Winchester Arts | Song Series

Jonathan Hanley Tenor
Gavin Roberts Piano

Britten - Finzi - Yiu - Howells

Raymond Yiu’s song cycle Dead Letters, inspired by Britten’s Serenade, brings together different poets to tell the imagined story of young love between poets Gerald Manley-Hopkins and Digby Dolben, who drowned himself at the age of 19. It is performed here interspersed with music by composers whose sonic landscapes have inspired Yiu, such as Gerald Finzi, Benjamin Britten and Thomas Campion, with music by Madeleine Dring, Ralph Vaughan-Williams and John Dowland, whose songs explore Yiu’s themes of youth, love and loss.

PROGRAMME
Finzi Summer Schemes 
Yiu Remembrance, Pastoral
Finzi Oh fair to see
Yiu Canzonetta
Britten Lute song II, from Gloriana
Campion Your faire lookes enflame my desire
Yiu Serenade
Vaughan Williams Orpheus with his lute
Yiu Sonnet
Britten Canticle I
Yiu Aria
Dring Crabbed age and youth
Yiu Nocturne
Finzi Only the wanderer
Howells Finzi's rest
Dowland In darkness let me dwell
Yiu Elegy
Finzi Since we loved

Jonathan Hanley is a British tenor working as both a soloist and ensemble singer with a particular interest in Baroque vocal music. A history graduate from the University of York, Jonathan currently studies with Richard Edgar-Wilson.

He has performed as a soloist in the UK and Europe, including in Mendelssohn Die Erste Walpurgisnacht (Haus für Mozart, Salzburg), JS Bach St Matthew Passion (Cadogan Hall), and Britten St Nicolas (York Minster). He has appeared as a soloist with the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists, Salzburg Camerata, Southbank Sinfonia, Yorkshire Baroque Soloists and the Instruments of Time and Truth. Jonathan also enjoys performing song and lieder, most recently performing Schumann Liederkreis (Op. 39), and music by Finzi and his contemporaries, both accompanied by Gavin Roberts.

Jonathan is a member of Stile Antico and the Monteverdi Choir, and performs regularly with some of the best ensembles in the UK such as Tenebrae, The Sixteen and SANSARA. He has also performed in staged productions of Handel Semele and Berlioz Benvenuto Cellini. He has recorded discs with Stile Antico, the Monteverdi Choir, SANSARA and The Sixteen.

jonathanhanley.co.uk

Gavin Roberts enjoys a varied career as a piano accompanist. He has partnered singers in recital at Wigmore Hall, the Barbican Hall and the Royal Festival Hall, and is Artistic Director of the recital series Song in the City. He has appeared at The Cheltenham Festival, Dartington International Festival, The Ludlow Weekend of English Song, The Ryedale Festival and The Oxford Lieder Festival. He works regularly with soprano Lucy Hall, with whom he was the winner of the Oxford Lieder Young Artist Platform, and actor Rosamund Shelley, with whom he performs her one-woman shows Novello & Son and War Songs.

He has played for The BBC Singers, The Joyful Company of Singers, Constanza Chorus, The Hanover Band, Tiffin Boys’ Choir, and as a repetiteur for Sir Roger Norrington and the late Richard Hickox. Gavin has appeared regularly on BBC Radio broadcasts as a soloist and accompanist, often giving premiere performances of new works. He has played on numerous recordings for the BBC, ASV, Guild and Priory Records. His most recent project is a CD recording of London-themed song commissions for Song in the City.

Gavin studied piano with Andrew West and Eugene Asti at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where he is now a Professor. He previously read Music at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he also held the organ scholarship. Following this, Gavin gained a Master’s degree from King’s College London. More details: www.gavinroberts.org & www.songinthecity.org

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Winchester Arts is a new initiative from the award-winning vocal collective SANSARA. To find out more, visit winchesterarts.co.uk and join the mailing list here.