JULY 7th to 9th
A WEEKEND OF FIVE CONCERTS
Friday 7th July 2017 at 7.30pm
BANALITÉS
with James Newby, Sophie Gallagher and pianist Oliver Lallemant
Among many accolades, James won the Kathleen Ferrier Award in 2016 and the Richard Tauber prize for Lieder in 2015. Sophie takes a break from singing Emmie in Albert Herring in Buxton to join us: an award-winning soprano at RCM, she sang the role first for Firenze Maggio Musicale. Oliver is a classical pianist equally at home in jazz.
James Newby
Sophie Gallagher
Oliver Lallemant
Programme includes Poulenc's song-cycles Le Bestiaire and Banalités, Ravel's Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, Fauré's L'Horizon Chimerique and songs by Debussy, Chausson & Duparc.
There will be an interval with refreshments.
Saturday 8th July 2017 at 1pm
AN ENGLISH GARLAND
Songs for a summer afternoon with Emma Stannard and pianist Keval Shah
Emma makes a return visit to our festival fresh from completing her Royal Academy opera course, where she won two major awards: she is singing Minerva in iI ritorno d’Ulisse at the Grange Festival this summer. Keval and Emma won the Audrey Strange award in the 2016 Royal Overseas League competition. Keval won all the major music prizes at Cambridge University, and the Elena Gerhardt Lieder Prize at the Royal Academy: he has performed at the Oxford and Leeds Lieder Festivals.
Emma Stannard
Keval Shah
Programme includes Britten's Charm of Lullabies, Finzi's Let us Garlands bring and songs by Quilter, Vaughan Williams, Bridge, Haydn Wood and Eric Coates.
There will be an refreshments after the concert.
Saturday 8th July 2017 at 7.30pm
NORDIC NOIR
with Sally Matthews, Finnur Bjarnason and pianist Nancy Cooley
Sally has sung major roles at all the main opera houses, given recitals at the most prestigious concert venues and sung with the world’s most acclaimed conductors. Icelandic-born tenor Finnur has a string of major roles to his name for Komisches Opera in Berlin, the Châtelet in Paris and the Staatsoper in Munich, to name but a few. He has made many recordings of songs by Mendelssohn, Schumann and Jón Leifs. A Lewes-based husband and wife team, they are joined by pianist Nancy, artistic director of this festival: a winner of the Walther Grüner accompanist’s prize, she is an experienced song recitalist and chamber musician and coaches at the Royal College of Music.
Sally Matthews
Finnur Bjarnason
Nancy Cooley
Programme includes Grieg's Six Lieder op.48, Delius' Songs from the Norwegian and songs by Sibelius, Rautavaara, Nielsen and Leifs.
There will be an interval with refreshments.
Sunday 9th July 2017 at 1.00pm
SCHUBERT’S DIE SCHÖNE MÜLLERIN
Schubert’s heartbreaking song-cycle
With Nick Pritchard and pianist Nancy Cooley
Introductory talk by Richard Wigmore
Fresh from singing Lysander in Britten's Midsummer Night's Dream for the Aldeburgh Festival and Ferrando in Cosi fan Tutte for Opera Holland Park, Nick is gathering many accolades for his recitals and opera performances. He is a new Rising Star for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and was recently voted Breakthrough Artist in UK opera in the WhatsOnStage opera poll 2017. Richard is a writer, broadcaster and lecturer specialising in Romantic and Classical chamber music, and in Lieder.
Nick Pritchard
Richard Wigmore
There will be an interval with refreshments.
Sunday 9th July 2017 at 7.30pm
TWO TALES, TWO TURNING POINTS
Journeys from Innocence to Experience
by Mahler and Janacek
Selections from Janacek's 'On an overgrown path'
with Nancy Cooley
Mahler’s 'Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen'
with Marcia Bellamy and pianist Yoko Ono
Janacek’s ‘Diary of one who vanished’
with Paul Austin Kelly, Marcia Bellamy and pianist Carol Kelly
Directed by Susannah Waters
with Lucinda Houghton, Ruth Kerr and Sidonie Winter
Since her debut at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin Marcia has sung in opera, oratoria and music theatre in the U.S., Canada and throughout Europe. Locally she sang in The Finnish Prisoner by Orlando Gough, directed by Susannah. Yoko is much in demand across the world as a solo pianist and chamber musician, and teaches at the Royal College of Music. Paul has sung leading tenor roles in opera houses including La Scala, Royal Opera House and Glyndebourne. On the concert stage, his repertoire ranges from Britten to Berg. Based in Lewes, he and his wife Carol gave a recital for the Nicholas Yonge Society last year. Carol is a frequent recitalist and repetiteur with a prestigious background leading training programmes here and abroad. Susannah’s recent work includes Imago for Glyndebourne Opera, and Birtwistle’s Down by the Greenwood Side and Being Both for the Brighton Festival: the latter was also performed at the 2016 proms.
Marcia Bellamy
Carol Kelly
Paul Austin Kelly
Yoko Ono
Susannah Waters
Lucinda Houghton
Ruth Kerr
Sidonie Winter