Anna Huntley (mezzo-soprano)
Born in Stockton-on-Tees, Anna studied at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music International Opera School. Awards during her studies included 3rd Prize at the Das Lied Competition in Berlin and the Wigmore Hall/Independent Opera Vocal Fellowship at the Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition.
Over the last year Anna has returned to English National Opera covering the roles of Dorabella / Cosi fan tutte, Pauline / Queen of Spades and the leading role in The Way Back Home. In 2016 she took the roles of a Daughter in Philip Glass’s Akhnaten in a new production at ENO and Cherubino / The Marriage of Figaro with Opera Brava.
An outstanding lieder singer, recent highlights include recitals at Wigmore Hall, Saffron Hall, the Blüthner Zylkus at the Palais Eschenbach, Klavierfest Herten, Bath and St. Magnus Festivals. She made her debut with the Wiener Symphoniker at the Konzerthaus with Daniel Harding, performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra (broadcast by Radio 3), Haydn’s Harmoniemesse with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Andras Schiff and performed Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the City of London Sinfonia.
In February 2016 Anna was featured as a ‘Rising Star’ in BBC Music Magazine and released her first CD of Schubert Songs for Voice & Guitar on the Quartz label. Future engagements include a recital at the Wiener Konzerthaus with James Baillieu, the Palais Eschenbach with Simon Lepper, Oxford Lieder Festival with Graham Johnson and her debut at Warsaw Philharmonic Hall. In 2017 she creates the role of Florence Nightingale in Laura Jane’s new opera Early Morning following successful workshopping at the Royal Opera House.
Anna is mentored by Angelika Kirchschlager as part of the Royal Philharmonic Society/YCAT Philip Langridge Mentoring Scheme. She was selected by Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) in 2012.
Anna was a Samling Artist, a Concordia Foundation and Live Music Now! artist. She is very grateful for support from the Richard Carne Trust.
Rosalind Ventris (viola)
Recognized for her qualities as a soloist and chamber musician, 27–year-old British violist Rosalind Ventris is emerging as one of the most sought after young violists internationally. She performed at the Wigmore Hall’s 2014 viola celebration, and received five prizes at the 2013 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, including Yuri Bashmet’s President’s Prize. She is a winner of the Making Music Philip & Dorothy Green Awards for Young Concert Artists (AYCA) 2016.
Since she made her concerto debut at St.John’s Smith Square in 2007 Rosalind has frequently appeared as a concerto soloist, performing works including Berlioz’s Harold in Italy, Bruch’s Double Concerto (with Thomas Gould, violin), and the viola concerti by York Bowen, Walton, Bartok, and Telemann. Rosalind has appeared as a soloist with the European Union Chamber Orchestra at the Emilia Romagna Festival in Italy, and in the UK with violinist Tasmin Little. She has given recitals at the Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall, Bridgewater Hall, Aldeburgh Festival, St Martin in the Fields, the Slovak Philharmonic Bratislava, Het Concertgebouw Kleine Zaal & Brighton Festival. From 2011-2013 Rosalind was part of the Countess of Muster Recital Scheme, giving numerous performances across the UK, to great critical acclaim. In 2013, Rosalind was chosen as an International Holland Music Sessions ‘Young Master on Tour’, and was an artist in Residence at the Banff Centre in 2014. She has received awards from the Hattori Foundation, Countess of Munster Musical Trust, Kirckman Concert Society, Musicians’ Benevolent Fund & the Martin Musical Scholarship Fund. For more details about Rosalind’s future concerts please click here.
Deeply committed to chamber music, Rosalind is a member of Trio Anima with Anneke Hodnett (harp) and Matthew Featherstone (flute – principal of BBC National Orchestra of Wales.) In 2015 she performed with the Arcanto Quartett at the Beethovenhaus in Bonn, and has regularly been invited to play with the Aronowitz Ensemble, as well as the IMS Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music. She performed at the Salzburg Festival for the IMS Prussia Cove 40th Anniversary Celebrations & Sándor Végh Centenary, and the 2013 IMS Prussia Cove Tour: their concert at St. George’s Bristol was subsequently broadcast on BBC Radio 3. She has collaborated with Tabea Zimmermann, the Benedetti Elschenbroich Grynyuk Trio, Gerhard Schultz, Clive Greensmith, Garth Knox, the London Conchord Ensemble, and the Dante and Endellion String quartets. Last autumn, she broadcast on BBC Radio 3 ‘In Tune’ as part of the Hatfield House Festival with Katherine Gowers, Guy Johnston and Nicholas Daniel.
