Lammermuir Festival unveils its 2025 season. Mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean performs Stuart MacRae’s “Earth Thy Cold is Keen.” MacRae directs. Performance Date: September 4, 2025 Ravel’s “L’heure espagnole” and Walton’s “The Bear” are presented in a double bill. Performers include Lea Shaw, Luvo Maranti, Jamie MacDougall, Edward Jowle, Daniel Barrett, and Chloe Harris. Jacopo Spirei is the director and Kenneth Macleod {…}
The Oxford International Song Festival has announced its line up for 2025. This article only features classical vocal concerts. Baritone Benjamin Appl and pianist Sholto Kynoch open the festival with a concert highlighting the works of Franz Schubert. Performance Date: October 10, 2025 Baritone Benjamin Appl and pianist Sholto Kynoch perform a small selection of songs in “Song Sofa.” This {…}
The Staatsorchester Hamburg has announced its 2025-26 season. Here is a look at the vocal performances. Mahler’s “Lieder aus Des Knaben Wunderhorn” will be conducted by Adam Fischer and star Annika Schlicht and Benjamin Appl. The concert will also include Bartok’s Konzert für Orchester. Performance Dates: Nov. 23 & 24, 2025 Omer Meir Wellber conducts the Silverkonzert with Hila Baggio {…}
The 2025 Norfolk & Norwich Festival program has been announced. For the purposes of this article, only vocal works are included. The Idrîsî Ensemble presents “Lost Harmonies: Endangered and Medieval Traditions.” Performance Date: May 11, 2025 “Compline by Candlelight” features the Girl Choristers, Lay Clerks, and Choral Scholars of Norwich Cathedral Choir. Performance Date: May 13, 2025 Mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean {…}
Aldeburgh Festival has announced its 2025 edition. Here is a rundown of the vocal performances on offer. First up is “A Visit to Friends,” a new opera by Collin Matthews and William Boyd. It stars Lotte Betts-Dean, Susanna Hurrell, Marcus Farnsworth, Edward Hawkins, and Gary Mattewman. Jessica Cottis conducts and Rachael Hewer directs. Performance Date: June 13 & 14, 2025 James {…}
Lotte Betts-Dean has joined Askonas Holt for worldwide management. She will be managed at Askonas Holt by Megan Steller. The Australian mezzo-soprano has premiered many works by contemporary composers, and recorded several composer portrait albums, including Michael Finnissy, Stuart MacRae, Catherine Lamb and Arthur Keegan. She has performed with the Bayerische Staatsoper, the Wigmore Hall, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the {…}
The Royal Philharmonic Society Awards winners were announced at the Royal Northern College of Music on March 5. For the purposes of this article only opera related winners are included. Taking home the Conductor Prize is François-Xavier Roth. Meanwhile the Ensemble Award went to the BBC Singers. Kaija Saariaho‘s “Innocence” took home the Large-Scale Composition award while Contemporary Music Festival’s {…}
A shortlist of this year’s Royal Philharmonic Society Award recipients has been released. For the purposes of this article only opera related nominees are included. The full list can be found here. Chamber-Scale Composition Nilufar Habibian – “Az nahāyate tāriki” (“From the deep end of darkness”) Conductor Alice Farnham; Alpesh Chauhan; François-Xavier Roth Ensemble BBC Singers; Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective Impact {…}
Britten Pears Arts has announced its Autumn 2022 season that includes “The Blue Woman,” a new opera by Laura Bowler and Laura Lomas, a new production of “The Rape of Lucretia,” and Britten song cycles performed by opera stars. Here’s the lineup. Composer Laura Bowler and librettist Laura Lomas’ new opera, “The Blue Woman,” explores the aftermath of sexual violence, {…}
Dartington International Summer School & Festival has announced its 2019 concert program. The festival will take place from July 27 – August 24, 2019. In her fifth and final year as Artistic Director, Joanna MacGregor “is gifting Dartington audiences a personal and intimate series of performances” featuring composers and music that she has found “profoundly influential.” For the purposes of {…}
