Sally Law, violin – Tait Scholar 2016

We are delighted to announce that, Sally Law, a young violinist from Queensland, has been selected as the 2016 Tait Scholar at the Royal College of Music. The Tait Scholar Award is funded by the family of Julian Baring, and is one of our flagship scholarships for young Australians.

sally_law_tait_scholar_2016

The adopt a performer scheme allows a donor to directly support a young Australian performer for a three year commitment. Please click here to learn how to actively involve yourself in the career development of a young performer.

Sally is playing in the Tait Chamber Orchestra in our Tait Winter Prom on the 30th November at St John’s Smith Square, conducted by Jessica Cottis. More information here

4619955_orig
Sally Law, Tait Scholar

SALLY LAW

Violinist Sally Law is currently a Tait Trust Scholar supported by a Big Give Award at the Royal College of Music, studying violin with Jan Repko. She began playing violin at the age of eight in Brisbane, Australia. In 2015, Sally held a solo performance for HRH Princess Alexandra at Queen Alexandra House.  Over this past summer, Sally played in the Macao Orchestra for their 2016-2017 opening concert; the Roman River Music Festival with her clarinet trio; as well as the 24-hour music marathon at St John’s Smith Square, London. Sally also recently performed in masterclasses with Alexander Markov and Professor Alexander Bonduryansky.

Sally has won prizes in numerous competitions, including First Prize in the Queensland Young Instrumentalist Competition in 2012, resulting in her debut as soloist with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. She also received First Prize in the Strings Open Somerville House Solo Instrumental and Vocal Competition in 2011, and the Australia National Youth Concerto Competition Recitalist Award consecutively 2010-2012, amongst others.

Following her debut as soloist with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Sally has performed solo recitals in the UK and Australia, including St Mary Abbots Church and the Claremont Centre in London, and the Brisbane Museum Concert Hall and Somerville House Valmai Pidgeon Performing Arts Centre in Brisbane. In 2013 Sally performed in a showcase performance, raising funds for the Queensland Flood Relief at the Brisbane Albert St Uniting Church.

Sally works regularly as a chamber musician, and has formed the Mellanie Trio with musicians at the Royal College of Music. The trio have received coaching from Alina Ibragimova and Trio Apaches. Recent engagements include a performance at the Austrian Cultural Forum. Mellanie Trio have also performed recitals at St Botolph Without Aldgate Church, the RCM Parry Rooms, RCM Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall, Austrian Cultural Forum, St James’ Church Piccadilly, and St Paul’s Church Covent Garden. She was also part of a string trio of Australian musicians who performed at numerous events including representing Australia in the Delegates Lounge of the International Maritime Organisation.

Sally performs as an orchestral musician, leading orchestras such as the RCM Chamber Orchestra, and orchestras of the Brisbane Grammar Senior String Festival 2008-2012, and Somerville House Choral Festival 2008 – 2012. She was also first violinist with the Queensland Youth Symphony in 2009 and the Australian Youth Orchestra in 2011, and has performed in venues including St Paul’s Cathedral, St James’s Church Piccadilly, Sydney Opera House and Sydney Town Hall.

Aside from performing, Sally is passionate about creating cross-art productions and artistic workshops. In 2015, she directed her first exhibition at the Royal College of Music in collaboration with a dancer, animation artist and other musicians, as part of the Great Exhibitionists Series, Butterfly Lovers – Unite Through Dimensions.  Albeit not professional, Sally is also an avid videographer and enjoys uploading films onto her YouTube channel ‘Musicado FM’.

Sally Law’s website

.

Toby Thatcher, Conductor – Ensemble Eroica 24th September

Next concert with young Australian conductor, Toby Thatcher with his London group, Ensemble Eroica.

Toby was recently announced as the new assistant conductor with the Sydney Symphony.

September 24th 2015, 19:30

Ensemble Eroica Season Opener – Stone(s) from the Moon

Picture

Commenced in the autumn of 1822, Schubert’s enigmatic B minor symphony provides us with one of art’s great questions; intentional or not? And in either case, does it matter? The work is a glorious example of non-conformity, forcing its way into the symphony canon. To borrow eminent Austrian conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s quote (intended for Bruckner’s equally enigmatic Ninth Symphony), the work conjures mystery, fascination, and perplexity equal to that of suddenly stumbling across a ‘stone from the moon’.

In another enigmatic example of compositional intrigue, Johannes Brahms wrote of his second symphony that this was a work of such‘melancholy that you (his publisher) will not be able to bear it. I have never written anything so sad, and the score must come out in mourning’. It is not blasé to state that this opinion of the work is rarely shared by interpreters, the symphony seemingly borrowing more from Haydn and the classical form than from such romantic intentions.

