Kathleen Ferrier
1912-1953
Centenary Year 2012
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2012 - 100th Anniversary
2012 will be the 100th anniversary of Kathleen's birth in Higher Walton, and the Society is currently planning its own events, as well as contacting and holding meetings with interested individuals and organizations. As events are finalized they will appear in a 2012 diary on this website.
Sheila Armstrong FRAM, Hon.MA., Hon D.Mus.
Sheila Armstrong studied in Newcastle and the Royal Academy of Music in London. Since winning the coveted Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Scholarship, of which she is now a Trustee, and the Mozart Prize in the same year, she became a major international artist, appearing in almost every important musical centre in the world. In the operatic field, Miss Armstrong has sung various operatic roles at Hamburg, Glyndebourne, Scottish Opera, Opera North and Covent Garden, and made frequent radio and television appearances, including a lavish production of Die Fledermaus in which she sang the Countess, for BBC1.
Miss Armstrong appeared in concerts and Festivals with all the major orchestras in Europe, Israel, Scandinavia, North and South America and Canada, singing and recording with Barenboim, Zubin, Mehta, Haitink, Izawa, Sir Colin Davis, Boult, Barbirolli, Sergeant, Giulini, Leppard and Abbado, and had a strong collaboration with V. Ashkenazy and André Previn in orchestral and recital work. Honorary degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor of Music from Newcastle and Durham Universities were conveyed in recent years, together with a Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Music. Miss Armstrong ended her major international career in August 1995 in a concert with the famous baritone, Thomas Allen commemorating the 900th Anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of Durham Cathedral. In May 1996, we were delighted when Sheila Armstrong agreed to become the President of the Kathleen Ferrier Society. She has proved to be a devoted and supportive President. She takes great interest in progress and careers of the singers who take part in our Bursaries.
We are pleased to announce that the following have agreed to be our Patrons for 2012 at the personal invitation of our President Dr. Sheila Armstrong.
Dame Janet Baker CH, DBE, FRSA
Dame Janet was born and raised in Yorkshire and she went to school in York and Grimsby. In 1953 she moved to London where she worked for a short time in a bank and later took vocal lessons with Helene Isepp and Meriel St Clair. In 1956 she won the second prize in the Kathleen Ferrier Award and joined Glyndebourne Festival Chorus the same year. She subsequently sang at Glyndebourne as principal soloist in several new productions, ending her operatic career there as Gluck’s Orfeo in 1982.
Her debut was in Smetana’s The Secret with Oxford University Club and she then sang at Morley College in London, in Bath and at the Wexford Festival. In 1962 Dame Janet appeared for the first time with English Opera Group and began a close association with the composer Benjamin Britten at the Aldeburgh Festival and elsewhere. In 1966 she made her Royal Opera House debut in his Midsummer Night’s Dream and he subsequently wrote both the role of Kate in Owen Wingrave and the late scena Phaedra specifically for her. As well as further appearances at Covent Garden, Dame Janet also appeared with English National Opera at the London Coliseum in some of their landmark productions.
In Dame Janet’s large operatic repertoire were roles by Monteverdi, Cavalli, Handel, Mozart, Berlioz, Richard Strauss, Donizetti and Massenet; and in 1976 she sang in Walton’s specially prepared new version of Troilus and Cressida at Covent Garden, a production that was recorded.
In the concert Hall Dame Janet has excelled in works by Bach, Handel, Elgar (a superb Angel in The Dream of Gerontius), Mahler (notably Kindertotenlieder and Das Lied von der Erde) and Schoenberg, among a host of other composers. Her song recitals have become legendary and her interpretations of lieder by Schubert, Schumann and Brahms are considered among the very finest. She has also made a speciality of English and French song.
