Wednesday 29 January 2020

Baritone Theo Perry wins the Trinity Laban 2020 Gold Medal

Theo Perry, HRH Duke of Kent, Olivia Fraser (Credit: Tas Kyprianou)
Theo Perry, HRH Duke of Kent, Olivia Fraser (Credit: Tas Kyprianou)
Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance holds an annual Gold Medal Showcase in which students and recent alumni compete for the prize. This year the showcase took place at the Purcell Room on 27 January 2020, with seven competitors crossing a range of styles in an eclectic mix of classical and contemporary music, jazz and musical theatre. 

This year's Gold Medal was won by post-graduate vocal student, Theo Perry (baritone) whose programme included 'Die Taubenpost' from Franz Schubert’s Schwanengesang, D957, 'The Lads in their Hundreds’ and ‘Is My Team Ploughing?’ from George Butterworth’s Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad, ‘"C"’ from Francis Poulenc’s Deux Poemes de Louis Aragon, and Charles Ives’ General William Booth Enters into Heaven. The Audience Prize, awarded following a public vote, went to oboist Olivia Fraser who performed Edwin Roxburgh’s Study 1 for Solo Oboe and Omaggio a Bellini for Cor Anglai by Antonio Pasculli with harpist Lucy Wakeford.

The adjudicators were Trinity Laban’s Director of Music Havilland Willshire was joined by Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE, Founder, Artistic and Executive Director of the Chineke! Foundation and Honorary Fellow and Visiting Professor of Double Bass at Trinity Laban, and Rebecca Allen, President of Decca Records UK, Trinity Laban alum and Governor, and Trinity Laban’s Patron HRH The Duke of Kent to presented the Gold Medal.

Theo Perry is a Kathleen Creed Scholar and the 2019/20 recipient of the Elliot Rosenblatt Memorial Scholarship, and last year received the Drapers’ De Turckheim scholarship. He made his operatic debut in Trinity Laban Opera’s production of Thea Musgrave’s A Christmas Carol and recently sang the title role in Don Giovanni with Rogue Opera on a UK tour. This April, Theo will perform the role of Guglielmo in Cosi Fan Tutte with Hurn Court Opera.

Previous winners of the Gold Medal include the pianist Iyad Sughayer [see my review of his recent debut disc] and baritone James Newby who is now a BBC New Generation Artist [I was lucky enough to have James give the first public performance of my song cycle Winter Journey, setting a poem by Rowan Williams, at Conway Hall in May 2019]

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