A SUMMER BOUQUET OF MELODIES FOR VOICE & PIANO TRIO

AT ST JOHN'S, RIPE
WEDNESDAY 5TH JULY 2023

PERFORMANCE BEGINS AT 7PM

From classic interpretations of English folk songs to instrumentals evoking landscape and the importance of home and hearth.

The programme includes songs by Amy Beach, Butterworth, Dvorak, Quilter, Ravel, and Vaughan Williams, with instrumental interludes by Peter Maxwell Davies, Marx and Schumann.

Tickets can also be purchased by emailing boxoffice@villagesmusicfestival.org, or phoning 01323 811835

Catharine Woodward

Soprano

Catharine studied Music at the University of Durham, Vocal Performance at Trinity Laban and the Alexander Gibson Opera School at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She has worked at English National Opera, Scottish Opera, the Aix-en-Provence Festival and many other prestigious companies and festivals. She lives in Berlin and continues her studies with Gundula Hinz and Pamela Kuhn. She is a regular visitor to her parents in Ripe. Catharine made her debut in Wagner as Eva DIE MEISTERSINGER VON NÜRNBERG with Fulham Opera in London. She was twice a live finalist in the Lauritz Melchior International Singing Competition. In 2021 she was invited to sing „Starke Scheite“ Götterdämmerung in a gala at the Markgräfliches Theater, Bayreuth. She will perform her first Brünnhilde in London for Regents Opera in Die Walküre (May 2023), Siegfried (Feb 2024), & Der Ring des Nibelungen (Nov-Dec 2024). She appears on „Wagner By Arrangement Volume 3“ on Toccata Classics in excerpts of Brünnhilde & Isolde with 18 piece chamber orchestra lead by James & Alison. In concert, she has sung Isolde TRISTAN & ISOLDE (Act II) at the Tonhalle Zürich with Akademische Orchester Zürich conducted by Martin Lukas Meister. Other recent roles include Leonora La Forza Del Destino (Regents Opera), cover Aksinya LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSK (Royal Opera, Covent Garden), Elisabetta DON CARLO and Alice Ford FALSTAFF (Fulham Opera). In recital, Catharine has performed Messiæn‘s Poêmes pour Mì and Harawi, among other more standard repertoire, and in January 2023 sang Villa-Lobos‘ Bachianas Brasilieras No.5 with the Highbury Players & Mark Prescott. She has not-so-secret love of pop music and was in several bands on double bass, ukulele and vocals, as well as a while spent fronting a function band (who played one of her own songs for the first dance at her wedding).

Elspeth Wilkes

Piano

Born in Leigh-on-sea, Essex, Elspeth studied at King’s College, London, Trinity College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music. She has performed at the Royal Opera House; the Royal Albert Hall; St Martin-in-the-Fields; several West Endtheatres as well as performing recitals in Spain, Portugal, France and South Africa. Elspeth has performed at the Ravenna festival, Italy, the Edinburgh Festival and the Dublin Theatre Festival winning the ‘Oscar’ award for performance. She has workedwith BBC Wales, Royal Ballet, Royal Shakespeare Company and Southbank Sinfonia and has worked as repetiteur/musical director with Opera up Close, Opera Brava,Kings Head Opera, HGO, Merry Opera Company and Opera de Bauge. Elspeth is theconductor of Thurrock Choral Society and assistant conductor of Barnes Choir and Putney Choral Society. In her spare time, Elspeth is a keen quizzer and has appeared on TV on Mastermind, The Chase, Countdown and The Weakest Link!

James Widden

Violin

James studied at Newcastle and Sussex Universities, and then as a postgraduate at Trinity College of Music, under the tutelage of Nona Liddell on violin and Nic Pendlebury on viola. Since graduating he has pursued a busy career on both violin and viola - he has performed with the BBC Philharmonic, Halle, Manchester Camerata and Philharmonia orchestras, at the BBC Proms with Endymion, and at Carnegie Hall with the London Sinfonietta. He has performed many times with the London Mozart Players as co-principal viola, including a tour of China. His operatic playing includes: solo violin for St Paul's Opera (most recently in Marriage of Figaro); solo violin for Fulham Opera (including Don Carlo and Die Fledermaus); co-leader of Opera de Baugé in France; leading many productions for New Sussex Opera, including the recently-recorded The Travelling Companion by Stanford; and solo violin for OperaUpClose (including productions of Dido and Aeneas, Madame Butterfly and Eugene Onegin, for which he also provided the orchestral reduction in collaboration with Alison Holford. Outside of music, his hobbies include buying far more books than he's ever likely to be able to read and watching snooker.

