Talking Classical Podcast

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Interview with Sarah Champion: https://talkingclassicalpodcast.wordpress.com/2019/09/30/ep-18-interview-with-canadian-mezzo-soprano-sarah-champion/ Canadian high mezzo-soprano Sarah Champion has been acclaimed for her ‘clarity and assurance’ (Opera Magazine) and heard both on the opera stage and the concert platform in Europe and North America in repertoire spanning four-centuries. Ms. Champion’s recent engagements have included The Lover in Tansy Davies’ BETWEEN WORLDS directed by Deborah Warner for English National Opera, Dorabella COSÌ FAN TUTTE on tour with Scottish Opera, Dorotea STIFFELIO for Chelsea Opera Group, the role of Naomi in the world premiere of Phillip Hagemann’s RUTH with Pegasus Opera, Zenobia RADAMISTO at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico and Daisy in the world premiere of Stuart McCrae’s ANTHROPOCENE for Scottish Opera. Upcoming engagements include Offred Before in Poul Ruders’ THE HANDMAID’S TALE with the Danish Royal Opera. Ms. Champion has performed as a soloist and recitalist throughout North America, the UK and Europe giving performances with Florilegium, the Britten-Pears Orchestra /Antonello Manacorda, Britten-Pears Baroque Orchestra/Richard Egarr, the San Francisco Early Music Society, at the London Handel Festival, the Tage Alte Musik Regensburg, the Boston Early Music Festival, Festival Montreal Baroque, the Banff Centre and the Aldeburgh Festival. Notable engagements include recitals with the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada under Trevor Pinnock, the Little Baroque Company under Laurence Cummings and a staging of Messiaen’s song cycle Harawi directed by Tim Nelson. Other recent engagements include Female Artist LULU for English National Opera; covering Isabella L’ITALIANA IN ALGERI for Garsington Opera, the title-role XERXES, Donna Elvira DON GIOVANNI and Rosina BARBER OF SEVILLE for ENO and Brahms Liebeslieder Walzer and Schumann Spanisches Liederspiel in Istanbul. Ms. Champion studied trumpet and voice at McGill University and trained in voice at the Royal College of Music. She now studies with Nelly Miricioiu in London and is a former Britten-Pears Young Artist and a Malcolm Martineau Crear Scholar. 

Listen to Ep. 17 with British concert pianist James Lisney. World Mental Health Day takes place every year on the 10th October. To mark World Mental Health Day, listen to Ep. 11 with Lucy Thraves, Editor of Classical Music Magazine, in which we discuss the importance of mental health and well-being in the classical music sector, and Harmony in Mind, the magazine's year-long mental health awareness campaign. https://who.int/mental_health/world-mental-health-day/en/ https://mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/world-mental-health-day. talkingclassicalpodcast.wordpress.com/contact. Facebook - @talkingclassicalpodcast Twitter - @tc_podcasts YouTube - bit.ly/2WF4duy Blog - talkingclassicalpodcast.wordpress.com

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Series 2 of the Talking Classical Podcast starts with this interview with British concert pianist James Lisney. We discussed his upcoming concert series Endgame, which explores the idea of ‘Late Style’ through the piano works of Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert and Chopin. He also shared some very interesting and thought-provoking insights into pianism, the performance aesthetics of the Late repertoire (challenging pre-conceived notions of how it should be interpreted), the music profession and the music educational system. Many thanks to James and Frances Wilson (The Cross-Eyed Pianist) for facilitating this interview! Interview recorded on 23rd September 2019 at James' house. Podcast released on 26th September 2019. Find out more about James and his Endgame concerts at www.jameslisney.com. James Lisney enjoys a rich musical life, moving seamlessly from concerto and recital soloist to chamber musician, song accompanist and pianist director. Initiatives, such as his Schubertreise series at London`s Southbank Centre, his extensive Beethoven Project or the recording company Woodhouse Editions, provide a platform for his wide-ranging musical sympathies. James Lisney made his Wigmore Hall debut in 1986 and early representation by the Young Concert Artists Trust in London led to a career that has taken him to many prestigious venues and gained invitations to appear with major orchestras. Highlights include residencies at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Carnegie Recital Hall in New York. His recordings (on Naxos, Bis, Somm, Olympia and Carlton) have gained the highest recommendations. Recent months have seen him performing Schubert cycles in the Oxford International Piano Series, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the first Schubert piano sonata cycles on the Indian subcontinent and his recital debut at the Prague Rudolfinum. Endgame launches in autumn 2019 at: 1 October - Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham 13 October - St George’s, Bristol 16 October - West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge (in support of The Amber Trust) And continues throughout 2020. 

