Academy of French Song and Opera 28 June - 6 July 2019

Pianists: Caroline Dowdle, Christopher Glynn, Matthew Gemmill

Course Leaders: Florence Daguerre de Hureaux, Caroline Dowdle, Christopher Glynn

British mezzo Hannah Bennett is on the Preparatory Opera MA studying with Yvonne Howard and Matthew Fletcher at the Royal Academy of Music as a Nan Copeland Scholar. Recent roles include: The Fox (The Cunning Little Vixen, RAM), Romeo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi, RAO), Charlotte (Werther, RAM), Rosina (Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Italian Summer School) and Flora (The Enchanted Pig, Dove/HGO). Hannah, a 2019 Leeds Lieder Young Artist, has performed at the Wigmore Hall and the Oxford Lieder Festival with the RAM Song Circle.

Fleuranne Brockway is an Australian lyric mezzo. She recently completed an Artist Diploma in Opera at the Royal College of Music International Opera School, London. Before moving to Europe, Fleuranne was a young artist with West Australian Opera and the Melba Trust Scholars. This August, Fleuranne joins Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden as a member of their principal ensemble for their 2019-2020 season. Upcoming roles include: Mercédès (Carmen), Zweite Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Dritte Magd (Elektra), Rosette (Manon), Blossom (Anna Nicole).

Johanna Harrison is a British soprano currently studying at the Guildhall School under the tutelage of Marcus van den Akker and Janice Chapman. Past roles include Zweite Dame and Papagena in Die Zauberflöte, (Westminster Opera, Château de Panloys) and Mercédès (Carmen) for Dartington Festival, amongst many others. Future projects include the role of First Harvester in McNeff’s The Burning Boy for the Three Choirs Festival, Tewkesbury Abbey, and the role of Flora (La traviata) for Hampstead Garden Opera, Sicily.

Clare Hood is a coloratura soprano from New Zealand studying with Jane Irwin at the Royal Northern College of Music, supported by the Waverly Fund, the Anne Reid Memorial Trust, an Anne Bellam Scholarship, and a Graduate Women NZ Fellowship.  Roles include Madame Herz (Der Schauspieldirektor), Le Feu (L’enfant et les sortilèges), and Israelitish Woman (Judas Maccabeus).  Clare has also been a member of NZ Opera’s Freemason’s Chorus, most recently for their productions of Aida, Manon Lescaut, and L’elisir d’amore.

The Irish baritone Matthew Mannion is a final year undergraduate at the Royal Irish Academy of Music where he studies with Owen Gilhooly and Dearbhla Collins. In 2018-19 he sang the role of Surgeon in the Irish Premiere of Banished (RIAM), toured with Irish National Opera’s Orfeo ed Euridice, sang First Priest in The Magic Flute with Irish National Opera, and created the role of Liam in Tom Lane’s BackStage (Cork Midsummer Festival). Other roles include: Samuel (Pirates of Penzance), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Marchese (La traviata), Moralès (Carmen), Imperial Commissioner (Madama Butterfly), Masetto (Don Giovanni), Bartolo (Le nozze di Figaro) and Second Elder in Handel’s Susanna.

Matthew Gemmill studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where his teachers are Eugene Asti, Iain Burnside, and Julius Drake. Before moving to London, Matthew was based in Chicago, where he enjoyed a varied career as a pianist, accompanist, vocal coach, and educator. Mr. Gemmill’s mentors and teachers include Martin Katz, Daniel Paul Horn, and Carolyn Hart. He has participated in masterclasses with Elly Ameling, Stephanie Blythe, Jane Eaglen, Håkan Hagegård, Warren Jones, and Dawn Upshaw.

