The inaugural London English Song Festival was held at The Forge, Camden between 13th March and 10th April 2011. Full details of the 2012 festival will be published here in the Autumn.
PATRONS: Sir Thomas Allen CBE, Malcolm Martineau
Vital information:
The very first London English Song Festival at The Forge, Camden features 12 outstanding young artists performing works by more than 25 composers over five concerts on five Sunday evenings between March and April 2011. Book online here now.
An introduction to the series:
This Spring sees the launch of a new series of concerts of English song at The Forge. The inaugural London English Song Festival will be held between 13th March and 10th April 2011 at The Forge in Camden: this stunning, intimate venue is a 2010 RIBA + Civic Trust award-winner and has an attached restaurant.
The series will be curated by young award-winning pianist William Vann who will accompany ten outstanding young singers and a violinist over the course of five Sunday evenings in performances of music written by more than twenty-five English composers (as well as an American and a German).
The focus of four of the concerts will be on the English poets who provided the inspiration for the music: W. H. Auden, William Shakespeare, A. E. Housman and Ivor Gurney; the middle concert explores music written for the hugely versatile combination of soprano, violin and piano. All five evenings will take the audience through a fascinating exploration of the inimitable and ravishing songs – and poems – that are an invaluable part of the cultural heritage of this country.
Concert 1 (13th March) at 7.30pm:
Title: W. H. Auden: An Englishman in America
Surtitle: …settings by Berkeley, Britten, Lutyens, Barber and Henze interspersed with readings of Auden’s poetry. Including Britten’s Cabaret songs and On this island.
Performers: Ruth Jenkins (soprano), Katie Bray (mezzo-soprano), Rupert Charlesworth (tenor) and William Vann (piano)
Concert 2 (20th March) at 7.30pm:
Title: Then to Silvia let us sing
Surtitle: …the words of William Shakespeare set by Arne, Dring, Elgar, Finzi, Haydn, Ireland, Morley, Parry, Quilter, Tippett, Vaughan Williams and Warlock. Including Finzi’s collection Let us garlands bring.
Performers: Kate Symonds-Joy (mezzo-soprano), Samuel Evans (baritone) and William Vann (piano)
This concert is generously supported by the Association of English Speakers and Singers
Concert 3 (27th March) at 7.30pm:
Title: Soprano-Violin-Piano
Surtitle: …songs by Arthur Bliss, Rebecca Clarke, Gustav Holst, Betty Roe and Ralph Vaughan Williams and solo music for violin and piano.
Performers: Aoife Miskelly (soprano), Florence Cooke (violin) and William Vann (piano).
Concert 4 (3rd April) at 7.30pm:
Title: A. E. Housman: A Shropshire Lad and other songs
Surtitle: …settings of Housman (including poems from his hugely popular collection A Shropshire Lad) by 15 composers, including Bax, Berkeley, Ireland, Gurney, Vaughan-Williams, Somervell and Sumsion; interspersed with readings of poets who influenced Housman, including Heine and Shakespeare.
Performers: Julian Forbes (tenor), Johnny Herford (baritone) and William Vann (piano)
Concert 5 (10th April) at 7.30pm:
Title: Ivor Gurney: poet and composer
Surtitle: …Ivor Gurney is one of the Great War Poets commemorated in Westminster Abbey: he showed great artistic talent from a young age but suffered from bipolar disorder and spent his last fifteen years in various mental hospitals. We hear his poems and music, including settings of his own words, and some of his rarely heard late songs and works by his contemporaries, including Finzi and Howells.
Performers: April Fredrick (soprano), Robert Rice (baritone) and William Vann (piano)
Ticket Prices:
On the door: £15.00 (£12 conc.)
Advance purchase: £13.50 (£10.50 conc.)
Season ticket (5 concerts for the price of 4): £60.00 (£48 conc.)
Location:
The Forge, 3-7 Delancey Street, London, NW1 7NL, between Camden Town and Mornington Crescent tube stations.
William Vann:
William Vann studied as a pianist at the Royal Academy of Music with Malcolm Martineau and Colin Stone, graduating with distinction; in 2008 he won the Gerald Moore award for young accompanists and in October 2010 won the Great Elm Awards Accompanist Prize. He is also a past winner of the Sir Henry Richardson Scholarship, is supported by the Geoffrey Parsons Memorial Trust and was the Hodgson Fellow in piano accompaniment at the RAM for the academic year 2009-10. He has performed as an accompanist at the Aldeburgh Festival, Wigmore Hall, The Sage Gateshead, St John’s, Smith Square, St George’s, Bristol and St David’s, Cardiff among many other concert venues. He has either commissioned or given the first performance of new English songs and song cycles by several English composers, including Christian Alexander, Joseph Atkins, Martin Eastwood, Johnny Herford, David Nield and Graham Ross. He is a Samling Scholar, a Yeoman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians, a former Britten-Pears Young Artist and Young Songmaker, a coach on the Oxenfoord International Summer School and the Director of Music at St Stephen’s Church, Gloucester Road.