Benjamin Britten Statue Fundraising Gala
Wigmore Hall, Friday, October 6th, 2023
Artist Biographies
Photo © Sussie Ahlberg
Sir Thomas Allen CBE — Presenter
Sir Thomas Allen is an established star of the great opera houses of the world. He has sung over fifty roles at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; this year he celebrates his 50th anniversary of his debut with the company. An acclaimed recitalist, he is equally renowned on the concert platform and has appeared with the world’s great orchestras and conductors. He is Chancellor of Durham University. His many honours include the title of Bayerischer Kammersänger awarded by the Bayerische Staatsoper. In the New Year’s Honours of 1989 he was created a Commander of the British Empire and in the 1999 Queen’s Birthday Honours he was made a Knight Bachelor. Among his proudest achievements is having a Channel Tunnel locomotive named after him; and being awarded the Queen’s Medal for Music 2013.
Photo © Matt Crossrick
Zeb Soanes — Presenter
Zeb Soanes is the presenter of Smooth Classics at Seven on Classic FM. For over 20 years he was an authoritative newsreader and reassuring voice of the Shipping Forecast to millions of listeners on BBC Radio 4. He announced some of the biggest events in recent years from the final result of the Brexit referendum, to the unfolding of the Coronavirus pandemic. Sunday Times readers voted him their favourite male voice on UK radio. On television, his was the first voice to launch BBC Four, where he also presented the BBC Proms. Zeb performs with the UK’s major orchestras, narrating family classics such as Peter and the Wolf and technically demanding works such as Walton's Façade, which he recorded to critical acclaim with John Wilson. His own children’s books: Gaspard’s Foxtrot and Gaspard’s Christmas are also popular narrated concert works, composed by Jonathan Dove CBE. Next week he is to be awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Suffolk for his ‘outstanding contribution to education, music, media and literature and very public endorsement and celebration of Suffolk.’
Photo © Andy Staples
Apollo5 — Vocal Ensemble
Critically acclaimed a cappella five-piece Apollo5 is one of Britain’s smallest but most formidable vocal groups. Comprising a soprano, mezzo-soprano, two tenors and a bass, the ensemble has become known for its rich, dynamic sound, demonstrating how powerful five voices alone can be. With a versatile approach to music programming, the group’s five voices bring the music of five centuries to life. In addition to performing at prestigious UK venues such as the Barbican Centre, Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, St John’s Smith Square and Wembley Arena, during it’s 13 year career the group has toured extensively across Belgium, Germany and France. The group is signed to Voces8 Records and has released a number of critically acclaimed albums under this label. Apollo5 works alongside Voces8 and Paul Smith to deliver a transformative programme of workshops, masterclasses and concerts to over 40,000 young people annually in the UK, Europe, the USA and Asia.
Photo © Neil Gillespie
Dame Janet Baker CH — Speaker
Born in Yorkshire in 1933, the famed English mezzo-soprano Janet Baker never had a formal musical education. Coming from a far from affluent family, she left school to work in a bank and her earliest musical experiences were of watching her father in the Police Choir. After performing a small solo in Haydn's Nelson Mass with the Leeds Philharmonic Choir in 1953, Ilse Wolf, whom Janet sang alongside, gave her the contact details of a singing teacher in London. Inspired by her first taste of the concert platform Janet asked for a change of bank office to London and began lessons with Helene Isepp. The move to London just after the end of WWII exposed Baker to many musical emigres from Europe, and a completely different life from that which she was accustomed to in Yorkshire. Her most immediate success was winning second prize in the 1956 Kathleen Ferrier competition and this allowed her to pursue her dream of performing on the bigger stage. Famed for her roles at Glyndebourne, ENO and her close collaboration with Benjamin Britten she became one of the greatest British singers and was awarded with a CBE in 1970. Her final performance came as Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo and Euridice at Glyndebourne in 1982.