Alison Holford

Cello

Alison was born and brought up in Birmingham. She read music at Huddersfield University, graduating with First Class Honours, and Trinity College of Music, studying with Sue Lowe, Anna Shuttleworth and David Kenedy. At Trinity College of Music she was principal cello in the college Symphony Orchestra and the Contemporary Music Group. Since graduating she has pursued a busy freelance career, both playing and teaching in London and the south-east of England. Her performing work includes: principal cello of St Paul's Sinfonia; solo cello in Splinter Cell, a contemporary music group based in Canterbury that aims to mix the most challenging and virtuosic pre-composed music with free improvisation, and collaborate with other art forms including film, visual art and dance; cellist in Bridgetower Music, a flexible chamber ensemble performing anything from piano trios to Pierrot Lunaire; and in France, principal and continuo cello of Opera de Baugé. She has been the solo cello in OperaUpClose’s production of Tosca in the West End and on tour (‘Outstanding’ The Independent; ‘Cellist Alison Holford’s playing is so sweet that I am called again and again to listen with great attention’ - playstosee.com). With OperaUpClose she has also been the solo cello in La Traviata, Madame Butterfly and Carmen; and solo/continuo in Dido and Aeneas. With King's Head Opera, Alison was the solo cello in new productions of La Boheme and Madame Butterfly. Alison has performed with the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, the Manchester Camerata and Lancashire Sinfonietta. With St Paul’s Sinfonia, Alison has performed the Vivaldi Concerto for Two Cellos (with Helen Neilson), the Brahms Double Concerto (with James Widden, violin), the Shostakovich 1st cello concerto, and the Barber cello concerto. She will be premiering a new cello concerto by David Wallace in St Paul’s Sinfonia’s 2020-21 season. Alison is also a long-suffering supporter of Aston Villa F.C.

FIRST HALF

Yonder Stands a Lovely Creature & A Blacksmith Courted Me - Butterworth - SOPRANO & PIANO
Voyage to Fair Isle - Peter Maxwell Davies - STRING TRIO
A Mirage & Stella Viatoris - Amy Beach - SOPRANO & TRIO
June - Amy Beach - SOPRANO, PIANO & VIOLIN
The Cuckoo, A Brisk Young Sailor Courted Me, The True Lover‘s Farewell - George Butterworth - SOPRANO & PIANO
My Own Country -Peter Warlock - SOPRANO & PIANO
Cinq Melodies Populaires Greques - Maurice Ravel - SOPRANO & PIANO

INTERVAL

SECOND HALF

3 Pastoral Songs - Roger Quilter - SOPRANO & TRIO
How Cold The Wind Doth Blow - RVW - SOPRANO, PIANO & VIOLIN
Clara Schumann Piano Trio First movement - STRING TRIO
Adagio - Joseph Marx - SOPRANO, CELLO & PIANO
Unser Haus - Magarete Schweikert - SOPRANO & PIANO
Songs My Mother Taught Me - Antonin Dvorak - SOPRANO & TRIO

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

THE VILLAGES

Music Festival

Wednesday 5th July 2023

Ripe Church

HOME: LAND AND HEARTH

A SUMMER BOUQUET OF MELODIES FOR VOICE & PIANO TRIO

AT ST JOHN'S, RIPE
WEDNESDAY 5TH JULY 2023

Catharine Woodward

Soprano

Elspeth Wilkes

Piano

James Widden

Violin

Alison Holford

Cello

THE VILLAGES

Music Festival

Wednesday 5th July 2023

Ripe Church

HOME: LAND AND HEARTH

A SUMMER BOUQUET OF MELODIES FOR VOICE & PIANO TRIO

AT ST JOHN'S, RIPE WEDNESDAY 5TH JULY 2023

Catharine Woodward

Soprano

AT ST JOHN'S, RIPE
WEDNESDAY 5TH JULY 2023