Concert at Brel Friday 5 July 2019

Chacun le sait (La Fille du Régiment - Donizetti)

Clare Hood

Voi che sapete (Le Nozze di Figaro - Mozart)

Hannah Bennett

La Mort des amants(Baudelaire - Debussy)

Hannah Bennett

Les Berceaux (Prudhomme - Fauré)

Matthew Mannion

Papageno’s suicide aria (Die Zauberflöte - Mozart)

Matthew Mannion

Papageno/Papagena duet (Die Zauberflöte - Mozart)

Johanna Harrison, Matthew Mannion

Berceuse and Kitty Valse (Dolly Suite - Fauré)

Caroline Dowdle, Christopher Glynn

Ein Traum (von Bodenstadt - Grieg)

Johanna Harrison

Cantique (Maeterlinck - Nadia Boulanger)

Johanna Harrison

Barcarolle (Les Contes d’Hoffmann - Offenbach)

Fleuranne Brockway, Clare Hood

Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklings möte (Runeberg - Sibelius)

Amor (Wieinstein - Bolcom)

Fleuranne Brockway

Brel Song School 8-15 July 2019

Course Leaders Amanda Roocroft - soprano, Joseph Middleton - piano

Naoki Toyomura (Piano, New Zealand) is pursuing an MPhil in Performance Studies at Hughes Hall, Cambridge having graduated from the Eastman School of Music and University of Rochester. At Cambridge, he is participating in the Pembroke College Lieder Scheme and Instrumental Award Scheme and conducts the Hughes Hall choir and Cambridge University Symphony Orchestra.

Merce Bruguera (mezzo-soprano, Barcelona) studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Catherine Wyn-Rogers and Joseph Middleton. Her time at Academy has included operatic experience (Cornelia in Handel’s Giulio Cesare a Fairy in Dvorak’s Rusalka). In 2018 she won the Elena Gerhardt Lieder Prize; she is a current member of the Academy’s ‘Song Circle’ and the ‘Bach the European’ series.

Danish mezzo-soprano Anne-Sofie Jensen is a Royal Academy of Music Scholar where she studies with professors Giles Underwood and James Baillieu. Recent performances include Bach’s ‘Matthew Passion’ with Trevor Pinnock and his B minor Mass with The Instruments of Time and Truth. In May, Anne-Sofie received critical acclaim for her London operatic debut as Rosmira in Handel’s ‘Partenope’ with Hampstead Garden Opera.

Stephen Whitford is a baritone, who grew up in Cheltenham (UK). He studied Classics at King’s College, Cambridge, where he was also a choral scholar. He has spent the last year living and working in Berlin, where he just performed ‘Die Fledermaus’ and ‘Il Barbiere di Siviglia’. In September he will start studying at the Royal Academy of Music.

Claire Ward is a soprano from West Sussex (UK) who has just completed an MA at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She previously studied at the Conservatoire de Toulouse and Durham University. Claire sings regularly in Bach Cantatas, and has recently covered Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Grange Festival.

Chloe Allison is in her second year of her PhD in Cambridge University’s Music Faculty, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. She is a Making Music Selected Artist, together with Adam. Her recent on-stage performances include Ottavia (‘L’incorronazione di Poppea’),  Maurya in Vaughan Williams’ ‘Riders to the Sea’, the Princess (Puccini’s ‘Suor Angelica’) and the title role in ‘Carmen’.

Dublin-born pianist Adam McDonagh is a Samling Artist, a Making Music Selected Artist and a graduate of the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama and Queens’ College, University of Cambridge. Adam has received many awards and grants in Ireland and has acted as accompanist in masterclasses of Patricia Bardon, Dame Emma Kirkby, Ailish Tynan, Dame Ann Murray and Maxim Vengerov.

Humphrey Thompson is the Prince Hohenzollern Scholar at the Royal College of Music, where he studies with Russell Smythe. This November, he will make his London operatic debut as Schaunard in Puccini’s ‘La Boheme’ with Hampstead Garden Opera. Recently, he made his international concert debut in Spain, singing the arias in Bach’s ‘John Passion’. He gives regular recitals around London with So Far Sounds.

Annabel Kennedy is a Mezzo-Soprano from Devon, studying at the Royal College of Music under the tutelage of Amanda Roocroft and Caroline Dowdle. Recent prizes include: 1st Prize in the RCM Concerto Competition, 1st Prize for the AESS Courtney Kenny Award for English Song and the Undergraduate Prize in the 2018 Brooks van der Pump English Song Competition. Recent performances include singing in the chorus for the RCMIOS production of ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’ directed by Sir Thomas Allen and Nevill Holt Opera’s production of ‘Cosi fan tutte’ directed by Adele Thomas. 