Dame Janet has enjoyed an equally successful career overseas and is particularly fondly remembered in the United States where she has sung frequently. Her extensive discography is fully representative of her career repertoire and includes works conducted by musicians with whom she has enjoyed an especially close rapport: Sir John Barbirolli, Raymond Leppard, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Georg Solti, Leonard Bernstein, Sir Colin Davis and Sir Andrew Davies, among others. On video Dame Janet may be seen as Orfeo, Maria Stuarda, Giulio Cesare and Penelope (Il ritorno d’Ulisse).
Married in 1957 to Keith Shelley, Dame Janet was appointed DBE in 1976 and Companion of Honour in 1993. Since her retirement she has frequently acted as adjudicator in music competitions, notably the Kathleen Ferrier Award, and is committed to the encouragement of young singers at the beginning of their professional careers.
James Bowman CBE
James Bowman has been one of the world’s leading Counter tenors for over forty years; his career spans Opera, Oratorio, Contemporary music and solo recitals. He began singing as a Chorister at Ely Cathedral and later entered New College, Oxford with a Choral scholarship. Whilst at Oxford, he was a member of the New College and Christ Church choirs.
In 1967 he auditioned for Benjamin Britten’s English Opera Group and was cast as Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a work he has subsequently had a long distinguished association with.
James made his London debut at the opening of the Queen Elizabeth Hall and was soon in demand on both the Opera stage and the concert platform. He appeared at the Aldeburgh Festival and Sadlers Wells in 1967 (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), at Glyndebourne in 1970 La Calisto (the first countertenor to sing there), the English National Opera in 1971 Semele and the Royal Opera in 1972 Taverner. During his career, James Bowman has appeared at almost every major opera house including La Scala Milan, Amsterdam, Venice, Paris, Verona, Vienna, Strasbourg and the Festival of Aix-en-Provence. In Australia he has appeared at the Sydney and Melbourne Opera houses and in the USA at Lincoln Centre, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Centre in Washington, as well as Dallas, San Francisco and Santa Fe.
His concert career is equally wide-ranging. In Europe he is well known as a recitalist, with a large following particularly in France. He has sung at every major festival in France and in 1992 the French government honoured him with admission to “L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres”. In the same year he was also awarded the Medal of Honour of the City of Paris, in recognition of his long-standing contribution to the musical life of that City.
James Bowman has made over 180 recordings with all the major record labels, and has worked with many leading conductors including Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Frans Bruggen John Eliot Gardiner, Roger Norrington and Gustav Leonhardt. He has recorded ‘Messiah’ four times, under Willcocks, Koopman, Dorati and Parrott. Many of his recordings have been for Hyperion, recording all the Purcell Odes, secular songs and church music as well as various solo discs of music by Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Pergolesi, Hasse, Domenico Scarlatti and Dowland.
James has given the world premiere of many important contemporary compositions, including works by, Richard Rodney Bennett, George Burgon, Michael Nyman, and Alan Ridout.
In May 1996 he received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and was made C.B.E. in the 1997 Queen’s Birthday Honours. He is also an Honorary Fellow of New College, Oxford and in October 2000 became a Gentleman of Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal, St. James’s Palace.
Alice Coote
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.
In concert, she has performed with the LPO, Hallé, OAE, RLPO, RPO, Philharmonia, Concertgebouw, Rotterdam and New York Philharmonic Orchestras under conductors including Nagano, Pešek, Menuhin, Boulez, Elder, Salonen, Gergiev, Bĕlohlávek, Dohnanyi, Christie, McGegan, Haïm, Herreweghe, 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. A recording of Mahler's Second Symphony for EMI Virgin, with Natalie Dessay and Paavo Jaervi, was released in April 2010.
Her operatic roles include Gluck's Orfeo, Ariodante, Sesto/Tito, Sesto/Cesare, Ruggiero, Composer, Poppea, Penelope, Dorabella, Cherubino, Lucretia, Hansel, Orlando, Orlowsky, Oktavian, Idamante, 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. More recently, she gave role debuts as Maffio Orsini/Lucrezia Borgia in Munich, as Charlotte/Werther and Marguerite/Damnation de Faust in Frankfurt and appeared as Hansel at the MET, the ROH Covent Garden and at Glyndebourne.