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In this episode, we're exploring the wonderful world of video game music with Dr Tim Summers, Lecturer in Music at Royal Holloway, University of London. Tim specialises in the academic study of video game music and ludomusicology, the study of music via games and play. In this interview, we discussed many different facets of video game music including: - the role of music in game design and production. - the mechanics of gaming for the player but also the idea of the player as a listener. - the challenges of categorising game music as high art versus low art, terms that are problematic in themselves. - the influence of classical music and opera on video games. - how one analyses video game music from, for instance, the perspective of a gamer, a music analyst, and a ludomusicologist. - the influence of video games on musical interfaces. Listen to BBC Radio 3's Afternoon Concert of video game music (available for a limited time on iPlayer) - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0006fkj. A link to the "Seaboard" and musical software from ROLI I referred to towards the end of the interview - https://roli.com/. Podcast published on 30 July 2019. Interview recorded on 3 July 2019 at the Royal Opera House, London. Facebook - @talkingclassicalpodcast Twitter - @tc_podcasts YouTube - bit.ly/2WF4duy Blog - talkingclassicalpodcast.wordpress.com

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The Birmingham Contemporary Music Group is one of the world's foremost new music ensembles. Earlier this year, I was very pleased to have the opportunity to visit its offices to interview Nancy Evans, the Director of Learning and Participation, and Stephan Meier, the Artistic Director. It was refreshing to talk to them about a wide range of topics within the sphere of new music such as: - what it looks like to teach young people about contemporary classical music, particularly, music composition, and how this translates into institutional and extra-curricular settings. - the challenges and logistics of managing a world-leading new music organisation. - the broader implications of BCMG's work for culture and society, including the idea of a "global village" and facilitating cultural meeting points. Many thanks to: Victoria Taylor and Seb Huckle, the BCMG's Executive Director, for arranging this opportunity. Nancy and Stephan for taking the time out of their busy schedules to talk to me for the podcast. Podcast published on 26 July 2019. Interviews recorded on 29 April 2019 at the CBSO Centre, Birmingham, UK. Find out more about the BCMG at https://www.bcmg.org.uk. Facebook - @talkingclassicalpodcast Twitter - @tc_podcasts YouTube - bit.ly/2WF4duy Blog - talkingclassicalpodcast.wordpress.com

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I'm delighted to share this interview with Thomas Guthrie. This was a fascinating opportunity to learn about what being a director entails, particularly, in music theatre and opera. We talked about how one manages and interacts with not only the creatives and production team but one's fellow singers - Tom is a singer himself and very much comes from directing at a performer's perspective. However, we do discuss being "on the other side of the fence", to so speak. Tom was also keen to advocate the importance of previews in opera, commonplace in other art forms such as musicals. Additionally, Tom highlighted the act of taking ownership of a role on stage; this process is aided by the support of the other singers around. We talked about humour and comic timing in productions; that it is naturally tempting for performers and directors to get laughs as it shows that the audience is engaged. But to bring about sorrow and tears is just, if not more, moving. A good example lies in Mozart's operas. We also discussed the role of instrumentalists in staged performances, for example, the revival of dramatising the Bach Passions and a recent production of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas Tom directed in Norway. Many thanks to: Kathryn Hare at Orchid Media for arranging this interview on the day and Tom for taking the time before his concert to talk to me! Podcast published 22 July 2019. Interview recorded 18 July 2019 in the gardens of the Inner Temple, London. Thomas Guthrie is an innovative and award-winning British director and musician working in theatre and music to tell stories in vivid, new and direct ways. A former Jette Parker Young Artist Stage Director at the Royal Opera House in London, his revival of David McVicar’s Die Zauberflöte there won What’s On Stage Best Revival 2018. His own critically acclaimed productions of Le Nozze di Figaro and Die Zauberflöte at Longborough Festival Opera led to an invitation to direct Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer there in 2018 (subsequently called ‘one of the best productions at this venue I have seen’, Rupert Christiansen, Telegraph). With a reputation for stylish, unfussy, energetic, physical, theatrical and sometimes controversial work, the clarity of the storytelling, the commitment of the performers and a pre-eminence of musical values are at the heart of his productions. In his own words, ‘great theatre depends more on engaging and inspiring the imagination of the audience than on telling them what to think’ (from a recent Q and A at Princeton University). Tom also works with non-professionals of all ages and backgrounds. Some of his most thrilling projects have been in this field, including work with Streetwise Opera, the Prison Choir Project, the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, and the Royal Opera House, through whom he has inspired hundreds to connect with their inner Caruso and raise the roof. His production of Ludd and Isis, a new opera commissioned to launch the ROH’s new Production Park in Thurrock, involving a cast of hundreds, including professionals and amateurs of all ages, was acclaimed as ‘one of the Royal Opera House’s grandest achievements’ (Opera). Thomas is the founder and artistic director of the charity Music and Theatre for All, Guest Artistic Advisor to the York Early Music Festival, was Belknap Fellow at Princeton University, New Jersey in 2017, and is proud to sing and play with Bjarte Eike’s Alehouse Boys.