The course participants gave a concert on Sunday 14 July 2019

Claire Ward

C. Debussy: from Fetes Galantes 1: Clair de Lune; Fantoches

F. Poulenc: from Fiançailles pour Rire: Fleurs

Stephen Whitford

J. Ibert: from Chansons de Don Quichotte: Chanson du Duc; Chanson de la Mort

R. Vaughan Williams: Silent Noon

Anne-Sofie Søby Jensen

I.P.E. Lange-Müller: from ‘Sulamith & Salomon: Sulamiths Sang i Skovduelunden 

F. Schubert: Gretchen am Spinnrade

J. Brahms: Auf dem Kirchhofe

Annabel Kennedy

G. Mahler: from ‘Rückert-Lieder’: Liebst du um Schönheit; Um Mitternacht 

 * INTERVAL * 

Mercè Bruguera Abelló 

H. Duparc: Chanson triste

R. Strauss: Mein Herz ist stumm

Allerseelen

Chloe Allison

C. Debussy: from Trois Chansons de Bilitis: La Chevelure 

H. Howells: King David 

P. Viardot: Madrid 

Humphrey Thompson

Beethoven: from An die ferne Geliebte: Nimm sie hin 

M. A. Turnage: from Three Animal Songs: Last Words

M. Ravel: from Don Quichotte a Dulcinée: Chanson à boire

Ruisi Quartet 29 July - 4 August 2019

Alessandro Ruisi, Oliver Cave (violins), Luba Tunnicliffe (viola), Max Ruisi (violoncello)

Winners of the Royal Philharmonic Society award for Young British String Players, the critically- acclaimed Ruisi Quartet has established a reputation as a charismatic and expressive young ensemble that is emerging as one of the leading British string quartets of its generation. Founded by British/Sicilian brothers Alessandro and Max, the quartet perform regularly throughout the UK and Europe and were winners of the Kirckman Concert Society Artists award for 2018/19. They are one of ten quartets worldwide to have been selected for the Banff International String Quartet Competition 2019.

Based in London, and dedicated to continually exploring and developing, the group have studied with a wide-range of leading musicians. In 2018, they were selected for an Aldeburgh Chamber Music Residency (working with cellist/conductor David Watkin), and for the IMS Prussia Cove masterclasses with Thomas Adés. The Ruisi quartet was also invited on to the Artist Diploma in Chamber Music course at the Royal College of Music, working closely with Simon Rowland-Jones, whilst also receiving masterclasses from some of the world’s most eminent chamber musicians. Most recently, the group has also been working with Krzysztof Chorzelski, violist of the Belcea Quartet, as part of the Belcea Quartet Young Artists Scheme.

Recent highlights have included their Wigmore debut, a tour of Scotland and live performances on BBC Radio 3. They look forward to making their Russian debut in Moscow in early 2020. 

The Quartet gave a concert at Brel on Saturday 3 August 2019

Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809) - String Quartet in F Minor, Op 20 No 5

Allegro moderat

Minuetto

Adagio

Finale - Fuga a due Soggetti

Matthew Whittall (b. 1975) - Bright Ferment

Interval

Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828) — String Quartet No 14 in D Minor D810 (“Death and the Maiden”) — 1st Movement

Allegro

Bela Bartok (1881 - 1945) — String Quartet No 2 Sz 67

Moderato

Allegro molto capricciosO

Lento

Trio Rouge 18 - 23 August 2019

Sophie Phillips (violin), Meera Priyanka Raja (violoncello), Leyla Cemiloglu (piano)

Trio Rouge was formed in 2014 at the Royal College of Music. Since then they have enjoyed performing in venues across London as well as receiving numerous masterclasses from many distinguished musicians, including the Sacconi Quartet, Trio Apaches, Mats Zetterqvist, Alina Ibragimova, and Alexander Chaushian. They were semi-finalists in the  2017 Royal Overseas League Chamber Music Competition.

Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856) — Adagio and Allegro Op 70 (1849)

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827) — Sonata No 5 in F for violin and piano (“Spring” ), Op 24 (1801)

Allegro

Adagio molto espressivo

Scherzo: Allegro mol

Rondo: Allegro ma non troppo

Sergei Prokofiev (1891 - 1953) — Piano Sonata No 3 in A Minor , Op 28 (1917)

Interval

Felix Mendelssohn (1809 - 1847) - Piano Trio No 1 in D Minor Op 49 (1838)

Molto allegro ed agitato

Andante con moto tranquillo

Scherzo: Leggiero e vivace

Finale: Allegro assai appassionato

Alkyonas Quartet 26 - 31 August 2019

Emma Pursloow, Charlotte Saluste-Bridoux (violins, Henrietta Hill (viola), Jobine Siekman (violoncello)

The Alkyona Quartet was formed in Januarya 2018, as a collaboration between follows, graduates and current students of the Royal College of Music and Guildhall School of Music and Drama. They recently won the RCM String Quartet of the Year 2019, and look forward to releasing their debut album later in 2019 for Cegin Productions, featuring Janacek’s ‘Intimate Letters’ paired with new work by Cecilia Damstrom. They especially enjoy cross-collaborative project, including working with film makers; Indian Tabla player Kuljit Bhamra MBE; actress Saskia Reeves; composer Caroline Heslop; and an exciting project with actor Willian Marquez in 2020. They played at the Stift International Festival in Holland in August 2019 and will be at the Lake District Summer Music International Festival in 2020. They are working on an innovative collaboration with ballet choreographer Richard Bermange on a film of Janacek’s ‘Intimate Letters’.

The Quartet gave a concert at Brel on Friday 30 August 2019

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) - String Quartet no 63 in B float major Op 76 No 4 (Sunrise)

Allegro con spirito/Adagio/Menuet-Allegro/Finale-Allegro ma non troppo

Bela Bartok (1881-1945) String Quartet No 5 Sz102 1st Movement

Allegro

Interval

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) - from the Art of Fugue

Contrapunctus 1

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) String Quartet in F Major, 1st Movement

Allegro moderato - tres doux

Elizabeth Maconchy (1907-1994) -String Quartet No 13 (Quartetto Corte)

Allegro moderato/Lento/Allegro Risoluto

Olivia Warburton, Kieran Rayner, Johan Barnoin and Gamal Khamis 31 August - 5 Sept 2019

Olivia Warburton (mezzo-soprano), Kieran Rayner (baritone), Johan Barnoin, Gamal Khamis (piano)

Olivia Warburton studied on the Opera Course at the Royal Academy of Music as the Norman Ayrton Scholar. Recent operatic roles include the title role in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges, Ino in Handel’s Semele, Stewardess in Dove’s Flight and the title role in Dido and Aeneas for Royal Academy Opera and The Grange Festival. Earlier this year she made her operatic debut at both the London and Halle Handel Festivals. A passionate recitalist, Olivia has performed at Wigmore Hall, the Oxford Lieder Festival, Buckingham Palace and the Aldeburgh Festival. She is a Samling Artist, a Britten-Pears Young Artist, and a graduate of the Georg Solti Accademia, the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz, Köln and the Internationale Sommerakademie at the Mozarteum, Salzburg. She was a recent prize winner at the 1st International Haydn Competition in Vienna.

New Zealand baritone Kieran Rayner studied at the RCM Opera School with Russell Smythe. Young Artist with Garsington Opera, Verbier Festival, Samling Arts, Britten Pears Foundation, and winner of Royal Over-Seas League Crashaw Prize for Outstanding Overseas Musician 2018. Has performed principal roles with Garsington Opera, English Touring Opera, NAFA Singapore, Eternity Opera NZ, British Youth Opera, and Euphonia Opera, plus eight roles at RCMIOS. Concert highlights include the Royal Albert Hall, Buckingham Palace with John Wilson, and an Oxford Lieder Festival recital. Upcoming performances include Figaro Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Devon Opera), Mozart and Faure Requiems (St-Martin-in-the-Fields). 

