Congratulations to Kamilla Dunstan who is the only singer from Europe to have been selected for the finals of the Lyra New York International Vocal Competition for opera singers. For further information click here
Following the success of his recording of Malcolm Arnold’s The Dancing Master, John Andrews has announced the formation of Red Squirrel Opera, to bring to life unknown and neglected operatic works. The Company’s first project will be a co-production of The Dancing Master with the Buxton International Festival in July 2021. The Resonus Classics recording has been nominated for BBC Music Magazine’s Opera Recording of the year. Voting now open
Sadly the performances of Tosca at the Royal Opera House have been cancelled due to the latest Government guidelines. Christian Federici was due to make his debut there as Angelotti.
The Resonus Classics recording of Malcolm Arnold’s The Dancing Master conducted by John Andrews has won the BBC Music Magazine Opera Award 2021. John Andrews says “I’m beyond delighted that our disc has received this accolade. It was such a delight to make the recording, the cast are not only brilliant musicians and actors, but charming and delightful colleagues, and the BBC Concert Orchestra were absolutely in their element and.
As a result of the latest national lockdown it is disappointing that it was only possible for Glyndebourne to present three semi-staged performance of The Magic Flute in early November. Glyndebourne advises ticket holders to keep an eye on the website for further announcements. For information click here
As part of St John Smith Square’s “Arts of Fugue’ concerts, David Titterington performs works by CPE Bach, Schumann and JS Bach streaming on YouTube and Facebook from 8pm on 11 August. Click here for the link. It is already possible to hearing him perform ‘Thin Air’ by Calliope Tsoupaki recorded live from St John’s Smith Square as part of ‘Festivals for Compassion’, a musical ‘relay race’, journeying through Europe,.
John Andrews is the Music Director of an exciting post lockdown project for The Grange Festival later this month. The director Sinéad O’Neill is creating a promenade production, using a variety of natural stages at The Grange. Performers will including Sir John Tomlinson, Kiandra Howarth, Claire Barnett-Jones and members of Shobana Jeyasingh Dance. John Andrews will co-ordinate The Grange Festival Chorus in works by Poulenc and Lili Boulanger. The performance.
Baritone Thomas Humphreys is joined by Pavel Timofeyevsky for a livestream recital of Russian Song on Sunday 2 August at 4pm broadcast from the 1901 Arts Club in London. Here is a taster from their rehearsal. To watch on Sunday please click here.
Opera Holland Park has made the exciting announcement of an outdoor performance of comic opera selections conducted by John Andrews on Friday 7 August. The seating capacity will be strictly limited to take into account the current social distancing guidelines. For further information click here.
In July 2018 David Cohen and the Carducci Quartet gave the premiere of Gavin Higgins ‘Gursky Landscapes’ for solo cello and string quartet at the Pittville Pump Room. The work was commissioned by David Cohen and the Cheltenham Festival and is currently available on a Podcast linked here
Margaret Williams’ film of the open-air staging of Peter Grimes on Aldeburgh Beach was one of the highlights of the Britten Centenary, and is available on BBC iPlayer from Friday 19 June for 30 days. The marvellous cast includes Charmian Bedford as Second Niece.
The Royal Opera House will stream David McVicar’s production of The Magic Flute with Susan Platts singing Third Lady from 19 June to 2 July. Please click here for further details.
OWM is sorry to have to share the news that the Welsh soprano, Jennifer Rhys-Davies, passed away in the early hours of Sunday 8 March. Some of her most memorable roles include Queen of the Night, Marcellina, Elettra Idomeneo, Elisabetta Maria Stuarda, Hilda Mack Elegy for Young Lovers and Lady Billows Albert Herring. She first sang Berta at the Royal Opera House in 1993 and in recent years she returned.
