Talking Classical Podcast

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The new album from the international, award-winning British vocal ensemble Apollo5 is released today! Here's an interview with Clare Stewart from the quintet, in which we discuss the album, Apollo5's extensive educational and outreach work, Clare's insights as a singer, and into the rehearsal and performance process of a world-class a capella vocal group. Special thanks to: George Percy at WildKat PR for arranging and coming to the interview, and Clare for talking to me! Published on 31 May 2019. Interview recorded on 13 May 2019 at the Gresham Centre, St Anne and St Agnes Church, London. The British vocal ensemble Apollo5 delights audiences with versatile and engaging performances, singing repertoire ranging from renaissance, classical and contemporary choral music to folk, jazz and pop. Frequently performing at the Gresham Centre, their home in London, they have also sung in London at the Royal Albert Hall, Kings Place (for the London A Cappella Festival), the Barbican, the Houses of Parliament and Wembley Arena. Over the last two years they have given performances in Italy, Germany, France, Holland, Poland, Estonia and the USA. This season they return to the USA as well as sing frequently in the UK, Germany and France. Apollo5 is part of the VCM Foundation, and leads its innovative education programme aiming to inspire creativity through music. Working alongside vocal ensemble VOCES8 and Paul Smith the programme reaches 40,000 young people annually across the world. Apollo5 has released albums with VCM Records, including their latest release “O Radiant Dawn”, released in May 2019. The Spirit Like a Dove”, is a recital of music by Josquin des Prez performed with the Ingenium Ensemble; “With a Song in my Heart” is an album of folk, jazz and pop; “Journey” on the Edition Peters Sounds label features the group with former King’s Singer Paul Phoenix. www.apollo5.co.uk

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It was wonderful to record a podcast with Toby Spence, one of the world's most sought-after tenors, on his fiftieth birthday. In this special interview, we discuss: his early musical training and influences, his formative years at English National Opera, starring as Captain Vere in Deborah Warner's recent production of Britten's opera Billy Budd at the Royal Opera House, the challenges of being a performer, identity as a singer, and his desert island items. Special thanks to: Natasha Worsley for very kindly arranging this interview and Toby for coming especially to meet me and record on his birthday! Originally published on 28 May 2019. Interview recorded on 22 May 2019 at Askonas Holt, London. An honours graduate and choral scholar from New College, Oxford, Toby Spence studied at the Opera School of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He was the winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society 2011 Singer of the Year award. In concert Toby has sung with the Cleveland Orchestra under von Dohnanyi, Berliner Philharmoniker and the Wiener Philharmoniker under Rattle; San Francisco Symphony under Tilson Thomas; the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under Pappano; Rotterdam Philharmonic under Gergiev; LSO under Davis; London Philharmonic Orchestra under Nézet-Séguin; Los Angeles Philharmonic under Dudamel; Bayerischer Rundfunk under Gardiner and at the Osterfestspiele Salzburg and Edinburgh International Festival under Norrington and Mackerras. Recent appearances include The Seasons with the Philharmonie de Paris, Bruckner F minor Mass with the Sinfonieorchester Basel; The Creation with the Houston Symphony Orchestra; Messiah, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy and Haydn’s Nelson Mass with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Mumbai and Missa Solemnis with the LSO under Tilson Thomas. Recent opera engagements include Ghandi Satyagraha at English National Opera; Captain Vere Billy Budd for Teatro Real and Opera di Roma; Anatol Vanessa for Frankfurt Opera; Don Ottavio at the Liceu Barcelona; Eisenstein Die Fledermaus and Antonio The Tempest for the Metropolitan Opera; Don Ottavio and Tito for the Wiener Staatsoper; Essex Gloriana and Tamino Die Zauberflöte for the Royal Opera House, where his previous roles have also included Ferdinand The Tempest, David Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Count Almaviva Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Ramiro and Tom Rakewell; Tamino, Candide, Paris La Belle Hélène, Lensky and Faust for English National Opera; Madwoman Curlew River for the Edinburgh Festival; Tito, Tamino and Henry Morosus Die Schweigsame Frau for the Bayerische Staatsoper; and Tom Rakewell and David Die Meistersinger at Opéra de Paris. Engagements in the 2018-19 season include Dvorak Stabat Mater with Houston Symphony Orchestra; Britten War Requiem with Toronto Symphony Orchestra; Szymanowski’s 3rd Symphony for the Gulbenkian Foundation and Orff’s Carmina Burana in Shanghai and Beijing with Long Yu and Aida Garifullina for Deutsche Grammophon’s 120’s anniversary. Opera engagements include Captain Vere Billy Budd for the Royal Opera House and a staged version of Britten Les Illuminations for Teatro Real Madrid.

