Tag: Music

Songhaven Concert in 10 DAYS!

The Tait is delighted to support the inspiring work of Songhaven, a dementia friendly concert series founded by a young Australian mezzo-soprano, and former Tait Awardee, Vivien Conacher.

Their next concert is at St Paul’s, Knightsbridge on Saturday 9th February. More below.

Hi all,

A friendly reminder that booking is now open for our next concert on Saturday 9th February at St Paul’s Knightsbridge.

I will be singing alongside my dear friend, the incredibly talented soprano Alice Privett. Alice has performed for companies including Longborough Festival Opera and Garsington Opera and has been a finalist in numerous prestigious competitions including the London Handel Competition and the Kathleen Ferrier Awards. We also have pianist Chad Vindin joining us again. Chad was the winner of the accompanist prize at the Royal Overseas League Competition and he is a real rising star of the piano accompaniment world, performing all over the UK and Europe!

For those who would like to know a bit more about the programme… we will be performing selections from Cosi fan Tutte by Mozart, some Schumann lieder, Puccini, Lehar, Rossini, Gershwin and some familiar favourites we know you will love!

Hope to see you there! Booking information for all our upcoming events is below.

Viv 🙂
Saturday 9th February at 3:00pm
Songhaven at St Paul’s Knightsbridge
32A Wilton Place, SW1X 8SH 
(closest tube station Hyde Park corner – exit 4)

Concert by Alice Privett (soprano), Vivien Conacher (mezzo-soprano), and Chad Vindin (pianist) followed by afternoon tea.

FREE – BOOKING ESSENTIAL
ONLINE: febsonghavenknightsbridge.eventbrite.co.uk
PHONE: 020 7201 9999
EMAIL: knightsbridge@songhaven.co.uk
Saturday 9th March at 3:00pm
Songhaven at St Paul’s Knightsbridge
32A Wilton Place, SW1X 8SH 
(closest tube station Hyde Park corner – exit 4)

Concert featuring Claire Eadington (mezzo-soprano) and Sam Jenkins (tenor), followed by afternoon tea.

FREE – BOOKING ESSENTIAL
ONLINE: marchsonghavenknightsbridge.eventbrite.co.uk
PHONE: 020 7201 9999
EMAIL: knightsbridge@songhaven.co.uk
Saturday 30th March at 3:00pm
Songhaven at Lumen
88 Tavistock Place, WC1H 9RS
(closest tube Russell Square or Kings Cross St Pancras, street parking free from 1.30pm on Saturdays in meter spaces or on single yellow lines)

Concert hosted by Vivien Conacher with (performers to be announced), followed by afternoon tea.

FREE – SUGGESTED DONATION £5
BOOKING ESSENTIALONLINE: marchsonghavenlumen.eventbrite.co.uk
EMAIL: songhaven@songhaven.co.uk
VENUE/ACCESSIBILITY QUERIES ph: 020 7833 1080
Source: Songhaven Concert in 10 DAYS!

About Songhaven

Songhaven is a dementia-friendly concert series launched at the start of 2017. Founder Vivien Conacher, a mezzo-soprano opera singer, realised that there was a need in the London concert scene for inclusive and relaxed events that also feature professional, high calibre performances.

Songhaven concerts are a safe space where people living with dementia, their companions, carers, and family members can enjoy quality music making in an atmosphere of kindness, understanding and joy. At our concerts, we actively strive to make our audience members feel comfortable and free to be themselves. We warmly welcome singing and moving along to the music, without shame or shushing.

Songhaven concerts are a manageable 45 minutes in length, finishing with an audience singalong to a well-loved song. We then provide afternoon tea so that people can socialise with each-other, and the professional performers, and also make song requests for future concerts.

Songhaven is currently based at two venues in London, each hosting the series on a monthly basis on a Saturday afternoon. We have gained a large and devoted following at both locations, and a very real sense of community has formed due to the regularity of the events. Audience members come back time and time again, which means they get to know one another, and develop new connections based on a mutual love of music.

Songhaven aims to address the stigma and social isolation experienced by older people, people living with dementia, and carers. By catering to the specific needs of this group, we are able to create a positive space where people feel valued, connected to their communities, and respected. Great music & kindness are the magic ingredients, ensuring that everyone leaves a Songhaven event with a smile on their face.

