Praise for In One Ear, music theatre aimed at 3 - 6 year olds devised by Director Sue Buckmaster in collaboration with composer Evelyn Ficarra, theatre-rites/Lyric Hammersmith, 2004:
"...this latest show from Theatre-rites is something to make a song and dance about....In One Ear is an exploration of sound in our lives, and of how we use music to express ourselves and connect with others. It is on one level the simplest of clowning shows, and on another an existential examination of friendship and the way different kinds of instruments and people are required to make the richest mix....This is a piece that uses hardly any spoken words, yet is enormously expressive about the power of music in our lives."
- Lyn Gardner, The Guardian, 7 December 2004
Critical reaction to London Cries, premiered on 1st July 2002:
"London Cries by Evelyn Ficarra ... was ingeniously concocted. The young composer has wandered through 20 London markets, armed with a minidisc recorder, and then weaved her tape of traders' cries into live refrains sung by a mezzo-soprano and tenor (Angela Elliott and Renzo Murrone) and backed by seven instruments...Ficarra crafts her material beautifully, particularly at the end when the live cries magically pre-echo those on tape."
- Richard Morrison, The Times, 3 July 2002
Praise for Ficarra's debut CD, Frantic Mid-Atlantic (Sargasso SCD28026):
"Evelyn Ficarra studied electronic music with Jonathan Harvey. Her tapework has a freshness and vitality increasingly rare in the genre. Concrete sounds derived from kitchen activity, shortwave radio, machines, speech and birdsong are handled with humour and sensitivity, and never seem mere effects. The title piece is for tape alone, the other five compositions add, respectively, string septet, voice, violin and marimba, and harpsichord and baroque flute. All are elegantly structured and deftly arranged, offering a restorative for listeners faded by electroacoustic kitsch."
- Julian Cowley, The Wire, April 1999
"Countless sounds...together with numerous vocal snippets, both spoken and sung, are woven into an intriguingly musical construct that intoxicates with its heady flight, conjuring up endless sonic-inspired mental images. The shifting emphasis of the voice is as disconcerting as it is fascinating... from introspection to pure showmanship and back in a virtuosic display that is both beautiful and haunting. .. an utterly entrancing release."
- Steve Benner, Stonegnome Reviews Online, 20th September 2001
"...this latest show from Theatre-rites is something to make a song and dance about....In One Ear is an exploration of sound in our lives, and of how we use music to express ourselves and connect with others. It is on one level the simplest of clowning shows, and on another an existential examination of friendship and the way different kinds of instruments and people are required to make the richest mix....This is a piece that uses hardly any spoken words, yet is enormously expressive about the power of music in our lives."
- Lyn Gardner, The Guardian, 7 December 2004
Critical reaction to London Cries, premiered on 1st July 2002:
"London Cries by Evelyn Ficarra ... was ingeniously concocted. The young composer has wandered through 20 London markets, armed with a minidisc recorder, and then weaved her tape of traders' cries into live refrains sung by a mezzo-soprano and tenor (Angela Elliott and Renzo Murrone) and backed by seven instruments...Ficarra crafts her material beautifully, particularly at the end when the live cries magically pre-echo those on tape."
- Richard Morrison, The Times, 3 July 2002
Praise for Ficarra's debut CD, Frantic Mid-Atlantic (Sargasso SCD28026):
"Evelyn Ficarra studied electronic music with Jonathan Harvey. Her tapework has a freshness and vitality increasingly rare in the genre. Concrete sounds derived from kitchen activity, shortwave radio, machines, speech and birdsong are handled with humour and sensitivity, and never seem mere effects. The title piece is for tape alone, the other five compositions add, respectively, string septet, voice, violin and marimba, and harpsichord and baroque flute. All are elegantly structured and deftly arranged, offering a restorative for listeners faded by electroacoustic kitsch."
- Julian Cowley, The Wire, April 1999
"Countless sounds...together with numerous vocal snippets, both spoken and sung, are woven into an intriguingly musical construct that intoxicates with its heady flight, conjuring up endless sonic-inspired mental images. The shifting emphasis of the voice is as disconcerting as it is fascinating... from introspection to pure showmanship and back in a virtuosic display that is both beautiful and haunting. .. an utterly entrancing release."
- Steve Benner, Stonegnome Reviews Online, 20th September 2001
