News and Events

Alison Rose

Soloists, Soprano

Alison Rose is the winner of the 2015 Maggie Teyte Prize and a 2017 Leonard Ingrams Award. Born in East London, Alison’s first forays into music making came through the Redbridge Music Service. She subsequently went on to undergraduate studies at the RNCM and postgraduate at the RAM. She is a graduate of the GSMD Opera School and the National Opera Studio and is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.

Previous operatic roles include Papagena Die Zauberflöte for Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the BBC Proms; Barbarina Le nozze di Figaro for Garsington Festival Opera and English National Opera; Susanna The Marriage of Figaro for Opera North’s Whistlestop Tour; The Governess Turn of the Screw for Bury Court Opera and Vixen The Cunning Little Vixen for Grimeborn Opera. On screen, Alison performed the role of Olivia for an animated production of Aidan for English Touring Opera, and the role of La Bergère for VOPERA’s award winning animation of Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges. Recent engagements include Flavia in Handel’s Silla for the Northern Opera Group and Klara in Stephen McNeff’s Beyond the Garden at Lichfield Festival and Three Choirs Festival.

Concert highlights include Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music at the BBC Last Night of the Proms, Handel’s Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall, Britten’s Les Illuminations and Mahler’s Symphony no.4, both for the Southwell Music Festival, and solo recitals at the Oxford Lieder Festival and the Royal Opera House Crush Room.

http://www.alisonrosesoprano.com

James Savage-Hanford

Soloists, Tenor

James read Music at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and Royal Holloway, University of London, before undertaking postgraduate training in vocal performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, studying with Adrian Thompson.

James made his international debut as Ferrando Così fan tutte with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra at the Birgitta Festival, Tallinn, in 2016. Other operatic highlights include Don Ottavio Don Giovanni, Bardolfo Falstaff (Black Cat Opera Company) and Remendado Carmen (OperaUpClose). Earlier this year, he made his solo debut at St Martin-in-the-Fields, in a performance of Mozart’s Requiem alongside the Brandenburg Sinfonia.

When not singing, James is also active as a musicologist, and is currently studying for a PhD on the music of George Enescu at Royal Holloway, where he is also a visiting tutor. www.jamessavagehanford.com.

India Simpson

News, Soloists, Soprano

India Simpson was born in Norfolk where, during her school years, she studied with Jane Roberson. She joined the Norwich Cathedral Girls’ choir at 12, now at 22 she sings in various choirs in Lincolnshire. She won the Norfolk Young Musician Competition in 2022. India is in her third year at the University of Lincoln studying music. In 2023 she played the role of ‘Lola’ in Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana and in 2024 ‘Michal’ in Handel’s Saul with Lincoln Choral Society. She hopes to have a career as a musician in the future.

Matthew Spillett

Tenor

Currently a Lay Clerk at Southwell Minster, Matthew is a graduate of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, studying with Maureen Brathwaite and Andrew King. He has also sung with the choirs of St Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham, Ex Cathedra, and Guildford Cathedral. Having started singing as a chorister at Peterborough Cathedral, Matthew has since performed in all the major oratorios, being in demand for his interpretations of both the Evangelist and soloist roles in Bach’s St Matthew and St John Passions.

Matthew also appears frequently on stage, and has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company, performing in their acclaimed production Written on the Heart, directed by Gregory Doran.

Matthew’s work has taken him throughout the USA and Europe, including the first solo Classical vocal recital for many years at the Alexandra Palace. He has appeared alongside such artists as Dame Felicity Lott, David Owen Norris, John Rutter, Nicola Benedetti and Jeremy Irons.

Geoff Williams

Baritone

Geoff Williams trained at the Royal Academy of Music completing a Master’s Degree in Performance, with Distinction.

Recent roles include Papageno and Sprecher Die Zauberflöte, Geronio Il turco in Italia, Escamillo and Dancaire Carmen, Don Alfonso Cosi fan tutti, General Achilla Giulio Cesare (Handel). He also covered the role of Marchese d’Obigny La Traviata for Longborough Festival Opera.

Geoff’s concert performances have included Herod in Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ (Scherzo Ensemble), Orff’s Carmina Burana (Colston Hall), Verdi’s Requiem (L’église de la Madeleine and Chartres Cathedral), Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle (St Margaret’s Church, Westminster), Pilatus and Arias in Bach’s St Matthew Passion (Wells Cathedral), Pilatus and Arias in St John Passion (Southwell Minster and Galway Cathedral), Barber’s Dover Beach with the Villiers Quartet (St John’s Smith Square).

He also understudied Roderick Williams in the World Premiere of the ‘Da Vinci Requiem’ by Cecilia Mcdowall with the Philharmonia Orchestra (Royal Festival Hall).

Upcoming performances in 2022 include: Brahms Requiem. Handel’s Messiah, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and a new work by Steve Banks ‘Blue Pearl’ which will be filmed in St Giles, Cripplegate, London with the London Mozart players.

