Rossini / Mendelssohn

Saturday 5th July, 7.30pm at St Paul’s Church, Grove Park Road, Chiswick W4 3SB

Tickets £20 Full-time education £10

ROSSINI    La Petite Messe Solennelle

MENDELSSOHN “Ave Maria”, “Hear My Prayer” and other choral works

Brian Kay   Conductor

Brian Kay divides his working life between the broadcasting studio and the concert platform. His many presentations for BBC radio have included Brian Kay’s Sunday Morning, Brian Kay’s Light Programme, the weekly listeners’ request programme 3 for all and Choirworks - all on Radio 3, on Radio 2 the popular programmes Melodies for You and Friday Night is Music Night, and for Radio 4, Comparing Notes and Music in Mind. His former BBC World Service programme Classics with Kay reached an audience of millions all over the world. Brian’s television presentations have included the competitions to find the Cardiff Singer of the World and the Choir of the Year, and every year since 1996, the New Year’s Day Concert from Vienna. He has twice won a Sony Award as Music Presenter of the Year, including the coveted Gold Award in 1996.

On the concert platform, he presents and narrates concerts with many of the leading orchestras. His narrations include Peter and the Wolf, Paddington Bear’s First Concert, Tubby the Tuba, Babar the Elephant, The Snowman, The Musicians of Bremen, Walton’s Facade, Honegger’s King David and Bliss’s Morning Heroes.

Brian Kay is conductor of Vaughan Williams’s Leith Hill Musical Festival in Surrey, and of the Burford Singers, near to his home in the Cotswolds. He is also an associate conductor of The Really Big Chorus, with which he regularly conducts massed voices in London’s Royal Albert Hall, together with recent concerts in Salzburg, Seville, Prague, Venice and Cape Town, and a performance of Handel’s Messiah in China, in Beijing’s Forbidden City Concert Hall. He was, for ten years, Chorus Master of the Huddersfield Choral Society, and Conductor of the Cheltenham Bach Choir, the Bradford Festival Choral Society, The Cecilian Singers of Leicester, and the Kendal-based Mary Wakefield Westmorland Festival. He frequently Guest-Conducts choirs and orchestras in many parts of the country. Further afield, in New Zealand he has conducted the Orpheus Choir of Wellington and the Auckland Choral Society, and in Sheffield, Massachusetts, the Berkshire Choral Festival. He is a Vice President of the ABCD (the Association of British Choral Directors) and of the RSCM (Royal School of Church Music).

Brian Kay has twice appeared at the Royal Variety Show – in 1978 as a member of the King’s Singers (he was a founder member, and as the bass voice in the group performed over 2000 concerts world-wide) and in 1987 conducting the Huddersfield Choral Society. He sang the voice of Papageno in the Hollywood movie Amadeus (his wife, the soprano Gillian Fisher sang Papagena). He has also been the lowest frog on a Paul McCartney single, one of the six wives to Harry Secombe’s Henry VIIIth, and a member of the backing group for The Pink Floyd!

Julie Kennard read music at the University of Southampton and then went on to the Royal College of Music to study singing with Ruth Packer.

Julie has always specialised in oratorio although early on in her career she took lead roles in several operas. She has appeared in all major UK concert halls and Cathedrals and in many venues abroad. In Ireland, she was a soloist in Mahler’s Eighth Symphony for RTE Television and Bach’s Mass in B Minor; in Italy, Poland Switzerland and France she performed the role of Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas; in Iceland she featured as soprano soloist in John Speight’s Symphony No. 2 for the Symposium of Nordic composers- a work she has subsequently recorded. Verdi’s Requiem has also played a large part in Julie’s career and to date she has sung 80 performances of that great work.  English music has featured strongly in her repertoire-giving numerous performances of Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony, Elgar’s The Kingdom and Apostles, Herbert Howells’ Hymnus Paradisi and Britten’s War Requiem. The War Requiem was high-lighted in a television documentary of Britten and showed Julie singing in a commemorative performance from Coventry Cathedral with CUMS and Stephen Cleobury.

