We are delighted to announce that the first two duos who will benefit from our new Samling and Song art-song residency programme at Marchmont House are
Shakira Tsindos and Lana Bode
Kieran Rayner and Gamal Khamis
The two duos will receive mentoring and a residency at Marchmont House to develop and promote their recital programmes. We are very much looking forward to working with Shakira, Lana, Kieran and Gamal and to seeing how their ideas take shape, and we will of course be sharing more news with you as their projects progress.
We also extend our thanks to all the duos who took the time to apply. We were delighted with the response we received and inspired by the creativity and imagination of the projects that were proposed.
Competitions and awards
Congratulations to Annabel Kennedy who won the singers’ prize of the Royal Over-Seas League music competition and gains a place in grand final at Wigmore Hall on 14 June along with three other category winners. If you’d like to go along to support Annabel, tickets are available from Wigmore Hall.
We also send congratulations to Andri Björn Róbertsson, Harriet Burns, Alastair Chilvers and Jâms Coleman who have been named in this year’s Royal Academy of Music Associate Honours (ARAMS).
New releases
Kitty Whately and Joseph Middleton have released a new album ‘Befreit: A soul surrendered’. Alongside songs by Richard Strauss and Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, Kitty and Joseph introduce us to two other composers from the same era, Johanna Müller-Hermann and Margarete Schweikert. Writing in Gramophone Magazine, Hugo Shirley says ‘here are engaging and interesting works that enrich not only the programme but also our understanding of the broader musical ecosystem of the time’. Read the full review here: gramophone.co.uk
Lucy Crowe and Claire Barnett-Jones appear on ‘The Jade Mountain’ a collection songs by Edmund Rubbra which is released this week also on the Chandos label.
Debuts
Katherine Aitken and Angharad Lyddon both made debuts with their home national companies this month: Katherine made her debut for Scottish Opera in ‘The Verdi Collection’ and Angharad made her first appearance with Welsh National Opera in Blaze of Glory! a new show celebrating Welsh culture and described as ‘Cymru, coal and choral singing’.
Samling Artists in the North East
A reminder that there lots of Samling Artists appearing with Opera North in Newcastle and English Touring Opera in Durham at the end of this month. In addition to the names already announced in our December news round-up, we learn that David Butt Philip will now join the cast for Opera North’s Ariadne auf Naxos at Newcastle Theatre Royal on 24 March.
