Varied voices and harp hit top notes at lunch
APAIR of harps and mature as well as young voices provided superior entertainment for the Toad Lane weekly Wednesday lunchtime concerts last month at St Mary’s in the Baum. August 7:
Rochdale lass Kay Jordan went to Balderstone Community School and on to university to read science.
There she discovered her marvellous soprano voice and so thence to the RNCM and the prestigious National Opera Studio, London.
Kay went on to perform as a professional opera singer for Glyndebourne, Scottish Opera, Opera North, Cambridge Handel Opera and many other smaller companies, plus recitals, concerts, oratorio etc. and has been teaching for 28 years.
Mature students Marc Gwynne and Alan Hulme assisted Kay in an enjoyable concert of duets and solos from opera and music theatre, expertly accompanied by Tim Walker throughout. August 14:
Well worth the wait after a postponement because of snow in January, Scottish harpist Elinor Nicholson did not disappoint.
She graduated from the RNCM with a Masters in Music (Distinction) where she was twice a finalist in the Gold Medal competition and won the prestigious RNCM Concerto Competition in 2016.
She brought along two harps, playing Hasselmans, Natra, Thomas and Tournier on the concert harp before switching to the clarsach (Celtic harp) for pieces by Stevenson and Mackay and Norton August 21:
Voci Voices is a quartet of singers from the Manchester Opera Company. Elizabeth Ambrose soprano, Isobel Jenkins mezzo, Eric Cymbir tenor and Simon Horsfield baritone with Jonathan Ellis at the piano were fresh from their successful appearance at the Edinburgh Festival.
They looked resplendent in national dress of several countries as they sang quartets and duets from popular and international traditional music to operas by Mozart, Beethoven and Verdi. Their finale was their own arrangement of The Impossible Dream. August 28:
A delightful concert party of young voices, Adam Thetford (treble) and Rachael Brooks (soprano) are both starting Year 9 and are preparing for Grade 3 singing exams.
Joel Thetford gained a distinction at Grade 8 in singing and is currently a science student at Birmingham University.
He continues his singing with university choirs, with whom he recently took part in the BBC Proms at London’s Albert Hall. Accompanied by their teacher, they each warmed up with Italian songs before previewing examination material and delivering excerpts from Les Misérables, Chicago and The Phantom of the Opera.