Season events

Matthew Nuttall baritone
Rhiain Taylor mezzo-soprano
Kimberley Raw soprano
Yulia Vershinina piano

Anne Schwanewilms soprano
Malcolm Martineau piano

Ian Bostridge baritone
Joseph Middleton piano

Franz Schubert Winterreise

A focus on one song from Mahler's 'Des Knaben Wunderhorn' - Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen (Where the beautiful trumpets blow).

Gemma Lois Summerfield soprano
James Newby baritone
Joseph Middleton piano

In association with the Kathleen Ferrier Awards

Gustav Mahler Des Knaben Wunderhorn

Nika Gorič soprano
James Newby baritone
Joseph Middleton piano

Two of the finest British-trained young singers open our Schubert series. James Newby, prizewinner in the Kathleen Ferrier Awards and Wigmore Hall International Song Competition makes a welcome return to Leeds Lieder following his outstanding recital for BBC Radio 3 in our Mahler series last season. He is joined by Nika Gorič whose recent performances have taken her to the Salzburg Young Singers Programme, Verbier Festival, Wigmore Hall and Vienna Musikverein. She has recently been selected as a YCAT artist. They will perform solos and duets from that inspired partnership: Goethe and Schubert.

Nika Gorič soprano
James Newby baritone
Joseph Middleton piano

Two of the finest British-trained young singers open our Schubert series. James Newby, prizewinner in the Kathleen Ferrier Awards and Wigmore Hall International Song Competition makes a welcome return to Leeds Lieder following his outstanding recital for BBC Radio 3 in our Mahler series last season. He is joined by Nika Gorič whose recent performances have taken her to the Salzburg Young Singers Programme, Verbier Festival, Wigmore Hall and Vienna Musikverein. She has recently been selected as a YCAT artist. They will perform solos and duets from that inspired partnership: Goethe and Schubert.

Mary Bevan soprano
Joseph Middleton piano

Both recent recipients of the coveted Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Awards, Mary Bevan and Joseph Middleton appear at Leeds Lieder following recitals together last season at Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the Musée d’Orsay Paris. Mary’s stellar season has also taken her to Carnegie Hall, Washington’s Kennedy Centre, Vienna’s Theater an den Wien, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and London’s Royal Opera House.

Mary Bevan soprano
Joseph Middleton piano

Both recent recipients of the coveted Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Awards, Mary Bevan and Joseph Middleton appear at Leeds Lieder following recitals together last season at Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the Musée d’Orsay Paris. Mary’s stellar season has also taken her to Carnegie Hall, Washington’s Kennedy Centre, Vienna’s Theater an den Wien, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and London’s Royal Opera House.

Benjamin Appl baritone
Joseph Middleton piano

Described as ‘the current front-runner in the new generation of Lieder singers’ (Gramophone Magazine), Benjamin Appl is already celebrated by audiences and critics the world over. The last private student of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Appl was a BBC New Generation Artist, ECHO Rising Star, is an exclusive SONY Classical recording artist and winner of the 2016 Gramophone Young Artist of the Year. In a characteristically thoughtful programme, Appl juxtaposes two of the greatest cycles in the repertoire with little-known settings of Yeats.

Programme to feature songs by Clara Schumann, Alma Mahler, Pauline Viardot, Cécile Chaminade, Ethel Smyth, Rebecca Clarke, Liza Lehmann and Madeleine Dring.

It is with great pleasure that we welcome back our neighbouring conservatoire, the excellent RNCM, to offer a lunchtime concert of superbly-performed chamber music. Coached by leading interpreter of song, Julius Drake, this crack team of young singers and pianists specialises in the song repertoire. The perfect recital for a Friday lunch break.

Christiane Karg soprano
Joseph Middleton piano 

One of the world's foremost lyric sopranos, award-winning Christiane Karg is a frequent guest at the finest music centres and is praised by audiences and critics alike for her stylish sensitivity to words and engaging stage presence. Following performances together with Leeds Lieder Director and RPS Award-winner Joseph Middleton at Wigmore Hall, Luxembourg's Philharmonie, Copenhagen's Opera Festival, and in Germany and South America, the duo present a heady programme of exotic romanticism to commemorate Debussy's anniversary year.

Ashley Riches bass-baritone
Joseph Middleton piano

A BBC New Generation Artist, bass-baritone Ashley Riches read English at Cambridge University, before studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and as a Jette Parker Young Artist at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Recent appearances have included with the Berlin Philharmonic/Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the Philharmonia Orchestra/Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and at Wigmore Hall.

Ashley Riches bass-baritone
Joseph Middleton piano

A BBC New Generation Artist, bass-baritone Ashley Riches read English at Cambridge University, before studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and as a Jette Parker Young Artist at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Recent appearances have included with the Berlin Philharmonic/Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the Philharmonia Orchestra/Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and at Wigmore Hall.

Toby Spence tenor
Joseph Middleton piano 

Toby Spence’s cleverly constructed recital explores the musical kinship between three of the finest twentieth century song composers. Poulenc, Britten and Finzi all cut their teeth writing miniature forms before turning to larger scale works later in life, and all explored thoroughly individual musical languages while painting the finest words with abundantly colourful accompaniments.

Sir Thomas Allen is an established star of the great opera houses of the world and an acclaimed recitalist. Guest of Honour at our most recent Festival, we are thrilled to welcome him back to Leeds Lieder. Programme to include Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Wolf, Duparc, Ives and Warlock. This concert is supported by members of FUAM

Acclaimed British baritone Christopher Maltman is joined by pianist Joseph Middleton for a recital marking the centenary year of the end of the Great War, featuring a selection of music by composers from across the span of the major nations involved in the First World War including Butterworth, Gurney, Mahler, Fauré, Ives, Mussorgsky, Schumann, Wolf and Poulenc

Programme to include songs, duets and favourite part-songs by Schubert.

A graduate of the Vienna University of Music and prize-winner in numerous prestigious competitions, Sophie appears in Sheffield alongside Leeds Lieder Director Joseph Middleton fresh from recitals at Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie and Vienna's Konzerthaus.