The Last Night of the Proms this year was a proud moment for all of us at Samling Institute when Louise Alder became the first Samling Artist to lead the festivities at one of classical music’s biggest events. Along with the traditional ‘Rule, Britannia’ Louise delighted the audience with the Jewel Song from Faust, Vilja from The Merry Widow and a medley from My Fair Lady as well as her own contribution to an epic performance of Bohemian Rhapsody. If you were watching on TV, you may also have spotted some of our Samling Academy Singers in the National Youth Choir.
Photo: (c) BBC/Chris Christodoulou
Samling and Song
Neil Balfour and Sid Ramchander will give the premiere of Untold Lives by Cheryl Frances Hoad at this year’s Oxford Song festival. Neil and Sid’s programme, inspired by their Indian heritage, was supported by a Samling and Song award, with a residency and mentoring and we are looking forward to seeing the results of this work on Wednesday 15 October.
oxfordsong.org/events/untold-lives
The full festival runs from 10 – 25 October and you can find a full list of the Samling Artists who are appearing here in our May update.
New recordings
This month’s BBC Music Magazine cover CD is a collection of songs recorded for the BBC by Kitty Whately, including a selection of songs by Rebecca Clarke and ending with a set of Northumbrian folk songs. James Baillieu and Michael Pandya are among the pianists featured on the collection. Kitty has recently made the first ever complete recording of Rebecca Clarke’s songs and we’ll bring you more details after its release in early November.
Rowan Pierce is the soprano soloist with Florilegium on ‘Tra le fiamme’, an album of secular cantatas by J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel and ending in a flourish with a virtuosic Alleluia by Antonio Vivaldi. You can hear Rowan talking about the album in a podcast for Gramophone Magazine.
outhere-music.com/en/albums/tra-le-fiamme
Rowan also appears on an album of orchestral music by the Dutch composer Henriëtte Bosmans, joining the BBC Philharmonic in Bosmans’s setting of ‘Lead, kindly light’.
resonusclassics.com/products/henriette-bosmans-concertos
Angelina Dorlin-Barlow has released digital recordings of a new song cycle by Joanna Borrett Moments of Freedom, available on all major streaming platforms.
Joseph Middleton joins Dame Sarah Connolly on ‘The World Feels Dusty’, a recital album of songs by Ernest Chausson, Samuel Barber, Claude Debussy, Aaron Copland and the premiere recording of a new cycle Night Thoughts written for the duo by Errollyn Wallen.
News in Brief
Congratulations to one of our most recent Samling Artists, Sofia Kirwan-Baez, who won the Casio Sessions singer-songwriting competition for her song ‘Perfect Imperfections’. She wins a premium digital piano, plus a studio mastering session and her winning song pressed onto 250 7’ vinyl records.
classical-music.uk/news/article/soprano-sofia-kirwan-baez-wins-the-casio-sessions-competition
Jonathan Lemalu has been appointed Deputy Head of Vocal and Opera at Royal College of Music.
Ellen Pearson and Sebastian Hill have both been selected as Lies Askonas Fellows with Askonas Holt. The programme provides young artists with mentoring and targeted financial support to help with coaching sessions, photoshoots, travel expenses for auditions, or artistic projects.
Marie Lys moves to IMG Artists and Jamie Woollard has been signed by Keynote Artist Management.
Nicholas Mogg makes role debuts this season at Saatsoper Hamburg as Harlekin Ariadne auf Naxos, Belcore L’elisir d’amore and Melot Tristan und Isolde and house debuts at La Fenice in Scalvatore Sciarrino’s Venere e Adone and at the Lucerne Festival where he sings Alberich Siegfried in the continuation of Kent Nagano’s ground-breaking period instrument Ring Cycle, alongside Derek Welton as The Wanderer.
Lauren Fagan made her role debut in the title role of Rusalka at Royal Swedish Opera. This season also sees her making her role debut as Elsa Lohengrin at the Klaipėda Festival in Lithuania.
On South Africa’s Heritage Day this year, Pumeza Matshikiza was inducted into the Joburg City Theatres Wall of Fame at the Roodepoort Theatre in Johannesburg, in recognition of her stellar international career and her impact on local arts and culture.
Nicky Spence has launched a scholarship at Guildhall School of Music and Drama for vocal students from UK state schools who would not otherwise have the means to accept their place at college. Nicky said ‘My own upbringing never foretold success and I would really like to help establish more state school representation on our stages.’
gsmd.ac.uk/about-guildhall/news/
Samling Artists in the North East
A reminder that you can see Natasha Page making her role debut as Adina The Elixir of Love and Kieran Rayner as Tarquinius The Rape of Lucretia with English Touring Opera at the Hippodrome in Darlington on Friday 17 and Saturday 18 October, and on tour across the country.
englishtouringopera.org.uk/whats-on