SONGHAVEN AUDIENCE FEEDBACK
“one of the most lovely events I think I have ever been to”
“It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed a concert so much”

“you’ve brought some real joy and fun into our lives”
from a carer… “[her] condition has improved, in the sense that not only she recalls…but also she actually asks me when the next concert is taking place. We go over the songs, we sing together and she feels so happy that she has become part of Songhaven”

“a beautiful and entertaining afternoon”

“I loved every minute of it.”

“Fabulous quality… vivacious… such beautiful voices”

“impeccable standard of performance in an atmosphere of relaxed generosity, inclusivity and love.”

“My partner responds to music with his whole body and soul, so it’s wonderful to be in a space where his responses are welcomed and understood as appreciation and expressions of joy.”

[the event] “leaves us buzzing, feeling part of a community, and not isolated with the exhausting complexity of the impact of Alzheimer’s on us as individuals and as a family”

“What I like so much is the chance to hear superb musicians. What treat to hear excerpts from opera!”

“It was all very welcoming, everything explained in the introductions. Lots of favourites”

“Brilliant – so friendly and the beauty of the voices and the selection.”

“I loved the operatic bits. I don’t get to go [to the opera] as much as I’d like to, so this was perfect for me.”

“Beautiful and very professional”

“Beautiful and very inclusive, especially when they got everyone singing.”

“Singing is wonderful- even when the short-term memories are gone, you can still remember words from 40 years ago!”

“People come alive here… it’s a privilege”

“It made me smile and cry, very emotional… a wonderful atmosphere.”

“The way they performed was superb.”

Venue Partners:
Lumen URC (Bloomsbury), St Paul’s Knightsbridge (Westminster)

To find out more:
Visit our website songhaven.co.uk (to see photographs, filmed footage, upcoming concert dates, and to sign up to our concert announcements)

Contact Vivien: songhaven@songhaven.co.uk or 07576 318 456

Follow Songhaven on social media:

Facebook: facebook.com/SonghavenUK

Twitter: @songhaven_uk

Instagram: @songhaven_uk

 

Community Interest Company Number: 11317064
Basement unit 3, 31-35 Great Ormond St, WC1N 3HZ, London, UK
If you have any questions about the concert or the Songhaven series, feel free to email songhaven@songhaven.co.uk or visit our website songhaven.co.uk

 

“Hear My Soul Speak” Finding Prospero in Shakespeare’s verbal music.

A performance research presentation from Shakespeare’s The Tempest

3 performances only at
London Theatre Workshop EC3V. 
April 13-14.

This work-in-progress multi-media performance explores the mind and persona of Shakespeare’s most enigmatic protagonist, Prospero.

It does so by investigating the dramatic ramifications of sound patterning in Shakespeare’s poetry—what Peter Brook has referred to as the “verbal music” to expose the sound-world Shakespeare creates through words.

Nowhere else in Shakespeare is the action, and even the disposition of all the characters so utterly the construction of the central protagonist. Shakespeare uses the device of a stage magician – a Faustian necromancer, to explore a single character through all the stage action of the drama.

This expressionist approach to characterisation is fuelled by the most knotted, ornate and ethereal language in the Shakespearean canon. That language creates a sound world that is simultaneously the world of the island, and a sonic portrait of Prospero’s psyche.

Gerrard McArthur (Howard Barker’s The Wrestling School) plays Prospero in a performance that draws not just on Prospero’s own words, but those of his alter egos Ariel and Caliban.

The performance incorporates some of the play’s surviving music by the play’s gifted original composer Robert Johnson. Johnson was composer-in-residence to Shakespeare’s company the King’s Men in Shakespeare’s final years. This performance draws on new research into Johnson’s other surviving songs to partially reconstruct an original score for the play.

Counter-tenor Russell Harcourt 
(Oreste – Royal Opera House) sings the music of Ariel.

Through live projection, video artist Ben Glover creates a visual expression of the sonic patterning in the poetry, and the diffusion of Prospero’s persona beyond the confines of the body of the actor who ‘plays’ him throughout the other characters and the world of the play.

Book your tickets via London Theatre Workshop here.