Upcoming opera engagements include Charlotte/Werther in San Francisco, Composer/Ariadne auf Naxos in Munich and on tour in Japan as well as for Canadian Opera Company, Dejaniera/Hercules for Lyric Opera of Chicago, Prince Charmant/Cendrillon for the ROH Covent Garden and Hansel/Hänsel und Gretel at the MET.
Dame Anne Evans
Anne Evans, established as one of Britain’s most internationally successful singers, has appeared in opera and concert is most of the world’s major musical centres. She sang Brünnhilde at the Bayreuth Festival with Daniel Barenboim from 1989 to 1992, performances which are available on CD and video released by Teldec. She also sang this role to great critical acclaim in Berlin, Vienna, Paris, Covent Garden, Buenos Aires, Nice, Welsh National Opera, in concert with the Cleveland Orchestra and Christoph von Dohnanyi, and in semi-staged performances at the Royal Albert Hall in London with Bernard Haitink.
Anne Evans, a celebrated Isolde, sang the role in Berlin, Paris, Dresden, Brussels, for Welsh National Opera and Scottish Opera, and at the Ravello Festival. Her performances of Leonore Fidelio included the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Edinburgh Festival, and Stuttgart, and other notable engagements have included Sieglinde (San Francisco), Elisabeth in Tannhäuser at the Metropolitan New York, the Marschallin (Der Rosenkavalier) in a new production for English National Opera, Ariadne at the Edinburgh Festival, The Turn of the Screw at La Monnaie in Brussels (released on CD), and Les Dialogues de Carmelites at Glimmerglass.
In the concert hall she has sung with many of the world’s leading conductors and has given recitals at the Wigmore Hall and the Edinburgh Festival. In August 2003 she sang excerpts from Der Rosenkavalier with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sir Charles Mackerras at the BBC Proms in what was to be her farewell public appearance.
Anne Evans was made a Dame of the British Empire in June 2000.
Victor Hochhauser CBE
The classical impresario Victor Hochhauser knew Kathleen Ferrier well, and arranged a number of her London concerts. His son, Daniel, is the current holder of the Kathleen Ferrier Professional Chair of Oncology at University College London Hospitals.
Victor Hochhauser began his career aged 22 when he presented the pianist Solomon, Yehudi Menuhin, Sir Thomas Beecham and the Vienna Philharmonic tour of Great Britain with their conductor Bruno Walter; this rapidly sealed the newly married Hochhausers’ stature as major classical impresarios.
When Hochhauser’s father said there was a wondrous violinist in the Soviet Union, called David Oistrakh, Victor and his wife Lilian, took their greatest gamble when they approached and invited him to give a concert here in England. Thus, the Hochhauser link was firmly forged and they have been closely associated with Russian artists for over 50 years; their influence on the cultural life of Britain has been considerable
The Hochhausers have regularly brought the Bolshoi and Kirov companies to London and have promoted a galaxy of musicians including David and Igor Oistrakh, Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Galina Vishnevskaya, the Borodin Quartet, Emil Gilels and all the leading Russian orchestras, as well as composers such as Dmitri Shostakovich, Aram Khachaturian, Dmitri Kabalevsky and Moise Weinberg.
Victor and Lilian Hochhauser have also enjoyed a long history of presenting international artists such as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Margot Fonteyn, Sylvie Guillem, and Rudolf Nureyev and major international companies such as La Scala, San Francisco Ballet and Paco Peña and his Flamenco Dance Company.
In 1961 Victor and Lilian brought the Kirov Ballet to the Royal Opera House for its first tour to the West, followed by the Bolshoi Ballet in 1963 and there have since been regular UK visits by these two magnificent companies arranged by the Hochhausers.