London-based American Flautist Alyson Frazier is a multiple prizewinner and founding member of contemporary music group ensemble x.y. Garnering reviews as a ‘theatrical and compelling performer’ who is ‘impressively accomplished with a beautiful singing tone’. We are thrilled for this collaboration.


PROGRAMME:

Brahms: Symphony No. 2 in D major Op. 73
– interval –
CPE Bach: Flute Concerto in D minor Wq. 22
Schubert: Symphony No. 8 in B minor D. 759 “Unfinished”

Ensemble Eroica
Conductor – Toby Thatcher
Flute Soloist – Alyson Frazier

Tickets will be available at the door. £10 (£3 students). Complimentary refreshments will be available during the interval break.

St James’s Church, Sussex Gardens
W2 3UD London, United Kingdom

Below are links to the event on both Facebook and our website:

https://www.facebook.com/events/503162629841793/

http://www.ensembleeroicalondon.com/season-calendar.html

Russell Harcourt, Counter tenor – Tait update

Lovely to hear from Tait Awardee, Russell Harcourt who recently returned from Sydney after working with Pinchgut Opera.

Russell Harcourt Photo by Simon Hodgson
Russell Harcourt
Photo by Simon Hodgson

He has recently updated his website with some excerpts from the opera Vivaldi’s Bajazet. Hadleigh Adams (also a Tait prize winner) was singing the title role.

Listen to Russell sing Handel here

Russell is currently preparing David (cover) in Saul for Glyndebourne on Tour as well as participating in Janice Kerbel’s piece DOUG in Glasgow which is a Turner Prize Nominee.

Follow these links to learn more about Russell:

www.russellharcourt.com

OR

www.facebook.com/russellharcourtcountertenor

” …penetrating, glint-edged clarity.”
The Australian, July 7, 2015

Russell Harcourt is steadily gaining recognition on the operatic stage and concert platform throughout the UK and Australasia for a refined brilliance of vocal colour and the comic charm of his characterisations.

Russell studied voice with Graham Pushee and made his operatic début in 2007 as Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He made his Australian concert début in 2009 as a guest artist at the Australian Festival of Chamber Music and made his Royal Opera House début in the Crush Room in the Deloitte Ignite 2010 series.

Russell has recently returned from a critically acclaimed performance of Andronico in Vivaldi’s rarely performed pasticcio, Bajazet, for Sydney’s Pinchgut Opera.  Other career highlights to date include the role of Athamas in Handel’s Semele under Sir Charles Mackerras; an extensive tour with English Touring Opera including roles in Handel’s Agrippina and Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea; performances of Messiah with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, alongside Teddy Tahu Rhodes, under the baton of Richard Gill; and Corrado in Vivaldi’s Griselda, also with Pinchgut Opera.

Recent engagements include Countertenor 1 (cover) The Gospel According to the Other Mary and Hunahpu (cover) Indian Queen, both for director Peter Sellars at English National Opera, Pisandro The Return of Ulysses for Iford Arts Festival under Christian Curnyn and Soloist in the European premiere of Andrew Ford’s The Past for counter-tenor, flute and string orchestra with Ruthless Jabiru under Kelly Lovelady, Australian & New Zealand Festival of Literature & Arts.

Other engagements include Volano Il Giasone under Jane Glover; Fox/Coachman (cover) The Adventures of Pinocchio Opera North; Armindo (cover) Partenope Opera Australia (Sydney and Melbourne); Zelim (cover) La verità in cimento, Licida (cover) L’Olimpiade both for Garsington Opera and Alto soloist Vanguard Australian Ballet.

Oratorio experience includes alto soloist in Handel’s Messiah, Judas Maccabaeus, Israel in Egypt, J. S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, excerpts from Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and excerpts from Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater, Magnificat and Introduction and Gloria.

Prizes and scholarships include Hariclea Darclée Special Award for Excellence, The Sir Robert Askin Operatic Travelling Scholarship, Tait Memorial Trust Grant, Australian Music Foundation Awards, Ian Potter Cultural Trust Grant, Australia Council for the Arts; Skills and Arts Development Grant and the Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship. In 2008, Russell was the winner of the prestigious Dame Joan Sutherland Award, as well as the People’s Choice Award at the same event and in 2012 he was a finalist in The Kathleen Ferrier Awards at Wigmore Hall.