He studies with Janice Chapman and Gavin Carr

For further information, visit www.geoffwilliamsbaritone.com

James Williams

Baritone, Soloists

James Williams was born in London and studied at the Royal Academy of Music. Since graduating, James has distinguished himself as a successful artist on the operatic stage as well as in concert and recital.

In 2015-16, James completed the trilogy of the Mozart/Da Ponte operas, performing the title role of Don Giovanni, Don Alfonso/Così fan tutte and Il Conte/Le nozze di Figaro in fully-staged productions across the UK with Dulwich Opera Company and Opera Seria.

In oratorio, James has performed as baritone soloist in: Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem, Finzi’s In Terra Pax, Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, and Jonathan Rathbone’s Christmas Truce.

Amy Wood

Soprano

Amy began singing as a chorister in Sheffield Cathedral Girls’ Choir, before going on to study at Manchester University. Equally at home in music from renaissance polyphony to contemporary work, she sings regularly with The Monteverdi Choir, The BBC Singers, Ex Cathedra, The Eric Whitacre Singers, Ensemble Plus Ultra, Polyphony and is a member of the Choir Of The London Oratory. She has also appeared on many film soundtracks as a choir member and as a soloist. Amy has toured the world, singing in concert halls from Tokyo to Rio to Sydney, and recent tours since lockdown have included Amsterdam and Berlin with The Monteverdi Choir, Portugal with Ensemble Plus Ultra and Dido and Aeneas with Opéra de Lille.

Recent solo engagements include Bach’s Magnificat in Southwell, Monteverdi’s Vespers in Birmingham Town Hall, Handel’s Messiah in Newark and Bach’s St John Passion in Tring.
Amy is a qualified counsellor and runs a busy private practice alongside her singing.

BBC Bingham: Episode One – 25th March 2020

BBC Bingham Productions

Dear BDCS

Here is our first attempt at a video substitute for rehearsals. I hope you enjoy it. Start by clicking on Video 1 and then as you work through you will be told when to click on the subsequent links. Some of the YouTube links start with adverts, these will either play out, or you can click on the ‘skip advert’ button. Each link opens a new window, so by closing the window when the video ends you come back to BBC Bingham.

Video 1_Guy: Introductions (8:02)
Video 2_Ca’ the Yowes (arr. R.Vaughan Williams) (4.27)
Video 3_Guy (1:28)
Video 4_Cerys Matthews – ‘Sospan Fach’ (2.09)
Video 5_Guy (0.52)
Video 6_ Voces8, Sibeal -Traditional: Carrickfergus (Arr.Pacey) (4.29)
Video 7_Guy: ‘The Final Choice’ (0.32)
Video 8_Steeleye Span-All Around My Hat (Live Cropredy) (4.22)
Video 9_Guy: ‘So that’s the plan.’ (1:16)
Sound recording_of Judy Brown: Robert Burns: My luve is like a red red rose. (2.39)
Sound recording_ of Judy Brown: Tchaikovsky Queen of Spades – Prodrugi Milye (4.30)
Video 12_Guy: ‘So I hope you found that interesting’ (0.23)

Extra video you might like to watch:

Dives and Lazarus – Maddy Prior

Vaughan Williams Five Variants on Dives and Lazarus (with score)

Barbara Dickson she Moved through the Fair

Extra performance of Sopan Fach

Guy’s email for future suggestions – guyscottturner@gmail.com

BBC Bingham: Episode Eleven – 3rd June 2020. Eric Thiman by Guy Turner

BBC Bingham Productions

This week Guy Turner takes us on a musical journey with the organist, teacher, conductor, and prolific composer, Eric Thiman (1900 – 1975). As The Thiman Collection’s Archivist, and previously singer in one of Thiman’s Choral Societies, Guy provides a fascinating insight into Thiman, interspersed with recordings of his works, some of which BDCS have performed.

Click on this link to here the episode

BBC Bingham: Episode thirteen – 17th June 2020. Variations by Guy Turner (Part 1)

BBC Bingham Productions

This week’s BBC Bingham is based on a talk which I gave at a conference for GCSE and A level musicians earler this year. It also relates to next week’s programme, which will be introducing you to the Folksong Sequence commission which I have now completed and which we will be doing at the Jubilee Prom next year. The talk was originally designed for people who were going to be composing their own variations, but I hope it will give plenty of insights to people who are only planning to perform and listen to music.

Click on the text ‘Variations_1’ below, and then the sound file that follows, and then ‘Variations 2&3’ and so on………

List of additional links

Paganini Caprice No 24 This is a lockdown video made just the day before I updated the talk for BDCS – 12 famous violinists taking turns. Put together by Nicola Benedetti.

Ives Variation on America

Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

Lloyd Webber Variations or you may prefer the orchestral version