We hope you have enjoyed our production of Fishing for Haiku. We’ve loved sharing this wonderful show with you and have compiled some further information on the music, the composers and the creative team.

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About the music

The music you heard in the performance was in a range of styles and written by many different composers.

Here are the pieces performed in the show:

• Excerpts from American Haiku – Paul Wiancko
• Deliverance – Olav Mjelva
• The Peacock followed by the Hen – Traditional
• Lo Segoner – The Rheingans Sisters
• Pour l’amour d’une belle – Luis Mariano

About the composers

Most of the music you have heard today has been written by a composer.  The musicians then memorise the music, which is how they play it without reading the notes. Here’s a bit of information about the composers and some videos of the pieces if you want to hear them again.

Paul Wiancko – American Haiku

American Haiku was a key inspiration for Fishing for Haiku. Written for viola and cello, it shows how music can evoke vivid emotions and imagery, helping shape our approach to bringing each haiku to life through sound. Composed by Paul Wiancko in 2014 as a tribute to his Japanese-American heritage, the work mirrors the structure of a traditional haiku in three movements and blends the earthy character of Appalachian music with the sparse rhythms of Japanese folk song.

Olav Luksengård Mjelva – Deliverance

Olav Luksengård Mjelva is an award-winning Norwegian fiddler and Hardanger fiddle player, and a leading figure in Nordic folk music. He performs with groups including SVER and The Nordic Fiddlers Bloc, has featured on over 60 recordings, and his music has appeared in productions such as Loki, The Rings of Power, and God of War: Ragnarök. He is also the founder of The Folk Music Academy, an online platform for learning Nordic folk music.

The Rheingans Sisters – Lo Segoner

The Rheingans Sisters are an acclaimed folk duo known for their inventive blend of traditional and contemporary sounds. Winners of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Original Track, sisters Rowan and Anna Rheingans combine folk traditions with influences ranging from baroque music and electronics to improvisation, creating distinctive and immersive performances.

About the haiku

A haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry made up of three lines. It follows a simple 5-7-5 syllable pattern: five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third. Haikus often take inspiration from nature, the changing seasons, or small moments of everyday life. With just a few carefully chosen words, they can capture an image, feeling, or experience in a memorable way.

One of the most famous haiku was written by the Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō:

Old silent pond, A frog jumps into the water, Splash! Silence again.

The haiku featured throughout the show are original creations, beautifully written by our cellist, Joanna Stark. The table below includes the first three haiku featured in the performance.

But you don’t have to be a musical genius or a Japanese poet to construct a haiku. We’d encourage anyone to give it a try!

Make your own haiku

Focus on using vivid and descriptive language to bring your idea to life. Carefully choose your words to fit 5-7-5 syllable structure and pay attention to rhythm and flow as you build each line. Clap to count syllables if it helps. As you write, think about the mood and imagery you want to create with only a few words. Once complete practice reading your haiku aloud, using expression and clear intonation to share your poem with others.

About the director

Sophie Rivlin is Creative Director of MishMash Productions and works with us as both a director and performer. Sophie created Fishing for Haiku with the performers, from the ground up, inspired by the emotional storytelling of Paul Wiancko’s American Haiku and the gentle humour, friendship, and reflection from Joanna and Suzanne. Here’s what she had to say about the show. “What begins as a calm and gentle fishing trip gradually grows stranger and wilder, culminating in a folk tale about the devil making people dance endlessly. The show ends in a moment of quiet magic, as the individual pieces of the haiku “fish” are strung together to create one whole fish: a playful image of how fragments of language, music and memory can come together to make something complete.”

About the performers

Fishing for Haiku is a two person show for Cello and Viola. Our performers are two brilliant musicians – Joanna Stark and Suzanne Godet.

Joanna Stark – Cello

Joanna is a versatile cellist from North East Fife whose background in classical and Scottish traditional music informs her work across contemporary classical, jazz, improvisation, and composition. She has performed at the BBC Proms with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and is passionate about creating meaningful musical experiences for audiences of all ages. Alongside performing and teaching, Joanna regularly brings live music into community settings through collaborative and outreach projects.