Photo © Britten Pears Arts
Britannia Singers
Britannia Primary School and Nursery are located in Ipswich, Suffolk. Britannia, built in 1903, is a large primary school with over six hundred pupils. Many parents who send their children to the school came here themselves as children, so have a strong emotional connection with the school. The pupils have been taken to perform at nearby Snape Maltings a number of times in the past and Brittania is fortunate to have a large and well purposed Music Pod within the school grounds where pupils have regular lessons. The school prides itself on a commitment to the Arts along with a range of extra-curricular activities. It strives to encourage young musicians to fall in love with the art of performing ,with the view to them continuing to study the world of music once they move up to secondary school at the age of 11.
The children are conducted by Jessica Hazelwood and accompanied by their music teacher, Angela Lesslie, who trained at the Royal College of Music.
Photo © TallWall Media
Iain Burnside — Pianist
Thanks to prolific careers both as pianist and award-winning broadcaster, Iain is one of the UK’s best- known musicians. Iain has worked with a huge number of international singers, notably Dame Margaret Price, Rosa Feola, Ailish Tynan, Joyce DiDonato, Laurence Brownlee, Roderick Williams, and Bryn Terfel. He has recorded more than 60 CDs, often created around neglected composers. He is a great champion of young singers, playing a crucial role in introducing them to a wider audience. This year he has taken on an additional role, as founding member of Trio Balthasar, alongside violinist Michael Foyle and cellist Tim Hugh. He has broadcast extensively on both radio and TV, notably as host of BBC Radio 3’s acclaimed Voices series. In addition to a long association with London’s Guildhall School, Iain is Visiting International Artist at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin. He is Artistic Director of the Ludlow English Song Weekend and Artistic Consultant to Grange Park Opera, Surrey. Future projects include a Rachmaninov Song Series at Wigmore Hall, a Wigmore recital with Roderick Williams which will be broadcast live as part of BBC Radio 3’s Lunchtime Concert Series, a recital in Zurich with Rosa Feola and concerts with Trio Balthasar in Italy and Belgium.
Photo © Chris Christodoulou
Adrian Butterfield — Director, London Handel Players
Adrian Butterfield is a violinist, director, conductor and teacher who specialises in performing a wide range of music on period instruments. He is Musical Director of the Tilford Bach Festival and Associate Director of the London Handel Festival and regularly directs the London Handel Orchestra and London Handel Players as well as working as a guest soloist and director in Europe and North America. He is Professor of Baroque Violin at the Royal College of Music in London. He has conducted all the major choral works of Bach and nearly a hundred of his cantatas as well as numerous works by Handel: Messiah, Esther, Parnasso in Festa, Israel in Egypt, Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, La Resurrezione, Chandos Anthems and their contemporaries. He has directed ensembles such as the London Mozart Players, the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the European Union Chamber Orchestra and the Croatian Baroque Ensemble. His recordings include solo and trio sonatas and concertos by Handel, Bach, Leclair and Geminiani for Somm and Naxos and have received glittering reviews.
Photo © Clare Park
Jess Dandy — Contralto
Cumbrian born Jess Dandy is the foremost British contralto of her generation and has been praised for her instrument of velvety plangent timbre, and her artistic remarkable immediacy. This 2023/24 season Jess sings Elgar Sea Pictures with Tokyo Symphony, Mozart Requiem with Tampere Philharmonic, Handel’s Messiah with Hallé Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, The Glyndebourne Sinfonia and Il Gardellino, multiple concerts with the BBC Philharmonic and will appear at both the London Handel Festival and Spoleto Festival USA. Recent highlights have included Micah in Handel’s Samson at the BBC Proms with the Academy of Ancient Music, Bach’s Heilig ist Gott with the Dunedin Consort at the BBC Proms, the world premiere of a new opera All Seas by Josephine Stephenson at Opéra Grand Avignon, a new commission Spell of Creation by Alissa Firsova with the BBC Philharmonic, Bach’s Weinachtsoratorium with Salzburg Kulturvereinigung and Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Dunedin Consort.