This performance is the inaugural presentation of Persona per sona – a performance research initiative led by McArthur and Australian director Christopher Hurrell into the somatic implications for the actor of sound in the language of Shakespeare.

Gerrard McArthur and Russell Harcourt, with Alice Haig, via video as Miranda.

Director: Christopher Hurrell
Sound Designer: Nikki Aitken
Video Designer: Ben Glover
Stage Manager: Jari Laakso

London Theatre Workshop
Leadenhall Market
88 Gracechurch Street
London EC3V 0DN

More information: www.christopherhurrell.com/hear-my-soul-speak

Tickets: www.londontheatreworkshop.co.uk/hear-my-soul-speak

To support this production gofundme  https://www.gofundme.com/hearmysoulspeak

To take advantage of tax-deductible status Australian Cultural Fund

Professional Ballet Dancer to Business Owner | Claudia Dean Coaches For Success | Ballet News

Former Tait Awardee Claudia Dean graduated from The Royal Ballet School in August 2011, having moved to London aged 16 to train at the Upper School in Covent Garden. She was the recipient of the Tait Memorial Trust, Dance Arches Award in 2011, and went on to be offered a contract by The Royal Ballet. In 2014 Claudia made the difficult decision to return home to Australia, we are delighted to see that this very talented young dancer is passing the baton to the next generation of aspiring dancers in her homeland. We wish her all the very best and look forward to hearing more about her work in Australia.

The article below was published by Ballet News, May 2015.

Claudia Dean | Ballet Dancer to Business Owner

Sprezzatura is the Italian word for nonchalance; the effortless art of making something difficult look easy. The sustained hard work needed to conceal the effort has been a hallmark of Claudia Dean’s training and professional ballet career.

Claudia Dean graduated from The Royal Ballet School in August 2011, having moved to London aged 16 to train at the Upper School in Covent Garden. In her native Australia she had been dancing since the age of four, and had won a number of prestigious competitions including the Gold Medal plus the Audience Choice Award at the Genée International Ballet Competition in 2009.

I interviewed Dean for my Student to Star series at the time of her graduation, a few weeks before she started work in the Company, and I asked her what she anticipated the differences might be between school and company life. She told me, “I think it’s going to be a bit of a change for me. I will be my own person having to be responsible for myself.  At school, you have teachers guiding you, although we work for ourselves, there is still a lot of extra support. Also, no uniform! I will have to decide what to wear each day which will be very different !”

—–READ MORE—–

Source: Professional Ballet Dancer to Business Owner | Claudia Dean Coaches For Success | Ballet News | Straight from the stage – bringing you ballet insights

Deborah Humble joins the Music Board of the Tait Memorial Trust

Acclaimed for her performances of the works of Richard Wagner, Australian mezzo-soprano, Deborah Humble is one of Australia’s most successful international singers. She has appeared at the Edinburgh Festival, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Salzburg Easter Festival, Seattle Symphony, with the Stuttgart Philharmonic, the Hamburg Philharmonic and the London Mozart Players and at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. We are delighted to confirm that Deborah has agreed to join the Music Board, of esteemed Australian performers and artists, of the Tait Memorial Trust.

After gaining a Bachelor of Music from the University of Adelaide and a Masters Degree from the University of Melbourne, Deborah was a member of the Victoria State Opera Young Artist Programme. Having been a Principal Artist for both Opera Australia and The State Opera of Hamburg she has embarked upon a freelance career which takes her all over the world. Deborah is a highly sought after adjudicator and advanced teacher in Australia and recently gave a master class for the Melba Trust in Melbourne, as part of her role as a Mentor with the Trust, and was also invited to adjudicate for the Sydney Eisteddfod

The Music Board and the Artistic Planning Committee bring their vast international experience to assist us in selecting our Annual awards. Over the past three years our awards have more than doubled, and have  increased to £40,000 per annum, with several awards of £5,000 per awardee, the selection process is vital to ensure the most deserving and talented young artists are supported in their studies.

lifestyle4
Deborah Humble, Mezzo-Soprano

Deborah joins our Music Board which is chaired by TMT Chairman, Isla Baring OAM

Caroline Almonte, Concert Pianist
Julian Gavin, Operatic Tenor
Dr Leslie Howard, Concert Pianist
Deborah Humble, Operatic Mezzo-Soprano
Liane Keegan, Operatic Dramatic-Contralto
Cameron Menzies, Stage & Opera Director
Anthony Roden, Operatic Tenor & Teacher

Tait Artistic Planning
Jessica Cottis, Conductor
Jayson Gillham, Concert Pianist
Katrina Sheppeard, Operatic Soprano
Chad Vindin, Accompanist

To apply for a Tait Award please check our website here for further information.