Mezzo-Soprano Susan Platts sings in Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony
Following his success conducting Wolf-Ferrari’s Susanna’s Secret for OHP in the summer John Andrews returns in 2020 to conduct Franz Lehár’s The Merry Widow in a new production by Christopher Luscombe. For further details click here
Christian Federici recently sang the Count in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Opéra de Marseille with great success. He joins OWM in the footsteps of the late great Italian baritone, Claudio Desderi, a former OWM artist with whom he studied. He will soon be singing Belcore L’elisir d’amore for the Piccolo Festival of Friuli Venezia Giulia, and Testo in Ambrosini’s Tancredi appresso il combattimento in Montepulciano. Next season he makes his debut at.
Congratulations to Owen White artist Ondes Martenot player Augustin Viard, who has just performed Arthur Honegger’s Oratorio ‘Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher’ in Poland, with the Polish National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Liebreich. Augustin writes that the “performance in Katowice was amazing! It was a full house and the audience were very enthusiastic. Florence Darel was a great Jeanne.”’ Before the rehearsals could even begin though it was no simple.
Mezzo soprano Kamilla Dunstan is currently rehearsing at the Glyndebourne Festival where she is covering Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte. Earlier this year she sang the lead role of Fanny Price in Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park with Opera South. Born in Yorkshire and brought up in New Zealand she trained at the Royal College of Music International Opera Studio and she is now studying with Claire Rutter.
The prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Awards begin today at the Wigmore Hall. These annual awards set up in 1956 which have a record of “spotting winners” feature 11 young singers. This year we are delighted to announce that the Jurors for the 2019 awards include Soprano Mary Plazas along with Graham Johnson, James Bowman, Richard Jackson and Ann Murray. Mary Plazas won the 1991 Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Scholarship and then went.
‘I can’t immediately recall a better evening of coloratura singing in London” (Robert Thicknesse of The Critics Circle) English Touring Opera opened their spring season with the first professional performance of Rossini’s Elizabeth I (Elisabetta REGINA D’INGHILTERRA) to tour England in 200 years, directed by the company’s artistic director, James Conway Conducted by John Andrews with Mary Plazas in the lead role of Elizabeth and Joseph Doody as courtier Gugliemo,.
Congratulations to Piotr Lempa who has been made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM). This honour is awarded to former students who have made a significant contribution to the music profession.
David Titterington returns to Moscow to perform in the International Organ Festival “Organ Art”. His programme entitled “The Universe of Bach” will be played on the magnificent organ in the Great Hall at Moscow Conservatory on 10 February 2019. For further details click here
John Andrew’s conducts Rossini’s Elisabetta, regina d’Inghilterra for English Touring Opera this season with Mary Plazas starring in the title role and Joseph Doody singing the role of Guglielmo. This is the first fully staged professional production of Rossini’s opera in the UK for two hundred years. The premiere was at Hackney Empire on Saturday 2 March 2019 and James Conway’s production will now tour the UK. For further details.
Owen White Management is pleased to announce that Clare Bowskill has joined the team in charge of Artist Communications. Clare brings more than 20 years of experience in communications working for major television networks including ITV and BBC Worldwide and as Head of Publicity for a major charity. More recently she moved into the world of performing arts as the Visitor Services Manager for Brighton Dome and Festival working directly.
Daniel Pioro performs an evening of electronic and acoustic music in collaboration with Icelandic composer and musician, Valgeir Sigur∂sson, at St George’s Bristol on Sunday 21 October at 8pm. The artists, with special guests, perform works from Daniel’s debut album for Bedroom Community Dust. Further information here
Owen White Management is delighted to announce representation of the French ondes Martenot player, Augustin Viard. Already establishing a reputation as a soloist with performances of major works in France, Holland, Germany and Mexico, he is also interested in a variety of contemporary styles including improvisation. He plays on the score of Andreï Zviaguintsev’s Oscar nominated film Loveless.
Professor David Titterington will give his inaugural lecture-recital as Professor of the University of London on Tuesday 18 September 2018 at 19.00 in Duke’s Hall at the Royal Academy of Music. Organ works will include Ned Rorem’s A Quaker Reader, extracts from Olivier Messiaen’s Livre du Saint-Sacrement and the premiere of a new work by Rhian Samuel.
