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Autumn Concerts for Elderly Groups

We’re preparing for a busy autumn with both the R&D of our new adaptation of The Elixir of Love and our ever popular series of concerts for older people across South London. Based on similar concerts developed during lockdown and the following years we’ll be performing for a variety of carehomes and lunchclubs for elderly groups in Merton, Wandsworth and Croydon. The groups will be entertained with opera, musical theatre, classical songs, piano solos and old musical theatre classics for everyone to sing a long to! Hugest thanks to our funding from National Lottery Community Fund to enable us to provide these!

The team performing this autumn will be:

Felicity Buckland 

 

Felicity trained at the RNCM and on ENO’s Opera Works programme.

Felicity’s 2023/4 season appearances included Flora La Traviata at ENO (cover); Rosina The Barber of Seville (Bradford Opera Festival); Amneris Aida (Kentish Opera); Meg Page Falstaff (West Green House Opera), and concert performances of Mendelssohn Elijah and Beethoven Symphony No. 9. She has sung principal roles at ENO in both of Phelim McDermott’s celebrated productions of Philip Glass: first Kasturbai in Satyagraha, then Ankhesenpaaten in Akhnaten, and she will return to the Coliseum in early 2025 as Mary Livingstone in Thea Musgrave’s Mary, Queen of Scots.

Past operatic highlights include: Wellgunde The Rhinegold (Birmingham Opera); Carmen (Baseless Fabric Theatre/Grimeborn/Kentish Opera); Lily Porgy and Bess (Theater an der Wien); Nicklausse The Tales of Hoffmann (Kentish Opera), La Cenerentola (High Time); Olga Eugene Onegin (Opera Up Close, Opera South East); Rossweisse Die Walküre (Grange Park Opera); Beggar Woman Sweeney Todd, and Paquette Candide (West Green House Opera).

Felicity is in demand on the concert platform, and has made solo appearances for the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, at Royal Festival Hall, and with the BBC Concert Orchestra. She is also a singing tutor and experienced animateur, leading music workshops for groups of all ages and abilities across the UK.

www.felicity-buckland.com

 

Elspeth Wilkes

Elspeth Wilkes

Born in Leigh-on-sea, Essex, Elspeth studied at King’s College, London, Trinity College of Music and Royal Academy of Music. She has performed at venues including St John’s Smith Square; Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House; St Martin-in-the-Fields; Kings Place; Trafalgar Studios; Savoy Theatre, West End as well as performing recitals in Greece, Spain, Portugal, France and South Africa. Elspeth has performed at the Ravenna music festival, Italy, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Dublin Gay Theatre Festival where she won the ‘Oscar’ award.

Elspeth has worked with BBC Wales, Royal Ballet, Royal Shakespeare Company and Southbank Sinfonia and has performed for HRH The Princess Royal. She also performs regularly for the charities Lost Chord Foundation and Music in Hospitals working with people suffering from dementia. Elspeth has worked as a repetiteur/musical director with many opera companies including Opera up Close (winning an Olivier award for La Boheme), Opera Brava, Merry Opera, Northern Ireland Opera, Kings Head Opera and Opera de Bauge. Elspeth is the conductor of Thurrock Choral Society and assistant conductor of Barnes Choir and is a member of the Bridgetower Ensemble.

 

Claire Wild 

 

Claire Wild attended the Royal Northern College of Music‚ sponsored by the Peter Moores Foundation and the Musicians Benevolent Fund. She won the Webster Booth Award‚ the James Oncken Song Prize and the Frost Brownson Award.      

Highlights in recent seasons include Lilli Vanessi / Katharine in Kiss Me, Kate and Elle La voix humaine for Welsh National Opera, Susanna Le nozze di Figaro for Regents Opera and Petra in A Little Night Music for Opera Project at West Green House, Welsh National Opera as Emma in Khovanshchina and Garsington Opera as Caridad The Skating Rink, a newly commissioned opera by David Sawer.

Concert repertoire includes Elijah, Messiah‚ Carmina Burana, Bach St Matthew Passion, Mozart C Minor Mass. She has performed Dallapicolla Commiato and Stravinsky Pulcinella (Royal Northern Sinfonia) and Christmas and New Year Galas (Raymond Gubbay, Orchestra of Opera North, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and London Concert Orchestra) and Messiah (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra).

 

 

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Magic potions and bus songs!

What a brilliant summer we had delivering workshops for young people at schools and for local children’s charity Jigsaw4u!

In July we provided 10 primary schools across South London with 20 workshops reaching 486 young people overall. Schools were chosen in collaboration with the local Education Hubs in Merton, Wandsworth and Croydon who know the schools well and their existing music provision to ensure we reach young people who would most benefit from the activity. 

The workshops are a fun, modern introduction to opera and Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love in particular with drama games, learning about what opera is and who is involved in making it, hearing a professional opera singer sing live in front of them, acting out the story of our modern adaptation of The Elixir of Love, learning to sing some of this classic opera both as a whole group and performing solos developing their singing and acting skills.

Meanwhile, our school holidays full day workshop at Jigsaw4u followed the format of our Opera Taster Workshops in the morning, while in the afternoon (after pizza of course!) the children wrote their own new song for one of the characters. They chose words that Nemorino might say, decided on the tune by choosing one they’d learnt earlier for a warm up game and changing the words to those they’d written as well as coming up with their own actions for the song. We finished the day with a short performance for parents and other Jigsaw4u staff. We performed the section of Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love they’d learnt in the morning, warm up songs as well as the new song they’d written. You can see a short video Jigsaw4u made of the day on X at https://x.com/Jigsaw4u/status/1821872934526267511

Feedback included:

“The instructors were so energetic, enthusiastic and encouraged us amazingly! We had the best time and it has definitely turned a lot of heads towards the genre of opera.”

“Amazing! Making opera accessible and engaging for all the pupils!”

“Really changed many attitudes towards performing in front of others.”

“… it brought out the side of some children that I’ve not seen before. Some at the beginning were apprehensive and not overly excited yet at the end were singing solos!”