Benedict Nelson – Baritone

Recently hailed by Rupert Christiansen in the Daily Telegraph as Best Newcomer in his “Opera Highlights of 2009”, British baritone Benedict Nelson is one of the most exciting singers of his generation and is attracting comparisons to Gerlad Finley and Simon Keelyside among others. Born in London, Nelson studied at the Guildhall school of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio. In 2007 Benedict won second prize in both the Kathleen Ferrier awards and the Guildhall Gold Medal at the tender age of 23.

Still only 25, Benedict has amassed a considerable number of operatic roles, including; Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas), Count Almaviva, Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro), Masetto, Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni), Sprecher (Die Zauberflote), Marcello (La Boheme), Demetrius (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Sid (Albert Herring), Don Parmenione (L’occasione fa il ladro), Baron Gondremarck (La Vie Parisienne) Christian (Un ballo in maschera), Zurga (Les pêcheurs de perles), Morales (Carmen) and Tarquinius and Junius (Rape of Lucretia).
A protegée of Sir Thomas Allen and a Samling Foundation scholar, Benedict is equally enthusiastic about orchestral repertoire, and has performed in a variety of prestigious venues including the Wigmore Hall, the Barbican, Cadogan Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, King’s Place, Snape Maltings, St John’s Smith Square and St Martin-in-the-fields under the batons of conductors such as Sir David Wilcocks, Sir Neville Marriner, David Parry, Bernard Labaie and Thomas Zehetmair. Recent performances have included Britten’s Songs and Proverbs of William Blake at Snape Maltings with Malcolm Martineau (which will be recorded in Spring 2010), Silvano Ballo in Maschera for Opera Holland Park, Morales (Carmen) at the Royal Albert Hall, concerts with the Classical Opera Company, Messiah at St Martin in the Fields and Bach Passions with various UK Choral Societies.
Engagements in 09-10 include his role and house debut as Ping in a new production of Turandot at English National Opera under Edward Gardner, The Tender Land for the Opéra de Lyon, the world premiere of The Lion’s Face at the Linbury Studio, Covent Garden and on tour, Brahms’ Requiem at King’s College Cambridge and a Britten recording for Onyx. Further ahead he will sing Tarquinius Rape of Lucretia for Opera Nantes and Valentin Faust for ENO.

Andrew West – piano

Andrew West is known as recitalist, accompanist and chamber musician.

He has given recitals and recorded with Emma Bell (a CD of lieder by Strauss, Marx and Bruno Walter), Florian Boesch, Alice Coote, Lesley Garrett, James Gilchrist, Robert Murray, Christopher Purves, Hakan Vramsmo and Roderick Williams.
He appears regularly with tenor Mark Padmore, most recently in a BBC Radio 3 broadcast from Wigmore Hall, and in staged performances of a new translation of Schubert’s Winterreise , interspersed with readings of texts by Samuel Beckett, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Lincoln Center, New York.
Andrew West received the inaugural Gerald Moore Award for Accompanists, and for several years he acted as official accompanist to the Steans Institute for Singers at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago.
As well as tonight’s premiere of Judith Bingham’s work, Andrew West also gives first performances this year of new song-cycles by Richard Baker (with Christopher Purves) and Ian Venables (with Roderick Williams); and performs major works by Hans Werner Henze and Thomas Ades at Wigmore Hall.

He is an Artistic Director of the Nuremberg International Chamber Music Festival , now in its ninth year, which presents English music unfamiliar to local audiences as well as more traditional repertoire. Highlights have included Tippett songs with Mark Padmore and Britten’s opera Noye’s Fludde performed in a circus tent in Nuremberg Zoo. The Festival has twice been invited to appear at Wigmore Hall, and this year will focus on
Andrew’s partnership with flautist Emily Beynon led to their Hyperion recording of the complete works for flute and piano by the French composers Les Six, and they have also given trio recitals with cellist Paul Watkins at the Purcell Room and the BBC Chamber Music Proms. Emily Beynon and Andrew West have appeared at the Edinburgh International Festival, Wigmore Hall and Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.
As a duo pianist he has appeared at the City of London and Cheltenham Festivals with pianist Cedric Tiberghien. He was also closely involved with the Michael Clark Dance Company Stravinsky Project, performing the two-piano version ofThe Rite of Spring with Philip Moore in its original Barbican production, and then on tour in Paris, Seoul and New York.

Andrew West read English at Clare College, Cambridge before going on to study with Christopher Elton and John Streets at the Royal Academy of Music, where he is now professor of Accompaniment and Chamber Music.