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One of the most iconic finales of a British cantata has its place in Walton's Belshazzar's Feast. This was the first full Philharmonia Chorus engagement since the start of the pandemic, and we are very proud of what we could achieve with so many obstacles. What we can feel in this live streaming is the commitment and the passion form each and everyone of the singers, making it a powerful and memorable "come back" . listen here : chorus starts on 1.22.30  Ishrat Hyatt ( October 2010 )
Islamabad In continuation of his policy to introduce the rich culture of Brazil to the residents of the capital and if possible, to people living in other parts of the country, Ambassador Alfredo Leoni hosted a performance by two of Brazil’s well known artistes, pianist Ivan Pires and baritone Victor Sgarbi. The event — which was divided into two performances due to the lack of space in the venue — was held at the embassy of Brazil and was attended on Tuesday evening by members of the diplomatic community, who are aficionados of classical music. It was a small group — those who accepted and did not show up missed out on an enjoyable evening, not only as afar as the performance was concerned but also because of the warmth of Brazilian hospitality. As one diplomat put it before leaving, “Wasn’t that exquisite performance!” Addressing the gathering the host thanked the artistes for accepting his invitation to perform in Islamabad as well as his deputy, Joao Belloc, who had arranged the whole affair in his absence. With a brief introduction of the artistes, he concluded by hoping his guests would enjoy the performance. The programme was in two parts, with European music followed by Brazilian compositions and included excerpts from Robert Schumann’s ‘Liederkreis;’ Vaughn Williams ‘Songs of Travel;’ an introductory Brazilian piano solo, ‘Waltz of Sorrow’ by Hector Villa-Lobos; two numbers by Ernana Braga and another two by Antonio Carlos Jobim, the first person behind the conception of the ‘Bossa Nova.’ My favourite was the ancient Brazilian lullaby in a mixture of three languages — that of native Indians ‘Tupi-Guarani;’ that of the African slaves and Portuguese. Both artistes said they were pleasantly surprised after they arrived here to learn first hand that all the negative publicity given to Pakistan was just media hype — they found it easy to go around and every one they had met from all walks of life was friendly and hospitable. Conceding that it had taken their country a long time to reach its present status, they said Pakistan was a young country and would soon get over the problems it was facing. As we say, ‘in kay moo main ghee shukkar’ — in effect, may their words come true! Victors solo career began in the year 2000 when he was a student of classical singing at University Tom Jobim ( Sao Paulo — Brazil) performing the baritone role in the opera ‘Carmina Burana’ under the direction of maestro Parcval Modolo. The following year he joined the professional choir of the Sao Paulo symphony orchestra as a soloist, performing works by Mozart, Rossini, Haydn and Monteverdi among others. He has subsequently taken several roles in fully staged operas in and Brazil and the UK. His vocals have been compared to that of Jonathan Pryce’ by reviewer, Tremayne Potter while Barry Grantham thinks he has a ‘well placed baritone voice.’ Ivan Pires began studying piano at the age ten and acquired a Bachelors Degree in Piano from the School of Music of Arts of the State of Parana, Brazil. He has performed at several renowned theatres and concert halls in Brazil and has held recitals in France, Portugal, Italy and the UK. In 2005 the ‘Year of Brazil in France’, he performed to great acclaim works by Brazilian composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos at the ‘Casa do Brasil’ in Paris. He has recently made his first recording at the church of ‘St. Martin-in-the Fields’ in London where he now lives." Off West End Announces 89 Finalists For 2019 Offies Awards OffWestEnd, the agency supporting the work of independent, alternative and fringe theatres in London, has now announced the 89 finalists for 28 of its Offies awards categories. The Awards ceremony will be held at Battersea Arts Centre on Sunday 3 February, 5pm.
In 2018, Offies assessors were invited to 400 shows across 80 venues across London, resulting in 430 nominations across 28 Offies categories. The Offies panel of assessors and critics have now agreed on 89 finalists. These 28 awards cover 5 design categories, 8 categories for plays, 9 categories for musicals & opera, and 6 other categories – for Ensemble, Performance Piece, TBC (shows that defy conventional categorisation), and shows for Young People (for ages 0-7, 8+ and 13+). A full list of the 89 finalists appears at the end of this press release – including shows with several finalists such The Rink at Southwark Playhouse, as well as many at small venues across London, including the Hope Theatre, Jack Studio Theatre, Little Angel Theatre, Old Red Lion and the White Bear. It also includes shows such as Misty which successfully transferred from its original run at the Bush Theatre to a season at Trafalgar Studios. The full list of finalists is also online at https://offies.london/2019-finalists-shows-in-2018/. Geoffrey Brown, Director of Off West End, said ‘2018 was another amazing year for Off West End theatre in London, and the Offies recognise the extraordinary talent and creativity of performers, designers, directors, producers and many others at these theatres across London – who are usually working with limited budgets and within many other constraints – and still producing all this wonderful work.’ In addition to these awards, the Offies also offer a People’s Vote, where the public can vote for their favourite venue across 9 categories – voting is open until 13 January 2019 and people can vote at: https://offies.london/peoples-vote/. Offies Winners will be announced at the Offies 2019 Awards ceremony which will be held in the refurbished Grand Hall at Battersea Arts Centre on Sunday 3 February 2019. The public can purchase tickets for the event, which will be the 9th year of these awards. More information, including on booking tickets, can be found at https://offies.london/2019-awards-event/. Off West End supports and celebrates the work of around 100 independent, alternative and fringe venues across London which are geographically or philosophically not part of the commercial West End theatre scene. Off West End helps to promote these venues and provides marketing services for their productions. Off West End also runs the Offies awards which celebrate the best of what these venues offer. LISTINGS OPERA PRODUCTION “Der Schauspieldirektor / Bastien und Bastienne” by Pop-Up Opera at various venues “La Traviata” at the King’s Head Theatre “The Rape of Lucretia” at the Arcola Theatre  Felici means "the happy ones" and so we aim to provide high quality and creative musical events - bringing happiness to audiences and performers alike.