Russell holds a Bachelor of Music from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and an MA, Dip. RAM in Opera from The Royal Academy of Music. He studied part-time at the National Opera Studio and is an Associate of the Jette Parker Young Artist’s Programme at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. He has performed in master classes for Emma Kirkby, Michael Chance, Andreas Scholl and Rosalind Plowright and he is an alumnus of the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme.

Russell currently lives in London and studies with Yvonne Kenny.

Andronico in Bajazet, Pinchgut Opera

Australian countertenor Russell Harcourt is the vacillating Prince Andronico … He has an exciting male soprano voice … excellent in recitative, growing in vocal stature as the evening progresses…”
Clive Paget, Limelight, Australia’s Classical Music & Arts Magazine, July 5, 2015

“Russell Harcourt’s Andronico is a vibrant and sometimes garish foil to the solemn fervour of Asteria.” 
Harriet Cunningham, Sydney Morning Herald, July 5, 2015

“Russell Harcourt rang with impressive vocal consistency as Andronico … Characterised by a beautifully aspirated smooth falsetto that comfortably reached dizzying highs, Harcourt gave a memorable performance.” 
Paul Selar, BachTrack, July 6, 2015

Narciso in Agrippina, English Touring Opera

“Russell Harcourt’s fawning Narciso, a dessicated cleric who sings like a nightingale”
Michael Church, The Independent

“Russell Harcourt was nimble-voiced and wickedly self-serving as Narciso”
Peter Reed, Classical Source

Athamas in Semele, Royal Academy of Music

“Russell Harcourt was exceptional. Fine attack, varied tone, stunning decoration, accomplished breath control, and with a clipped acting style that fitted the role like a glove.”
Peter Reed,  Opera Magazine

“Harcourt however, not only possesses a beautiful voice and a fine technique, but proved himself to be one of the strongest actors in the show.”
Calvin Wells, Opera Brittania

Nutrice in Poppea, English Touring Opera

“Russell Harcourt was very soignee looking [and] brought great vocal character to the role”. 
Robert Hugill, Planet Hugill, 2013

Corrado in Griselda, Pinchgut Opera

“…Russell Harcourt’s role as Corrado, isn’t designed to win hearts but his performance certainly doesn’t lose any. Snappy exchanges…are vociferous and precise.”
Neville Olliffe, Early Music Association of NSW, 2011

Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, WAAPA

“Russell Harcourt made an impressive King of the Fairies. His Oberon was consistently majestic; he moved around the stage as if it were his natural domain and his voice was informed by a slightly sinister quality that sounded entirely right.”
Neville Cohn, The West Australian

 

Kabarett!! at Leighton House, 23rd September

This is a last minute concert, as Brad Cooper is in town with his highly acclaimed Kabarett show (which is on tour from Australia). Ross Alley has agreed to accompany Brad to support our Friends and supporters at the beautiful Leighton House. This museum has been recently refurbished.

Kabarett_Front_V5

The house was the former home and studio of the leading Victorian Artist, Lord Leighton, It is one of the most remarkable buildings of the 19th Century, containing a fascinating collection of paintings and sculpture by Leighton and his contemporaries.

To book please click here

Not to be missed .
Isla Baring OAM
Chairman
Tait Memorial Trust

KABARETT!
Night is not only there for sleeping…

Leighton House, 12 Holland Park Road, London W14

7:00 for 7.30pm. Wednesday, 23 September 2015

BRAD COOPER tenor

ROSS ALLEY piano

Prepare to be transported in the luxurious surrounds of London’s Leighton House as Brad and Ross take you on a comic romp through the best-loved and most popular Cabaret song repertoire. From the wartime hits of Coward and Novello via Austria, America and Australia through to the irreverence of today, KABARETT! is a celebration of wild eclectic decadence and dangerously dark humour.

PROGRAMME
Ivor Novello
Shine Through My Dreams

Tom Lehrer
Poisoning Pigeons in the Park

Noël Coward
London Pride

Hans May
Heut ist der schönste Tag in meinem Leben…

Erich Korngold
Glück, das mir verblieb

Noël Coward
Nina

Robert Stolz
Ob blond, ob braun, ich liebe alle Frau’n

Noël Coward
Someday I’ll Find You

Ivor Novello
Rose of England

Theo Mackeben
Die Nacht ist nicht allein zum Schlafen da

Tom Lehrer
The Masochism Tango

Norbert Glanzberg
Padam Padam

Hans Eisler
Ballade von der Krüppelgarde

Erich Korngold
Mond, so gehst du wieder auf

Dillie Keane
‘Lieder’

Marilyn Miller & Cheryl Hardwick
Making Love Alone

Percy Grainger
Colonial Song

Charles Dumont
Non, Je ne regrette rien!

