Lunchtime Concert with Royal Northern College of Music Songsters 21 April 2017

Welcome from the Festival Chairman

I am delighted you are able to join us today for this fundraising event organised by the Trustees of the Friends of Buxton Festival. The Festival has grown over the past 38 years from a small Opera Festival into a packed international 17 day event, presenting high quality new productions of operas suited to the Grade II* listed theatre in which they are performed. The major concert and literary series which support the operas attract household names alongside rising stars. The new Chairman of ITV, Sir Peter Bazalgette recently joined us as an Honorary Vice President and says: “I am delighted to be formalising my role at Buxton International Festival after many happy years of visiting whilst I was Chairman of Arts Council England. The Festival gives access to world-class opera performances, internationally acclaimed classical artists and popular authors and thinkers. It is a lively cultural event bringing together all those who share a love of music, opera and books in the enviable location of the Peak District’s beautiful spa town.” The Friends of Buxton Festival are pivotal to this growth and success. More than two thousand members from all over the country generously support us through annual subscriptions, donations and events. We could not continue without you. Today gives me great pleasure because it is an opportunity to say a personal ‘thank you’ and to meet so many important supporters. I am delighted that we will be entertained by the RNCM Songsters. The Festival has a very special and close relationship with the Royal Northern College of Music. Every year we audition some of their most promising opera singers to join our Young Artists programme and many students spend the summer with us as interns, joining our other volunteers to help run the Festival. Thank you for supporting us today and my thanks to the Friends Committee and staff of Mottram Hall for helping to organise such an enjoyable occasion. I do hope you will enjoy your time with us today and join us again at the Festival in July.

Felicity Goodey CBE DL Chairman Buxton Festival

Royal Northern College of Music

Songsters

Alexandra Lowe - soprano Ryan Davies - tenor

David McCaffrey - baritone Rachel Fright – piano

Loveliest of Trees

Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad George Butterworth

1. Loveliest of trees 2. When I was one and twenty 3. Look not in my eyes 4. Think no more, lad 5. The lads in their hundreds 6. Is my team ploughing?

David McCaffrey – Baritone Rachel Fright – Piano

Pleading Edward Elgar Shepherds song Edward Elgar Ryan Davies – Tenor Rachel Fright – Piano Armidas garden Hubert Parry The maiden Hubert Parry Alexandra Lowe – Soprano Rachel Fright – Piano In Flanders Ivor Gurney Down by the Salley Gardens Ivor Gurney David McCaffrey – Baritone Rachel Fright – Piano The plough boy William Shield arr. Benjamin Britten The last rose of summer Trad. arr. Benjamin Britten Mai Meirion Williams

Ryan Davies – Tenor Rachel Fright – Piano Love's philosophy Roger Quilter Alexandra Lowe – Soprano Rachel Fright – Piano O Mistress Mine Roger Quilter Ryan Davies – Tenor Rachel Fright – Piano Weep you no more sad fountains Roger Quilter It was a lover and his lass Roger Quilter Ryan Davies – Tenor David McCaffrey – Baritone Rachel Fright – Piano Someday my heart will awake Ivor Novello Alexandra Lowe – Soprano Rachel Fright – Piano We'll gather lilacs Ivor Novello Alexandra Lowe – Soprano David McCaffrey – Baritone Rachel Fright – Piano

TThe Artists

Alexandra Lowe is currently studying for her Masters of Music at the RNCM, where she graduated with a First Class Bachelor of Music degree in 2015. Awards include the Elisabeth Harwood Prize, the Joyce and Michael Kennedy Award for Singing Strauss and the Joyce Budd Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Young Singers Bursary. She is a recipient of a Silver Medal from the Worshipful Company of Musicians and of the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation Sarah Brightman Scholarship. Recent roles include the title role in Theodora, Mrs. Coyle in Owen Wingrave, Métella in La Vie Parisienne, Fiordiligi Così fan tutte, Rose Maurrant Street Scene and Helena A Midsummer Night's Dream. www.alexandralowe.co.uk

Rachel Fright started postgraduate study at the Royal Northern College of Music in 2014, having previously studied Music at Pembroke College, Oxford, where she held the Instrumental Scholarship. Rachel studies with Stephen Savage and David Jones and is supported by the Helen Mackaness Award. As a soloist, she has had the opportunity to take part in masterclasses by Robert Levin, Philippe Cassard, Kathryn Stott and Stephen Hough. Rachel specialises in vocal accompaniment, and has received regular song duo coaching from Julius Drake and has been programmed with singers as part of the Bridgewater Hall ‘Introducing’ series, RNCM Spotlight concert series, RNCM Day of Song and St Ann’s Church concert series. Whilst at the RNCM, she has won the Clifton Helliwell Memorial Award, the Brodsky Prize, the Stella Bradshaw Award, the Alexander Young prize and the Frost/Brownson Award for Accompaniment. In May 2015, she performed live on BBC Radio 3 as part of a Young Artists’ Day concert, and in October 2016 she was chosen to represent the RNCM at the prestigious Gerald Moore Award at the Henry Wood Hall, London. Rachel is an alumna of the Oxford Lieder Festival Mastercourse, which she attended in October 2015, receiving tuition from Roger Vignoles, Imogen Cooper, Robert Holl and Ann Murray.