Johan Barnoin was born and raised in Nice. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 2016 where he studied with Tatiana Sarkissova, James Bailieu, Michael Dussek and Ian Brown. During his studies, Johan won the Jean Shanks accompaniment award, the Ludmilla Andrews Russian Song Prize, the Schumann Song Prize, the Marjorie Thomas Prize and the Jacob Barnes Scholarship. He is an Oxford Lieder Young Artist, a Britten Pears Young Artist and has taken part in masterclasses with Roger Vignoles, Andrew West, Wolfgang Holzmair and Imogen Cooper. He is delighted to have gained a place to study a Master’s degree at the Paris conservatoire under Professor Anne Le Bozec, which will commence in September 2019.

After gaining a degree in Mathematics at Imperial College London, pianist Gamal Khamis completed his formal musical education at the Royal College of Music. Born in London in 1988, Gamal was introduced to the piano at the age of four, and six years later performed at the Wigmore Hall. Gamal is an Artist with the Concordia Foundation, Royal Over-Seas League, Park Lane Group and Samling, and is a member of the Lipatti Piano Quartet. Upcoming plans include recitals in Denmark and the USA, and a tour of his second show with the actor Christopher Kent “Odyssey - Words and Music of Finding Home

The singers and accompanists gave a concert at Brel on Wednesday 4 September 2019

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Chloë

Joseph Haydn

She never told her love

Franz SchuberT

Der Jüngling an der Quelle

Gretchen am Spinnrade

Abendstern

Franz Schubert

Willkommen und Abschied

François Poulenc

Montparnasse

George Butterworth

Is my team ploughing?

Hugo Wolf

Abschied 

Pause

Hugo Wolf

Auch Kleine Dinge

Nein, junger Herr

Anakreons Grab

Erich Korngold

Alt-Spanisch

Gefasster Abschied

Claude Debussy

Nuit d’étoiles

Fantoches

Maurice Ravel

Le Paon

Chanson Romanesque

Petr Eben

Rozhovor

Jdu za tabou

Gustav Mahler

Ging heut’ Morgen über’s Feld

Ich hab ein glühend Messer

Gerald Finzi

The Clock of the Years

Douglas Milburn

Reverie

Robert Schumann

Der Contrabandiste

Huw Wiggin and Timothy End 21-28 October 2019

Huw is professor of saxophone at the Royal Academy of Music in London and has given master classes at the Royal Northern College of Music, Chetham’s School of Music, NAFA in Singapore and the Universities of Calgary and Lethbridge in Canada. A keen chamber musician, he is also a member of the Ferio Saxophone Quartet. The quartet signed with Chandos Records in 2016 and has released two highly successful discs for the label: ‘Flux’ in July 2017 and ‘Revive’ in November 2018. 

Timothy End, ARAM, graduated from King’s College, London before entering the Royal Academy of Music. gaining the DipRAM award for an outstanding recital. A multiple first-prize winner, Timothy was awarded both the Pianist Prize and Jean Meikle Duo Prize with the baritone Jonathan McGovern at the Wigmore Hall Song Competition. Further prizes include the Acccompanists’ Prize at the Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards, the Parnell Award for an Accompanist at the ROSL Annual Music Competition, the Gerald Moore Award and the MBF Accompanist Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Competition.

Huw and Time gave a concert at Brel on Sunday 27 October 2019

François Borne — Fantaisie Brillante sur des airs de Carmen

Astor Piazzolla — Oblivion

Johann Sebastian Bach — Concerto in G Minor BWV 1056R (arr Wiggin)

1. Moderato

2. Largo

3. Presto

Charles Koechlin — Etude No 2

Robert Schumann —Arabeske Op 18

Darius Milhaud — Scaramouche

1. Vif

2. Modéré

3.  Brasileira

John Williams — Escapades

1. Closing in 

2. Reflections

3. Joy Ride