Supporting charities is central to our ethos and many of our events have a fund-raising element. Since 2015 we have supported a wide variety of charities including the NKF (National Kidney Federation), Macmillan Nurses and Medicins Sans Frontiers. We seek to support and nurture young people by including them in our events, introducing opera and classical song to school-age pupils and offering all-age singing coaching workshop (rights reserved). We understand that our performers have diverse commitments and we always seek to be as flexible as possible with our rehearsal schedules whilst never compromising on the quality of our performances. Felici - fun, friendship, family. if you would like to learn more about Felici, please visit our website clicking the link below https://www.felici.company Earlier in November, I joined the Coral Municipal de Santos , the harpsichordist Regina Schlochauer and the String Quartet Martins Fontes, at the Pinacoteca Benedicto Calixto in Santos, for an experimental impromptu concert, which actually resulted in a very nice little recital. Our aim was to create more visibility to the choir of Santos which has been recently re structured by the Municipality and Nailse Machado (conductor). More than 60 people attended the concert at the Main Room of the house, exceeding its full capacity.
Nailse and I have a very long history of making music together, from the early 90's when we not only sang together at the Zanzala choir and the Faz de Canto Madrigal, but also formed a vocal quartet to sing Brazilian pop music . As well as Monica Peres, coordinator of the C.A.I.S, ,teacher of music and music theory, who got in touch before I travelled to Brazil, to make this crazy idea possible. Monica was also my acoustic guitar teacher at the Conservatoire in Santos in the 80's! A couple of rehearsals and many emails and whatsApp group messages later we had found the formula to make this concert to happen. It was a wonderful opportunity for me, to make new friends in the Quartet and to meet Regina, one of the most prominent Harpsichord teachers in Brazil. During my stay in Brazil I was also asked to speak about my experience in studying in the UK. I explained how Opera singers (like myself) left Brazil in order to study and gain more knowledge about music and art abroad. On that matter, see below my interview to A Tribuna Newspaper together with some other opera singers: Interview in Portuguese for A Tribuna News. An Afternoon of Music in the City of LondonOn Saturday the 30th of January, Brazilian soprano Juliana Christmann will be joined by Victor Sgarbi and Ben Lathbury for a recital at the beautiful hall of the church St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate, in Bishopsgate, central London, 50 metres from the main exit of Liverpool Street Station.
Juliana will open the recital singing the beautiful Wesendonck Lieder from Wagner followed by songs from Schubert and Bohm. On the second half, Victor Sgarbi will join in to sing some arias and duets from the Classic repertoire, Rossini and Mozart. It will be a great opportunity to compare those two amazing composers and listen to some of their best known pieces for soprano and baritone. To close the recital, the two singers will alternate singing Brazilian music, from Bossa Nova to Folklore songs from the Northern regions of Brazil. Rhythm, colours and textures compose the background of these songs where the rich culture of the indigenous population and Imperial Brazil slaves meet the modern avant guard composers. Juliana Christmann is opening in London a series of European recitals, after a successful operatic season at Teatro Sao Pedro in Sao Paulo in 2015. Juliana is an alumnus of the prestigious UNESP - Conducting and Composition School- and a MSc in German Language. Victor Sgarbi's future projects include Sharpless in Madama Butterfly for Secret Opera, Amonasro in Aida for the New London Opera Players, Macbeth in Macbeth for Pavilion Opera on tour and concerts with the Professional Singers Scheme of the Philharmonia Chorus at the Festival Hall and Iturbi Hall in Valencia. Victor is also part of the newly formed Delphian Singers. Victor will be hosting the recital and welcoming the audience from 16.15. Hailed as "a charismatic performer of sensitivity and panache" Ben Lathbury began playing the piano aged 6. A natural musician from a musical family, Ben grew up in the Midlands. Following early success in numerous competitions, Ben moved to Sussex in 2006 to study at the University of Chichester, where he established himself as a pianist of considerable talent. In 2009, Ben received a scholarship to fund his Master's Degree in Music Performance, studying with international pianist Jonathan Plowright. Since completing his studies, Ben has won several highly regarded competitions and has appeared as a special guest soloist with orchestras across the UK. He has been recognised as a champion of 20th century American repertoire, and his interpretation of Leroy Anderson's Concerto in C has garnered critical acclaim. Ben is widely respected as a concert pianist, choral conductor and piano teacher. He is the current Director of Music & Master of the Choristers at Holy Trinity Church in Bosham and is Musical Director for Havant Light Opera. From 2013, Ben had the privilege of building and leading the Music Department of Chichester Free School. Today, he lives in Chichester with his two cats, Persephone & Ozymandias and enjoys golf, chess and writing. Tickets at the door: £6 children and concessions and £12 adults. SECRET OPERA EVENTS MADAMA BUTTERFLY BY PUCCINI
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