About Ipsa

Ipsa Collective is a new Scotland-based music ensemble composed of soprano Stephanie Lamprea, violinist Feargus Heatherington, flautist Richard Craig, and percussionist Darren Gallacher. They are committed to programming and commissioning experimental new chamber works that incorporate interdisciplinary elements. Ipsa Collective performs works of mixed instrumentation including duos, trios, and quartets. The group formed through their 2023 performance of Kate Soper’s Ipsa Dixit in Glasgow, which they reprised in 2024 for Sound Scotland’s soundfestival. They have also curated duo and trio performances of various players in the group, having performed in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and the Republic of Ireland.

Artists

Stephanie Lamprea

soprano

Colombian-American soprano Stephanie Lamprea is an architect of new sounds and expressions as a performer, composer, and multidisciplinary artist, specializing in contemporary classical repertoire. Trained as an operatic coloratura, she uses her voice as a mechanism of avant-garde performance art, creating “maniacal shifts of vocal production and character... like an icepick through the skull” (Jason Eckardt). She has performed as a soloist at Roulette Intermedium, Constellation Chicago, Sound Scotland, Kings Place, Southbank Centre, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the Hidden Door Festival, and the Casa da Música. She has collaborated with the London Sinfonietta, International Contemporary Ensemble, the City of London Sinfonia, Sō Percussion, and Post Coal Prom Queen.

Richard Craig

flute

Richard Craig has developed a distinctive approach to the flute that revitalises the potential of the instrument for players and composers. His performances have been described as “a primal, at times ecstatic state of Fauvist force…” (Gramophone Magazine) and his focus is contemporary music. He has performed with several new music groups including Riot Ensemble, Musikfabrik, Klangforum Wien and Elision. While a member of the group Distractfold, Richard was co-recipient of the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis for Interpretation. As a recording artist, he has released several discs of chamber music and two solo releases, Vale and Inward. He has recorded for Another Timbre, Wergo, FHR, Métier and given live broadcasts for the BBC, WDR Cologne, YLE Finland, Radio France, Radio Nacional de España and Swedish Radio.

Darren Gallacher

percussion

Darren Gallacher is a percussionist and multi-discipline performer. He has received a Master of Music in Performance with distinction from the Royal Northern College of Music and a First Class Bachelor of Music at Edinburgh Napier University. Darren’s musical interests lie in musical performance that features physical and theatrical elements and is currently doing a PhD at the University of Glasgow that investigates cross-discipline perspectives between theatre and percussion performance and pedagogy. He enjoys working with composers and commissioning new works for the percussion repertoire. Notable collaborations include Kaija Saariaho, Annea Lockwood, Oscar Escudero, Thierry de Mey, Mauricio Pauly, Katrina Burton, Ellen Sargen, Robin Richards, Adam Gorb, Gareth Williams, Michael Brailey and Steven Bradshaw.

Feargus Hetherington

violin

Violinist Feargus Hetherington trained in Scotland and the USA. He works regularly with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and is an established concert performer. Recital collaborations have taken him to Germany, Poland and New York City, performing with pianists including Geoffrey Tanti, Olga Gorelik and Benjamin Powell and Steve Beck. He has premiered new works by Oliver Searle, Gareth Williams, Iain Matheson, Tom David Wilson and Eddie McGuire and has been a guest performer with Red Note Ensemble and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Feargus has studied both violin and conducting with Joseph Swensen. Passionate about continuing to expand his musical boundaries, he has returned to composition and is currently writing a work for strings based on text by W.H Auden.