Earlier this month, Shakira Tsindos and Lana Bode became the second duo to take up a ‘Samling and Song’ residency, supported by the Hugo Burge Foundation at Marchmont Estate. Their programme ‘Love Indeed’ uses a mixture of media to explore modern relationships through song, as Shakira explains:
‘It allowed us the dedicated time without life’s distractions to focus on ‘Love Indeed’ and produce something very special. We have devised an exciting and heartbreaking narrative and explored different repertoire by mixing genres to best tell our story. We are looking forward to bringing on our choreographer and dancer to complete our vision, to help us represent the life and love of our main character. We cannot wait to show the world what we have created and thank Samling Institute for the opportunity to do so.”
Competitions
Congratulations to Jong Sun Woo who was awarded the pianist prize at the Wigmore Hall/Bollinger International Song Competition and to Joël Terrin who received the Vaughan Williams Society Prize (accompanied by JongSun). JongSun will be with us at Wigmore Hall for our Samling Artist Showcase on Thursday 7 November and before that, she joins us in the North East to work with our Samling Academy Singers.
We also congratulate Melissa Gregory who was awarded third prize in the Joan Sutherland & Richard Bonynge Bel Canto Award. The finals in Sydney was the first time in five years that she had performed back home in Australia.
Performance news
Jessica Cale and Charlotte Bowden made their debuts at The Glasshouse International Centre for Music in Felix Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Royal Northern Sinfonia’s season-opening concert. Jessica will be singing Benjamin Britten’s Les Illuminations in our Wigmore Showcase and she will be back in Gateshead on Sunday 10 November singing Francis Poulenc’s Gloria with the European Doctors Orchestra in their 20th anniversary concert.
Felix Gygli will premiere the role of Phileas Fogg in Jonathan Dove’s newest opera. In 80 Tage um die Welt is a children’s opera based on Jules Verne’s novel commissioned by Opernhaus Zürich where Felix is member of their International Opera Studio. Nicholas Mogg also sings the role in performances later in the season.
Beth Taylor made her Swedish debut and her first performance of Mahler’s Third Symphony with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic conducted by Ryan Bancroft on 19 September and is now heading to Boston for her US debut singing Mozart’s Requiem with the Handel and Haydn Society and Jonathan Cohen on 5 October. Music website Bachtrack have picked Beth as one of their ten Rising Stars to Watch in the year ahead.
bachtrack.com/preview-rising-stars-ten-to-watch-in-2024-25-september-2024
Olivia Boen made her house debut at Opéra de Paris and her role debut as Alice Ford in Giuseppe Verdi’s Falstaff and was featured as ‘Artist of the Week’ in Opera Wire:
operawire.com/artist-of-the-week-olivia-boen/
Andrés Presno made his company debut with Welsh National Opera singing Luigi Il tabarro
wno.org.uk/profile/andres-presno
Olivia Warburton joins the Hamburg State Opera as a soloist for the 2024/25 season, with roles including Gretel Hänsel und Gretel, Nannetta Falstaff Najade Ariadne auf Naxos and a return to the title role in Das Tagebuch der Anne Frank by Grigori Frid.
Steven van der Linden joins the International Opera Studio of Dutch National Opera and will sing several roles in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea in a production next year as part of the Opera Studio’s collaboration with Reisopera and Opera Zuid.
Marianna Abrahamyan joins the Keyboard Department of Royal Conservatoire of Scotland as a piano lecturer. She’ll be working with our Academy Singers later in the month and will be joining them on stage in their concert on 20 October.
Claire Lees has signed to Keynote Artist Management and Angharad Lyddon also transfers to Keynote following their recent merger with Harlequin. Claire will be in Newcastle with Opera North on 8 and 9 November as Pamina, Die Zauberflöte.
keynoteartistmanagement.com/artists/claire-lees/
