7.30 pm, Saturday, 13th May 2023
St Edmund’s Church, Shipston-on-Stour
Handel’s Messiah
with
Natalie Montakhab – soprano*
James Neville – countertenor
Matthew Minter – tenor*
William Burn – bass baritone
and
The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Orchestra
*Natalie Montakhab and Matthew Minter appear by arrangement with Ann Ferrier Artists – Concert Directory International
Baritone Thomas Humphreys began singing as a chorister at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford and studied at the Royal Academy of Music.
In opera, he has sung the title role in Don Giovanni for the Opera Holland Park Young Artist Programme, as well as returning for their 2018 season to sing the roles of L’araldo Maggiore Isabeau and The Wigmaker Ariadne auf Naxos. He made his debut with Glyndebourne Touring Opera as Servo di Flora La Traviata, as well as covering the role of The Captain Eugene Onegin for Glyndebourne Festival Opera. He has been critically acclaimed for his performance of Jake Wallace La Fanciulla del West for Grange Park Opera. He has also sung and understudied roles for Opera Holland Park, English Touring Opera, the Merry Opera Company, and the King’s Head Theatre, recently singing Le Grand Pretre de Dagon Samson et Dalila for the Grimeborn Festival.
Thomas is in high demand on the concert platform, regularly performing with the premiere orchestras and choirs of the UK at venues such as the Barbican Hall, Cadogan Hall, Wigmore Hall, St. John’s, Smith Square among many others. His repertoire includes Messiah (Handel), Elijah (Mendelssohn), St. John Passion (Bach), Christmas Oratorio (Bach), Ein deutches Requiem (Brahms), Requiem (Mozart), Requiem (Faure), The Creation (Haydn), Nelson Mass (Haydn), Five Mystical Songs (Vaughan Williams). He has also often performed further afield in France, Italy, Russia and Bulgaria. Future plans include Requiem (Verdi) at the Royal Festival Hall.
Thomas lives in Dorset with his partner Emily and his two daughters Sophia and Sienna. When not working, Thomas loves going for walks in the Dorset countryside with his family.
Canadian soprano Brittany King is an artist confident in an extensive range of styles. Recent performances include Messiah (Worcester Festival Choral Society), Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (Gloucester Choral Society) and Bob Chilcott’s St John Passion (Coventry Cathedral Chorus). In 2022-2023 Brittany performs at Salisbury Cathedral (Brahms’ Requiem), York Musical Society (Fauré’s Requiem & Michael Haydn’s Requiem) and returns to Coventry Cathedral Chorus for the Messiah.
Prior to the pandemic, UK appearances included Christmas Oratorio (Stratford Choral Society), Creation (Elgar Baroque Singers, Worcester) Handel’s Dixit Dominus & Vivaldi’s Gloria (Abingdon Choral Society), Vivaldi’s Gloria (Gloucester Choral Society) and Saint-Saëns’ Oratorio de Noël (Leighton Buzzard Festival Singers). Brittany was a featured performer at Elmslie House in Malvern for The Art of Song concert.
During the pandemic, Brittany was active in creating digital music content for Timothy Eaton Memorial Church in Toronto. As both soloist and quartet member, she covered repertoire spanning Handel, Mozart, Rutter, and a North American premiere by composer Ernest Hui.
Formerly based in Toronto, Brittany recently moved to the UK where she now makes her home. She loves spending time at her cottage in Canada, going on hikes in the Malvern hills with her twin daughters and cosy movie nights by the log burner with her family. She is looking forward to performing with the Stour Singers in December!
James Birchall studied at St John’s College, Cambridge, the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
He has sung many of the major oratorio roles, notably Handel’s Messiah and Beethoven’s Choral Symphony, both with the CBSO in Symphony Hall, Birmingham, Bach’s St John Passion with the London Mozart Players in St Paul’s Cathedral, Christmas Oratorio and Messiah in Kristiansund, Norway and St Matthew Passion at the Royal Festival Hall with the Bach Choir. Forthcoming concerts include Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in Gloucester Cathedral and the Messiah in Worcester Cathedral.
