Do take a look at this new course for singers www.joeaustin.co.uk/old-rectory-opera-course and spread the word! Director Joe Austin and I have worked together at Ryedale Festival Opera and on various projects for McCaldin Arts, and are looking forward to this chance to encourage singers to escape day-to-day life for an intensive operatic retreat in Somerset!
January may not be the obvious time to want to spend a week working on Christmas carols, but the last few days as producer for Norwich Cathedral Choir’s Christmas carols CD on Priory Records have been a delight, with hugely impressive singing, under the baton of Ashley Grote. Look out for the finished product next Christmas.
Looking forward to returning to the Wigmore on Monday 3rd February, having stepped in for a programme of song ranging from Purcell to Debussy to Britten to Messiaen, with soprano Laurie Ashworth.
Lovely opportunity to be back in my old stomping ground, Christ Church Oxford, to adjudicate their undergraduate Instrumental Awards. Great to hear the standard at least as high as ever!
The Oxford Lieder Festival continues to thrive and expand so it was a privilege to be back again, giving a recital with Ciara Hendrick which set student compositions from the workshops we’ve previously led there alongside cycles by Britten and Schumann. The Holywell Music Room continues to be one of the finest song venues in […]
A tremendously exciting evening at the launch of the Southwell Music Festival last night. Established by Marcus Farmsworth, the first festival will take place in August 2014 and promises to be a vibrant new feature of the musical landscape of Nottinghamshire, and indeed of the UK. There was a real buzz at the launch – […]
'Tis the season of microphones, with requests for demo disc recordings coming in thick and fast, for applications ranging from the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme by singers to the Yehudi Menuhin competition for violinists.
Spent the day yesterday recording the ABRSM's new oboe syllabus with James Turnbull as part of their sequence of official recordings, now released for most instruments and grades as a demonstration of how the pieces might be performed. We've been sworn to secrecy on the contents of the syllabus until all is released!
A relentless but rewarding weekend accompanying the prelims of this year's Hampshire Singing Competition. Now well established on the circuit of national competitions for young professional singers, this competition had a very full two days of singers, each presenting a programme of songs and arias. An impressive standard; congratulations to those progressing to the semi-final.
Great to be back at the Penkhull Fetival yesterday, four years on from the last visit, this time with countertenor Tim Travers-Brown and a programme of English song ranging from Purcell to Warlock and Howells to Michael Howard and Betty Roe. Lovely to see James Bowman, festival patron, in the audience, for whom much of […]