Chantefable

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Chantefable’s hallmark is the integration of spoken poetry and music—not as separate forms, but as interwoven threads of one expressive fabric. The performance is immersive, theatrical in presence yet minimalist in production, adaptable to both traditional concert halls and more experimental black box or gallery settings.

“Singing with a crystalline beauty that would tame any beast” (The Times - Mariana Rodrigues)

Described by audiences as the best performance in the last ten years, Chantefable is a one-of-a-kind song and story experience developed by vocalist Mariana Rodrigues and keyboardist Andrew Cowie. We perform vocal music as well as spoken poetry with improvised music accompanying the poetry. The improvised music is cross-genre including folk, jazz, film, and classical music. Every performance is different, never to be heard again, blending classical and other genres in a way you haven't heard before. Chantefable is an idea born from an all-encompassing love of art, and the wish to find a new way to perform poetry and music. Originally a 13th century French tradition of ‘song and story’, Chantefable is creating a new concert experience. Debuting in the Royal Academy of Music, Chantefable has gone on to perform around the UK and internationally at the Vilalte Festival in the south of France, closing the Bloomsbury Festival, Musicalitea at the National Musician’s Church, St. Mary’s on the Strand International Chamber Series and more. Chantefable explores a wide range of rep, including everything from Scottish and Portuguese folk songs and poetry, English, French, German, and Italian classical songs, and modern poetry featuring everything from frogs to folklore. The duo has featured as the annual debut concert at Southwark Cathedral in 2024, as well as opened the Student’s Create Festival 2024 to great success at the Royal Academy of Music. One particular recent favourite has been premiering an absurdist song cycle about animals with music by Billy Cowie and poetry by Robert Desnos in Regent Hall (Paws and Poems, Creatures in Concert), alongside various animal poetry and short stories, tailored towards kids. Future performances include the Islington Festival, Vilalte Festival, and more abroad.

Here´s a little bit about our members:

“Singing with a crystalline beauty that would tame any savage beast” (The Times), Portuguese soprano Mariana Rodrigues is currently in her second year of postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London with a full scholarship, studying with Marie Vassiliou, Raymond Connell, James Baillieu and Joseph Middleton. She has won the Isabel Jay Memorial Prize, the Edna Bralesford Vocal Prize and the RAM Regency Award. Rodrigues is a soloist for Academy Song Circle, Academy Voices, Resounding Shores and Bach in Leipzig, and is currently Soloist Fellow for the Oxford Bach Soloists and a Vache Baroque Young Artist.
Recent engagements include the solo soprano cantata ‘Leo Scotiae irritatus’ by John Clerk and Purcell’s ‘Hail, bright Cecilia’ with the Dunedin Consort and Academy Baroque Soloists at Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh and Duke’s Hall in London; closing recital for the Bloomsbury Festival - ‘The Alchemy of Melody and Word’, St Mary Le Strand International Chamber Music Festival - ‘Tales of the Moonlight Wanderer’, and the live premiere of a song cycle by Billy Cowie - ‘Paws and Poems: Creatures in Concert’, with Chantefable – her new project with multi-instrumentalist Andrew Cowie where they blend improvised music, spoken poetry and song; ‘Arcadian Nocturne’ at the Islington Festival with Sergio Bucheli; Lully’s ‘Ballet Royal de la Naissance de Vénus’ and Blow’s ‘Venus and Adonis’ (Ariane and Cupid) with The Queenes Chappell and Instant Collective for the Baroquestock Festival; Estoril International Music Festival in ‘Amores, Desamores e Dissabores’; ‘Vivaldi on the Double’ with Brandenburg Sinfonia, Handel’s ‘Apollo e Dafne’ at the Angela Burgess Recital Hall. She has performed the roles of Tirésias, Serpetta, Clorinda, Despina, Cobweb and Nanetta for RAM Opera Scenes; and Damon (Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes) for Muziektheatre Transparant De Singel with Korneel Bernolet in Antwerp.
Rodrigues holds a first class honours degree from the Royal Academy of Music and a bachelor’s in Musicology from Universidade NOVA de Lisboa.

Having performed in some of the world’s most illustrious venues ranging from Buckingham Palace and Southbank Centre to Cremona Cathedral and Salzburg Cathedral, Andrew Cowie is a rising musical force to be reckoned with. Finding himself at home in most music performed in the last 600 years, he performs regularly on various instruments, including piano, historical keyboards, trombone and sackbut. Cowie has been an active performer on both the UK and European scene since starting his undergraduate studies in trombone at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Ian Bousfield, Peter Moore, Matt Gee and Dudley Bright and harpsichord with James Johnstone. While there, Cowie had the pleasure of working and growing as a keyboardist with artists such as Rachel Podger, James Baillieu, Margaret Faultless, Richard Stokes, Florence Daguerre de Hureaux, Christian Gerharher, Eamonn Dougan, Lucy Crowe, Marie Vassiliou, Raymond Connell, Nick Mulroy, Liz Kenny, and Jeroen Berwaerts. Andrew is currently a postgraduate at the Royal College of Music (MPerf harpsichord) under Terence Charlston and Robert Woolley with a scholarship since September 2024. He is a regular modern and early accompanist for coachings, masterclasses, and competitions at the Royal Academy and Royal College of Music. His new project “Chantefable” with soprano Mariana Rodrigues is an exciting blend of improvised music, poetry and song and has received international acclaim from audiences in the UK and abroad. Recent highlights include the reopening of the King’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace, the London Händel Festival and London Bach Society Singer’s Prize on keyboard, Aurora Orchestra at Southbank Centre, Japan Matsuri Festival in Trafalgar Square, Westminster Central Hall, RAM Jazz Orchestra with Gwylim Simcock and RAM Symphony Orchestra with Edward Garner on trombone. European tours with Girton College Cambridge Choir on sackbut has seen Cowie place the past two years on the UK/Worldwide Classical Charts, including 8th place following last summer’s tour, with a third album to be released in 2025. Cowie is a Parnassus Scholar, supported by the Charles Colt Scholarship, and is a recipient of the Help Musicians Ian Fleming Award.

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