Assembly House Classical Presents:

Lisa Cassidy - Soprano & Jennifer Walsh - Piano

Following the sell-out success of the concert, ‘Elysium’, which Lisa gave for the Hostry Festival last year, she appears with pianist, Jennifer Walsh and some variations on a theme! Once again, the programme dives into paradise and childhood. Starting with Britten’s powerful song cycle ‘On this Island’ and culminating in Samuel Barber’s moving and personal ‘Knoxville: Summer of 1915’. A concert filled with fireworks and intimacy. Certainly not to be missed!

Programme:

On this Island - Britten

Let the florid Music Praise

Now the leaves are falling fast

Seascape

Nocturne

As it is plenty

Fêtes galantes series 1 - Debussy

En sourdine (Muted)

Fantoches (Puppets)

Clair de lune (Moonlight)

Three Hermit Songs - Barber

The desire for hermitage

The monk and his cat

St Ita’s vision

Nocturne - Barber

A Song of Enchantment - Britten

Knoxville: Summer of 1915 - Barber

Lune D’Avril - Poulenc

Biographies

Lisa Cassidy

Coloratura Soprano

www.lisacassidy.org

Lisa Cassidy’s recent musical tours include journeying to Northern Spain to develop an improvisatory work, based on Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor with Ramón Souto and Vertixe Sonora Ensemble. The project then toured, and evolved further, for the Block Universe Festival at the Royal Academy of Art in London. After her production in Spain, Lisa was invited, by the contemporary artist, Grace Schwindt, to perform in Opera and Steel in the Something Raw festival at the Frascati theatre in Amsterdam.

 Alongside taking the central roles, Lisa has also directed, produced and designed numerous performances of Poulenc's uniquely moving opera, La voix humaine, with the pianist William Fergusson and worked with composer Ian Hytch on his one-woman opera, Lady Macbeth is Dead, which was written for her.

​Highlights of Lisa’s engagements as an Oratorio singer include singing both soprano parts in Bach's Mass in B Minor with Sinfonia Chorale at Southwell Minster, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas alongside The Brook Street Band, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater at Norwich Cathedral with Norman Kenyon and David Dunnett, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 under Sharon Choa, Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle at St Peter Mancroft in Norwich, Mozart's C Minor Mass in St Mary's Cathedral Edinburgh and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana for the Wirksworth Festival.

 Lisa has studied and performed alongside many of todays most admired artists including Judith Howarth, Malcolm Martineau, Julius Drake, Christian Gerhaher, Marie Plazas and Roger Vignoles. She has sung under the baton of Jirí Blohlávek, Ilan Volkov and many other vibrant conductors. 

Lisa is an alumna of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the Oxford Lieder Festival Programme and is a Britten-Pears Young Artist.

Jennifer Walsh

Pianist – Duo Coach – Accompanist

Jennifer Walsh (née Hughes) is a collaborative pianist and duo coach. 'A splendid accompanist' (Gramophone Magazine), Jennifer performs across the UK and internationally. She has given recitals at venues including Wigmore Hall, Sala Verdi Milano, Oslo Opera House, Moscow’s Rachmaninov Hall and Xinghai Conservatory, China.  She has featured a number of times on BBC Radio 3, notably the In Tune programme and BBC Proms Plus. Jennifer has recently recorded 3 discs of British Cello and Piano sonatas with cellist Lionel Handy, released by Lyrita to critical acclaim.

Jennifer served for several years on the faculty of the Royal College of Music, where she specialised in coaching repertoire for piano and strings. She has also served on the faculty of Aldeburgh Young Musicians, New Virtuosi International (UK), Festival Quattro Corde (Italy) and Voksenåsen Summer Academy (Norway).

Jennifer was a DfES scholar at Wells Cathedral School, studying under Hilary Coates, and later graduated from the Royal College of Music, studying under John Blakely and Roger Vignoles.  During this period, she was awarded several prizes for accompaniment, including the Royal Over-Seas League Accompanist Prize.