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Details
The Venue - Leeds College of Music
Quarry Hill
Leeds
LS2 7PD
England
Programme
Ludwig van Beethoven – Egmont, Op.84: Overture
Johannes Brahms – Symphony no.1 in C minor, Op.68
Benjamin Britten – Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, Op.31
Performers
Stephen Anthony Brown – Tenor
David Tollington – French horn
Ben Crick – Conductor
Leeds College of Music Chamber Orchestra
Programme Note
British character tenor Stephen Anthony Brown studied at Trinity College, London and at the Royal College of Music Benjamin Britten International Opera School.
Recent engagements include his début at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre as the tenor soloist in Gabriel directed by Dominic Dromgoole, with The English Concert conducted by Trevor Pinnock; Spoletta Tosca with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra at the National Concert Hall, Dublin under the baton of David Angus; the Gamekeeper/Huntsman Rusalka for Lyric Opera Dublin; cover Chulak/Pirate/Ghost/Firework 2 in The Fire-Workmaker’s Daughter for Opera North, Goro Madam Butterfly and Mr Erlanson A Little Night Music for Opera Project; a G&S gala concert with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra at the National Concert Hall, Dublin; the world première of Between Worlds for English National Opera, and his Wexford Festival Opera début as Dick in Guglielmo Ratcliff, and Tiberge in Le Portrait de Manon.
With an extensive variety of repertoire, Stephen has performed many different roles spanning from Baroque to Contemporary Opera. Previous seasons’ highlights include, for Glyndebourne Festival and Touring Opera, Pedro Betrothal in a Monastery under the baton of Vladimir Jurowski, Peasant Leader Eugene Onegin, and the covers of Monsieur Triquet, Peter Quint, Lysander and Remendado; and Elder Hayes in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah for English Touring Opera. Elsewhere he has covered Arturo Lucia di Lammermoor for Scottish Opera; Tom Rakewell The Rake's Progress at London’s Blackheath Halls; Ferrando for the Netherlands Opera Studio; Eisenstein Die Fledermaus for Kentish Opera, and Filch in John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera for the Consort of Early Music. He has also performed a number of new and rarely heard compositions highlights have included David in Deirdre Gribbin’s Hey Persephone! for Almeida Opera conducted by David Parry; Adam in Mark Glentworth’s Ula at the Tête-à-Tête Opera Festival; the British première of Rothchild’s Violin by Fleischman/Shostakovitch for Second Movement; and Neck-Konig in the world première of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s ‘missing’ opera Thelma for Surrey Opera, which he also transcribed.
Stephen’s affinity for the works of Gilbert & Sullivan has seen him perform lead roles internationally, highlights include Frederic The Pirates of Penzance, Ralph Rackstraw HMS Pinafore and Nanki-Poo The Mikado on tour in the U.K., America and Australia for Carl Rosa Opera; Nanki Poo The Mikado for D’Oyly Carte Opera; Colonel Fairfax The Yeoman of the Guard, and Captain Fitzbattleaxe Utopia Limited for Otago Opera, New Zealand; and Marco The Gondoliers at the Buxton International Festival.
An experienced concert artist his highlights include Handel's Messiah in Romania, Rossini's Stabat Mater in Norway, Verdi's Messa da Requiem at the Barbican, Stradella's San Giovanni Battista in Jerusalem, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Spain, gala concerts for Raymond Gubbay at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, Symphony Hall, Birmingham and the Barbican, London and as the Evangelist in Bach's Matthäus Passion and Johannes Passion in Iceland and London with Peter Schreier.
David Tollington graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music, winning the Clifford Hartley Memorial Prize, and has since enjoyed a varied and exciting freelance career. He has worked with many of the finest orchestras including the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, BBC Philharmonic, Halle, RPO, Royal Northern Sinonia, BBC National Orchestras of both Wales and Scotland, the CBSO and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. He is currently the principal horn of the Symphony Orchestra of India and his work has also taken him to Japan, China and much of Europe.
As a keen chamber musician David is a regular performer at the North York Moors Chamber Music Festival as well as appearing at the Ryedale Festival and the Edinburgh Festival. He has also performed as a soloist with the Royal Northern Sinfonia and played Mozart’s Fourth Horn Concerto with Sinfonia Viva.
As well as classical performances David continues to be involved in pop music and has worked, most noticeably, with Sting as well as appearing in several films and TV programs.
Ben Crick has established a reputation as an innovative and original conductor who is comfortable working with diverse and challenging repertoire; he is a former BBC Music Fellow. In recent years he has conducted concertos with Tasmin Little, Raphael Walfisch, Peter Donohoe, Nicholas Daniel, Jennifer Pike and Benjamin Frith as well as conducting Handel’s Messiah with Dame Emma Kirkby performing the soprano solos.
His orchestral repertoire ranges from Bach to contemporary works with a special interest in music of the British 20th century. He is committed to new music, regularily conducting world premieres, and is also passionate about discovering unknown music from previous centuries. He is as comfortable in the opera house as on the concert platform having given performances of Madama Butterfly, Suor Angelica, Cosi Fan Tutti, Dido and Aeneas and Der Fliegende Holländer.
Alongside freelance conducting engagements with numerous ensembles, he is the Artistic Director of several professional ensembles including Skipton Building Society Camerata. With this group, alongside over one hundred more conventional performances, he has staged operas in pubs, commissioned and performed new works in shopping centres and run a chamber music series which exclusively performs in alternative venues. He is the Musical Director of the English National Philharmonic Orchestra and in this role conducted Lesley Garrett’s 2017 national tour. 2018 will see performances throughout the UK as well as in Norway, Lithuania, Estonia and China.
He has collaborated with people as diverse as the poet Ian McMillan, presenter Fiona Bruce, actor Ben Faulks (CBBC’s Mr Bloom) and Giles Brandreth. This approach has resulted in several national awards for both excellence in performance and audience development.
With a commitment to higher education Ben is a visiting lecturer at several universities and is a staff conductor at Leeds College of Music. Outside his conducting career he has written for Classical Music Magazine, Opera Now and Early Music Today, been an guest contributor on BBC radio 2 and 3 programmes and arranges music for many societies including the Royal School of Church Music.