As well as more conventional repertoire, other concerts have included Sullivan’s “Te Deum”, Rutter’s “Mass for the Children”, Elgar’s “Spirit of England”, Karl Jenkins “The Armed Man” and a concert to celebrate William Wilberforce. There have been recitals in the Brancaster, Chipping Camden and Chelmsford Festivals featuring a programme that she shares with her husband, Michael George. Solo recitals in Luxemburg and at the Three Choirs Festival have featured Schumann’s “Frauenliebe und‘leben”, “Les Nuits d’ete,” by Berlioz and “On this Island” by Britten, “The Four Last Songs” by Strauss and a recital for soprano and organ featuring a new commission by Pavel Novak, “The Lake of Heavenly Desires”. She was the soprano soloist in a programme of words and music celebrating the life of Admiral Lord Nelson with Richard Baker as the narrator and also in a programme featuring dame Judi Dench and her family.

Most recently, Brahms’ Requiem has featured numerous times - one of which was in Istanbul with Kings College Cambridge. There have also been performances of Elgar’s “The Apostles”, Mozart’s Vespers and Beethoven‘s Ninth Symphony.

Julie’s recordings show her versatility - Monteverdi’s Christmas Vespers, Haydn’s “Nelson” Mass with St. Paul’s Cathedral, Howells’ “Hymnus Paradisi” with Vernon Handley and the RLPO and a CD of Victorian and Edwardian Carols entitled “All Hayle to the Days.”

Julie also enjoys teaching singing at the Royal Academy of Music and is the Artistic Director of the Grove Park Music Festival.

Sally Burgess “The lady is superb, whether she turns her artistry  to opera, jazz or Sondheim“. A view that sums up the remarkable career of this  accomplished mezzo-soprano who offers a versatility and diversity of styles unsurpassed  by any other British singer today.

The Sunday Times describes  her as “the greatest exponent of Carmen I have ever seen” .. a role she has performed for the Met, the Bastille, in Munich, London, Zurich, Berlin, Bregenz, New Zealand and Portland. Her portrayals as Azucena (Il Trovatore); Baba the Turk (The Rake’s Progress); Hanna Glawari (the Merry Widow); Dalila (Samson et Dalila); Fricka  (Der Ring ); and Judith (Bluebeard’’s Castle); Kabanicha (Katya Kabanova) ; Herodias (Salome) to name but a few, have also taken her worldwide. In concert and recital Sally Burgess has performed in New York with Jane Glover; in London with Sir Richard Hickox; in Washington DC with Leonard Slatkin; in Seattle with Gerard Schwarz; in Houston and Bordeaux with Hans Graf; and throughout Europe with other acclaimed Maestros in performances recorded for national TV and radio networks. She was nominated for “Best Actress in a Musical”  at the Olivier Awards for her performance in the RSC / Opera North co-production of Showboat in London’s West End, and her many recordings also include West Side Story, The King and I, Sally Burgess Sings Jazz, The Other Me and Happy Talk all of which have further expanded her reputation as an artist of limitless talents.

Future performances will include Quickly (Falstaff) for Scottish Opera; Alexander Nevsky with the San Diego Symphony; Pierrot Lunaire with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic; the Witch (Hansel und Gretel) for Glyndebourne; Herodias Salome with Welsh National Opera; and a tour of the music of Bernstein in Europe and the UK.

Allan Clayton Allan Clayton was a chorister at Worcester Cathedral before going up to St John’s College, Cambridge on a choral scholarship, and then postgraduate studies on the opera course at the Royal Academy of Music where he was awarded an inaugural Sir Elton John Scholarship and a John Lewis Award. He was also awarded a Maidment Scholarship, administered by the Musicians Benevolent Fund; a Star Award from the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, and ‘The Queen's Commendation for Excellence 2007’. Allan continues to study with David Lowe and was recently selected for BBC Radio 3's New Generation Artists scheme.

On stage, Allan’s roles include the title role Peter Grimes, Tamino (The Magic Flute), Prologue/Quint (Turn of the Screw), Belfiore (La finta giardiniera), the Madwoman (Britten’s Curlew River), the title role Albert Herring at Snape Maltings, Tenor Actor in Weir’s A Night at the Chinese Opera, the title role in Rameau’s Dardanus, Count Vandemont in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta and the Male Chorus (The Rape of Lucretia)  as well as appearances in Purcell’s King Arthur in France and Death in Venice at the Festival Hall.

