Pre-Concert Talk
Stephen Layton talks about the programme
Entrance: Free (access to the pre-concert talk by concert ticket
7.30pm Wycombe
Swan, High Wycombe
Orchestral and Choral Concert
Conductor:
Stephen Layton
Soloist:
Craig Ogden - Guitar
Fiona Mackay - Alto
Holst |
Brook Green Suite |
City of London Sinfonia is one of the UK’s leading professional orchestras and performs more than one hundred concerts each year in London, throughout the UK and abroad. Founded in 1971 by its Music Director Richard Hickox CBE, it has established a reputation for thoughtfully combined programmes, a commitment to music by 20th and contemporary British composers and for the expert stylistic interpretation of the repertoire performed.
City of London Sinfonia engages audiences in vibrant and fresh performances that reach over over 100,000 each year in both the concert hall and through participation in education projects. The Orchestra brings regular professional orchestral presence to two UK regions with its successful concert series in High Wycombe and Chatham. It has performed regularly at London’s Cadogan Hall since in 2007, continues to be engaged as a guest at major festivals throughout the UK and abroad, and has been Resident Orchestra at Korn/Ferry Opera Holland Park since 2004.
As of 2009, the orchestra's leader is Nicholas Ward.
The Holst Singers are one of Britain's foremost choirs, described by the BBC as "a leading chorus on the international stage". In addition to their busy concert diary in and around London and at festivals, they frequently broadcast on Classic FM and BBC Radio 3, and regularly record for leading classical labels.
With the support of their President, James Bowman, and Musical Director, Stephen Layton, the choir has developed an interest in exploring new and neglected works as well as the core choral repertoire.
"The Holst Singers sing with a spellbinding sense of atmosphere and crystal-clear textures . . . supremely musical"
BBC Music Magazine
"...absolutely focused in attack, phrasing and intonation."
The Times
Stephen Layton is The Director of Music at Trinity College, Cambridge. He is Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the City of London Sinfonia.
Layton guest conducts widely, including the Philadelphia, Minnesota, London Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Ulster, Bournemouth, Royal Scottish National, Britten Sinfonia, Northern Sinfonia, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Academy of Ancient Music and with English, Scottish, Irish and Australian chamber orchestras. For English National Opera he conducted Bach’s St John Passion in a stage production with Deborah Warner.
A champion of new music, Layton has premiered Pärt, Ades and Macmillan. His bold realisation of Tavener’s epic seven-hour vigil The Veil of the Temple, a new departure in British music, was premiered in London at the Proms and in New York at the Lincoln Centre Festival.
Layton founded Polyphony in 1986 whilst organ scholar of King’s College Cambridge. He is Chief Guest Conductor of the Danish National Vocal Ensemble, Music Director of Holst Singers and in 2006 was made a Fellow and Director of Music of Trinity College, Cambridge. He has been Director of Music at the Temple in London and Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Kammerkoor.
Stephen Layton’s discography on Hyperion ranges from Handel with original instruments to Bruckner and Poulenc, Pärt and Tavener, Lukaszewski and Whitacre. He has received the Gramophone Award in the UK, the Diapason d’Or in France, The Compact Award in Spain and two Grammy nominations in the USA.
Australian born guitarist Craig Ogden is one of the most exciting artists of his generation. He studied guitar from the age of seven and percussion from the age of thirteen. In 2004 Ogden was honoured by the Royal Northern College of Music with a Fellowship in recognition of his achievements. He is the youngest instrumentalist to have received this award from the RNCM.
Ogden's recordings for Virgin/EMI, Chandos, Nimbus, Hyperion and Sony have received wide acclaim. BBC Music Magazine dubbed Ogden 'a worthy successor to Julian Bream' and his debut solo CD for Nimbus Records of 20th Century Classics by British composers was nominated for a Grammy Award. Craig Ogden has performed concertos with all of the main UK orchestras including the London Symphony, BBC Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Hallé, BBC Philharmonic, CBSO, RLPO and BBC NOW, and also in Russia, Sweden, South Africa, the USA, Latvia, and Australia.
Craig Ogden regularly appears as soloist and chamber musician at the major London venues including the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall and the Barbican and collaborates regularly with many of the UK's top artists and ensembles. Craig Ogden is Principal Lecturer in Guitar at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
Fiona Mackay graduated in 2008 from the University of Cambridge, where she studied music and was a choral scholar at Gonville and Caius College. She then spent a year studying for a Mus. B specialising in voice, and singing with the choir of Trinity College, Cambridge. She is currently a first-year postgraduate studying with Jennifer Dakin and Mary Hill at the Royal Academy of Music, London.
Fiona has been a soloist at the Spitalfields, York and Oundle Music Festivals, on Radio 3 broadcasts, with the Aurora Orchestra and the Orchestre Nationale Bordeaux Aquitaine. Fiona’s solo concert performances include Bernstein’s Chicester Psalms, Mozart’s Requiem, Stravinsky’s Mass, Haydn’s Nelson Mass, and the UK premiere of Shchedrin’s The Sealed Angel. Stage roles include Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas, Olga in Eugene Onegin, Mrs. Grose in The Turn of the Screw, v in Pelléas et Mélisande, First Alms Sister in Suor Anglica, Dame Carruthers in The Yeomen of the Guard, Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance and Nellie in South Pacific.
Fiona is grateful to the Kathleen Trust, and the William Gibbs Religious and Educational Trust for their support.
Tickets: £24.00, £19.00, £16.00, £13.00
Book Tickets
(Concession of £1.50 for Under 16s, Over 60s, jobseekers, full-time
students, registered disabled. Group Rate: 10% off for groups of 8+. 10%
discount for booking the CLS Season of 4 or 5 concerts)
The Encore
Join CLS musicians in the bar after the concert for a chat and a ten-minute performance of light music.
This concert is supported by Orchestras Live