Latest Event Updates
Rossini Puccini soloists Tim Mirfin
Tim Mirfin – Bass
We are very happy to welcome Tim Mirfin back to sing with us once more in our Rossini and Puccini concert on 21 April at Central Church, Torquay #sdevonchoirconcert
As a full time opera singer, Tim has sung in all major European countries, Australia, the US, Russia and the Middle East. He has performed major roles by Mozart, Handel, Britten, Puccini, Verdi and many others.
Opera companies he has worked with include Hamburg State Opera, Theater an der Wien, Frankfurt Opera, Lyon Opera, Welsh National Opera, Opera North, Scottish Opera, Holland Park Opera and The Bolshoi, Moscow.
He has a wide, varied concert repertoire ranging from the Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart and Verdi standards to rarities and premières. He has given concerts in the Vienna Musikverein, Amsterdam’s Conzert-gebouw, Melbourne Town Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall, Usher Hall, Edinburgh (for the Festival) and various cathedrals and churches throughout the UK.
Tim has worked with a range of conductors including Sir Colin Davis, Sir John Elliot Gardiner, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Donald Runnicles, Martyn Brabbins, Edward Gardner, Robin Ticciati.
He read Law at Cambridge, studying postgraduate singing at the Royal Academy of Music and the National Opera Studio.
Join us and hear Tim sing. Tickets are available online, from choir members and on the door.
Rossini Puccini soloist Arthur Swan
Arthur Swan – Tenor
We are excited to be joined by the exciting tenor, Arthur Swan, at our concert on Saturday 21 April at Central Church, Torquay #sdevonchoirconcert
Arthur studied opera at the South African College of Music and was a member of Cape Town Opera’s Young Artists’ Programme. After completing his undergraduate studies in 2004, he performed in theatres throughout Southern Africa before moving to London in 2008, where he is still based.
Arthur’s lyric tenor is in demand on both the concert and opera stage, in repertoire ranging from the baroque to late romantic, thanks to what critics have described as a “nobility” and “warmth” of tone, as well as his natural vocal flexibility and versatility.
His opera repertoire includes works by Mozart (Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni), Rossini (Almaviva in The Barber of Seville, Ramiro in La Cenerentola, and Osiride in Mosé in Egitto), Donizetti (Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, and Ernesto in Don Pasquale), J
anáček (Steva in Jenůfa), Bizet (Don José in Carmen) and Puccini (Prunier in La Rondine, Rodolfo in La Bohème, and Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly).
In addition to his regular performances with regional and touring opera companies in the United Kingdom, Arthur’s association with Cape Town Opera has continued, with engagements including Hoffmann (Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann) and, more recently, the principal part of Whiteman in extended tours to the UK, Dubai and Hong Kong of The Mandela Trilogy, a musical tribute to the life of Nelson Mandela.
Arthur has just returned from South Africa, where he reprised the part of Tamino (Die Zauberflöte) at the Brooklyn Theatre in Pretoria. Future engagements include the role of Fenton in Nicolai’s The Merry Wives of Windsor for Duchy Opera in Cornwall.
This is the first time that Arthur has performed with the Choir and we are anticipating meeting him and hearing him sing with a great deal of interest and excitement. You can find out more about Arthur from his website.
Tickets are available online, from choir members and on the door.
Rossini Puccini soloist Rebecca Smith
Rebecca Smith – Second Soprano
We are also very pleased to welcome one of our regular soloists, Rebecca Smith, who will be singing in our Rossini & Puccini concert on Saturday 21 April at Central Church, Torquay. #sdevonchoirconcert
Hannah graduated from Trinity College of Music where she won many prizes and awards including the Morag Noble Scholarship for further study, Wilfred Greenhouse Prize for Oratorio and Cantata Singing, and the English Song Prize.
Since moving to Devon Rebecca teaches privately and adjudicates in competitions, as well as continuing to perform.
Operatic roles vary from Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, to Jocaste in Oedipus Rex, Stravinsky, and The Traveller in the premier of the opera, Victory over the Sun by Jeremy Arden performed at the Barbican.
She was a member of Glyndebourne Festival Chorus and Touring Opera for several seasons, touring also to Paris.
She has sung at the Purcell Room, London with the Company of Singers and Players to critical acclaim, at the Festival Hall, at several BBC Promenade concerts at the Albert Hall, and other venues such as the British Embassy, Brussels, St George’s, the Wigmore Hall, Hanover Square, St Martin-in-the-Fields, and Exeter and Truro Cathedrals.
Future engagements include performances of Handel’s Messiah, Stabat Mater by Roger Bosustow, Mozart Requiem, several performances of Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle and Schumann Frauen-Liebe und Leben.
Tickets are available online, from choir members and on the door.
Rossini Puccini soloists
Hannah Sawle – First Soprano
Performing in our Rossini and Puccini concert on Saturday 21 April at Central Church, Torquay #sdevonchoirconcert we are pleased to welcome soprano soloist Hannah Sawle.
Hannah studied at Chethams School of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and on the English National Opera’s Opera Works Course. She is currently studying with Janice Chapman. Whilst at the Guildhall School of Music she won awards for her English and Contemporary Song and she has been guest soloist on BBC World Service, Radio 3 and Radio 4.