Recent concert engagements include The Dream of Gerontius and the St Matthew Passion with The Bach Choir, the War Requiem at the Perth International Arts Festival and the Sydney Opera House, Handel’s Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall and Symphony Hall, Birmingham with the CBSO, Bruckner’s Te Deum with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, The Creation with Richard Egarr at Snape Maltings, Britten’s Serenade at the Nuremberg Kammermusik Festival, Handel’s L’Allegro with William Christie at the Spitalfields Festival, Britten’s St Nicholas in Guernsey and Snape, and an appearance at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium. In recital, Allan has appeared at the Perth International Arts Festival in Australia performing Britten’s Canticles, at the Cheltenham Music Festival in songs by Judith Weir, and at St John’s Smith Square and the Wigmore Hall in recitals with Angelika Kirchschlager and Graham Johnson. Most recently he has also performed Winterreise with pianist Joseph Middleton, and a programme of Wolf songs with Roger Vignoles at the Wigmore Hall.

In the 2007-2008 season Allan will make his debuts for both Opera North, as Lampwick in Jonathan Dove’s new opera Pinocchio, and for Glyndebourne Festival Opera as Albert Herring as well as performances with the Classical Opera Company, The Britten Sinfonia, RLPO, the Orchestra of Opera North, and recitals in Aberdeen and at the Wigmore Hall.

Michael George is established as one of Britain's most versatile bass-baritones, was a chorister at King's College, Cambridge under Sir David Willcocks. He studied at the Royal College of Music, where he was a major prize-winner. He has appeared with all the leading UK orchestras and ensembles, has sung throughout Britain at all the major festivals and venues and has performed extensively abroad.

Michael has worked widely as a recording artist, and releases include Schubert's Mass in A Flat with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Boyce Odes with the Hanover band, Bach Cantatas and Masses with King's College Cambridge and Stephen Cleobury, numerous recordings with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, the complete Purcell series with Robert King and The King's Consort, and much music with Philip Pickett and the New London Consort, including Monteverdi's Orfeo.

Performances have included Bach's St Matthew Passion with David Hill and the Bach Choir, Purcell's Faerie Queen in The Netherlands, Cherubini Requiem with Muti, Elgar's Apostles and many other works at the Three Choirs Festivals, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with the Halle and Mark Elder, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with Sir Neville Marriner in Brisbane, and major tours of Handel's Messiah with Christophers and The Sixteen in Europe and Japan. He has sung Mozart's Requiem Mass with the Vienna Philharmonic and also with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, and Bach's St John Passion with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the LPO.

Recent engagements and future plans include Verdi's Requiem and L'enfance du Christ at Three Choirs, Semele and Fidelio for Scottish Opera, further performances of Orfeo  for Philip Picket, Messiah in Aarhuis, Paris and with the RLPO, Haydn's Seasons with St Louis Symphony Orchestra, Mozart's Requiem with the Bach choir and concerts in Montreal.

Handel’s Saul in Holland, a tour of St John Passion with the Irish Baroque Orchestra, Commendatore in Don Giovanni in Moscow, Riccardo Primo in Basel, Bach’s St John Passion in Milan and Haydn’s Creation in Israel.

Helen Vickery was born and grew up in West London. She developed an interest in accompanying whilst reading music at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge University and held an instrumental award for the study and performance of chamber music. She entered the Royal Academy of Music on an exhibition and studied piano accompaniment with Geoffrey Pratley on the Advanced (post-graduate) course.  She graduated with a DipRAM performance diploma and an LRAM teaching diploma.

Helen now divides her time between teaching and performing. She accompanies both singers, including the opera quartet Operantics, and instrumentalists regularly in recitals around the country.

Helen conducts the chamber choirs Sine Nomine and Coro. In 2006 she made her conducting debut in St John’s Smith Square with a performance of Vivaldi’s Gloria and Handel’s Zadok the Priest.

As a pianist she has performed concertos by Mozart, Beethoven, Poulenc and Gershwin with local orchestras. In 2002 she performed Mozart’s Double Piano Concerto in Beijing with Chinese pianist Shen Yue and she has just performed Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in Wathen Hall at St Paul’s School with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra.