A new festival comes to town, featuring three recitals
The Cambridge Song Festival takes to the stage for the first time this month with three recitals celebrating the meeting of words, music, voice and instrument.
Directed by pianist Ceri Owen, the programme features both acclaimed and up-and-coming singers and pianists in song recitals across three colleges.
“Through words and music, we’ll be telling stories, creating characters and exploring a huge range of human emotion and experience,” explains Ceri.
It launches on 15 February with A Cambridge Songbook, in the atmospheric chapel at Jesus College. Award-winning young singers Jess Dandy (above), James Way and Jennifer Witton will perform songs by composers with ties to the city, from Ralph Vaughan Williams to leading contemporary composers Richard Causton, Cheryl Frances-Hoad and Graham Ross.
Internationally acclaimed tenor Robert Murray and pianist Andrew West perform Schubert’s Winter Journey on 16 February at St John’s College Old Divinity School. The 24-song cycle is interspersed with extracts from Captain Scott’s Antarctic diaries, read by actor and poet, Seán Street.
Closing the festival is Folklore and Fairytales, featuring two Jette Parker Young Artists at the Royal Opera House – Dominic Sedgwick (baritone) and Jacquelyn Stucker (soprano, pictured right) – who join Ceri Owen to perform songs from Hugo Wolf’s Italian Songbook and from George Butterworth, Alban Berg and Claude Debussy on 17 February at Sidney Sussex College Chapel. Tickets £5 for students and under 35s, other tickets from £10.