In this preview from a special interview, recorded with world-leading tenor Toby Spence on the day of his 50th birthday, we reminisce about the Young Royal Opera House performance of Britten's opera Billy Budd earlier this month, in which Toby played the indomitable role of Captain Vere. Plus some unexpected audience reactions to fight scenes at Covent Garden and The Met! SoundCloud & Facebook - @talkingclassicalpodcast Twitter - @tc_podcasts YouTube - bit.ly/2WF4duy Blog - talkingclassicalpodcast.wordpress.com

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13-19 May 2019 is Mental Health Awareness Week, a week organised by UK charity the Mental Health Foundation that aims to get the nation talking about mental health. Mental health has been particularly prevalent in discussions within the classical music sector and I felt that it was very important to reflect on these for Mental Health Awareness Week. I met with Lucy Thraves, Editor of Classical Music Magazine, to talk about the magazine's year-long strategy to address mental health, through its campaign Harmony in Mind. Visit www.harmonyinmind.co.uk to read about the campaign. Mental Health Awareness Week: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/mental-health-awareness-week #HarmonyinMind #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek #BeBodyKind Originally published on 16 May 2019. Interview recorded at the Royal Opera House on 10 May 2019. If you are affected by any of the issues in this podcast, please contact the following helplines: Mind Infoline open 9am to 6pm, Monday to Friday (except for bank holidays). 0300 123 3393 [email protected] Text: 86463 Samaritans Open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Call 116 123 anytime for free. [email protected] - Response time of 24 hours Papyrus UK, Suicide Prevention Charity Opening hours: 10am–10pm weekdays, 2pm–10pm weekends, 2pm–10pm bank holidays. Hopeline UK: 0800 068 4141 [email protected] Text: 07786209697 CALM Open 5pm–midnight, 365 days a year Nationwide helpline: 0800 58 58 58 London helpline: 0808 802 58 58 Webchat: https://www.thecalmzone.net/help/webchat/

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For the tenth episode of Talking Classical, I thought it would be fun to do something a little different and relive one of my archive interviews I recorded when I was a student. In 2013, I was very lucky to interview the British composer, broadcaster and writer Howard Goodall. Due to Howard's incredibly busy schedule, we met during the interval of a concert his daughter was performing in at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford - we recorded in a rather cozy and small space underneath the theatre itself! In this interview, you'll hear about Howard's experiences of Oxford and his television series The Story of Music, which was being shown on the BBC at the time. Special thanks to: Emily Rees Jones at PBJ Management for kindly arranging the interview. Howard for taking the time out of his very busy schedule to talk to me. Visit Howard's website: www.howardgoodall.co.uk. Watch The Story of Music here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0Y6NPahlDE&list=PLQNuUaKJvEpoP4OTYb2NQ8lihO--M1J99. Howard is an EMMY, BRIT and BAFTA award-winning composer of choral music, stage musicals, film and TV scores. He is a distinguished music historian and broadcaster. In recent years he has been England’s first ever National Ambassador for Singing, the Classical Brit Composer of the Year and was Classic FM’s Composer-in-Residence for 6 years. In the 2011 New Year Honours he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to music education. SoundCloud – @talkingclassicalpodcast Facebook – @talkingclassicalpodcast Twitter – @tc_podcasts YouTube – bit.ly/2WF4duy Blog – talkingclassicalpodcast.wordpress.com