Alice Coote Mezzo-soprano

Alice Coote studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, the Royal Northern College of Music and the National Opera Studio. She gratefully acknowledges the support of the Peter Moores Foundation. She has been awarded the Brigitte Fassbaender Award for Lieder Interpretation and the Decca Kathleen Ferrier Prize.
Her concert appearances include repertoire from the Oratorios of Bach and Handel through to the works of Mahler, Debussy and Britten, which she has performed with the LPO, Halle, OAE, RLPO, RPO, Philharmonia, Concertgebouw, Rotterdam and New York Philharmonic Orchestras under conductors including Nagano, Pesek, Menuhin, Boulez, Elder, Salonen, Gergiev, Dohnanyi, Christie, McGegan, Haim, Hickox in London, Paris, Vienna, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Brussels, Madrid, New York and Salzburg. In 2001, she made her debut at the BBC “Last Night of the Proms”.
In recital, Alice Coote and Julius Drake are in demand throughout Europe and the US. At the BBC Chamber Proms 2003 they performed the world premiere of Judith Weir’s song cycle ˜The Voice of Desire” written especially for them. They gave a repeat performance of this piece at the 2007 PROMS. They also regularly appear at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and at New York’s Lincoln Centre.
Alice’s recordings have included Walton’s Gloria (Chandos), The Choice of Hercules (Hyperion), Orfeo (Virgin Classics), The Dream of Gerontius (Halle Label) and a highly acclaimed recital disc of Schumann and Mahler for EMI with Julius Drake.
Her operatic roles include Gluck’s Orfeo, Ariodante, Sesto/Tito, Sesto/Cesare, Ruggiero, Composer, Poppea, Penelope, Dorabella, Cherubino, Lucretia, Hansel,Orlando, Orlowsky,Oktavian, Nerone and Carmen for opera companies including ROH Covent Garden, ENO, Glyndebourne, Opera North, WNO, Scottish Opera, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Amsterdam, Paris, Nancy, Nantes, the MET, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, and the Salzburg Festival. Most recently, she gave role debuts as Idamante/Idomeneo in San Francisco and Maffio Orsini/Lucrezia Borgia in Munich and appeared as Hansel at the MET and at the ROH Covent Garden.
Upcoming opera engagements include Charlotte/Werther and Marguerite/Damnation de Faust in Frankfurt, Oktavian/Der Rosenkavalier for the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Composer/Ariadne auf Naxos in Munich and on tour in Japan, Hansel/Hansel und Gretel at Glyndebourne and at the Met.

Julius Drake Piano

The pianist Julius Drake lives in London and specialises in the field of chamber music, working with many of the world’s leading vocal and instrumental artists, both in recital and on disc.

He appears at all the major music centres: in recent seasons concerts have regularly taken him to the Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Munich, Salzburg, Schubertiade, and Tanglewood Festivals; to Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Centre, New York; the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam; the Chatelet and Musee de Louvre, Paris; the Musikverein and the Konzerthaus, Vienna; and the Wigmore Hall and BBC Proms, London.

Director of the Perth International Chamber Music Festival in Australia from 2000 – 2003, Julius Drake was also musical director in Deborah Warner’s staging of Janacek’s Diary of One Who Vanished, touring to Munich, London, Dublin, Amsterdam and New York. He is appointed artistic director of Leeds Lieder in 2009 and the Machynlleth Festival in Wales from 2009 – 2011.

Julius Drake’s passionate interest in song has led to invitations to devise song series for the Wigmore Hall, London, the BBC and the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. A series of song recitals “Julius Drake and Friends” in the historic Middle Temple Hall in London, has featured recitals with many outstanding artists including Sir Thomas Allen, Olaf Bar, Ian Bostridge, Phillip Langridge, Angelika Kirchschlager, Sergei Leiferkus, Dame Felicity Lott, Katarina Karneus, Christopher Maltman, Mark Padmore, Christoph Pregardien, Amanda Roocroft, Jose Van Dam and Sir Willard White.

Julius Drake is frequently invited to perform at international chamber music festivals such as Kuhmo in Finland, Delft in the Netherlands, Oxford in England and West Cork in Ireland, while his instrumental duo with Nicholas Daniel has been described in The Independent newspaper as “one of the most satisfying in British chamber music: vital, thoughtful and confirmed in musical integrity of the highest order.”