Dillie Keane
Stick Your Head Between Your Legs

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Brad Cooper trained at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, the National Opera Studio, London, and with Marilyn Horne at the Music Academy of the West, California. Now resident in Australia, Brad debuted as Albert in Albert Herring for Opera Australia in 2013. This season Brad performs Tamino in Magic Flute for Opera Australia and Orfeo in Haydn’s Orfeo ed Euridice under Richard Bonynge. With pianist David Barnard he presents Don’t Mention the War for Melbourne Recital Centre, Broken Hill Regional Gallery.

Memorable appearances include Tamino in Die Zauberflöte and Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Oper Köln), Don Alonse in L’Amant Jaloux (Opéra Comique, Paris), Conte Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Opera Holland Park, London), Clem in Hamel’s Snow White (Nederlandse Reisopera) and Davey in Dove’s Siren Song (Grachtenfestival, Amsterdam).

Brad is thankful for the support of Tait Memorial Trust, Nance Atkinson Trust, Johnson Bequest, Australian Opera Auditions Committee’s Dame Joan Sutherland Award and Australian Singing Competition.

Ross Alley is a native of New Zealand, he worked as a pianist and music teacher at the National School of Ballet and the Australian Ballet Company and School before moving to England. In London he was employed by the Royal Ballet School as a pianist, with responsibilities as a music tutor to develop the teachers’ training course and create the pianists training program for aspiring ballet accompanists.

Mr. Alley is closely associated with the Cecchetti Society, researching, editing and arranging music for the syllabi. He lectures on classical music at the Royal Opera House, organized by the Royal Opera House Education Department with the University of London and Friends of Covent Garden.

Joan Sutherland & Richard Bonynge Foundation

We are delighted to have such a strong connection with the Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge Foundation http://www.jsrbfoundation.com/awards-prizes/tait-memorial-trust/ .

For the past 36 year’s, the aim of this non-profit Australian organisation has been to raise money to help assist our most talented young opera singers fulfil their given potential. With the development of the Foundation in 2010 this has given us greater exposure and opportunities to expand on the activities the Society has presented since its inception in 1978. To date, we have awarded over $300,000 worth of scholarships and study grants and hope to further develop our involvement with these young singers by presenting masterclasses, workshops and a mentoring programme.

From the home page of the JS & RB Foundation website

Marlena-Devoe-216x300
2013 Tait Memorial Trust Prize winner, soprano Marlena Devoe from New Zealand

The Trust looks forward to meeting the 2013 Tait Memorial Trust Prize winner, soprano Marlena Devoe from New Zealand who will be offered a prestigious London concert platform as part of her prize from the Bel Canto Awards . Dame Joan Sutherland was one of our founding patrons and loyal supporters due to her long association with Sir Frank Tait ( Isla Baring’s father) the Tait family and J C Williamson’s. The Sutherland-Williamson tour of Australia in 1965 is legendary and was a fitting epitaph to the life of Sir Frank and the enterprise of the Tait brothers.

We wish the Joan Sutherland & Richard Bonynge Foundation well and salute the work they are doing in supporting emerging operatic talent in Australia.

Helena Dix to sing the title role in 'Cristina, regina di Svezia' at Wexford Festival Opera

Delighted to hear that Tait Memorial Trust awardee, Helena Dix is to sing the title role in Cristina, regina di Svezia at Wexford Festival Opera Performances on the 25th, 28th, 31st October and the 3rd of November 2013.

Soprano, Helena Dix to sing the tile role in Cristina, regina di Svezia at Wexford Festival Opera 2013
Soprano, Helena Dix to sing the tile role in Cristina, regina di Svezia at Wexford Festival Opera 2013

Helena Dix biography from her website

Having won the Wagner Society’s 2012 Bursary Competition, Helena Dix has begun to establish herself as one of the UK’s up-and-coming Wagnerian sopranos.

Australia-born Helena has had a great deal of success in competitions, most notably representing Australia in the 2005 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World. Helena was also runner up in the prestigious Herald Sun Aria, a finalist in the McDonalds Aria held at the Sydney Opera House and won the Nino Sanciolo scholarship to further her studies in Italy. Helena has been successful in many competitions in London and competed in the finals of the ‘Songmakers Almanac’, the Opera Rara Bel Canto prize, Blyth Buesst Opera Prize, Clonter Opera prize and the Richard Lewis competition.

