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Anna Pool is a composer, performer and theatre director, working in the UK and internationally. Specialising in music-led work which spans musical theatre, plays, folk music and opera, Anna combines her proudly unconventional skillset to tell epic sonic stories.

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​​​​​​​​​​​​"Hilariously funny," - The Guardian

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Anna's composing for theatre includes Ada & The Code Crusaders (English Touring Opera), A Christmas Carol* (Barn Theatre, Cirencester), More…Ghost Stories by Candlelight (HighTide/Shakespeare’s Globe) and Return of the Unknown (Marlowe Theatre).  She is currently composing a new score for a major new production of The Go Between (Eastern Angles).  She regularly works in a Musical Director capacity particularly in plays, including The Manningtree Witches (Mercury Theatre/Frantic Assembly) and The Curiosity Shop (new play by UK Theatre Award winner, Emma Jo Pallett).  Driven by a need to uncover hidden histories, particularly those of women and queer people, as well as those which explore folklore, faith and belonging, she is currently developing a new musical, Mother Trucker, about the lives of lady truckers supported by Spitalfields Festival and PRS Foundation.

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"Anna Pool’s folklore-reminiscent score weaves the four powerful pieces together exquisitely" - Broadway World​​

 

 

As a founding member of genre-bending folk quartet Wise Woman, Anna’s songs have been heard far and wide, from Radio 3's In Tune to Aldeburgh Festival to Glasgow's Celtic Connections to opening for Radio 2 Folk Award winners, The Young Uns. Currently, they are creating Foxfire, a concert adaptation of bestselling author Sharon Blackie's collection, Foxfire, Wolfskin & Other Tales of Shapeshifting Women.   Anna was also a member of award-winning ensemble Medieval Baebes between 2017-2021.

 

As a singer, Anna has a regular cabaret hosted with fellow mezzo Amy J Payne, Frau, That's What I Call Music, celebrating the work of hidden female songwriters through musical theatre to opera to country music.  Initially commissioned by Spitalfields Music, the show has toured as part of English Touring Opera's Unboxed programme and festivals from Lichfield to the small but mighty Colchester Fringe.  She also works regularly across theatre and film, with some recent highlights including performing Angus MacRae's score for the 2025 West End production of Mrs Warren's Profession starring Imelda Staunton and singing on the soundtrack of Ridley Scott's Napoleon.  

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"You guys absolutely rock,"- BBC Radio 3

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As a director, her work includes Acis and Galatea, The Runaway Royal (Opera North), These Wondering Stones (Barbican), SCRAWW (Hall for Cornwall) and Dust Child (English Touring Opera).  Her production of Kurt Weill’s  Lady in the Dark (Opera Zuid) won Place de l’Opera’s Opera of the Year 2022 in the Netherlands and her Mozart Double Bill (Pop Up Opera)was a Finalist at the 2019 Off West End Awards.  Anna has also been Associate Director on multiple musicals including A Little Night Music (Leeds Playhouse), Little Shop of Horrors (Bolton Octagon/Theatre by the Lake) and The Book Thief (Leicester Curve/Belgrade Coventry).

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“The imaginative direction of the British Anna Pool result in a wonderfully escapist performance that mixes genres in a way that you rarely experience”****"- NRC Netherlands  

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Finally, Anna believes in the joy of music making for all, how it empowers individuals and connects communities to the places they live.  She regularly leads singing and music co-creation workshops and projects for organisations from Wigmore Hall to Tower Hamlets Big Sing to festival and schools workshops with Wise Woman.  Recently, she was musical director and composer of The Midwinter Hullabaloo (Handpicked Productions) which saw over 900 people from West Cumbria create a new folk tradition for their towns, honouring the past and renewing the flame for the future.  As a producer, she has raised over £150,000 from Arts Council England and other trusts and foundations to forward work that empowers underrepresented communities to tell their stories loudly.  

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*also sound designer

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