Miranda Keys' debut at The Royal Opera House

 

 

Australian dramatic soprano and former Tait Awardee, Miranda Keys, is to make her Royal Opera House debut in the 2016/17 Season as Marianne and Noble Widow (Der Rosenkavalier) with the American diva, Renee Fleming, singing the Marschallin.

miranda_keys_roh_071116

Miranda came to international attention in 2007 when she was a finalist in the Cardiff Singer of the World. She has gone on to sing at Glyndebourne, Aix en Provence Festival under Sir Simon Rattle and Sir Mark Elder with the Halle Orchestra.

 

Miranda Keys

Australian soprano Miranda Keys studied for her music degree at the Guildhall School Of Music in London. She completed the opera course at the Royal College of Music where she held the President Emerita Scholarship, the most prestigious scholarship the college can confer. She completed her studies at the National Opera Studio. She won the 2006 Wagner Society Bayreuth Bursary and the 2005 John Scott Award from Scottish Opera and was a main prize and song prize finalist in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World in 2007. Operatic roles include ELISABETH (Trieste and Bologna), ARIADNE (Salzburg Landestheater and Leipzig Oper), ODABELLA (Lyric Opera Dublin), MUSETTA (Glyndebourne on Tour), LADY BILLOWS (Glyndebourne Touring Opera and Salzburg Landestheater), ELETTRA (Glyndebourne on Tour), WITCH/MOTHER (Scottish Opera on Tour).

miranda-keys-prono

Other roles include COUNTESS, FIORDILIGI, MISS WINGRAVE, MISS JESSEL, FEMALE CHORUS and MADAME LIDOINE. She has sung 3rd NORN in Götterdämmerung under Sir Simon Rattle (in Aix and Salzburg), Sir Mark Elder (for the Halle orchestra, recorded on the Halle label), Ed Spanjaard (Reisopera), and Donald Runnicles (BBC Proms). GERHILDE in Die Walküre for the Halle conducted by Sir Mark Elder and released on the Halle label (Manchester International Festival), AUFSEHERIN in Elektra (Rome and Bari), �FIDELIO conducted by Gianandrea Noseda (Turin). Recent highlights include AUFSEHERIN at Opera National de Paris conducted by Philippe Jordan, and at the BBC Proms conducted by Semyon Bychkov, MARIANNE LEITMETZERIN at Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the BBC Proms conducted by Robin Ticciati and MISS JESSEL for Glyndebourne on Tour, LADY BILLOWS in Albert Herring (cond. Oksana Lyniv) and MARIANNE DI LEITMETZERIN in Der Rosenkavalier (cond. Kirill Petrenko) for Bayerische Staatsoper. Future highlights include her debut at The Royal Opera, London in Der Rosenkavalier (cond. Andris Nelsons) and a return to the Bayerische Staatsoper.

 

 

 

Miranda Keys website

Book for Rosenkavalier

Behind The Ring: Part Two – Die Walküre — Re:hearsal Magazine

Part two of young Australian opera director’s, Greg Eldridge’s, article about assisting Neil Armfield on Wagner’s, Ring Cycle for Opera Australia.

Stepping behind the curtain of Opera Australia’s Ring Cycle. 

 Auf der Erde Rücken wuchtet der Riesen Geschlecht
On the Earth’s surface dwells the race of Giants
– Wotan, Act 1 – Siegfried

The first time working for any company is a bit intimidating – make sure you get signed in, get a pass, meet a thousand people and try to remember exactly who does what. I’ve arrived in Sydney for the first month (!) of rehearsals, which will take place in The Opera Centre studios in Surry Hills. In London, I’m used to everything taking place in the flash of an eye (a week for a revival of Tosca, 10 days to get together a Traviata, perhaps 3 weeks for a new production of Così) so I’m looking forward to a process that will span 6 weeks in rehearsal studios, then a further 6 weeks on stage before opening night.

