FROM 3PM - 5.30PM
TICKETS £10 INCLUDING TEA
CHILDREN 11 AND UNDER HALF PRICE
FROM 3PM - 5.30PM
TICKETS £10 INCLUDING TEA
CHILDREN 11 AND UNDER HALF PRICE
2025 VILLAGES MUSIC FESTIVAL DATES 28TH JUNE-6TH JULY, COMMENCING WITH A PERFORMANCE OF PUCCINI’S ‘LA BOHEME’.
Saturday 30th June
Masterclass
MASTERCLASS WITH
DAME FELICITY LOTT
St John The Baptist Church
Ripe
BN8 6AU
Four young singers will be exploring a Mozart opera aria and a French art-song with Dame Felicity Lott, one of the world's leading interpreters of this repertoire, accompanied by Will Hancox.
2.30 - 5.30 PM. TICKETS £10
Felicity Lott
ABOUT FELICITY LOTT
Born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, Felicity has lived in Sussex since 1980. After obtaining a degree in French and Latin at Royal Holloway College, she spent several years studying singing at the Royal Academy of Music before venturing into the wide world of opera and song. Music has taken her across the globe but she owes a great debt of gratitude to Glyndebourne Festival Opera, where she spent many happy years and where she first fell in love with the Sussex countryside. At Glyndebourne she discovered the operas of Richard Strauss, and sang the rôles of Octavian, ( Der Rosenkavalier )the Countess in Capriccio, Christine in Intermezzo, and Arabella, as well as Mozart’s Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, and Elvira (Don Giovanni), Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress, Hanna Glawari in The Merry Widow, Lady Billows and Helena in Britten’s Albert Herring and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. At the Royal Opera House she has sung more performances of the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier than any other singer.
Her love of all things French has led to many recordings of French song and opera, perhaps most successfully Offenbach’s La Belle Hélène and La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein. As well as her opera performances she has given recitals all over the world. In 2001 she was awarded the title of Chevalier de la Légion d’Honnneur. She was made a Dame in 1996 and she holds doctorates from many universities, including Oxford, London, Paris Sorbonne and Sussex.
ABOUT WILL HANCOX
William Hancox has always had wide-ranging musical interests including solo playing, chamber music, duo work and vocal coaching.
He has performed at major halls in numerous countries, held staff pianist posts at the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Trinity College of Music and premiered contemporary works at the Cheltenham Festival and London's South Bank.
Recordings include the complete voice and piano works of the Icelandic composer Jon Asgeirsson, contemporary violin and cello sonatas (with international cello virtuoso Rohan de Saram), the complete Morike songs of Hugo Wolf and a disc of classical lullabies with Austrian soprano Esther Levin. William has broadcast for the BBC and Classic FM. He was educated at Cambridge, subsequently studying with the Hungarian pianist Joseph Weingarten, himself a student of Dohnanyi, Bartok and Kodaly.
Will Hancox
THE SINGERS
Steve Hawksley (bass)
Steve was a relative latecomer to classic repertoire, prompted by the gift of a singing lesson for his 30th birthday. He has developed a passion for opera and has starred in many roles with Heber Opera and Southwick Opera. He also performs in Oratorio and has given recitals of art songs. Steve studies with Elizabeth Brice. He lives in Hassocks.
Steve will sing ‘Se vuol ballare, Signor contino’ from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and Sérénade Italienne by Chausson.
Kirsten Lloyd-Leach (soprano)
Kirsten graduated from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in 2016 where her vocal professors were Theresa Cahill and Wendy Eathorne. She has performed in concerts in Brighton and in opera at Trinity Laban. She has recently been the winner of the Senior Recitalist Class in the 2018 Springboard Music Festival of Brighton and Hove.
Ted Black (tenor)
Graduating from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland this summer, Ted has studied with Stephen Robertson, and distinguished American soprano Pamela Kuhn. He is an experienced soloist on the Scottish concert circuit, with soloist engagements including Chichester Psalms with Marin Alsop, and The Apostles with Ed Gardner, both at the Edinburgh International Festival.
His many competition successes include first prize in the Governors’ Recital Prizes in both singing and chamber music, and the Jean Highgate Scholarship for Singing. In September, he looks forward to taking up a full scholarship on the masters programme at the Royal College of Music.
Siȃn Dicker (soprano)
Wiltshire born soprano Siân Dicker is a scholarship student at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama as the recipient of the Charles Pitt Singing Award. She is currently studying on the Artist Masters vocal studies course with Marie Vassiliou and Janice Chapman.
Siân is thrilled to have won the International Voice of the Future competition at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in July 2017. She has had many roles in opera at the Guildhall and has given recitals in London.
Sian will sing Porgi Amor from Le Nozze di Figaro and Poulenc's Metamorphoses; this short cycle consist of 3 pieces (1. Reine des Mouettes, 2. C'est ainsi que tu es, 3. Paganini).
We are grateful to Dame Felicity Lott for taking this masterclass,
and to all our sponsors who have allowed us to support these singers.