Thrilled to be able to announce that 2013 Tait Awardee, Lauren Fagan has been offered a place in the Royal Opera House, Jette Parker Young Artists Programme to begin in September 2014. The news is even sweeter as two other young Australian singers have also been offered a place; Tenor, Sam Sakker and Baritone, Samuel Johnson. Congratulations to you all
As we prepare for John Amis’ funeral on Tuesday 20th August the idea of a legacy, a tangible way to remember John has been at the forefront of our thoughts. A life, such as his is a rare occurrence and deserves our very best efforts to remember and celebrate.
For the last six years of his incredible life John Amis was a Patron and an active supporter of the Tait Memorial Trust. The Chairman, Isla Baring OAM, wishes to create an Award in his name to be called the ‘John Amis Award’.
We have created a JustGiving page in the name of John Amis which is attached to the main TMT page. Any money donated via John’s page will go directly to fund this new award.
John Amis
Six weeks in a bank was enough for him to decide to live by and with music. Selling records and writing about them for a high-class gramophone shop, working with London Philharmonic, Symphony and Royal Philharmonic, organising concerts for Myra Hess at the National Gallery and for Michael Tippett whose secretary-dogsbody and friend he was, concert manager for Beecham, music critic for The Scotsman, organiser of the Summer School of Music with William Glock at Bryanston and Dartington for 34 years, broadcaster on radio and TV for 40, during which time he interviewed some 500 of the most famous and interesting musicians, Hindemith to Bernstein, Cage to Swann, Stravinsky to Stockhausen. He has narrated parts in Façade, Peter and the Wolf, Enoch Arden and Babar the Elephant.
John Amis speaking at the Malcolm Arnold Festival 2011
For his 70th birthday made a CD with friends Leslie Howard, Steve Race, Malcolm Arnold, Donald Swann, Jeffrey Tate and Ian Wallace. His books include an autobiography,Amiscellany, an anthology Words about Music and My Life in Music 1945 – 2000, A Photographer at the Aldeburgh Festival (Nigel Luckhurst) and Musicians on Camera(Lelia Goehr).
John was a very active blogger. His site John Amis online has a selection of his reviews going back to 2001. http://johnamismusic.blogspot.co.uk
The Archive of over 500 priceless interviews with the leaders of Western music and the Arts is being collected. Watch this space.
Australian born soprano Lauren Fagan is a young artist at the outset of a promising career. Initially completing a Business degree, Lauren has recently moved to London to accept her scholarship on the Opera course at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama under the tutelage of Susan Waters. Lauren is a 2013 Tait Memorial Trust Awardee.
Lauren Fagan has been in Banff, Canada for the past 5 weeks singing the role of Mrs Coyle in Owen Wingrave. This was the Canadian premiere of this opera, conducted by Dominic Wheeler and directed by Kelly Robinson. GSMD took across 6 singers from the opera course for the production where they got the chance to work with the original Owen, baritone, Benjamin Luxon.
Lauren is about to start her second year on the opera course at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In the first term Lauren will be singing the role of Lia in Debussy’s L’enfant prodigue at the Barbican and in the second term, Lauren will sing the role of the Blue Fairy in Jonathan Dove’s The Adventures of Pinocchio
Lauren’s award is supported by the Michael Whalley Foundation
Biography
Australian born soprano Lauren Fagan is a young artist at the outset of a promising career. Initially completing a Business degree, Lauren has recently moved to London to accept her scholarship on the Opera course at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama under the tutelage of Susan Waters. In August this year Lauren will be singing the role of Mrs Coyle in Britten’s Owen Wingrave as part of the Banff Summer Arts Festival in Canada. In Guildhall’s Opera scenes she has been featured as; Micaëla Carmen, Jenůfa Jenůfa, Marschallin Der Rosenkavalier, Natasha War and Peace, Vitellia La clemenza di Tito, Alice Falstaff, Fiordiligi Così fan tutte and First Lady Die Zauberflöte. Other operatic roles performed include Frasquita in Carmen at The State Theatre and Chorus in the Australian premiere of Dead Man Walking.
