CHIAROSCURO: celebrating the magic of Italy and the lure of Venice
FRIDAY 2ND JULY 2021 - 7.30 PM
Three singers, a lutenist and a pianist bring us a richly coloured programme spanning the centuries, with early music by Strozzi, Monteverdi and Merula, some songs by Gounod, Massenet, Schumann and Schubert inspired by Venice, and favourite Italian romantics Rossini, Tosti, Respighi, Bellini, and Verdi. Dallapiccolo and Berio lead us into the twentieth century.
CHARLOTTE BOWDEN
ANNABEL KENNEDY
JAMES ATKINSON
ANA MANASTIREANU
AUGUSTIN CORNWALL
Pianist Ana Manastireanu, who played for us in 2019, is a Junior Fellow at the RCM and a multiple prize - winner as an accompanist. She returns with soprano Charlotte Bowden, mezzo Annabel Kennedy, baritone James Atkinson, and lutenist Augustin Cornwall, who played for us in 2019.
All the singers are prize-winning, advanced students from the college. Charlotte has sung Schubert Lieder at Cadogan Hall, Purcell song at the Aldeburgh Festival, Handel Messiah at Snape Maltings, and the role of Orfeo in Handel Parnasso in festa for the London Handel Festival at the Wigmore Hall. Annabel also made her Wigmore Hall debut Euterpe in the same opera for the LHF. She has performed Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder with the RCM Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins.
James won first prizes at the Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards 2018 and the Somerset Song Prize 2019. He is singing with Garsington Opera and has made multiple appearances at the Oxford Lieder Festival.