The Portrait Players and Les Femmes Illustres
Tue 24 Sep 2024 6:30 PM - 10:30 PM BST
33 Hampstead Lane, N6 4RT
Description
The Portrait Players, Claire (soprano), Kristiina (theorbo/lute) and Miriam (cello/viol da gamba) love playing the music from the 17th and 18th centuries but they are also fascinated by the brilliant creative women who inspired so much of it.
In Paris, writers, who had a strong influence on the development of creative thought through their literary salons and whose poems were set by the leading composers of the time; in London, the pioneering singer-actresses who had newly been permitted to perform in public and inspired some of Purcell’s most popular theatre songs.
PROGRAMME:
In their programme they introduce us to many of these women and the songs they inspired - including:
Honoré d’Ambruis - Le doux silence de nos bois
Sébastien Le Camus - Délices des étés
Michel Lambert - Laissez-moi soupirer
Henry Purcell - O let me weep
Henry Purcell
- From rosy bowers
SUPPER:
The concert will be followed by a supper which might well have been served at one of those literary salons!
TICKET 'PRICE':
Because we are not a public venue we do not 'sell' tickets. Instead we ask you to make a donation (suggested amount £30 per ticket) which will enable us to pay our musicians a reasonable fee and contribute a small amount towards the cost of supper and wine.
THE PERFORMERS
The Portrait Players formed in January 2023 as a result of Claire's Handel’s Europe, a programme of Handel Cantatas and German Arias presented in chamber format. Since then they have performed in St. Martin-in-the-Fields, at Brighton Early Music Festival, Amersham Festival, St. Pancras Clock Tower, Northumbria University, and University College Oxford, as well as collaborating with Opera Prelude in London and Henley.
For more information or to contact the group go to their website.
Claire Ward (soprano) is a City Music Foundation Artist 2022-2024, a young artist with Opera Prelude and a performer on the Live Music Now programme. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music
and the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Toulouse, Claire is both a soloist and ensemble singer performing with the OAE, the Thames Philharmonic Orchestra and at Snape in the 2019 Snape Maltings Prom.
Kristiina Watt (lute/theorbo), a graduate of the GSMD and Royal Conservatoire of Scotland/University of Glasgow where she studied lute and singing. Although she has worked with a number of renowned orchestras (Academy of Ancient Music, BBC Scottish Symphony, English Concert, OAE, Scottish Chamber Orchestra) Kristiina's real love is chamber music. Recent chamber concerts include Handel’s ‘9 German Arias’ with Rachel Podger and trio sonatas with the Academy of Ancient Music in Spain.
Miriam Nohl (cello/viol da gamba). Miriam fell in love with historical performance during her undergraduate years at the University of York. Shortly after graduating, Miriam was generously lent a Baroque cello and gained a place to study for a Masters in Historical Performance at the Royal Academy of Music on Baroque cello and viola da gamba. Miriam now leads a busy freelance life in London as a La Serenissima Emerging Artist chair holder; as well as a Young Artist on the Brighton Early Music Festival scheme. Miriam also works with groups such as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, La Nuova Musica, and Eboracum Baroque.
Location
33 Hampstead Lane, N6 4RT