Alexander Gray News
opera singer
- baritone
- opera singer, pharmacist, chemist, university teacher
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2024-03-28
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2024-02-16 07:46:00
Olawale Olayinka: Songs My Mother Taught Me
Olawale Olayinka is a young Nigerian classically trained violinist, currently based in London. If you have seen Brixton Chamber Orchestra or Chineke! then you may well have seen him. His performances with Chineke! include appearances last Summer performing Beethoven, Holst, Vaughan Williams' and Coleridge-Taylor, conducted by Kellen Gray, as well as with the orchestra at the 2023 Brit Awards at the O2 performing with Stormzy.Olayinka has just released a self-produced EP entitled Songs My Mother Taught Me, six tracks in which he plays traditional songs in modern versions with a mix of his solo violin and electronics. We begin with Oluronbi, just violin melody over ambient electronics, intriguing and engaging. The irregular phrase lengths in the music make it distinctive, whilst Olayinka's decision to not dress up the material pays dividends. The same approach applies to Labe igi orombo, with rather touching results and to the haunting Iwe Kiko. There is […]
2023-12-06 07:44:00
A lifetime's experience: John Nelson finally records Messiah in a finely engaged performance, with a fantastic quartet of soloists
[…] so that the regular alto solos, including 'He was despised' are all sung (very finely) by Potter. But Nelson does seem to have been fascinated by Messiah's history so there is a bonus section of eight variants, including the original 12/8 'Rejoice greatly', a selection of beautiful feet and even an alternative 'But who may abide'.Handel: Messiah - Lucy Crowe, Alex Potter, Michael Spyres, Matthew Brook, English Concert & Choir, John Nelson - Coventry Cathedral (Photo: Jamie Gray)Nelson's recordings have largely been on modern instruments, including his Berlioz series from Strasbourg and the very fine recording of Handel's Semele with Kathleen Battle in the title role, a recording which uses one of the longest versions of the work on disc. Here, he is conducting the period instrument forces of the English Concert. But his approach is pretty traditional, the speeds in the overture and the subsequent arias certainly do not frighten the horses, […]
2023-12-02 09:33:00
The Hidden Light: composer Joanna Marsh on her triptych of pieces for the choir of St John's College, Cambridge
Joanna MarshComposer Joanna Marsh has been commissioned for a triptych of pieces for the choir of St John's College, Cambridge, the first commission under its new director of music Christopher Gray. Joanna's first piece, The Hidden Light was premiered at the recent Service for Advent with Carols at St John's College, and the service is due to be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Sunday 3 December 2023. Joanna's other pieces for the commission will be performed at Epiphany and during Lent, and all three use texts by the priest/poet Malcolm Guite.I spoke to Joanna whilst she was in Cambridge for rehearsals before the Advent Carol Service on 25 November, though problems with Wi-Fi meant that we had to make do with a rather indifferent connection in a café that she had found! When I asked how rehearsals were going she was most complimentary; the music is complex, using eight parts, […]
2023-11-15 09:19:00
From sound art in Middlesbrough & 2000 children in the Royal Albert Hall to Brett Dean's Cello Concerto & Brian Irvine's operas: The Ivors Classical Awards celebrating today's classical music
[…] many of the award winners commented, there was a remarkable amount of creativity in the room. The awards celebrate classical music. Contemporary classical music, that is; everyone at the awards ceremony was involved in some way in either creating or supporting creators. Just as it takes village to raise a child, it takes many people to create music and the ceremony celebrated the creators and their support networks. There is plenty to be gloomy about, Tom Gray, the chair of The Ivors Academy, went as far as describing the last 13 years as a shit show. We need positive change, and the energy last night made it seem that change might be possible. The awards have been around, under various names, for 20 years whilst the academy goes back to 1944 when Vaughan Williams helped found the Composers Guild. Next year, The Ivors Academy celebrates its 80th birthday and we are […]
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