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’.
Music for a Summer Evening
SATURDAY 25th JUNE 2022
in the gardens of Limekiln Farm, Chalvington
Catharine Woodward and friends, with piano trio, perform opera arias and songs from the musicals, including works by R Strauss, Puccini, Gershwin and Weill.
6pm Saturday 25th June 2022
Gardens open from 4pm
Cash Bar; Coffee, Tea and Canapes (available from 4pm).
You are welcome to bring your own picnic.
Tickets £20 plus booking fee
Buy online or from Ripe Village Stores.
Please bring a rug if chilly.
If the weather is very inclement the event will be moved to Ripe church, but hopefully this will not be necessary!
Soprano - Catharine Woodward
Mezzo Soprano - Pippa Dames-Longworth
Tenor - Andrew Mackenzie-Wicks
Baritone - Thomas Isherwood
Piano - Elspeth Wilkes
Violin - James Widden
Catharine Woodward
Catharine is a British dramatic soprano resident in Germany. Since moving into the dramatic repertoire she has been twice in the live finals of the Lauritz Melchior (Wagner) Competition in Denmark, and has been selected as one of the top singers in NYIOPs ANON:DE audition project. In January 2022 she will debut as Elektra in a collaborative performance in Berlin, and in February 2022 she will sing Leonora la Forza del Destino in London.
Catharine studied Music at the University of Durham, Vocal Performance at Trinity Laban & at the Alexander Gibson Opera School at the 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. Career highlights include a documentary for the Open University - Future Diva, and performing at Buckingham Palace for the Queen’s Coronation Festival in 2014. In 2017 she appeared in comedy series “Taskmaster” on Dave & also demonstrated the function of the vocal tract by singing Puccini in an MRI scanner for the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures. In January 2018 she performed excerpts of Madama Butterfly as a featured artist in ITV drama “Next Of Kin”.
Photograph by Tom Medwell
Her opera roles include Eva Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Elisabetta Don Carlo, Mimi La Boheme (Regent’s Opera), Donna Elvira Don Giovanni (Diva Opera UK), Alice Ford Falstaff (Fulham Opera), Edna Tobias & The Angel and Sarah Clemency (both Highbury Opera Theatre).
Pippa Dames-Longworth
Pippa has sung roles for Paris Opera (Palais Garnier), Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Opera Holland Park, Opera North, Teatro Real, Madrid, for Frankfurt, Maggie Musicale, Edinburgh, Bath Festivals, the BBC Proms and The Royal Albert Hall, Festival Hall, Snape Maltings. An experienced and versatile singer, her roles in opera range from Monteverdi to Verdi, Britten and contemporary works. She has worked with Sir Georg Solti, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Roger Norrington and Jiří Bělohlávek, and with Complicité, Brodsky Quartet, Schubert Ensemble. She has broadcast for Radio 3 and 4, for Channel 4, SkyArts and BBC 2 and recorded Stravinsky’s ‘Rossignol’ with Robert Craft and Birtwistle’s ‘Mask of Orpheus’ with the BBC SO.International Festival and the BBC Proms.
With baritone colleague, Karl Daymond, she devised and performed programmes in Spain, Africa and the Caribbean, and was the subject of a BBC documentary. She also directs her own group of soloists, ‘Singing Salon’ who regularly perform at Brighton’s Royal Pavilion.
Pippa lives in Barcombe with her husband, John Berry, and two extraordinarily vocal cats!
Andrew Mackenzie-Wicks
Andrew Wicks was a chorister at Chichester Cathedral and a choral scholar at Durham. He graduated in music from Durham University and then studied singing and performance at the Royal Northern College of Music, winning the Johnston award. The Countess of Munster Musical Trust assisted his studies.
His international concert career began with such groups as the King’s consort, Gabrieli consort and Monteverdi choir singing Bach, Handel, Mozart and Purcell. He toured Europe and America and performed at the BBC Proms.
His extensive Oratorio repertoire now ranges from the baroque, through the classical to romantic works such as Gerontius, The Kingdom, The Apostles, Verdi Requiem and Beethoven Missa Solemnis as well as more contemporary works such as Britten Spring Symphony, War Requiem and St Nicolas. He has performed all over the UK and in Beijing, Mexico, Singapore, and St Petersburg.
Thomas Isherwood
Thomas Isherwood is a 25-year-old baritone from London. Since graduating from the Royal Northern College of Music, Thomas has completed his postgraduate studies at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with Prof Susan McCulloch, achieving a distinction on the Master of Music programme.
Possessing a naturally powerful and versatile instrument, Thomas enjoys performing a diverse repertoire of music from Schubert through to Sondheim. Thomas has appeared in public master-classes with eminent musicians such as Amanda Roocroft, Julius Drake, Sir John Tomlinson, Graham Johnson & Elly Ameling as part of the Wigmore Hall 2015 season.
Recent performances include the role of Happy in La Fanciulla del West by Puccini for Grange Park Opera and an evening with Alexandra Lowe & Thomas Isherwood at Chatsworth House for the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. Thomas was a member of the chorus for Fiddler on the Roof with Grange Park Opera, performing alongside Bryn Terfel for 10 performances in Hampshire and at the 2015 BBC Proms.
Prizes and awards include the 2011 Kathleen Ferrier Bursary for Young Singers, the Oncken & Alexander Young prizes at the RNCM and the 2016 London Song Festival British Art Song Prize.
Elspeth Wilkes
Born in Leigh-on-sea, Essex, Elspeth studied at King’s College, London, Trinity College of Music and Royal Academy of Music. She has performed at the Royal Opera House; the Royal Albert Hall; St Martin-in-the-Fields; Savoy theatre, West End 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 worked with 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 the conductor of Thurrock Choral Society and assistant conductor of Barnes Choir and Putney Choral Society. She is also a member of the Bridgetower Ensemble. 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
James Widden 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. He has been leader of St Paul's Sinfonia since its inception in 2004.
His operatic playing includes: solo violin for St Paul's Opera (most recently in Gianni Schicchi, and the upcoming Albert Herring); solo violin for Fulham Opera (including Die Ägyptische Helene and La Forza del Destino); 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.
Jay Jenkinson
Working as a freelance cellist, Jay regularly performs in and around London. Since graduating from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in 2011, performances have taken him to the Southbank Centre, Kings Place, Cadogan Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, and Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club. Jay has played solo performances at Barbican Hall, and at Buckingham Palace Jay performed in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen.
Earlier this year, Jay earned a Master of Arts degree in Music Education and he teaches young musicians around London. He also creates arrangements of jazz and pop tunes for string quartet that have sold all over the world. Jay has played cello as part of St Paul’s Sinfonia since 2012, and recently performed the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Sinfonia to great acclaim.