In 2010 he made his solo debut at the BBC Proms, performing Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music, and has twice appeared as a soloist at the Three Choirs Festival, performing Serenade to Music and Purcell’s Hail Bright Cecilia.
Operatic engagements have included Messenger Belshazzar at the Theatre du Capitole, Toulouse, Moralès (cover) in Carmen for Raymond Gubbay Ltd at the Royal Albert Hall and the O2 Arena, London, and Masetto/Commendatore in Don Giovanni for Opera della Luna at the Iford Festival. James also often sings with the Royal Opera Chorus with productions this season including Aida, La Bohème and Tannhäuser.
He is married with two daughters who have picked up his enthusiasm for music, but cricket and rugby are still work in progress.
Julian was a chorister at St John’s College, Cambridge. He later went to York University graduating with a BA honours degree in Music.
His career involves a mixture of concert and recording work both as a soloist and choral singer. He has appeared on several award-winning discs, most notably with the Cardinall’s Musick. He has also featured on discs for Westminster Abbey, The Sixteen, Opera Rara, and The Gabrielli Consort.
A regular with the BBC Singers and The Academy of Ancient Music Julian is a full-time member of Westminster Abbey Choir where he has sung since 1999. In Oratorio, he is an experienced Evangelist, and his solo repertoire ranges from Monteverdi’s Vespers, which he sang live on Radio 3, to Passio by Arvo Part.
Operatic Roles include Belmonte and Pedrillo in Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio (Holland Park Opera) whilst choral highlights have included singing at the Royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, and more recently the funeral of Her Late Majesty the Queen.
Recent performances have included Haydn’s Creation with Hertfordshire Choral Society, The Seasons with The Academy of Ancient Music at the Barbican, and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Westminster Abbey.
Julian lives in Watford with his wife Karen and dog Charlie. Hobbies include playing classical guitar, piano duets, horse riding, football, tennis and hill walking.
Tom Lilburn is a countertenor who recently graduated with distinction from the Master of Performance course at the Royal College of Music. He was an Ian Evans Lombe Scholar at RCM, where his studies were generously supported by The Charlotte Fraser Foundation. Roles at RCM include Unulfo in Handel’s Rodelinda, and Refugee in Jonathan Dove’s Flight. He is currently covering the roles of Ottone and Narciso in Handel’s Agrippina with English Touring Opera. Recent oratorio performances include Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s St. John Passion, Vivaldi’s Gloria and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. He continues his vocal studies with Sally Burgess.
Since 2016 Tom has been a Lay Clerk at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, and in April 2021 he was one of four singers at the funeral of The Duke of Edinburgh. He also sang with the choir for the Queen’s committal service at Windsor. He is a member of the vocal sextet The Queen’s Six, and has worked with professional choirs including Tenebrae, The Sixteen, The Binchois Consort and ORA.
Tom grew up in the Midlands and was a finalist in BBC Radio 2 Chorister of the Year in 2007. He studied Natural Sciences at St. John’s College, Cambridge, where he was a choral scholar. In his spare time Tom enjoys playing chess, cricket, tennis and golf.
Haydn composed his St. Nicolas Mass in 1772 for his employer Prince Nikolaus Esterhazy I’s name’s day. This was not the normal practice, and the mass was composed under unusual circumstances.
There are some signs of turbulence under the surface at this time. It is of course so easy to draw false conclusions from a modern perspective, particularly since in Haydn’s time it was not usual for composers to give expression to their own personal feelings in their work. But in 1772 Haydn wrote some unusually dark works. Of the five symphonies he wrote that year, three are in a minor key. Given that out of his 104 symphonies only 10 are in minor keys, this would seem to be a significant concentration of dark moods. The St. Nicholas Mass, which is in the gentle key of G major, is not without its own particular dark swerves into the minor.