In 1999 and in 2006 they presented the Bolshoi Opera with Mark Ermler and Alexander Vedernikov and, in 2001 and 2005, the Mariinsky Opera with Valery Gergiev. Their work continues; only this year, 2010, in July and August they presented the Bolshoi Ballet productions of Spartacus, Coppélla, Serenade, Giselle/Petrushka/Russian Seasons/Paquita, La Corsaire and Don Quixote and, in August, Eugene Onegin was presented by the Bolshoi Opera at The Royal Opera House.
In 1993, Victor Hochhauser was made a CBE for his contribution to the arts.
On 16 November 2006, Victor and Lilian Hochhauser were honoured for their unique role in promoting Russian culture in Britain for over half a century. On behalf of the Ministry of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Russian Ambassador to the UK, His Excellency Mr Yury Fedotov, presented this prestigious award to the Hochhausers at the Russian Embassy.
In 2009 Victor and Lilian Hochhauser received an award from the Royal Academy of Dance in appreciation of their lifetime contribution to dance in Britain. Dame Antoinette Sibley DBE, the Academy’s President, presented the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award at an emotional gathering of friends, professional colleagues and family at a ceremony held at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Dame Ann Murray DBE
Ann Murray was born in Dublin and studied with Frederick Cox at the Royal Manchester College of Music.
She has appeared with the world’s great orchestras and conductors and in the major concert halls. Her discography reflects not only her broad concert and recital repertoire but also her great operatic roles.
Her operatic engagements have taken her to Hamburg, Dresden, Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Cologne, Zurich, Amsterdam, Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera, New York, La Scala Milan, the Vienna State Opera, the Salzburg Festival and, notably, has established close links with the Bavarian State Opera, English National Opera and with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden.
She is an Honorary Doctor of Music at the National University of Ireland, a Kammersängerin of the Bavarian State Opera and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music. In the 2002 Golden Jubilee Queen’s Birthday Honours she was appointed an honorary Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.
Paul Strang
Though born of distinguished musical parents, Paul soon discovered that his own modest talents were never going to get him very far in the profession, so he trained to be a solicitor. Having the good fortune as a student to be given board in London by Emmie Tillett, Kathleen Ferrier’s close friend and musical agent, Paul was soon one of the small band who painted with Kathleen and Emmie on Sundays. As a lawyer, Paul naturally developed many musical connections; he was invited to become the Honorary Solicitor to the Royal Philharmonic Society and the Royal Society of Musicians; he also represented the London Symphony Orchestra in the negotiations for their first contract with the Barbican Centre, and brokered a partnership between that orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the creation of the Henry Wood Hall in Southwark. He was founder chairman of the Songmakers Almanac, and set up the Gerald Moore Award with Gerald’s widow, Enid and Gerald’s protégé, Graham Johnson. For many years a director of Young Concert Artists’ Trust, Paul is also a trustee of the Hinrichsen Foundation, a trust devoted to the promotion of contemporary music. Latterly, he has become Acting Chairman of the Museum of Musical History. Paul has been a trustee of the Kathleen Ferrier Awards for upwards of twenty years, and has chaired the trust for most of that period. Paul was a governor of Trinity College of Music for many years, and chaired the board of that College during its move to the Royal Naval College in Greenwich and during its merger with the Laban School of contemporary dance. Paul is an ardent Francophile and the author of many books on the food and wine of that country.
Bryn Terfel CBE
The Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel rose to prominence when he won the Lieder Prize in the 1989 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. In 2003, Bryn was awarded a CBE for services to Opera in the Queen’s New Year Honours list and received the Queen’s Medal for Music in 2006. He is also the last recipient of the Shakespeare Prize by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation, Hamburg.
He has performed in all the great opera houses of the world, and is especially recognised for his portrayals of Figaro and Falstaff. Other roles include Wotan in Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, Holländer in Der fliegende Holländer, Méphistophélès in Faust, both the Title Role and Leporello in Don Giovanni, Jochanaan in Salome, Scarpia in Tosca, the title-role in Gianni Schicchi Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress, Wolfram in Tannhäuser, Balstrode in Peter Grimes, Four Villains in Les contes d’Hoffmann, Dulcamara in L’Elisir d’Amore and the Title Role in Sweeney Todd.