Charles Daniels — Tenor
The tenor Charles Daniels is best known as an interpreter of Baroque music, but his narrative gifts have been praised for music as various as Machaut’s virelais and Graham Treacher’s Divine Madness (2016). He was born in Salisbury and studied at King’s College Cambridge, and under Edward Brooks at the Royal College of Music. He is a much recorded artist; his recordings include Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo with Andrew Parrott, Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the J. S. Bach-Stiftung, Handel’s Messiah, Schütz’s Weihnachtshistorie and Monteverdi’s Vespers with the Gabrieli Consort, Wojciech Kilar’s Missa pro Pace with the Warsaw Philharmonic, and John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera. He also participated in much of the King’s Consort’s complete Purcell series, Bach cantatas for the All Of Bach project with the Netherlands Bach Society and the J. S. Bach-Stiftung, and more intimate discs such as Senfl’s Tenorlied with Fretwork, Heracleitus with the Bridge Quartet, and Lambert airs with Fred Jacobs.
Photo © Aiga Ozo
Clifton Harrison — Viola
American viola and viola d’amore player Clifton Harrison has performed as a chamber musician, recitalist, and in orchestras throughout Europe, the United States, Central America, and Asia. He is the viola player in the acclaimed Kreutzer Quartet with whom he has recorded extensively. As a member of the quartet, Clifton has been artist-in-residence at Oxford University, Goldsmiths, Southampton, and Bath Spa University and continues a close association with the Royal Academy of Music and Royal Northern College of Music. Parallel to his quartet duties, Clifton regularly gives masterclasses, workshops, and lectures worldwide on viola performance, chamber music, artistic and professional development, and topics surrounding his main research areas. He has a strong passion for educating the next generation. He has recently given lectures and masterclasses at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Vanderbilt University (USA), Royal Academy of Music, and Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He is also a viola tutor for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and Nicola Benedetti’s Benedetti Foundation.
Photo © Lloyd Smith
Mhairi Lawson — Soprano
Mhairi Lawson has performed in opera houses and concert halls worldwide. In the UK, she has regularly collaborated with such companies as The Gabrieli Consort & Players, The Academy of Ancient Music, English National Opera, The Early Opera Company and The Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and with many leading conductors such as William Christie, Sir Charles Mackerras, Paul McCreesh, Jane Glover and Sir John Eliot Gardiner, in repertoire ranging from traditional folksong to opera. This season, Mhairi sings Purcell’s King Arthur with the Early Opera Company in London, Bach’s B minor Mass with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Mozart’s Requiem with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, and returns to the Academy of Ancient Music. Recent highlights include performances of Handel’s Messiah with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and also the Dunedin Consort, Haydn’s Creation with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and also the Arctic Philharmonic, Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht and also BBC NOW, with regular residencies at the Carmel Bach Festival in the USA, and performances of Purcell’s King Arthur on tour with the Gabrieli Consort.
Photo © Final Note Magazine
Marie McLaughlin — Soprano
Distinguished soprano Marie McLaughlin has enjoyed more than four decades of performance at the highest international level. Over that time, she has collaborated with some of the world’s greatest conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Bernard Haitink and Sir Antonio Pappano as well as such legends as the late Leonard Bernstein and Giuseppe Sinopoli. A wide repertoire of core roles took McLaughlin around the world at an early age including to the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Opéra National de Paris and Salzburg and Glyndebourne festivals. Her substantial discography includes many of those roles including Zerlina with Sir Neville Marriner for Philips, Despina with James Levine for Deutsche Grammophon as well as Micaëla and Violetta under Bernard Haitink.
Photo © Benjamin Ealovega
Tasmin Little CBE — Speaker
After a career spanning more than 30 years giving concerts around the world, violinist Tasmin Little retired from the concert platform in 2021 to devote her time to broadcasting, writing, teaching and mentoring. During her career as an international concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician she performed in some of the world’s most prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall, Musikverein, Concertgebouw, Philharmonie Berlin, Vienna Konzerthaus, South Bank Centre, Barbican Centre, Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center and Suntory Hall. She has released numerous albums to critical acclaim, also winning the Critics Choice Award at the Classic BRIT Awards in 2011 for her recording of Elgar’s Violin Concerto with Sir Andrew Davis and the Royal National Scottish Orchestra. She has received multiple other awards, as well as a CBE for Services to Music in 2023. In January 2023, she was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 to make eight programmes entitled Backstage Pass, where she interviewed performers participating in the prestigious BBC New Generation Artists programme.