Lauren was runner up in the 2012 McDonald’s Operatic Aria Final, with finalists from around Australia and New Zealand. In 2012, she also placed third in the National Joan Sutherland Richard Bonynge Vocal Scholarship and won the Operatic Aria Final at the Ryde Eisteddfod. She was awarded ‘The Dame Nellie Melba Scholarship – ‘Patrick and Vivian Gordon Award’ from ‘The Dame Nellie Melba Opera Trust’ in 2011 and 2012. To celebrate the 150th anniversary of Dame Nellie Melba she performed a solo recital on 3MBS FM, Melbourne as part of Ann Blainey’s radio interview, ‘I am Melba’. Her performance of “Depuis le jour” was later selected for the 3MBS Alive CD (2012).
She has developing experience as a soloist; performing for The Opera and Arts Support Group, Clonter Opera, Artsong NSW, Opera on the Beach, Joan of Arc – Voices of Light Oratorio, Carols in the Domain, World Youth Day Opening Ceremony and Australian Idol Grand Final.
Over the last two years Lauren has had the opportunity to work with Dennis O’Neill, Christine Brewer, Liane Keegan, Sylvia Greenberg, David Aronson, Cheryl Barker, Eilene Hannan, Yvonne Kenny, Sharolyn Kimmorley, Glenn Winslade, Anna Sweeney and Chuck Hudson.
Lauren’s continued development is generously supported by The Dame Nellie Melba Opera Trust, The Opera and Arts Support Group, The Tait Memorial Trust, Ars Musica Australis, The Donnelly’s, Opus 50 Charitable Trust and The City Livery Club London.
The new production of Benjamin Britten’s television opera, Owen Wingrave is getting rave reviews from the press in Sydney.
Above a lovely article from the Sydney, Daily Telegraph and a review from Limelight here
The cast includes Tait Awardees, Morgan Pearse and Simon Lobelson. We are delighted to read the attached reviews and look forward, hopefully, to hearing a recording(?)
Morgan returns to London to sing at Wigmore Hall later this month. Bravo
OWEN WINGRAVE
Opera in two acts, Op. 85 by Benjamin Britten
Libretto by Myfanwy Piper
Australian Stage Premiere
Benjamin Britten is the most important British composer of the twentieth century, and is the greatest composer of opera in English. Based on a Henry James ghost story, Owen Wingrave is a statement of Britten’s lifelong pacifism. Composed during the Vietnam War, it is the story of a young soldier from an eminent military family whose anti-war instincts lead him to rebel against his upbringing. Desperate to keep his would-be bride and prove he isn’t a coward, he is forced to confront the ghosts of his ancestry.
The music is Britten at his refined, luminous best, with influences ranging from Gamelan to twelve-tone techniques. Imara Savage returns to Sydney Chamber Opera to direct the work’s Australian stage premiere.
Photography: Samuel Hodge
Conductor
Jack Symonds
Director
Imara Savage
Set & Costume
Katren Wood
Lighting Design
Conductor
Jack Symonds
Director
Imara Savage
Set & Costume
Katren Wood
Lighting Design
Ross Graham
With
Morgan Pearse, Georgia Bassingthwaighte, Rowena Cowley, Emily Edmonds, Paul Ferris, Pascal Herington, Simon Lobelson, Kornelia Perchy, boys’ choir, orchestra, and male movement ensemble
Date & Time
7.30pm Sat 3, Mon 5, Wed 7, Fri 9, Sat 10 August 2013
Venue
Carriageworks Bay 20, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh
Tickets
$60/$30 available here
The above details from the Sydney Chamber Opera site
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.
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.
Since being awarded a Tait study award from the Trust in 2010 Duncan has gone from strength to strength. Winner of the 2012 Chilcott Award and John Christie Award at Glyndebourne, W.A baritone Duncan Rock has had a meteoric rise in the UK.
Since jumping in as Don Giovanni at WNO the ENO have secured him a position as a house baritone where Duncan has sung Schaunard, La boheme; Donald, Billy Budd; Papageno, Magic Flute ( sung with Tait awardee Elena Xanthoudakis as Pamina ). Other roles include Don Giovanni, Opera North; Carousel, Chatalet in Paris and is currently rehearsing for Billy Budd at Glyndebourne singing the Novice and Tarquinius in Britten’s, The Rape of Lucretia also at Glyndebourne.
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