Forthcoming festivals include Marlboro, Whittington, North York Moors, Honeymead, Lauenen, Swaledale, Marryat, & Southwell. Rosalind will take part in a residency at Yellowbarn, MA, with Philippe Graffin, Maria Włoszczowska Marisa Gupta and Jonathan Dormand, exploring playing styles heard on rare, early recordings, of works by early twentieth century British composers (http://www.yellowbarn.org/events/faithful-spirit).
British composer Edwin Roxburgh has written a number of pieces for Rosalind: in 2011 Monologue at the Royal Festival Hall, and Sonata for Viola and Piano at the Purcell Room; In 2012 Ricercare at the Wigmore Hall. Forthcoming commissions include a new work for clarinet, viola, and piano by Rory Boyle to be premiered at St John’s Smith Square in February 2016, broadcast on BBC Radio 3 ‘In Tune’, and recorded for Delphian Records for release in 2017.
Rosalind enjoys the collaborative approach of unconducted chamber orchestras, and has performed as the guest principal viola of the Amsterdam Sinfonietta and toured with the European Union Chamber Orchestra as their guest principal aged nineteen.
After reading Music at Cambridge University, Rosalind studied with David Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama (Fellow 2011-12) and with Kim Kashkashian at the New England Conservatory. She has taught at City University, the Britten Pears Middle East Development Project, and given workshops for the Oxford Chamber Music Fringe & Live Music Now.
http://www.rosalindventris.com/
Johnny Herford (baritone)
Johnny Herford graduated with distinction from the Royal Academy of Music Opera department in 2012, and the next year won the Song Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Competition, and later the Jean Meikle Duo Prize at the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition. Since then, he has enjoyed a diverse career on the operatic stage and concert platform.
In 2014, Johnny was chosen by Philip Glass to create the role of Josef K in his opera, The Trial. The opera was premiered at the Royal Opera House Linbury Theatre, in a collaboration between the Royal Opera House and Music Theatre Wales. The Trial received five-star reviews and led to Johnny being nominated for the Welsh Theatre Award for Best Male Performance in an Opera. Johnny has also performed the role of Josef K for Theater Magdeburg, making his German debut in April 2015.
Other recent performances have included the role of Emireno in Handel’s Ottone for English Touring Opera, Kuligin in Janacek’s Katya Kabanova for Opéra de Dijon, the Scottish Opera Highlights Tour, and Nikitsch in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov with Jakub Hrůša and the Philharmonia Orchestra.
As a recitalist, he has performed a Strauss recital with Joseph Middleton in the Leeds Lieder Festival, Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin in Julius Drake’s Machynlleth Festival, Butterworth’s A Shropshire Lad at the Oxford Lieder Festival, and a recital with Gary Matthewman for Lied in London. He regularly performs in the London English Song Festival, which is curated by his long-term duo partner William Vann. In 2016, Johnny makes his solo recital debut at the Wigmore Hall with James Baillieu.
Johnny is delighted that the current season sees his return to Opéra de Dijon to play The Traveller in Britten’s Curlew River, and to Music Theatre Wales for an opera by Peter Eötvös, The Golden Dragon.
Johnny is represented by O W L Artist Management.
William Vann (piano)
William Vann was born and brought up in Bedford and was a Chorister at King's College, Cambridge. He subsequently read law and took up a choral scholarship at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he was taught the piano by Peter Uppard, and studied piano accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music with Malcolm Martineau and Colin Stone. He has recently been made an Associate of the RAM.
