Originally from Florida, Simone Seales is a Glasgow-based cellist who completed their postgraduate studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2021. They focus on free improvisation (both tonal and atonal) and devising music for theatre. Simone is passionate about exploring sound, how sound can reflect emotional states of being and how emotions are embodied. Their creative influences come from Black feminist leaders such as Audre Lorde, Assata Shakur and bell hooks. Within Simone’s creative work, they centre Blackness, sexuality, intersectional feminism and anti-racism. They believe Western Classical musicians are capable of making meaningful social change. Passionate about reaching new audiences and increasing access to arts education, Simone is a Senior Ambassador and the Assistant Ambassador Coordinator for the Benedetti Foundation. They focus on trauma-informed teaching practices.
Simone is a recipient of the Sphinx MPower Artist Grant, former Young Artist in Residence for Chamber Music Scotland, and they are the co-artistic director of ‘demo theatre collective’. Demo put on a show at the Fringe entitled ‘we just need to get through this’, which combined text and musical language to convey the inner worlds of the characters. Recently, Simone has received grants from Chamber Music Scotland and National Theatre Scotland in partnership with NEUROSTAGES.
Recently, they have appeared on tour with RashDash Theatre in ‘Oh Mother’, in the Edinburgh Arts Festival as part of Thulani Rachia’s piece ‘obuyile’; DanceBase’s SnowMotion showcase and Hidden Door Festival alongside dancer Taylor Han in the dance-theatre piece ‘With Catastrophic Consequences’; the Fringe Festival as part of the Pianodrome Sessions; they performed a solo set interpreting poetry into music at The Great Western Festival; a COP26 Fringe Event at the Glasgow Cathedral performing a contemporary interpretation of Vivaldi’s Four-Seasons, led by Sarah Wagner; they hosted a Juneteenth Event at the Alchemy Experiment which celebrated Black Women’s Joy and Liberation.
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Website: https://simoneseales.com
