Lucy Brakspear

Lucy Brakspear (née Edwardes-Evans) graduated in ancient Greek studies from Exeter University and was awarded the Israel B Black prize. As an undergraduate she co-produced, performed in and wrote music for the chorus of The Bacchae and Iphigenia at Aulis by Euripides.

The awakening of her interest in ancient Greek music led to a Greek government scholarship to research evidence of music in chorus passages in the plays of Euripides. Over three years at the British School in Athens and working on cultural projects in the north of Greece, her research evolved into a PhD thesis based on a manuscript from a Meteora monastery on the revolving cycles sung in the Greek Orthodox liturgy known as the ‘Oktaikos’, the eighth sung mode. She attempted to learn to sing these tones (72 vocal steps in one octave) with musicologist Markus Dragoumis but her thesis was under the guidance of Dr Philip Sheppard. She returned to the UK to write up her thesis when disaster struck: her research material was stolen when visiting her sister working in a hostel for the homeless.

She changed paths at this point and took up a job working in arts administration in London and took evening classes in silversmithing culminating in her City and Guilds Certificate in Silversmithing and her hallmark under the name of Lucy Edwardes-Evans. She worked for Jocelyn Burton designing and crafting flat wear, candlesticks, plates, jugs and other silver pieces. She won the Silver Trust competition to design a plate for 10 Downing Street. A pair of candlesticks which she designed under Jocelyn Burton’s tutelage is now in the 10 Downing Street collection.

In 1993, having married and started a family, she moved to Corsham in Wiltshire. She continued with her silversmithing but soon the demands of family life proved too much of a distraction. The Lacock Summer School was then beginning to evolve from an annual course in a neighbouring village into an international year-round activity and Lucy was gradually drawn in, first as a participant and then as part of the organisation. She has her own vocal consort whose repertoire is largely drawn from Lacock’s now extensive library of Renaissance polyphony.