A Little Light Music

Thursday 4th June 2009 - 19:45
Tickets: £10 (£8)

FIONA CANFIELD Soprano		ANTON RICH Tenor
SUSANNA TUDOR-THOMAS Mezzo Soprano		MICHAEL SELBY Bass
NEIL GILLESPIE Tenor		NICHOLAS CHALMERS Piano

PROGRAMME:

A concert to be given by members of English National Opera and The Royal Opera, focusing on the lighter side of the vocal repertoire. The programme will include a “sprinkling” of opera, but alongside items from the world of Gilbert and Sullivan, musicals, ballads and other “not so serious” ditties!

FIONA CANFIELD read music at Goldsmiths' College, University of London and subsequently studied singing at the Royal Academy of Music and the Britten-Pears School.  In 1986, Fiona joined English National Opera where she has sung numerous small roles, including Countess Ceprano Rigoletto, Barena Jenufa, Peep-Bo The Mikado and Claire de Lune On The Town. Covers include 1st Nursemaid Street Scene, Echo Ariadne auf Naxos, Flora Turn of the Screw, Barbarina Figaro, 2nd Wood Nymph Rusalka and Yum Yum Mikado.  Roles outside ENO include Rosalinde Die Fledermaus (Court Opera), Nedda I Pagliacci (Opera South), Amelia Un Ballo in Maschera (Southgate Opera), Electra Idomeneo (St Albans Chamber Opera), Countess Figaro, Judith Duke Bluebeard’s Castle (Harrow School for Young Musicians) and the title role Madama Butterfly (Kentish Opera). In 2003 she sang the role of Peep-Bo for La Fenice, Venice.  Concert and oratorio work has included appearances at the major London concert halls, as well as throughout the UK and Europe.  Fiona and her husband, Anton, are members of the congregation here at St John’s, and their 10 year old son, James, is a member of the church choir.

SUSANNA TUDOR-THOMAS went to the Guildhall and the RSAMD.  At 17 she sang Barbarina (Le Nozze) for WNO, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras.  Susanna is a member of English National Opera. For ENO she has sung or understudied the roles of Despina, Lou Lou (Belle Vivette), Second Lady (Magic Flute), Second Lady (Prince of Homburg), Pitti Sing, Cherubino, Flora, Mrs van Tricasse (Dr Ox’s Experiment [World premier]), Meg Page, Ino (Semele), 2nd Lay Sister (Sister Angelica), Mercedes, Suzanne (A Better Place), Melisande, Zaida (Turk in Italy), 2nd Peasant Girl (The Marriage of Figaro), Matriosha (War & Peace) Sonyetka (Lady Macbeth), Dorabella, Kasturbai (Satyagraha), Vittoria (The Gondoliers) and Orpheus. She has also sung Orlovsky (Die Fledermaus) for Kentish Opera.   Susanna was the 1997 London Welsh young Welsh singer of the year. She sang Hélène in Lili Boulanger’s Faust et Hélène and Barbara (Violante) by Erich Korngold (QEH), toured Australia with Côr Meibion de Cymru and has been a soloist at the Royal Albert Hall for the London Welsh Centenary Festival of a 1,000 Voices concert. She regularly takes part in musical cruises for P&O hosted by Richard Baker.  Susanna has also sung the roles of L’Enfant (L’Enfant et les Sortilèges) for Opera Zuid (Holland), Dorabella for Longborough Festival Opera and Hélène in Faust et Hélène with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (Canada), and recently 2nd Lady in The Magic Flute and the Mayor’s Wife in Jenufa with ENO.

NEIL GILLESPIE was born in Glasgow and studied singing (with Duncan Robertson), piano and viola at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and also attended the Britten-Pears School, studying with Sir Peter Pears and Heather Harper.  After leaving college Neil spent a year in Tel Aviv singing in the chorus of New Israeli Opera and also attended the European Centre of Vocal Studies in Belgium, performing in masterclasses with John Shirley-Quirk and Marlena Malas.  Since 1992 Neil has been a member of the Royal Opera Chorus at Covent Garden and has sung and understudied roles in La Traviata, Luisa Miller, Gawain, Un Ballo in Maschera, Die Meistersinger, Le Nozze di Figaro, Eugene Onegin and many others. He also created the role of Young Man on Train in Sir Trevor Nunn's production of Nicholas Maw's Sophie's Choice.   Neil also studied with the great Swedish tenor Nicolai Gedda.