To read the full article please click here to go to Rehearsal Magazine

Source: Behind The Ring: Part Two – Die Walküre — Re:hearsal Magazine

TAIT WINTER PROM 2016 – We return to St John's Smith Square

The Tait Memorial Trust 5th Annual Winter Prom.

jessica1_600_600
Jessica Cottis, Conductor: Colin Hattersley, Photography 

Tait Winter Prom – Memories of Summer

The Tait Memorial Trust returns to St John’s Smith Square on Wednesday 30th November for their 5th annual Winter Prom. Now in its 24th year, the Trust supports young Australian performing artists who come to the UK to complete their advanced studies in music, dance and composition.

We are delighted to confirm that the Australian High Commissioner, His Excellency, The Hon. Alexander Downer AC and his wife Mrs Nicola Downer AM, have kindly agreed to be our Guests of Honour. They have been such loyal supporters of the Tait Trust, and we look forward to welcoming them on the night.

We are thrilled that Jessica Cottis has agreed to conduct and musically direct the Tait Chamber Orchestra, of young Australian musicians, and has selected the programme to showcase our award winners but also to acknowledge the tyranny of distance and the longing many of us feel for the wide open spaces of Australia.

CBA-BankName_Shdw_Col_Hor_Shape_0

Proudly supported by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia we invite you to join us as we explore our memories of Summer.

St John’s Smith Square, London SW1P 3HA

Wed 30 November – 7.30pm

£35, £28, £22, £15

240_F_30980069_twmU3UfbVKFq9IcYUdniTfpxF3wNsZPc.jpg

taitmemorialtrust.org

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Memories of Summer

Tait Chamber Orchestra
Lisa Bucknell VIOLA
James Guan PIANO
Alexandra Hutton SOPRANO
Alexandra Isted VIOLIN
Katrina Sheppeard SOPRANO
Ashlyn Skye Tymms MEZZO SOPRANO
Chad Vindin PIANO
Jessica Cottis CONDUCTOR
Mozart
Sinfonia Concertante
for Violin, Viola and Orchestra K364
Wagner
Prelude and ‘Vorspiel and Liebestod’
from Tristan und Isolde
arr. by James Ledger
for Chamber Orchestra
(UK premiere)
Luke Styles
How they Creep
Bernstein
Glitter and be Gay
Barber
Must the winter come so soon
Williamson 
Piano Concerto No. 2
wp14_cropped_1411
Tait Chamber Orchestra, Tait Winter Prom 2014, St John’s Smith Square

Herald Sun Aria winner Panayiota Kalatzis sweeps all before her | Herald Sun

We are thrilled to report that Tait Awardee, Panayiota Kalatzis, won the coveted 2016 Herald Sun Aria in Melbourne’s, Hamer Hall a few days ago. Panayiota was the 2014 recipient of the Australian International Opera Awards which gave her the funds to study at the Wales International Academy of Voice with Dennis O’Neill.

Herald Sun Aria winner Panayiota Kalatzis. Photo: Stuart Walmsley

SCINTILLATING soprano Panayiota Kalatzis swept all before her last night to win the 2016 Herald Sun Aria.The 30-year-old Brisbane vocalist, trailing an elegant train, won the coveted prize in its 92nd year ahead of four other outstanding classical singers.“I never thought it would happen,’’ she said after accepting the prestigious award from Herald Sun editor Damon Johnston. “You work hard and enter competitions and then someone, ‘Yes’. Winning this changes everything.’’Kalatzis, of Greek background, captivated a 1500-strong audience at Hamer Hall with thrilling performances of Massenet and Verdi. A huge ovation greeted her win which carries $15,000 cash and a $22,500 scholarship for overseas tuition.“The plan is to go back to the UK, make some connections there, and then go to America,’’ she said. “Winning this makes all that possible.’’Jessica Harper, a 26-year-old soprano from Sydney, was runner up while the encouragement award went to Douglas Kelly, a Victorian-based tenor.Judges Richard Mills, Margaret Haggart and John Bolton-Wood praised the high standard of competition and Penny Fowler, Chairman of the Herald and Weekly Times, paid special tribute to Richard Divall — the Aria’s long serving maestro and chief adjudicator.

