Details
Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall
The School of Music
University of Leeds
Leeds
LS2 9JT
England
Programme
Alma Mahler – Die Stille Stadt
Alma Mahler – Laue Sommernacht
Alma Mahler – Ich wandle unter Blumen
Alexander von Zemlinsky – Einbietung
Alexander von Zemlinsky – Irmelin Rose
Johanna Müller-Hermann – Die stille Stadt
Gustav Mahler – Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
Erich Wolfgang Korngold – Four Shakespeare Songs, Op.13: Desdemona's Song (The Willow Song)
Erich Wolfgang Korngold – Under the Greenwood Tree
Richard Strauss – Zueignung, Op.10 no.1
Performers
Claire Barnett-Jones – voice
Rebecca Cohen – piano
Other concerts in this Series (+)
Programme Note
One of Operawire’s 10 Rising Stars, BBC Cardiff Singer of the World prize-winner and mezzo-soprano Claire Barnett-Jones is joined by acclaimed pianist Rebecca Cohen in a programme of song inspired by the unique voice of Alma Mahler. Drawing on the various influences, inspirations and collaborations who shaped her musical and personal life, the programme will include songs by Alma Mahler, Alexander von Zemlinksy, Johanna Müller-Hermann, Richard Strauss, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Gustav Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen.
Claire Barnett-Jones is fast becoming one of the most sought-after voices on the operatic stage and the concert platform, since being named one of Operawire’s Top 10 Rising Stars and being a Finalist and Winner of the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2021. In recent years, highlights have included performances at the Bayreuther Festspiele as 2nd Norn Götterdämmerung and Waltraute Die Walküre, her French operatic debut as Jezibaba in a new Stefano Poda production of Rusalkaat the Théâtre du Capitole, role and company debuts as Fricka Die Walküre at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl in Austria and as Madame Flora The Medium for Oper Frankfurt.
In the 2024-25 season, Claire returns to Dutch National Opera as Mrs Sedley in Barbora Horáková Joly’s new production of Peter Grimes conducted by Lorenzo Viotti. She also makes her house debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper as Forester’s Wife/Owl in Barrie Kosky’s The Cunning Little Vixen, and her house debut at the Royal Ballet and Opera, Covent Garden, as Waltraute in Barrie Kosky’s new production of Die Walküre, conducted by Antonio Pappano. On the recital platform she performs Mahler Songs of a Wayfarerat Wigmore Hall and recitals across the UK and Ireland. Further ahead, Claire will return to the Bayreuther Festspiele and will make her company debut in a new Lake Stage production at the Bregenz Festival.
Welsh pianist Rebecca Cohen specialises in song repertoire and has appeared in recital in the UK and Europe with leading song performers including Joan Rodgers, Benedict Nelson, Ema Nikolovska, Harriet Burns, James Newby and Claire Barnett-Jones. Concert highlights include London’s Wigmore Hall, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, National Concert Hall, Dublin, Mozarthaus Vienna and festivals including Oxford Lieder, Aldeburgh and the Chipping Campden International Festival. Recent and forthcoming engagements include a programme of song celebrating Charles Stanford’s legacy at the Great Hall, Belfast, which was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 as part of the Belfast International Festival of Chamber Music, the world premiere of a BBC Radio 3 Commission by composer Ella Jarman-Pinto as part of International Women’s Day with soprano Nazan Fikret and recitals in London, Aldeburgh and Ireland.
Rebecca is Co-Director of Song in the City, an artist led charity that devises creative cross-arts performances and projects. Partnerships include Patrick McDowell for London Fashion Week, Guildhall School, Rambert Dance Company and MIND in Tower Hamlets and Newham. As a member of Professorial Staff at the Guildhall School in London, Rebecca co-directs the Creative Minds in Song elective for postgraduate singers, pianists and composers. She has been invited to run workshops and masterclasses for various organisations including EPTA, Live Music Now and Wigmore Hall Learning.
Educated at the University of York, she studied at Trinity Laban and the Guildhall School before completing her studies at the Franz Schubert Institut in Austria. Competition successes include finalist in the Das Lied International Song Competition, the Lillian Ash French song prize and the Paul Hamburger Prize for accompaniment awarded by Graham Johnson as part of his prestigious Song Guild. Rebecca was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (FRSA) in 2015 and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