Recent roles include covering Ismene (Mitridate Re di Ponto) for the Royal Opera, Queen of the Night for Charles Court Opera and the title role in Lakme for Swansea City Opera. Other roles include Adina and Gianetta (L’elisir d’amore), Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte), Queen of the Night, Papagena and second boy (Die Zauberflote), Elletra (Idomeneo), Nedda (I pagliacci), Serpetta (la finta Giardiniera), Frasquita and Micaela (Carmen), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Mademoiselle Silberklang (The Impresario), Diana (Orpheus in the Underworld), Lena (la Princess Jaune), Slim Girl (A Village Romeo and Juliet), Lady Dunmow (A Dinner Engagement), Tsarevna (Kashei the Im-mortal) and Trio Soprano (Trouble in Tahiti).
Hannah has sung with South Devon Choir in the past and we are very much looking forward to hearing her sing again.
Tickets are available online, from choir members and on the door.
Cream Tea and Quiz
Knowledge and Taste hand in hand
It’s that time of year again. The days are getting longer, the daffodils are starting to poke their heads out cautiously at the sun, and thoughts turn to an afternoon out and the South Devon Choir Cream Tea and Quiz.
Where better than Castle Barton Tea Rooms where you can indulge in a thoroughly satisfying cream tea in cosy surroundings, safe in the knowledge that you are fully justified in doing so for several reasons.
- You have just burned up lots of calories using your brain and digging out all that general knowledge you thought you’d forgotten.
- You have spent money in a good cause – because this is a social fundraiser for South Devon Choir.
- You have also bought a ticket or two in the raffle, which will also contribute to South Devon Choir funds.
Tickets at £8.00 per person are available from Prim Wood Telephone 01803 872296 or from choir members.
Join us on Wednesday 28 March at 2pm until approximately 5pm at Castle Barton Tea Rooms, Compton, Nr Marldon. For a map click here.
S’no joke no choir practice
Amber Weather Warning Forces Cancellation of Choir Practice
For the first time in years, South Devon Choir will not be rehearsing on a Thursday night in term time #3wordweather #snow #below-zero #Torquay Winter definitely has a sting in its tail this year.
The rehearsal scheduled for Thursday 1st March has been cancelled due to a Met Office amber weather warning for snow and ice on Thursday and Friday. Heavy snow is expected possibly followed by frozen rain, producing hazardous conditions for travelling. In the circumstances, we thought staying tucked up indoors, warm, snug and safe was a pretty good option.
The good news is that the weather ahead is looking less cold, spring must surely be on the way and we shall be singing again next week. Practice makes perfect for the wonderful Rossini and Puccini concert programme to be performed on Saturday 21 April.
Please do let any choir members you know who are not on the choir email list, or on Facebook, that there is no practice on 1st March.
Glorious Russian Choral Music
A Talk by Simon Dunbavand
#torquay #music #Russia # choral – South Devon Choir are adding to their social calendar this spring with a talk by lecturer and musician, Simon Dunbavand. He has entitled the talk “Glorious Russian Choral Music” and it promises to be gloriously illustrated with music and a fascinating account by Simon which you can be sure will include some interesting personal anecdotes.
Simon describes himself as an organist, pianist, conductor, choral animateur, lecturer, researcher, writer, composer, teacher, and traveller. Not only that, Simon is also a Cambridge graduate and was an Organ Scholar of Peterhouse, now resident in Torquay he is also organist at Paignton Parish Church and is accompanist to South Devon Choir among his many other roles.
One of Simon’s passions is Russian Choral music and he has directed performances of Russian Orthodox music, which he researches and collects in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Kiev.
Simon is also a frequent lecturer on classical music themed-cruises, as well as inspiring singers in the Choirs-at-Sea programme. Travel is his greatest pleasure, and when combined with music, produces a thrilling anthropological and ethnographical cocktail, from the ghats of Varanasi, to the monasteries of Luang Prabang in Laos. Simon is proud to have played the ceremonial gong at a Hindu watermelon ritual on Moheshkhali Island in Bangladesh, and trekked to the ancient Buddhist Monasteries of Inle Lake, Burma, across the mountains of the forbidden Shan State to the two-thousand stupas of Kakku with their bells tinkling in the breeze. Simon has visited the Mursi tribe of the Lower Omo Valley in Ethiopia and attended the chanting of the St George’s Day rites in the rock-hewn orthodox churches of the holy city of Lalibella. Recently he took the infamous Tazara train from Dar es Salaam to Zambia, and continued onwards into Zimbabwe and South Africa. In 2015 he has particularly enjoyed visiting the Corcovado district of Costa Rica, Bocas del Toro in Panama, and travelling by train across Uzbekistan.
The event will take place in The Rougemont Room, Toorak Hotel, Chestnut Avenue, Torquay, Devon, TQ2 5JS on Tuesday 6 March commencing at 7pm. There is a bar and tea/coffee are also available. The cost for the event is £7.00 per person – tickets are available from Prim Wood, Telephone 01803 872296, or on the door.
Find out more about Simon Dunbavand on his website.
