: Johannesburg Concert & South Africa Tour of the “Learn German with Songs” programme / composer & performer

• One Moment in Time: “The Patchwork Quilt”  & “The Enormous Turnip” (2016 onwards)
• Sonámbulas: dance show by Justyna Sochaj, ; performed at The Place & Blue Elephant Theatre / composer, accordionist, singer (2015)
• The Chalk Circle Collective: “Revolutionary ballads” after Brecht, original song settings by Kirsty Martin (national tour 2013-2015) / singer, accordionist, storyteller
• “Hunky Bluff” by Lina Lapelyte, performed at the Serpentine (London) and the Baltic (Newcastle) / singer, accordionist

  

• The New Factory of the Eccentric Actor: “1848”, performed @ Conway Hall  / co-founder, composer, MD, also musician, singer, performer 
• Remember to Dance: Sessions for people living with dementia, at Oxford House, Mile End hospital (2014 onwards & most recently online) collaborating with Green Candle Dance Company’s artistic director Fergus Early (OBE) / co-workshop leader, musician

2002 – 2013     

• Kings Head Theatre: “Neapolitan songs” accompanying acclaimed opera singer Charles Castronovo
• Green Candle Dance Company: “No Fear!”, dance theatre production for young children / composer, musician, performer (accordion, ukulele, voice)
• Protein Dance Company: “Picnic” (Summer Show 2012) / composer, musician, performer
• “Fissure”, a site specific show, set in the Yorkshire Dales by Louise Ann Wilson, music by Jocelyn Pook / accordionist, singer, performer (2011)
• Tour for the Healing Music Trust in Guernsey, performing in hospitals, nursing homes and special schools; similar tour in Jersey for the “Health in Arts Centre” / singing accordionist (2010)                    
• London Bubble Theatre: “The Odyssey” (2009), an outdoor promenade show; “Urban Dreams” (2008); “40 walls, 10 doors” (2007) / MD, composer, performer,  also band & choir leader
• Freshwater Theatre Company: interactive theatre MFL storyteller, performer, shows in French & German musician, drama facilitator (2009 onwards) 
• Green Candle Dance Company: “Falling about”, a production for elderly audiences / composer, performer (2007)             
• Arcola Theatre “A Family Affair” (Time Out critic’s choice) / co-composer (Bow & Bellows), accordionist, singer (2006/7)
• Stanley Hall Opera: educational projects with primary school children: Rossini’s “Cinderella”, Donizetti’s “Elixir of Love”, Tchaikovsky’s “Onegin” (2011),  musical animator, song writer performer                   
• Composition (cello, accordion) for the cinematic  documentary film “Konspirantinnen” (Conspirators), commissioned by ICON FILM, Cologne / composer, accordionist (2006)
• ENO Baylis: “Cosi fan tutte”, opera for young people with Gareth Malone/ accordionist, devised and co-led youth project (2005)
• The New Factory of the Eccentric Actor: “1905”, the first Russian revolution @ Brunswick House in 2005 / co-founder, composer, MD, also musician, singer, performer
• The New Factory of the Eccentric Actor: “New Babylon”, La Commune 1871 @ Round Chapel in 2002 

1991 – 2001

• 2001 onwards: Music in Hospitals : animating patients of all ages in hospitals, nursing homes and day centres touring Channel Islands, Norfolk, London / accordionist, singer

  

• Green Candle Dance Company: “forWardmotion!”, inclusive dance performance & workshops for children, touring UK hospitals and schools (2001)
• Green Candle Dance Company: “Home“ (2000), an intergenerational, cross-arts performance touring Great Britain / co-composer (Bow & Bellows)
• 1^st Framework: Dignity, Playground, Stories, over-60s drama project performed in London and Sydney (Australia) / accordionist (1999)                                                     
• Théâtre sans Frontières: “Grimm Tales”, production in German, touring UK schools and theatres / actress, composer, musician, singer (1998)
• Shared Experience youth project: “I only came to use the phone” / musical workshop-leader and composer (1998)
• The New Factory of the Eccentric Actor: “The Red Cabbage Café” 1996-99 @ Round House
• Greasepaint Anonymous theatre company: Déjà Revue at the Afterlife Café  /  accordionist in youth theatre production (1994)

1986 – 1990 France

• TWA: Aragon, l’homme des rues (theatre), Paris; toured France & Belgium / composer, accordionist               Rues des Mirabelles: Quand un ange passe (dance theatre) / composer, accordionist                                  
• Perhaps: La morte della donna Torero (theatre show) / accordionist, actress
• Le Jardin des Abbesses: Folies 1880 (Paris theatre show)  /  accordionist                      
• Transit, a film by René Allio (1990) / actress in Paris
• La Grande Cabriole, TV film by Nina Compagnes / actress (dubbing) in Paris
• Radio: Vocable, a bilingual language programme / dialogue speaker French/ German
• Les Chahuteuses, co-founder of duo, performing traditional French songs at festivals across France / accordionist                               

1984-86 Germany

• the acclaimed Kölner Stunksitzung (1985) live cabaret & broadcast on German TV / accordionist, actress 
• Gatscheks Freunde: Eine Messerspitze Liebe, touring West Germany / co-devised musical, musician, actress           
• Touring Circus: Kölner Spielezirkus / accordionist