14720536_1357447610941632_5601828740808170150_n

Source: Herald Sun Aria winner Panayiota Kalatzis sweeps all before her | Herald Sun

Elena Xanthoudakis to take on the Queen

The Australian soprano reflects on the challenges of singing Donizetti’s tragic Anna Bolena.

Elena Xanthoudakis as Anna Bolena for Melbourne Opera
Elena Xanthoudakis as Anna Bolena

While Anna Bolena is definitely on the larger end of the bel canto roles, it still requires great flexibility, as well as heft and drama where required. It is a great thrill to sing and while it is perhaps ‘heavier’ than some other bel canto roles – mostly due to the intense dramatic situation Anna finds herself in – one must remember to maintain a lilt and ease so that the voice remains flexible. There are also a number of lower notes: the bottom register is well applied by Donizetti to add drama and colour, and I absolutely love using a wide range of colours to characterise her journey. The challenges of the role lie in matching the tessitura and the weight or volume.

Sally Anne-Russell, Jane Seymour & Elena Xanthoudakis, Anna Bolena
Sally Anne-Russell, Jane Seymour & Elena Xanthoudakis, Anna Bolena

There are also a number of added cadenzas and high notes, so finding the balance between the elements is crucial. Anna is extremely fun to sing, as well as technically challenging – but again therein lies the fun too! Donizetti’s Anna Bolena departs from the historical details in a number of ways, done for dramatic licence. However, there is much that corresponds with the historical Anne Boleyn’s journey. In my opinion, her trial itself was a complete set-up, and the nature of it is made very clear in the opera.As for Anna’s mad scene, I would say it is less ‘mad’ than many! She begins the mad scene in a state of delusion, drifting in and out of awareness of her real situation. It begins in some respects like the Lucia di Lammermoor mad scene, in both concept – Anna is imagining a wedding – and orchestral colour. However, it soon shifts to much more dramatic colours and intense melodic shapes. It is perhaps less florid than roles like Elvira or Lucia, but is no less impressive. The role of Anna Bolena has been performed by a great number of sopranos, including Callas, Sutherland, and Netrebko. In an ideal world we would all love the dramatic intensity of La Callas, as well as the beauty of tone and flexibility of La Stupenda. Of the other major exponents of the role, I admire Beverly Sills for her recordings, which are extremely ornamented – perhaps too much? I would like to be at least as inventive where required. And though no recordings of Giuditta Pasta exist, one would hope to have a voice as strong and flexible as hers at the top, with the same depth and colour in the middle and bottom. Pasta, the original Anna, was a mezzo-like soprano, who was both the first Norma and Amina, the latter of which is substantially lighter and requires more limpid flexibility. Given the original Anna’s voice, and contemporary audience expectation for extemporised top notes, balance and care must be taken in order to maintain ease at both ends of the registers, to give the widest range of possible colour. Knowing the repertoire of Donizetti’s Tudor Queens, it would be a joy to one day have the opportunity to sing Queen Elizabeth in Roberto Devereux.

Elena’s performance of Mozart’s, Ch’io mi scordi di te? K 505, with Jayson Gillham and the Tait Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Kelly Lovelady, at the 2014 Tait Winter Prom at St John’s Smith Square.

Elena Xanthoudakis appears in the Australian premiere of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena for Melbourne Opera November 2, 5 and 9. Buy tickets here

Melbourne Opera stages the Australian premiere of Roberto Deveraux in 2017.

Win an A-Reserve double pass to opening night

sfx169978

Following the sold out triumph of Maria Stuarda last year, Melbourne Opera continues the great Donizetti trilogy bringing the bel canto masterpiece Anna Bolena to The Athenaeum for the first time this November.

Starring Elena Xanthoudakis (Anne Boleyn), Sally-Anne Russell (Jane Seymour), Eddie Muliaumaseali’i (Henry VIII), Boyd Owen (Richard Percy), Dimity Shepherd (Mark Smeaton) and Phillip Calcagno (Lord Rochefort).

Source: Elena Xanthoudakis to take on the Queen from Limelight Magazine