Julius Drake is a Professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London and visiting Professor at the Royal Northern College of Music. In addition he regularly gives master classes, most recently in Amsterdam, Brussels, Oxford, Paris, Vienna and the Schubert Institute in Baden bei Wien. In 2009 he has been invited on to the jury of the Leeds International Piano Competition.
Recordings include French Melodie with Hugues Cuenod (Chandos), French Oboe Sonatas with Nicholas Daniel (Virgin), Britten song with Derek Ragin (Etcetera), Schumann Lieder with Sophie Daneman (EMI), Gurney Songs with Paul Agnew (Hyperion), Sibelius Songs and Grieg Songs with Katarina Karneus (both Hyperion), Shostakovich Sonatas with Annette Bartholdy (Naxos), Mahler Lieder with Christianne Stotijn (Onyx), Spanish Song with Joyce Didonato (Eloquentia), Schoeck Sonatas with Christian Poltera (Bis), English Song with Andrew Kennedy (Altara), a “Wigmore Live” recording with Christopher Maltman and Haydn, Schumann and Mahler Lieder with Alice Coote (EMI). He has made an award winning series of recordings with Ian Bostridge for EMI, including works by Schumann, Schubert, Henze, Britten, The English Songbook and La Bonne Chanson. His recent series of recordings with Gerald Finley for Hyperion “Ives, Barber and Schumann” have been much acclaimed and the Songs of Samuel Barber is winner of the 2008 Gramophone Award.

Highlights in the coming season include Schubert at Carnegie Hall, New York with Ian Bostridge; “Wigmore Live” recording releases with Gerald Finley and the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson; Recitals in New York and London with Alice Coote; Tchaikovsky songs for Onyx with Christianne Stotijn; recitals in Ulm and London with Diana Damrau and Schumann duets and quartets with Raschmann, Kirchschlager, Bostridge and Quasthoff at the Schubertiade in Austria and in Hamburg, London and Vienna.

Lada Valesov

Lada Valesova¡ is established as one of the leading young concert pianists on the European music scene. She is a graduate of Prague Conservatoire and Prague Music Academy. She studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London where she was awarded a full scholarship for three years. Lada has won several prizes including two awards at the International Smetana Piano Competition. She is a winner of the Alexander Wise Memorial Prize for the best performance of romantic music as well as Prize for the Best Piano Duo together with Zoe Mather for their performance of Bartok’s Concerto for Two Pianos, Percussion and Strings.
Her teachers include Russian pianist and pedagogue Valentina Kamenikova and Eugene Indjic, pupil of Arthur Rubinstein. In London she studied under James Gibb and Paul Hamburger.

Lada is a busy concert artist having played recitals in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Spain, Portugal, Czech Republic, Great Britain and New Zealand. She is in demand not only as a soloist but also as an outstanding collaborative pianist.

She has performed in Wigmore Hall, St. John’s Smith Square and at the Lindbury Studio, ROH.
Lada was a recitalist in the Chamber Music Concert Series of Czech Philharmonics in Prague.
Her performance with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra in Germany led to CD recording with the orchestra.
She has performed at the Three Choirs Festival in Hereford, Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival, Warwick International Music Festival as well as at Ulverston International Music Festival, Festivais de Outono, Portugal, and in the Pollock House, Glasgow.

Lada has also performed in a concert at St. John’s Smith Square under the Friends of Philharmonia Orchestra patronage with Czech virtuoso violinist Bohuslav Matousek, Cannes Award Winner and David Cohen, cello, in a tribute to Czech Music.

She made her Paris debut performing solo programme featuring Czech and French composers of 20th century including a world premiere of a piano piece by Bohuslav Martinu.

She was featured on the BBC Radio 3’s In Tune, Classic FM New Zealand and RTA Radio 1 Arts Show, Ireland.
Lada has been asked by award winning director Phil Grabsky to perform and give an interview in his feature documentary In Search in Mozart, which marked the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth. The film has had its premiere at the Barbican in January 2006 and since then it has been screened at major international film and music festivals, broadcasted repeatedly by international TV channels and has won music and film awards .Lada’s particular contribution has been very favorably highlighted by the film reviewers.

Lada’s piano playing has received high recognition from various artists including the late Sir George Solti who offered her his “unqualified support”. She has had an honour of working with Galina Vishnevskaja and Mstislav Rostropovich.
Lada is regularly invited to give master classes to young musicians, specialising in Russian and Czech repertoire, most recently at the Conservatoire de Paris, at Casa da Musica in Portugal and for Emerging Artists in Auckland, New Zealand.
Her recent engagements include a concert tour in Ireland and a recital at the International Music festival in Lisbon: Dias da Musica em Bele, as well as recitals in Prague and Oxford.
Lada’s solo CD “Intimate Studies” of Czech Music of the 20th century on Avie Records label has been released in late March and has already received high critical acclaim from press.
Lada Valesova is a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, UK.