Ahead of our final DEBUT at Shoreditch Treehouse concert on November 21st, we caught up with two of the incredible musicians who will be joining us. First up, resident pianist improviser & composer Sam Peña and soprano Rose Stachniewska.
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For Global Entrepreneurship Week 2020, the Royal College of Music chatted to alumni Lizzie Holmes, soprano and founder of DEBUT about how she juggles running a company alongside a full time performing career, what she has learnt since founding the company in 2015 and her top tips for current students who are looking to starting their own companies.
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Check out our Q&A with composer Lewis Murphy. Lewis is Glyndebourne’s youngest ever Composer-in-Residence – a position he held until the end of 2017. His other recent commissions have been for Scottish Opera and the National Opera Studio, as well as our very own DEBUT at Shoreditch Treehouse with soprano Gemma Summerfield. He chats to us about his collaboration with librettist and director Laura Attridge, his biggest inspirations and what it’s like to be a composer in the 21st century.
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A year on from when OKIEM joined us for DEBUT at Shoreditch Treehouse as our special guest, we wanted to catch up on what the pianist/composer is up to now and share our exclusive live recording of him for DEBUT at Shoreditch Treehouse.
OKIEM is a pianist & composer who's music is described as "cinematic classical”. He creates his signature sound by combining piano, orchestral instruments and synthesizers.
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We spoke to soprano Elizabeth Karani, who is currently working at the Royal Opera in Gavin Higgins and Francesca Simon’s The Monstrous Child.
“I’ve been really interested in contemporary works for a few years now and have always sought out opportunities to perform and be involved in new pieces. Somehow the casting team at ROH must have heard this and so invited me to audition and, of course, I jumped at the chance, I devoured Francesca’s book and coached my extracts to death before the audition and…
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We spoke to tenor Joel Williams, currently at the Royal College of Music International Opera Studio, about awards, dream roles and all things singing.
Joel is already in high demand and can list such companies as the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Opéra de Paris amongst his employers.
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South Korean-born New Zealand pianist Somi Kim is a highly accomplished, multi award-winning collaborative pianist. She works with singers and instrumentalists in instrumental chamber music, opera and more.
This month she recently completed a 7-concert tour of New Zealand with the NZTrio. The programme was entitled Twine and was described by The Big Idea as delivering 'virtuosic skill and an affable, accessible stage presence in equal measures’
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We spoke to Thomas Isherwood and Harry Thatcher ahead of their performances as Count Almaviva in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro at the Royal College of Music.
Both baritones are at the early stages of extremely promising careers and are already in demand throughout the UK. Thomas recently starred as 'Mark' in the Olivier Nominated 'Best New Opera' La bohèmeat the Trafalgar Studios with King's Head Theatre and Harry has performed a number of roles for Grange Park Opera and Glyndebourne Festival Opera including Curio in Giulio Cesare.
Launching DEBUT’s new Instagram Takeover Series we asked rising star saxophonist Manu Brazo to take us along with him for his week rehearsing with the Britten-Pears Orchestra in Aldeburgh, Suffolk! Preparing Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet Ballet conducted by Marin Alsop for the Snape BBC Proms.
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On the day of our interview Ian is moving house – no small feat for the average man, let alone one with a Yamaha factored into the equation! - And yet, in a similar vein to how he approaches being interviewed whilst house moving, he can do it all – pianist, accompanist, répétiteur, organist, harpsichordist, and orchestral keyboard player - and all with the utmost finesse.
He'd wouldn't shout it from the rooftops, but Ian's won pretty much all of the major accompanist prizes (Ferrier Awards, Royal Overseas League, Help Musicians UK... the list goes on), and though musicality literally seeps from his fingertips, in person he's unassuming, funny and inherently - normal.
This week Ian is in Heidelberg, Germany, competing in the bi-annual International Song Competition 'Das Lied'
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Katie's journey to the English National Opera's stage for her debut in the revival of Mike Leigh’s Pirates of Penzance has been the quintessential dream of many a fledgling opera singer.
Building on solid foundations at the Royal College of Music, Katie progressed through the Graduate Diploma (predominately for students who didn't train at a conservatoire for their undergraduate - Katie did her BA in History and Music at Royal Holloway, University of London) through the 2 year Masters and into the Benjamin Britten Opera School. Katie is quickly gaining deserved renown for the beauty and power of her voice and her magnetic presence on stage.
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Guest blog by musicologist Genevieve Arkle How do competitions like the Wigmore International Song Competition and Ferrier Awards help young singers? What is their purpose, and how can they help the emerging artist in a world where jobs and opportunities in the world of performing classical music are becoming increasingly more, well… competitive!? Here, we take a look at just a few of the reasons singers enter into the world of competitive performing, and do a Q&A with baritone Julien Van Mellaerts following his recent competition successes.
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