Helena’s operatic repertoire includes Flowermaiden, Parsifal for English National Opera, Rosalinde, Die Fledermaus and Hanna Glawari, The Merry Widow for Scottish Opera where she has also covered Frasquita, Carmen and Karolina in The Two Widows, Fiordiligi, Cosi fan tutte, Donna Anna, Don Giovanni and Nella, Gianni Schicchi for The Opera Project, Li-Li Greed for the Glyndebourne Young Artist Project and Musetta in La Boheme for Opera Novella. She has also covered the title role Ariadne auf Naxos for Garsington Opera. Other roles have included Felice School for Fathers, Erste Dame Die Zauberflöte, Title role Thais, Cio-Cio San, Madama Butterfly, Elvira, Ernani , Violetta, La Traviata and Noémie in Massenet’s Cendrillon.

Helena is in high demand on the international concert stage. She has sung with the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic in Handel’s Messiah, receiving critical praise for her performance, and returning as soloist in several performances of Messiah, Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor and Carmina Burana. Recently, she returned to Australia to sing as a guest artist at Opera in the Alps and give a series of recitals including one for The Melba Trust at The Kooyong Tennis club.

In London her concert engagements include Handel Messiah, Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle Mozart Coronation Mass in C, Requiem and Mass in C Minor, Oratorio de Noel by Rheinberger, Saint-Saens Christmas Oratorio, Brahms Requiem, Richard Strauss Four Last Songs, Mendelssohn Elijah, Beethoven 9th Symphony, Mozart Exsultate Jubilate, Faure Requiem, Britten War Requiem, Orff Carmina Burana, Haydn’s Creation and Verdi Requiem for which she is always in demand. Helena has performed in many of the UK’s leading venues, including The Royal Albert Hall, Barbican, Cadogan Hall, Westminster Abbey, St. James Piccadilly, St John’s Smith Square, Dorchester Abbey, St.Paul’s, Ripon, Guildford and Gloucester Cathedrals. Her credits with orchestras include the RPO and she has sung under the baton of conductors such as Sir Colin Davis, Sir Charles Mackerras, Simone Young, Matthew Willis, Giuseppe Finzi and Mark Wigglesworth.

Since having won the Wagner Society’s Bursary Competition, Helena has performed in the 2012 Bayreuth Stipendiatenkonzert at the Festspielhaus for members of Wagner’s family and recently sang in Karlsruhe as part of the International Wagner prize. She gave a concert of Strauss Lieder with the Music Camp Orchestra and then went on to perform Strauss’ Four Last Songs at Cadogan Hall.

Upcoming engagements include her ongoing contract with Lübeck as Elettra in Idomeneo ,the Title role in La Gioconda in Vallodiad, Erste Dame in Magic Flute at the Tobacco Factory, Verdi requiem at The Royal Albert Hall, Strauss Songs at St. John’s Smith Square and Mahler’s Rückert Lieder with Northampton Symphony.

Jayson Gillham to play for Tait Performing Arts Association

Jayson Gillham is to play in concert in Melbourne at the Savage Club on the 12th September 2013 for our sister organisation in Australia, the Tait Performing Arts Association After reading the review below by eminent critic and Tait Patron, John Amis, how could you miss it?

Concert details info here

20130720-102918.jpg

Jayson Gillham by John Amis

One of the pleasures of being a critic is that you sometimes spot a tremendous talent before it becomes known to the public at large: in my sixty years writing about artists I was able to come across some young muzos that I recognised as being star quality. I was able to appreciate when he was only seventeen the conductor Simon Rattle, and the guitarist Julian Bream when he was in his mid-teens. And now I am happy to salute the young Australian pianist Jayson Gillham. I am not alone in saluting his talent: he has a following already, he has success with orchestras in various countries and has won important prizes such as the Gold Medal of the Royal Overseas League. At the 2012 Leeds Piano competition he was a semi-finalist and won warm praise from Sir Mark Elder; likewise in the Warsaw Competition he won praise from the great Marta Argarich.

Recently, I heard Jayson again at one of the Bob Boas Concerts in Mansfield Street when he played a recital programme of Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, Debussy and two Liszt transcriptions. Each composer was done justice and the performances could not have been bettered. Gillham has virtuosity to spare but uses his technique as a springboard to making deeply satisfying and freshness of Bach (the G major Toccata), the wit and strength of Beethoven (opus 78, the ardent passion of Schumann (the Etudes symphoniques), the voluptuous poetry of Debussy (3Etudes) and the passion of Wagner (the Liebestod and the coruscating wit of the Rigoletto Paraphrase). It was a recital to cherish and remember. Jayson Gillham will surely have a big and important career.

This article was published by John Amis in his wonderful blog

http://johnamismusic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/jayson-gillham.html?m=1

 

Jayson Gillham’s website

©2013 Tait Memorial Trust •

Registered charity 1042797