RRyan Vaughan Davies is a young Welsh tenor studying under the tutorage of Peter Wilson at the Royal Northern College of Music. He is a recipient of the Gwilym Gwalchmai Jones award from the RNCM and is also a recipient of the Gethin Rhys Memorial prize. Since starting at the RNCM, he has sung in the chorus for Schönberg's Gurrelieder in The Grieghallen, Bergen during their 250th celebrations, and later revisited the work at The Edinburgh Festival's closing ceremony. He has also performed in the chorus for RNCM's productions of Cosi fan Tutte, La Vie Parisienne and Theodora. He has also sung 1st man in Llangollen Pavillion's Production of Sweeny Todd, Sondheim in which Sir Bryn Terfel and Wynne Evans starred. Ryan has performed as soloist for numerous oratorios, including: Rossini's Petite Messe Solonnelle, Handel's Messiah and Haydn's Nelson Mass. Ryan is looking forward to performing in the chorus for Longborough Opera Festival this summer.

David McCaffrey is currently in his fourth year of study on the undergraduate course at the RNCM, under the tutelage of Quentin Hayes. Since joining the RNCM, David has been involved in productions of Offenbach's La Vie Parisienne, Lehar’s The Merry Widow and Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte as well as scenes from Menotti’s The Consul and Britten’s Gloriana. Externally, he has performed the small role of Apparizione in Dorset Opera Festival’s production of Verdi’s Macbeth and was part of the chorus in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. On the concert platform, works include Vaughan Williams “Songs of Travel” alongside the RNCM Chamber Orchestra, as well as performing at the RNCM’s Day Of Song. David has appeared as a soloist in various charity concerts across the North of England, most recently for The Defence Medical Welfare Service in the RNCM’s Concert Hall. David was awarded both the Elizabeth Harwood Memorial Prize and the Bessie Cronshaw/Frost Brownson Song Cycle Prize at the RNCM. The Students appear by kind permission of RNCM

0800 032 9919 Macclesfield, Cheshire www.shacklefordpianos.com

0800 032 9919 Macclesfield, Cheshire www.shacklefordpianos.com

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Forthcoming Friends’ Events WWednesday, 17 May Music and Supper at David Mellor Design Museum 6.30pm

David Mellor, Hathersage Trio Volant We are delighted to have been invited to hold our first event at the David Mellor Design Museum. The museum showcases the work of David Mellor, one of the best known 20th century British designers. The museum shows the full historic collection of his work and that of his son, Corin Mellor, extending from marvellous examples of handmade silver cutlery to the traffic lights we stop at every day. As a special privilege to our members attending this event the museum shop will stay open for the start of the event and offer a 20% discount off all David Mellor designs. On arrival at the Museum we will offer you a welcome drink before the evening’s entertainment provided by Trio Volant, an excellent wind trio from the Royal Northern College of Music. We end the evening with supper. PPlaces cost £50 each.

Wednesday, 21 June Music and Lunch at Upper House, Hayfield 12 noon

Upper House, Hayfield The Septentrion Duo The stunning setting of Upper House at the foot hills of Kinder with spectacular views across the picturesque High Peak landscape has to be one of the most tranquil of houses we visit. You feel like you are miles away from civilisation yet Upper House is only a few miles out of the village of Hayfield. Our event at Upper House will start with a drinks reception in the Courtyard before we move across to the Great Hall which has been sympathetically renovated and now boasts new banqueting chairs for added comfort. By kind permission of the Royal Northern College of Music The Septentrion Duo will give us a harp recital and there will be a buffet lunch. For ease of our guests we will be providing free mini bus transfers from Hayfield village up to the house. Places cost £35 each including welcome reception, recital and lunch.

FRIENDS OF BUXTON FESTIVALGRAND PRIZE DRAW

2017

Win a Luxury Break for two at the 5* Belmond Reid's Palace, Madeira

A world renowned hotel set in subtropical gardens overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, Belmond Reid's Palace has, for more than a century, been the ultimate

place to relax.

Win a 4 night £3,000 Luxury Break for Two at 5* Reid’s Palace Hotel, Madeira

�Dates chosen by the winner � Return flights from Manchester, Birmingham or London �Madeira airport transfers by chauffeur-driven Mercedes limo � VIP welcome on arrival at Reid’s and a tour of the hotel � A deluxe en-suite room overlooking either the gardens or the sea � Buffet breakfast

each morning � One traditional Afternoon Tea on the Terrace �Dinner at one of the hotel’s exclusive restaurants on one evening �A tour of the hotel’s famous

gardens � 500 EUR spending money

Tickets £10 each

Draw will take place at the Friends Dinner on 19 July at The Old Hall Hotel, Buxton Prize does not include travel insurance or airport transfers in the UK

Prize must be taken before 30 June 2018 and excludes Easter and Christmas holidays Full terms and conditions available on the Friends page on the Festival website

Friends of Buxton Festival 3 The Square

Buxton SK17 6AZ

PPatron Donald Maxwell

Chairman David Brindley

Registered Charity No. 513970