Archive for category: news

Spent the day rehearsing with the Berkeley Ensemble for our concerts in Streatham and Leicester in February. It was great to be able to rehearse in St Peter's Church in Streatham, where the Berkeley Ensemble have a residency which enables them to use the space for rehearsal in return for giving concerts there. A good deal all round! The day was kick-started with an inspiring session with composer Thomas Hewitt-Jones; James Turnbull and I are imminently recording his Sonata Ciamarella at Eastcote Studios, so it was useful to make some last-minute tweaks to our interpretation to ensure it's just how the composer wants it!

First rehearsal with the chorus for Kommilitonen! (this term's RAO production, a première by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, jointly commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music and the Juilliard School). A real ensemble opera, this work relies heavily on the chorus input, both musically and in terms of staging. The music is extremely complex but also very exciting; a real challenge worth getting teeth stuck into.

The Juilliard School will present the opera in Autumn 2011 in New York, and it is based on a libretto by director David Pountney. The title Kommilitonen! means ‘fellow students’; and the opera consists of three interlocking stories of students involved in political action. One follows the activities of the group known as Die Weisse Rose at the University of Munich in the 1940s, who produced leaflets protesting against the Nationalist Socialist government until they were arrested and executed. The second follows two young people involved in the Cultural Revolution in China, in which they found themselves on opposite sides. The third is the story of James Meredith, who battled against racial prejudice to become the first black student to enrol at the University of Mississippi. The three stories unfold in parallel and eventually come together, in a climax of devastating emotional impact.

My final concert of 2010 was a glorious evening of Iberian polyphony with the Renaissance Singers, in the opulent setting of St James', Spanish Place (which I've somehow never discovered before now, despite being just off Marylebone High Street and therefore within a stone's throw of the Academy, Wigmore Hall etc etc!). Joined by The English Cornett and Sackbutt Ensemble, and with organ continuo on an instrument provided by Manders, this was a gorgeous pre-Christmas programme of Guerrero, Victoria and Padilla, entitled, appropriately enough ‘¡Feliz Navidad!’.

The provisional dates for two recitals at Curry Rivel Music Club (Somerset) next autumn have been moved and are now as follows: 24th September with Marcus Farnsworth (baritone) and 15th October with James Turnbull (oboe).  Having performed here in 2009 with James it will be fun to be back twice in such quick succession!