Photo © Steve Best
Alistair McGowan — Speaker
Alistair McGowan is best known for his impressions and won a BAFTA for his television series, ‘The Big Impression’, in 2003. He has also worked as an actor regularly on radio, occasionally on television and nationwide on stage (being nominated for an Olivier Award for his performance in ‘Little Shop of Horrors’). In 2015, he threw himself into learning the piano from almost a standing start and, in 2017, released ‘The Piano Album’ through Sony Classical reaching number one in the classical charts. He has since toured with ‘The Piano Show’ the first known show to mix stand-up comedy with classical piano. In 2023, he set up the first Ludlow Piano Festival - 5 days of piano events in the Shropshire town. He has already planned next year’s festival which will run in Ludlow from May 22nd-26th.
London Handel Players
Praised by the New York Times for their ‘soulful depth’ and their ‘consummate skill and musicianship’, The London Handel Players have thrilled audiences across the world with their performances and recordings for nearly 25 years. Established in 2000, the Players appear regularly at leading venues and festivals in the UK, Europe and North America, performing baroque chamber music and concertos and collaborating with the world’s leading singers. They perform regularly at Wigmore Hall and made their New York debut at the Frick Museum in 2012, returning to perform at a sold-out Carnegie Hall in 2014. Their highly acclaimed discography includes four discs of Handel chamber music; his two sets of trio sonatas Op.2 and Op.5, his complete works for solo violin and a disc entitled Handel at Home all on the Somm label. Bach’s sonatas for keyboard and violin were released in March 2023, and a new disc called Total Eclipse will be launched on October 25th. The London Handel Players’ next appearance at Wigmore Hall is on Monday, 18th December in a programme of Bach Christmas Cantatas and his Magnificat.
Adrian Butterfield director/violin
Persephone Gibbs violin
Rachel Byrt viola
Sarah McMahon cello
Photo © Matt Jolly
Roger Wright CBE — Speaker
Roger Wright CBE has been Chief Executive of Snape Maltings since 2014. Prior to this he was Controller of BBC Radio 3 and Director of BBC Proms for 17 and 7 years respectively. Roger is recognised as one of the UK’s most experienced cultural leaders both nationally and internationally. Educated at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester, and then at Royal Holloway College, Roger began his professional life in 1978 at the British Music Information Centre (BMIC), and also working as a freelance writer and broadcaster. He was appointed Senior Producer at the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1986 before he became Artistic Administrator of The Cleveland Orchestra in 1989. Three years later, Roger moved to Hamburg to take the post of Vice President, Artists and Repertoire, at Deutsche Grammophon. Roger was awarded a CBE in 2015 for services to music. He has been given honorary degrees by Royal Holloway, the University of East Anglia, the Royal College of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Northern College of Music and is a Fellow of the Radio Academy. Roger was appointed to the Board of the Royal Opera House in September 2017.
Sadly, due to sudden health issues, Benjamin Luxon CBE is unable to travel from the USA to be with us.
With thanks
The Britten as a Boy Statue Committee express their heartfelt thanks to John Gilhooly and Anthony Chater at Wigmore Hall for so generously giving us this gala evening. A small artistic planning team assembled this remarkable roll-call of performers, and special acknowledgement must go to: Sir Thomas Allen, Sophia Allen, Adrian Butterfield, Marion Friend, Mhairi Lawson, Zeb Soanes, Ruth Wharrier and Fraser Wilson. We are also grateful to our sponsors, Adnams Plc. and Wildsearch, for generously contributing towards the costs of the evening, so that every ticket sale can directly fund the statue.
