Tag: Breath Cycle

Scottish Opera’s Breath Cycle wins prestigious international award

Berlin, Germany

Scottish Opera has won the prestigious Classical:NEXT Innovation Award for its ground-breaking project Breath Cycle.

Started in 2012, it helps those with lung conditions, such as Long Covid, using breathing techniques in singing and songwriting workshops. It beat competition from across the world to pick up the award at a ceremony in Berlin on Wednesday (14 May).

The Classical:NEXT Innovation Award is decided by nominations from renowned international journalists and leaders in the arts and is selected by the Classical:NEXT community. It recognises organisations and projects that ‘push the boundaries of classical music through innovative approaches, audience engagement, and artistic excellence’.

Breath Cycle was praised for its pioneering work supporting people with respiratory conditions, which included its innovative response to the COVID-19 pandemic by bringing the project back to life through the lens of Long COVID. 

Since then, the project has relaunched to include new video and audio resources, one-to-one song writing sessions exploring the participants’ experiences of living with Long COVID – resulting in The Covid Composers Songbook – and a series of intimate performances showcasing these heartfelt and emotive songs in 2023 and 2025, including A Story of Healing:Breath Cycle on Stage.

Jane Davidson MBE, Director of Outreach & Education at Scottish Opera, and composer Gareth Williams, travelled to Germany for the award ceremony.

Jane Davidson said: ‘Voice is such an integral part of what makes us human. Your voice is yours and yours alone, and to lose control over it can be devastating. We’ve learnt so much about how loss of voice through lung conditions of all types, attacks the very core of one’s identity, often leading to profound loneliness and isolation.

“So, from the beginning, the challenge for us was twofold: to help alleviate the physical symptoms of their illness, and to help participants regain their self-worth through the song-writing programme. Hearing these authentic voices ‘singing’ out is an artistic and a human experience that speaks to us all.’

Breath Cycle began in 2012 as a partnership between Scottish Opera and Gartnavel General Hospital Cystic Fibrosis Service in Glasgow. The programme has since worked with nearly 2,500 people, with participants reporting improvements in mental and physical health and wellbeing.

The 2025 Breath Cycle sessions have shown remarkable results, with participants reporting significant improvements in their wellbeing, physical and mental health, as well as reductions in stress levels and increases in energy and motivation.

Classical:NEXT 2025, the world’s largest networking event for classical music professionals, featured over 220 contributors and delegates from 54 countries.

Scottish Opera shared the Innovation Award spotlight with two other recipients: OPERA APERTA (Ukraine) and Clásica No Convencional (Chile).

Scottish Opera’s Outreach & Education department is the oldest outreach and education unit of any opera company in Europe, forming in 1971 under the leadership of Scottish Opera’s founder Sir Alexander Gibson.

Breath Cycle will continue throughout Scottish Opera’s 2025-2026 Season with support from The Scottish Government, Cruach Trust, The Murdoch Forrest Charitable Trust, WM Mann Foundation, Souter Charitable Trust, and Scottish Opera’s Education Angels.

For more information about Breath Cycle, visit Breath Cycle | Scottish Opera

For full details about Classical:NEXT, visit Innovation Award – Classical:NEXT

Scottish Opera celebrates healing through music with Breath Cycle live performances

Scottish Opera brings its pioneering health and arts initiative, Breath Cycle, to the stage with two special evenings of live performance at The Beacon, Greenock (31 January), and Glasgow’s Tron Theatre (1 February).

These intimate performances showcase the transformative powers of daily practice in breath control and vocal training for individuals suffering from a range of lung conditions, as well as supporting them to share their lived experience of coping with often life limiting lung conditions, through a series of song writing workshops.

The intention is to support people in their journey to reclaim their physical and mental resilience.

Award-winning composer Gareth Williams and writer Martin O’Connor lead an exceptional ensemble featuring Admiral Fallow’s Louis Abbott, operatic tenor David Douglas (pictured above), and actor-songwriter Frances Thorburn, accompanied by violin, cello, and piano who will perform their renditions of a selection of the songs that have been created during the workshops over the past three years.

Breath Cycle was originally developed in 2013 by Scottish Opera and Glasgow’s Gartnavel General Hospital West of Scotland Adult Cystic Fibrosis Unit, to explore whether building lung capacity and developing breath control as part of a daily vocal routine could prove beneficial to the physical and mental health and wellbeing of patients.

Scottish Opera repurposed the project during lockdown to offer support to people struggling with the debilitating effects of Long COVID.  Since Autumn 2021, nearly 500 people from Scotland and across the world have taken part in the Breath Cycle sessions mentored by Scottish Opera artists, and over 3000 individuals have accessed the online resources freely available from the Company’s website to use at home at their own convenience.

Last year, Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland (CHSS) and Scottish Opera joined forces to develop online singing classes for people living with aphasia. These built on the Breath Cycle project, to unlock the therapeutic benefits of singing and song writing to people living with aphasia, which is caused by damage to the part of the brain that controls language, and in some cases leaves some unable to speak at all.

Jane Davidson MBE, Director of Outreach and Education at Scottish Opera said: ‘As we expand the Breath Cycle II programme in 2025, we’re excited to bring these remarkable stories to the stage for the first time.

‘Our ensemble will bring to life the experiences of Breath Cycle participants through songs crafted by Gareth Williams and Martin O’Connor. These performances not only showcase personal journeys, but also raise awareness about respiratory health challenges facing many Scots. Audiences will even have the opportunity to experience some of our proven breathing exercises and vocal techniques firsthand.’

Breath Cycle: A Story of Healing is supported by The Scottish Government, Cruach Trust, The Murdoch Forrest Charitable Trust and Scottish Opera’s Education Angels.

Tickets, priced £5 to £10 (pay what you can) are available now from www.scottishopera.org.uk/shows/a-story-of-healing-breath-cycle-on-stage/

www.scottishopera.org.uk

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