1772 was the year he composed his Farewell Symphony (in F sharp minor). It was customary for the whole Esterhazy court to migrate from its base in Eisenstadt to the Esterhazy palace in Hungary for the summer. Haydn and the leader of the orchestra could take their wives with them; sadly Haydn’s wife would probably have preferred remaining in Eisenstadt, or better still in Vienna. Meanwhile all the other musicians had to leave their wives and families at home in Eisenstadt. Frequently they didn’t return home until December, which caused frictions.
This particular year there was much unrest amongst the musicians because of this and Haydn famously staged a walk-out in the Farewell Symphony, leaving just the leader and Haydn himself playing the violin at the end. Prince Nikolaus took the hint and the court returned to Eisenstadt early.
Haydn quickly composed the St. Nicholas Mass in time for the prince’s name’s day. H.C. Robbins Landon makes the suggestion that the St Nicholas Mass may have been written as a ‘kind of surprise congratulation’ for the prince’s generosity. He must have been pleased: it is a present of great charm.
7.30pm, Saturday 10 December 2022
St. Edmund’s Church, Shipston-on-Stour
Georg Philip Telemann – Magnificat
Joseph Haydn – Nikolai Mass
with
Julian Debreuil – bass baritone
Soloists appear by arrangement with Ann Ferrier Artists – Concert Directory International, www.annferrierartists.com
Tickets £12.50 are available from choir members, A. Clarke, 27 High Street, Shipston-on-Stour, or at the door (accompanied children free).
Spanish-Mancunian soprano Ana Beard Fernández graduated from the Royal College of Music, London in 2020 with a Master of Performance with Distinction, supported by the Audrey Sacher Award and Josephine Baker Trust. In the same year she was a Kathleen Ferrier Awards semi-finalist. Ana previously completed her undergraduate studies at the University of York, where she was recipient of the Ed Burrell Award for Excellence in Performance.
Equally at home with opera, oratorio, and contemporary music, highlights this spring include the role of ‘Cephise’ in Rameau’s Pygmalion, solos in Monteverdi Vespers with Thames Philharmonic Choir at Cadogan Hall, Fauré Requiem with Tower of London Chapel Choir, and Carmina Burana with the Docklands Sinfonia at Fairfield Halls, Croydon. This summer she will sing Dvořák Mass in D and Mozart Vesperae Solemnes de Confessore with Stour Singers, Dvořák Stabat Mater and Song to the Moon (Rusalka) with the University of York Choir and Orchestra at York Minster, and Schoenberg Pierrot Lunaire at the Royal College of Music.
For more information please visit: www.anabeardfernandez.co.uk
In 1780, when he composed his Vespers K339, Mozart was becoming increasingly frustrated with life in Salzburg, indeed, itching to escape from it. This is hardly surprising, given his fraught relationships with Archbishop Colloredo. They clearly detested one another. The Archbishop called Mozart, to his face, ‘ein Fetz’ – a nonentity; he also, for good liturgical reasons, put tight restrictions on the length and nature of Mozart’s settings, which must have been frustrating. Given that he also had a very controlling father, life in Salzburg must have been irksome.
1780 was also the year Emperor Joseph II ascended the Habsburg throne. To celebrate this, there was a ceremony held in March of the following year. The ceremony was held in Vienna, and Archbishop Colloredo was of course in attendance. He summoned Mozart to Vienna, housing him along with the other servants, which offended Mozart. What is more, Mozart had the opportunity to perform for the Emperor, for a fee equivalent to half his annual salary, and the Archbishop forbade this, since he wanted Mozart to play for his own concert. Mozart attempted to resign from the Archbishop’s services, but found himself summarily dismissed. The Archbishop’s deputy forcibly ejected him with, as Mozart put it, ‘a kick up the arse’.
