Annie Blaber: In Memoriam

19/4/2021 3 Comments

Annie Blaber: In Memoriam

Annie Blaber, loyal and devoted Trustee of Wonderful Beast since its inception in 1997 till 2019
Words from Wonderful Beast's Artistic Director, Alys Kihl

We are terribly sad to announce the recent death of our wonderful friend, supporter and collaborator, Annie, who was for so many years such an integral part of the company. Together she and I concocted many productions and events, including community operas in our Storm of Stories festivals, for which she generously commissioned composers Richard Chew and John Barber. Her organisation, Children's Music Workshop, co-founded with Jane Pountney (and of which I was fortunate to be a part), provided amazing musical opportunities to thousands of primary school children in deprived areas of London and beyond. Workshops were led by incredibly talented musicians mainly from the Guildhall of Music and Drama, and many of whom, over the years, Wonderful Beast has been lucky enough to recruit for its own productions.

Another of Annie’s great achievements was to form ‘Woven Gold’, a refugee choir from the Helen Bamber Foundation. Singing together and performing publicly provided immense solace and joy to everyone involved and to their enthusiastic audiences. None of this would have happened without her vision and energy and determination, together with the leadership of the marvellous musicians who shared her deep commitment.

Above all Annie was a wonderful friend. We travelled to India, Romania, and Spain together and I spent many happy times in Scotland with her. Her beautiful house in London was a place of creativity and activity with people coming and going, where great meals, chats, heart to hearts and huge enjoyment of each other's company took place. I miss her terribly as does everyone who knew and loved her.

3 Comments

Andrew Read

9/11/2021 08:13:15

Thanks Alys. I was a class teacher in the late '90s/early 2000s, attended some great professional development sessions run by the CMW team and ended up doing some work with them as a freelancer. Annie was amazing.

Alys Kihl link

9/11/2021 15:53:27

Hello Andrew,
How lovely to hear from you about Annie and CMW. Which school did you teach at? And how did you come across this blog? Yes she was amazing, so special, visionary and generous and so very much missed by all of us.
Best Alys

Penny Johnson link

3/3/2022 17:02:53

I have just come across this entry as I googled Ann Blaber rather randomly as a result of seeing Roger Graef had died. Annie and I worked with Roger at the BBC making a documentary series called The Space Between Words. I loved working with Annie, she was such a special person - I was just in my early twenties then and she became quite a role model for me. Sadly we lost touch over the years and I'm very sad to read that she died last year. I just wanted to get in touch to say I enjoyed reading about your experience of her.

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