Press Release
Cantate sings the classics - and a little jazz, too!
World renowned pianist to perform at Choir's June concert
'Summer love songs & jazz' is the theme of The Cantate Choir's next concert to be held in St John's Church, Sevenoaks, on 7 June at 7.30pm. The wide-ranging programme will include favourites from the classical repertoire, madrigals, an instrumental piece by a local composer and four of the greatest all-time jazz hits.
The evening also features a rare local appearance by Clifford Benson, the internationally acclaimed pianist. Playing lengthy tours of the States and Japan, Benson is heard too little in this country and the opportunity to attend one of his performances in the heart of Sevenoaks is an event not to be missed. Clifford Benson, who has appeared as a soloist at the Proms, has worked with such artists as John Tavener, Sir Simon Rattle, Daniel Barenboim, Cleo Lane and Marion Montgomery, and has an extensive list of recordings with many leading labels.
In the first half of the programme, the choir will perform Brahm's Liebeslieder waltzes accompanied by Clifford Benson who will be joined by Junko Nakamura, his most outstanding pupil from the Royal Academy of Music. These tuneful and charmingly simple love songs are the most popular of Brahms's part songs and underline the variety of rhythm and mood to be found in the waltz. The cellist, Elizabeth Moore, then joins Clifford Benson for a piece by Schumann, before the choir concludes the first part of the concert with Elgar's There is sweet music.
Following an extended al fresco interval with wine and refreshments served on the new garden terrace at St John's, the choir returns for a set of five madrigals. These will be followed by Prelude Fugue and Riffs, a new work composed by Tonbridge-based Laurie Dunkin Wedd. This piece was described by one critic after its first performance last year as "disarmingly eclectic, drawing on jazzy rhythms, complex imitative ideas and a chord vocabulary not too distant from the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album". The composer will be in attendance at the Sevenoaks performance.
Conducted by the Cantate's Music Director, Robin Walker, the choir will bring this varied programme to a rousing conclusion with a medley of much-loved jazz favourites. The Cantate's audience will be intrigued to hear the choir's rendition of such timeless numbers as In the mood, Night and day, Deep purple and I got rhythm.
Tickets, priced £10, are available from Sevenoaks Bookshop, 147 High Street, Sevenoaks, or from Susan Reid (Tel: 01959 523234). Further information is available from the Cantate's interactive website: www.cantate-choir.info
Biographies of the artists:
Clifford Benson is a pianist highly acclaimed for his sensitivity, outstanding musicianship and strong feeling for poetry and colour. He enjoys a varied career of performing solo piano, chamber music, teaching and composing. He studied at the Royal College of music and was awarded the Chopin Sonata Prize and the Tagore Gold Medal as the outstanding musician of his year. With the violinist Levon Chilingirian, he was first prize-winner in the BBC Beethoven and the Munich International Duo Competitions, which led to numerous collaborations with other prestigious artists, to solo and chamber music recitals and to recordings for BBC Radio 3. Clifford was the pianist for the Jacqueline du Pré masterclasses on BBC2 television and has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician at the Proms. He was also a member of the Nash Ensemble. Clifford performs and records as soloist, chamber musician and accompanist and his recitals often take him to Japan and the USA but also to many parts of Europe, the Middle East, Taiwan, Canada and Bermuda. As a teacher, he has given numerous masterclasses internationally, and is currently a professor at the Royal Academy of Music, London.
Laurie Dunkin Wedd was born at Chiddingstone Castle, near Edenbridge Kent. He showed an early interest in music, studying piano and cello at school. His first classical piece was written at the age of nine but he did not settle down to serious composing until the 1980s, when he studied with Peter Aviss and Barry Seaman. As a teenager, he taught himself the guitar and worked in folk and jazz bands. Writing his own material was the top priority and as an adult, he took up the viola so as to get a better insight into string writing, playing in local orchestras and a series of chamber music groups. He sings with a local choir in Tonbridge.
Elizabeth Moore played in the National Youth Orchestra before being awarded the Sterndale Bennett Scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music. She was continuo 'cellist for the Thomas Tallis Society for 10 years and performs for music clubs and festivals with chamber groups and as recitalist. Together with the Amicitia String Quartet, she broadcast on Classic FM's Masterclass in 1994 and with The Chantry Choir for the BBC In Praise of God series in 1998. She has taught at Sevenoaks School and privately since 1971.
Junko Nakamura was born in 1970 in Tokyo, Japan. She studied at Tokyo College of Music, graduating in 2002. Last September she was awarded a Thomas Jennings Exhibition Award to study solo and chamber music with Professor Clifford Benson at the Royal Academy of Music. In the Academy's internal competitions, she won the Christian Carpenter Prize for the best pianoforte recital, was very highly commended as the runner-up in the Brahms Sonata Prize, and was chosen as one of the six finalists of the RAM Club Prize encompassing all instruments. The final of this is to be held later in June.
Robin Walker read music at the Royal Academy of Music, London, where he studied organ for six years, graduating with a BMus honours degree, a postgraduate diploma of advanced performance, and DipRAM, the Academy's highest award. He also won the major organ prize. During his studies, Robin took choral conducting classes with Patrick Russill and vocal lessons with David Lowe and Kenneth Bowen. He was a member of the Academy Chamber choir and won prizes for his choral conducting and work in church music. Since 1998 Robin has been conductor of the City University Chamber Choir and is Director of Music at St. Giles-in-the-Fields Parish Church in central London where he directs the professional quartet and runs a successful series of Friday lunchtime recitals.