I am a Bristol based singer/songwriter, performer and music therapist in training.
I have performed and devised Opera, Musical Theatre, Physical Theatre and Children's Educational Theatre from the West End to Edinburgh Fringe. Since graduating from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama (Bachelor Hons - Voice) in 2014 under a scholarship, I have toured all over the UK and abroad, from Catalonia to Kuwait.
I have enjoyed the privilige and opportunity to pursue my lifelong fascination with stories, through all mediums in all forms and combinations; be it live or recorded, onstage, through gesture, on-set, on air, on paper or online.
Folk Song, Jazz, Opera, Soul, Hip-Hop, Pop, Music Theatre and Classical are amongst the genres I've been absorbing and singing all my life, and I intend to hold these skills in equal esteem as I advance my career in performance. I also create and perform my own music/songs. My debut album, Full Spiral, was released in April 2023.
Since 2020 I have started a regular practice and performance of improvisation and have found it to be both immensely cathartic as well as a powerful creative tool. I am an active member of the Bristol Improv Theatre and perform regularly as part of their ‘This Is Your Musical’ improvised musical theatre show.
I am also a member of All That Malarkey - a classical cabaret ensemble who take an operatic approach to hits from Gershwin to Gaga, The Beatles to Britney, celebrating 80s and 90s pop nostalgia, classic power ballads and jazz standards.
I perform every summer with Forbear! Theatre as guest theatre company for the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival in both Buxton and Harrogate, usually followed by a performance at Ettington Park, Warwickshire.
I sing with Tryani Collective, who deliver multi-part vocal arrangements with explosive percussion, synthesisers and drums. We played at Starry Skies, Fanny’s Meadow and Shambala Festival in the summer of 2023.
After a year of working with Live Music Now in 2022 and am now undergoing studies in a part-time Masters in Music Therapy at UWE.
For more information or to discuss collaborative work, contact me here
Commendations:
“A talented bunch of real character actors who can sing...one of the best G&S productions I’ve ever seen... I’m now a fully paid up fan ”
- Mike Leigh - Film Director - referring to Forbeare Theatre's Production of The Grand Duke in which yours truly played the title role.
“Roly is a wonderfully collaborative and generous theatre maker and musician, whose brilliantly inquisitive mind and talent has led to some truly exciting rehearsal processes and thrilling performances.”
- Hannah Noone - Writer/Director https://directorsprogram.youngvic.org/member/2566
“Roland is a performer of true integrity who shows up fully for each role he plays with his physical ability, acting talent, and depth of human understanding”
Ruth Mariner, Writer/Director
“Mercury’s saltarello is a specially welcome guest in the second scene, dispatched with terrific verve by Roland Harrad, who somehow manages to sing and chassé through the milling throng.”
“...Roles such as the Father, sung by Roland Harrad with a flair for playing the merrily drunk, and Rachel Dreese’s brilliantly created Hansel, were always crisp and audible.”
“Roland is a brilliant, wonderfully articulate narrator, with a burning passion for literature - and an absolute pleasure to collaborate with. He was thorough and diligent in his work, and his service was more than timely. I’d be honoured to work with him again.
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