The great Italian baritone, conductor and teacher, Claudio Desderi, passed away in Florence on Saturday 30 June. I was fortunate to have known him for nearly 30 years, and to have seen his masterly interpretations of Falstaff and Leporello. I will never forget my first experience of watching his inspirational master classes at the Scuola di Musica in Fiesole, preparing young Italian singers for the Mozart-Da Ponte Project. At that.
Jennifer Rhys-Davies is currently singing Berta in Il barbiere di Siviglia at The Grange Festival. The production opened on Saturday 9 June directed by Stephen Barlow and conducted by David Parry. Dominic Lowe writing for backtrack said “Jennifer Rhys-Davies stole every scene in which she appeared….her “Il vecchiotto cerca moglie” was a masterpiece of comic showmanship…” full review. There are further performances on 15, 17, 22, 27 and 30 June..
Nicholas Jenkins will conduct a programme of Poulenc’s Sept répons des ténèbres and Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Orchestre National de Lille and the Philharmonia Chorus at the Auditorium du Nouveau Siècle this Thursday 15 March. For full details click here
John Andrews conducts showcase scenes and arias by Rossini in a programme entitled Fireworks! for English Touring Opera. It opened at the Hackney Empire on 22 February 2018 and is currently touring to venues throughout the UK. For further details click here. It has also recently been announced that he will conduct Wolf-Ferrari’s Il segreto di Susanna for Opera Holland Park in 2019.
OWM is pleased to announce the European representation of Canadian baritone, Tyler Duncan. On the operatic stage he has performed at the Metropolitan Opera and the Spoleto Festival. He has a busy concert and recital career, and he recently made his UK recital debut at the Wigmore Hall with Graham Johnson.
Cynthia Millar has already performed the solo ondes martenot part, written especially for her by Thomas Adès in his opera The Exterminating Angel, at the Salzburg Festival, the Royal Opera House and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The work will next be performed at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen opening on 23 March. For further details click here
Louise Winter performed the role of Gertrude in Brett Dean’s Hamlet for Glyndebourne on Tour in Autumn 2017. She is pictured here with William Dazely as Claudius and Jeffrey Lloyd Roberts as Polonius. For full details of dates and venues click here
OWM is pleased to announce representation for the UK and Ireland of bass, Yakov Strizhak. He was born in Kazakhstan and trained in St Petersburg, where he won the St Petersburg Spring Festival Competition. He has since worked with conductors including Valery Gergiev, Mariss Jansons, and Andrey Petrenko, and performed with New Israeli Opera, Komische Oper Berlin and at the Gergiev Philharmonic Festival in Rotterdam. The photo shows him as.
Mary Plazas performed the role of the Duchess in Thomas Adès’ Powder Her Face at Snape Maltings, the Almeida Theatre and on the film for Channel 4 released on DVD. She also sang the role in concert with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer. She is delighted to return to the role for performances with Northern Ireland Opera 27,28,29 January 2017. For further information click here
Rapidly becoming recognised as an artist of exceptional musicality and innovation, Owen White Management is pleased to announce that Daniel Pioro has joined the roster. He actively promotes new music and this summer he made his debut with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra performing Colin Matthews’s Violin Concerto. He was immediately invited to return to Manchester and later this month he will play two performances of Thomas Adès’s Violin Concerto –.
Owen White Management is pleased to announce that soprano Gillian Ramm has joined the roster. Her performances include appearances with English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Salzburger Landestheater, Teatro di San Carlo in Napoli and Festivals including the BBC Proms, Buxton and Göttingen. She recently made her role debut as Donna Anna for English Touring Opera.
This summer Louise Winter made her role debut as Madame Larina in Michael Boyd’s new production of Eugene Onegin for Garsington Opera with Douglas Boyd conducting. Click here for further details
Following the world premiere of Sally Beamish’s Chaconne at the Royal Festival Hall on 8 February 2016, International concert organist David Titterington gave the US premiere at Davies Hall in San Francisco on Sunday 6 March. The programme also included two milestone works in the organ repertoire, Nielsen’s impressive Commotio and Franck’s mighty Grande Pièce Symphonique. Beamish’s new Chaconne is inspired by Robert Burns’ evocative song The Slave’s Lament. For.