He has been awarded many prizes for piano accompaniment, including the Wigmore Song Competition Jean Meikle Prize for a Duo (with Johnny Herford), the Gerald Moore award, the Royal Overseas League Accompanists' Award, a Geoffrey Parsons Memorial Trust award, the Concordia-Serena Nevill Prize, the Association of English Singers and Speakers Accompanist Prize, the Great Elm Awards Accompanist Prize, the Sir Henry Richardson Scholarship and the Hodgson Fellowship in piano accompaniment at the RAM.
William has collaborated on stage with a vast array of singers and instrumentalists, among them Sir Thomas Allen CBE, Mary Bevan, Katie Bray, Allan Clayton, James Gilchrist, Thomas Gould, Johnny Herford, Guy Johnston, Jennifer Johnston, Aoife Miskelly, Ann Murray DBE, Brindley Sherratt, Nicky Spence, Andrew Staples, Kitty Whately and the Benyounes and Navarra Quartets. Recent performances have included appearances at Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, the ROH Crush Room, Sage, Gateshead and St John’s, Smith Square, at the Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Oxford Lieder, Machynlleth and City of London Festivals, the Northern Ireland Festival of Voice (broadcast on Radio 3) and abroad in South Africa (National Arts Festival), Nigeria, Germany (on live ZDF television), Sweden and Ireland. His discography includes recordings with Champs Hill Records and Albion Records, the latest of which, Purer than Pearl, featured six previously unrecorded songs by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
In addition to his performances of standard song repertoire, he has also either commissioned or given the first performances of new English songs and song cycles by several English composers, including Christian Alexander, Joseph Atkins, Martin Eastwood, Johnny Herford, David Nield and Graham Ross (the latter two at Wigmore Hall).
He is a Trustee of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society, a Samling Artist, a Yeoman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians, the Co-Chairman of Kensington and Chelsea Music Society, the Artistic Director of Bedford Music Club, a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists and a conductor and vocal coach on the Dartington and Oxenfoord International Summer Schools. He is also the Director of Music at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, where he directs the choir and a programme of concerts in the Royal Hospital's Wren Chapel, and the founder and Artistic Director of the London English Song Festival, now in its sixth season, taking place at Wilton’s Music Hall in July 2017.
Rowan Williams (poet)
Rowan Williams was born in 1950. He was the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury (2002-2012). He spent much of his earlier career as an academic at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford successively. Williams stood down as Archbishop of Canterbury on 31 December 2012 and became Master of Magdalene College at Cambridge University in January 2013. Carcanet reissued The Poems of Rowan Williams in April 2014.
http://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?owner_id=1114
Robert Hugill (composer)
Robert Hugill is a London based composer, journalist, blogger and lecturer. Robert runs the highly regarded classical music blog, Planet Hugill. Robert’s setting of the Advent Prose was premiered by Alistair Dixon and Chapelle du Roi at St John’s Smith Square in December 2014, and they premiered Robert’s setting of Ruth Padel’s Learning to Make an Oud in Nazareth in 2015. London Concord Singers, conductor Jessica Norton, premiere Robert's motet Dominus illuminatio mea in December 2016 as part of the choir’s 50th anniversary celebrations.
Robert's cantata The Testament of Dr. Cranmer was issued on disc of Robert's music on the Divine Art label in 2008, performed by the eight:fifteen vocal ensemble, the strings of the Chameleon Arts Orchestra, Christopher Wilson (tenor), Paul Brough (conductor). Robert's first opera Garrett was staged at Hoxton Hall in 2001, and his opera When a man knows was staged in 2011 at the Bridewell Theatre, London, in a production directed by Ian Caddy and conducted by David Roblou. Robert's most recent opera The Genesis of Frankenstein was premiered by the Helios Collective in London in 2016. Robert has recently completed Tempus per Annum, a cycle of 70 motets for the church’s year with over 45 hours of music, and has released all the motets for free download on the CPDL website. Robert’s songs were placed in the English Poetry and Song Society’s A E Housman Competition, Ivor Gurney Competition and Diamond Songs Competition.
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