Soprano helps to celebrate New Year in Viennese style
ONE of Britain’s most exciting young sopranos is returning to North Wales to head up a spectacular celebration with the NEW Sinfonia orchestra.
It features two back-to-back Viennese-themed concerts, at St Asaph Cathedral on January 5 and at St Giles’ Church in Wrexham the day after.
The return of Welsh National Opera soloist Katy Thomson marks a double coup for NEW Sinfonia, which she described as musically ‘fearless’.
As well as securing Katy’s star billing, for the first time in 2018 NEW Sinfonia is staging two New Year concerts rather than one.
Also looking forward entertaining the audiences is harpist Bethan Griffiths from Treuddyn, Flintshire, who is studying for a masters at the Royal College of Music after winning a two-year funding scholarship from the Ashley Family Foundation.
Orchestra artistic director, conductor and co-founder Robert Guy said: “We’re hugely excited. This is a tremendous step forward.
“It has become an annual tradition for us to put on a Viennese Gala concert at St Giles’ Church, Wrexham, to really ring in each new year but it has soared in popularity to the extent that last January we struggled to fit everyone in.”
All 400 tickets sold out and people were still queuing at the doors, so for the first time in 2018 there will be two concerts, both featuring the same programme.
Robert advised people to book early whichever venue they choose to go to.
They will be on January 5 at 7.30pm at St Asaph Cathedral, followed by January 6 at 3pm at St Giles, Wrexham.
Scottish-born soloist Katy Thomson made her debut with NEW Sinfonia at September’s North Wales International Music Festival where she was one of a quartet of soloists from Welsh National Opera performing the Welsh Premiere of Oliver Tarney’s Magnificat.
She is thrilled to be returning for the Viennese gala and said: “I can’t wait to perform with them again and especially at such a high energy event as their traditional New Year concert.
“The new year concert should be a ball - in every sense. We’ll be doing lots of fun Viennese waltz music and polkas, and I’ll be singing a number of well known arias.
“The programme will include music from The Marriage of Figaro and Ivor Novello.”
Katy, 26, is studying for a masters in Vocal Performance at the Royal College of Music, London, and is widely hailed as one of the country’s most promising young sopranos.
Harpist Bethan Griffiths is one of the original members of NEW Sinfonia, set up in 2011. Bethan, who teaches harp and piano, is studying for a masters in performance and part of the course is to perform with full orchestras, so the concert is a key part of her studies as well as a joyous event.
Tickets (£15 adults; £12 Concessions; £3 Students and Under 18s) for both Viennese Gala Concerts are available from Wrexham Tourist Information Centre, Cathedral Frames, St Asaph or online at https:// newsinfonia.org.uk.