We began 2025 with the exciting news that our founding Artistic and Executive Director Karon Wright was awarded an MBE for services to music in the King’s New Year Honours list.
For nearly thirty years, Karon has worked tirelessly and generously to support young artists. She has changed the lives of thousands of young people and we are delighted to see that her dedication and care has been recognised in this way.
Our commitment to supporting music in state schools has always been an essential part of our work and this continues in January with Samling Futures workshops in secondary schools across Newcastle, Northumbria and Sunderland and the addition of King Edward VI School in Morpeth to our Singing Schools project.
We visited King Edward VI School for an introductory session just before Christmas and we are now looking forward to working with them over the coming term, coaching their choir, soloists and staff. We’ll be sharing our expertise in areas including developing a healthy, natural technique, singing in other languages and how to select appropriate repertoire for young voices.
We hope to see young people from all the schools we’ve visited at our next round of Samling Academy auditions. These will be held in Gateshead, Durham and Newcastle from Friday 21 to Sunday 23 March and applications are open now. If you know a young person with a talent for classical singing who lives or studies in the North East or who is considering coming to university in the region, we’d love to hear from them.
This year we welcome three new leaders to the Samling Artist Programme. Baritone Christopher Purves enjoys a versatile career, excelling in repertoire from Bach and Handel to heavyweight roles in Verdi and Wagner – he joins us in March alongside pianist Simon Lepper.
From this year, we will hold the second residency in the summer. This August it will be led for the first time by the acclaimed French soprano Véronique Gens and her regular duo partner pianist Susan Manoff. We are looking forward to being at Marchmont in gentler weather, knowing that our audience can travel without the risk of storms and snow and return in daylight. We are currently selecting the artists who will take part in this programme, with live auditions taking place in London and Glasgow later this month, following initial rounds of recommendation and video audition.
Our public masterclasses at the end of each Samling Artist Programme residency are a great chance to see behind the scenes of classical music and discover how musicians bridge the gap between technical excellence and true artistry.
