St. Andrews Voices

St. Andrews Voices is a music festival based in St. Andrews, which makes its debut in October this year (18 to 21 October). They have put together quite a programme, headlined by Ian Bostridge, patron of the festival, who will be performing Schubert's Winterreise with Julius Drake at the piano.

Baritone Ben McAteer (who appeared recently in the Guildhall School production of Ned Rorem's Our Town) will be accompanied by pianist Gavin Roberts in a programme of arias by Tchaikovsky and Korngold and songs by Schumann and Vaughan Williams. Another baritone, Damian Thantrey (who is currently appearing in the Opera Group's production of Edward Rushton's Babur in London, and who sang the title role in my first opera, Garrett, in 2001) will be performing with Cabaret Chordelia in an evening of song and dance inspired by 1930's Berlin cabaret - quite a change from contemporary opera!


Singers from Scottish Opera will be doing an evening of operatic numbers by Puccini, Mozart and Rossini. Eleanor Bron will be narrating Walton's Facade in a programme with David Matthews Actaeon also written for narrator and chamber ensemble, based on Ovid, translated by Ted Hughes.

The festival ends with a performance of Handel's The Triumph of Time and Truth his last oratorio, based on his Italian one from many years before. Soloists Sophie Bevan, Mary Bevan, Tim Mead, Ed Lyon and William Berger will be joined by Ludus Baroque Choir and Orchestra.

Further information from the St. Andrews Voices website.

Now I have to confess that when I visited St. Andrews in the late 1970's one Sunday to hear the Markham and Nettle piano duo playing an all Grainger programme, the town was dead. The only place to get a cup of tea was a Wimpey bar. But thirty odd years later, I'm sure that it has all changed!