• St Saviour’s Church (map)
  • Warwick Avenue, Little Venice, London W9 2PT

Tickets: £12/£10 (under-18s)

Join three exciting artists for a fascinating vocal programme exploring the musical partnerships of Brahms and Schumann, Poulenc and Britten,  as well as those of several famous songwriting duos from the golden era of stage and screen. 

Anna Huntley (mezzo-sporano), Nicholas Merryweather (baritone) and Libby Burgess (piano)

Robert Schumann – 
    So wahr die Sonne scheinet Op. 37/12
    Unterm Fenster Op. 34/3
Johannes Brahms – 
    Fünf Lieder Op. 40
    Ständchen Op. 106/1
    Spanisches Lied Op 6/1
    O kühler Wald Op 72/3
    Von ewige liebe Op 43/1
    Vier Duette Op. 28
Interval
Francis Poulenc and Benjamin Britten – Fancy/Fancie
Francis Poulenc – 
    Quatre poèmes de Guillaume Apollinaire
    Les chemins de l’amour
Benjamin Britten – Folksongs (selection):
    The Trees They Grow So High
   
 O Waly Waly
   
 The Foggy, Foggy Dew
   
 A Brisk Young Widow
Cole Porter – The Tale of the Oyster 
Flanders and Swann – The Warthog  
George and Ira Gershwin: Just Another Rhumba
Noel Coward – I’ll see you again
Flanders and Swann – A Transport of Delight

Approximate finish 9.30pm

About the artists

Described by the Guardian as a ‘fast-rising British talent’, in 2011 Anna Huntley won the Wigmore Hall/Independent Opera Vocal Fellowship at the Song Competition and 3rd Prize at Das Lied Competition.

Born in Stockton-on-Tees, Anna studied at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music International Opera School. Awards during her studies included 3rd Prize at the Das Lied Competition in Berlin and the Wigmore Hall/Independent Opera Vocal Fellowship at the Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition. She was selected by Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) in 2012.

Over the last year Anna has returned to English National Opera covering the roles of Dorabella (Cosi fan tutte), Pauline (Queen of Spades) and the title role in The Way Back Home. In 2016 she takes the role of a Daughter in Philip Glass’s Akhnaten in a new production at ENO. 

An outstanding lieder singer, recent highlights include recitals with James Baillieu at Brighton Festival and Perth Concert Hall (broadcast by Radio 3), and with Graham Johnson at the Oxford and Leeds Lieder Festivals. Engagements this season include a recital in the Wigmore Hall Song Series, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with City of London Sinfonia and Haydn’s Harmoniemesse with Oxford Philomusica conducted by Andras Schiff.

Anna is mentored by Angelika Kirchschlager as part of the Royal Philharmonic Society/YCAT Philip Langridge Mentoring Scheme.

Previous operatic roles have included Irene (Atalanta) with Cambridge Handel Opera production, Rosina (Barber of Seville) with Opera Brava and Hermia (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) for English Touring Opera. She has also covered Suzuki (Madame Butterfly) for Welsh National Opera, Dido/Sorceress in After Dido based on Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas, and the Alto Role in Wolfgang Rihm’s Jacob Lenz for English National Opera. 

On the concert platform Anna has performed Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été and Berio Folksongs with the Hebrides Ensemble at the Bath International Festival, appeared as soloist in Bach’s B Minor Mass with Trevor Pinnock, Handel’s The Choice of Hercules with Daniel Taylor and Laurence Cummings, Mozart’s Requiem at Symphony Hall Birmingham and Elgar’s Music Maker’s with the Huddersfield Choral Society. In 2012 she undertook a Barbican Residency working on a one-woman show. 

Anna was a Samling Artist, a Concordia Foundation and Live Music Now! artist. She is very grateful for support from the Richard Carne Trust.

 

Nicholas Merryweather read German at University College London before training at the Hochschule für Musik, Cologne and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. He has received the Glyndebourne Wessex Award and the English Touring Opera Chris Ball Bursary.

Nicholas' opera engagements have included Elviro Xerxes, Winter and Hymen The Fairy Queen, Mr Fox in Tobias Picker’s The Fantastic Mr Fox, Marco Gianni Schicchi, Starveling A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Blazes in Peter Maxwell Davies' The Lighthouse and Cosi fan Tutte for English Touring Opera; the title roles of Le Nozze di FigaroDon Giovanni, Guglielmo Papagenoand Argante Rinaldo for Longborough Festival Opera; Villotto La Vera Costanza, Figaro in Paisiello's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Figaro in Portugal’sIl Matrimonio di Figaro, Bardolfo in Salieri’s Falstaff and Cassandro La Finta Semplice all for Bampton Classical Opera and Atlante in Steffani's Orlando Generoso for Barber Opera.

On the concert platform he has performed the St Matthew Passion (Christus) with the Northern Sinfonia / Thomas Zehetmair, the St John Passion with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra / Michael Rosewell, Messiah with the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra and Hallé Orchestra / Robert Howarth and Félcien David's Moïse au Sinaï with the Sofia Philharmonic / Amaury du Closel.

Nicholas' plans include The Fairy Queen at the Middle Temple, London the Christmas Oratorio in Kristiansand, a recital at Opéra de Limoges and Edoardo Assedio di Calais with English Touring Opera.

 

Libby Burgess is a pianist dedicated to the fields of song and chamber music, collaborating regularly with some of the finest singers and instrumentalists of her generation. In addition, her passion for working with singers encompasses vocal coaching, chorusmastering and conducting.

Her diverse schedule ranges from song recitals in the UK’s major concert halls and festivals, to chamber music in obscure venues around the country or appearances on Radio 3. Libby is Artistic Director of New Paths, a major new festival of concerts, outreach, and education events, in Beverley, Yorkshire, which takes place for the first time in April 2016. In 2013 she established Konstellation, which presents programmes exploring the intersection of song and chamber music; this combined interest is reflected in her discography, which ranges from The English Oboe: Rediscovered with James Turnbull, released in 2013 to excellent reviews, to a forthcoming disc featuring songs of madwomen with mezzo-soprano Clare McCaldin. Libby is committed to the encouragement and performance of contemporary music: she regularly premières new works in recital and always enjoys the opportunity to work on new music hand-in-hand with the composer.

Born in Sussex, Libby took a first in music at Oxford, where she was the first female organ scholar at Christ Church Cathedral, before specializing in piano accompaniment with a postgraduate scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music. Here she was awarded numerous accompanist prizes and graduated with the DipRAM for an outstandingly high final recital mark, subsequently being awarded both the Shinn and Lucille Graham fellowships.

Libby’s passion for working with singers extends beyond the piano: she is in demand as a vocal coach, and regularly runs opera workshops for professional singers with director Joe Austin. She is highly regarded as a chorusmaster, in which role she collaborated with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies in the premiere of his Kommilitonen!, and has conducted Britten and Mendelssohn operas for Ryedale Festival Opera. Libby is regularly invited to give choral workshops and to guest-conduct choirs throughout the country. She gives masterclasses at schools and universities across the UK, and until 2015 was Head of Keyboard at Eton College.