Bryn is also known for his versatility as a concert performer, with highlights ranging from the opening ceremony of the Wales Millennium Centre to Last Night of the Proms and the Royal Variety Show. In 2007 he sang the title role in concert performances of Sweeney Todd as part of the re-opening of the Royal Festival Hall, London. He has given recitals in the major cities of the world and hosts his own festival every year in Faenol, North Wales.
He is a Grammy, Classical Brit and Gramophone Award winner with a discography encompassing operas of Mozart, Wagner and Strauss, as well as more than ten solo discs including Lieder, American musical theatre, Welsh songs and sacred repertory.
Operatic Highlights in 2010 include Bryn’s debut in the role of Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnburg for Welsh National Opera, his return to Metropolitan Opera, New York as Scarpia in Tosca and Wotan in Das Rheingold and his debut for Monte Carlo Opera in the title role in Falstaff. Concert highlights in 2010 include a European concert tour to promote his album “Bad Boys” released in November 2009 and recitals in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Professor Jeffrey S Tobias, MA (Cantab.), MD, FRCP, FRCR
Professor Tobias qualified in medicine from Cambridge University and St Bartholomew’s Hospital in 1971. He has been a cancer specialist for over thirty years. After specialist training in oncology at the Royal Marsden Hospital and Harvard Medical School, he became a Consultant in Clinical Oncology at UCH/Middlesex Hospitals (now part of the UCL Hospitals group) in 1981. His main interests are in clinical research into innovative treatment methods, especially in breast cancer, and in the ethical issues surrounding large-scale cancer trials. For ten years, he was the Chair of the Cancer Research Campaign Breast Cancer new studies “think tank” (1989 – 2000). This led to the development of the ATAC trial, the largest international breast cancer study ever undertaken.
He has written extensively both for the profession and the public, with eleven books and over 200 research papers. His most recent book for the general public is Living with Cancer, to accompany an award-winning six-part BBC1 documentary television series transmitted October 2001, following the lives of patients under treatment. The sixth edition of his “Cancer and Its Management”, initially published in 1986, was brought out earlier this year. The co-author for this book is the current holder of the Kathleen Ferrier Professorial Chair of Oncology at UCL, Prof Daniel Hochhauser (son of the famous impresario Mr Victor Hochhauser CBE).
Prof Tobias is a past President of the British Association of Head and Neck Oncologists, a previous member of Council of the Royal College of Radiologists, and was until recently Chair of the Education Committee of the Cancer Research Campaign. He is currently a Board member of Cancer Research UK, the world’s largest independent cancer charity, and is a past Chairman of the Tobacco Advisory Group which was instrumental in the implementation of national anti-smoking legislation in the UK. He also currently chairs the CR-UK Expert Advisory Group looking at the implementation of the UK’s National Cancer Plan since it appeared in 2007.
Over the past twenty years he has been instrumental in helping to design and supervise large-scale international breast cancer clinical trials including the ATAC trial mentioned above, which was influential in developing the role of a new class of anticancer drugs for the treatment of breast cancer, and the TARGIT trial of “single-shot” intra-operative radiotherapy.
He was promoted to a personal Chair in Oncology at UCL Medical School in 2001. His non-professional interests include cycling, skiing and listening to classical music – preferably live.
I am most grateful, for help in compiling these biographies, to Sabine Mardo at IMG Artists, Doreen O’Neil at Harlequin Agency, Phillippa Cole at Askansa Holt, Kirsteen Walker at Ingpen & Williams Ltd., Jayshree Kara at UCLH, Paul Campion, Sylvia Alexander and David Whittaker. Many, many thanks Kath Hopcroft