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Jamie McDermott

Profile

Jamie McDermott is a British musician and artist. The Yorkshire born McDermott is the lead singer and guitarist of the Irrepressibles. He is known for his characteristic style of singing, in which he combines the crooner with the countertenor, and is interested in blurring the boundaries between popular and contemporary classical music. He formed the ten strong art pop band The Irrepressibles in 2002. The band is often compared to David Bowie, Kate Bush, Antony & the Johnsons and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. The British Sunday Times described the band as “an enchantingly theatrical pop extravaganza.” Mc Dermott recorded two albums with The Irrepressibles, Mirror Mirror (2010) and Nude (2012). The band has performed at the South Bank Centre, the Barbican Hall and many other top venues. In 2005 McDermott formed the collective Conversations with Sound, an international vocal ensemble which makes intervention art with improvised performances in public spaces, for instance an underground station. In 2009 they created the Opera of Surveillance for the Grimeborn opera, of which an extended version was performed at King's Place in London in January 2013. In 2012 McDermott sang one of the leads in the chamber opera Star-shaped biscuit by composer and librettist David Toop. He also sang one of the Pierrots in a special performance of Schönberg's Pierrot lunaire in a Nonclassical event by Gabriel Prokofiev, on the occasion of the work's centenary. In 2011 he visited the Holland Festival with The Irrepressibles for a performance of their show Human Music Box.

Past events

  1. 2013

    music |BIMHUIS
  2. 2011

    multidisciplinary |Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