ANTON RICH was born in Devon and studied at the Royal Academy of Music. On leaving the RAM he joined the Glyndebourne Chorus and then English National Opera, where he has sung roles in Salome, La Traviata, Der Rosenkavalier, Boris Godunov, I Pagliacci, Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen and From the House of the Dead, Henze’s The Prince of Homburg, Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten and the world premieres of Gavin Bryars’ Doctor Ox’s Experiment and Mark Anthony Turnage’s The Silver Tassie.  For Kentish Opera he has sung Hermann The Queen of Spades, Gustavus A Masked Ball, Radames Aida, Pinkerton Madam Butterfly, Ismaele Nabucco, Alvaro The Force of Destiny and Canio I Pagliacci.  Anton has an extensive oratorio repertoire and has appeared at all the principal London concert venues. Other major engagements have included an appearance at St David’s Hall, Cardiff where he sang Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius under the late Vernon Handley, and this year he has recorded the role of the First Jew Salome for Chandos Records with Sir Charles Mackerras and the Philharmonia Orchestra.

MICHAEL SELBY was born in Lancashire and brought up in the Midlands. He has sung with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden and at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York. He has performed in Japan, France, Germany, Spain and Italy and is a member of English National Opera.  In opera Michael’s roles include Figaro, Papageno (The Magic Flute), Colline (La Boheme), Publio (La Clemenza di Tito), and Enrico (Anna Bolena). His oratorio repertory includes both Bach Passions, B minor Mass, Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, Handel’s Messiah and Israel in Egypt, Haydn’s Creation, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mozart’s Mass in C minor and Requiem, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle and Stabat Mater, Puccini’s Messa di Gloria and Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs.  Michael has sung Guccio in Gianni Schicchi, Thierry in Dialogues of the Carmelites, Third Huntsman in King Priam, Captain Petrovich in Eugene Onegin, The Gondolier in La Gioconda, The Messenger in La Traviata, Giorgio in The Gondoliers, and The Gypsy in Il Trovatore for ENO.

NICHOLAS CHALMERS is the Assistant Chorus Master of English National Opera, Musical Director of the Bromley Youth Choirs and Musical Director of Second Movement (a London based music and drama production company). He is the current holder of the Choral Conducting Scholarship with the London Symphony Chorus and directs the music at St Jude-on-the-hill, Hampstead Garden Suburb. From 2003 until July 2008, Nicholas was the Director of Music at Westminster Abbey Choir School.  Born in 1977, Nicholas began his musical training as a chorister at Tewkesbury Abbey. After a year as Organ Scholar at Chichester Cathedral, Nicholas studied music at Oxford University where he was Organ Scholar of Lincoln College and conductor of the Oxford University Chamber Choir.  After graduating, Nicholas spent a year as the Michael James Organ Scholar at St Paul’s Cathedral, London. In August 2001, Nicholas moved to Lodi, Northern Italy, where he spent a year working with the choir of the cathedral and studying with the harpsichordist, Laura Bertani, at the Piacenza Conservatoire.  Nicholas also acts as an accompanist to soloists and to groups such as Schola Cantorum of Oxford, the Laudate Chamber Choir and Tonus Peregrinus. Nicholas has directed two productions as musical director of Hand Made Opera; Le Nozze di Figaro (2002) and Il Barbiere di Siviglia (2003).  For Second Movement he has directed Mozart and Salieri (October 2004) and Trouble in Tahiti (June 2005) The Medium and Impresario (January 2006) to wide critical acclaim and directed their triple bill of Les Deux Aveugles, Rothschild’s Violin and The Knife’s Tears at the Covent Garden Film Studios (May 2007). With Chelsea Opera Group Nicholas has been chorus master for Beatrice di Tenda (March 2007), Maria Stuarda (November 2007) and Macbeth (March 2008). Nicholas studies conducting with Denise Ham.