31. From the Pens of Women: Kitty Whately & Simon Lepper
15 October 2020, 19:30 - 21:30
Concert

Holywell St
Oxford
OX1 3BN

Kitty Whately and Simon Lepper gave a completely sensational recital at last year’s Lieder Festival. They return now with another colourful and imaginative programme, that they first performed at Wigmore Hall. Seven composers from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Juliana Hall set the words of women poets, including Ursula Vaughan Williams, Virginia Woolf, and Margaret Atwood.
We hear two cycles by Jonathan Dove, including his Nights not spent alone setting Edna St Vincent Millay, that Kitty and Simon recorded for the Champs Hill label. The Financial Times described these songs as ‘brilliantly conceived’ and wrote: ‘As well as being eminently singable, Dove’s songs have a quick-witted, modern style, with echoes of Britten, Bernstein and Sondheim, that can turn on a sixpence and catch the emotions unawares. Kitty Whately and her accompanist, Simon Lepper, catch their elation, their humour, their heartache’.
EMERGING ARTIST: Tristan Hambleton
Every evening recital this year will begin with Schubert songs performed by singers who have arguably been hardest hit by the current crisis: artists who are already forging careers but not yet at a stage where they can view current circumstances as a temporary setback. Tonight, we hear the bass-baritone Tristan Hambleton, who performs several of Schubert’s settings of women poets, including the wonderful ‘Romanze’ from Rosamunde by Helmina von Chézy. Tristan gave an outstanding performance of Schubert’s Schwanengesang in our Song at Wolfson/Fairlight series earlier this year and we are delighted to welcome him back.
This concert will be streamed completely live from the Holywell Music Room. Shortly afterwards, it will also be available to watch again (using the same ticket and link) until 1 November 2020. Click here for further information on how tickets will work this year.
After a short break at the end of the concert, there will be a Q&A with the artists. Please email any questions you have during the interval or at the end of the concert ([email protected]) or post them on social media (#OLF2020), and the artists will answer as many as time allows.
TRY BEFORE YOU BUY
Programme
-
Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)
An die Sonne (D270) - Romanze „Der Vollmond Strahlt“ (D797 no.3)
- Der Morgenkuss (D264)
- Heimliches Lieben (D922)
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958)
Four Last Songs
- 1. Procris
- 2. Tired
- 3. Hands, Eyes, and Heart
- 4. Menelaus
-
Jonathan Dove (b. 1959)
Autobiography from All the Future Days - Penelope from All the Future Days
- The Siren from All the Future Days
- ~~~ Interval ~~~
-
Lori Laitman (b. 1955)
I was reading a scientific article from Orange Afternoon Lover -
Judith Cloud (b. 1989)
Variations on the Word Sleep from Night Dreams -
Dominick Argento (1927 - 2019)
Anxiety from From the Diary of Virginia Woolf -
Rebecca Clarke (1886 - 1979)
Lethe -
Juliana Hall (b. 1958)
To Harriet Monroe from Letters from Edna - To Mother from Letters from Edna
Jonathan Dove (b. 1959)
Nights Not Spent Alone

Kitty Whately
Kitty Whately
Mezzo-soprano
Kitty Whately trained at Chetham’s School of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the Royal College of Music International Opera School. She won both the Kathleen Ferrier Award and the 59th Royal Overseas League Award in the same year, and was part of the prestigious Verbier Festival Academy where she appeared as Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro and in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy. Kitty was a BBC New Generation Artist from 2013-15, during which time she recorded her debut solo album This Other Eden, made recordings w... Read Full Biography
Simon Lepper
Simon Lepper
Pianist
Simon read music at King’s College, Cambridge before studying piano accompaniment with Michael Dussek at the Royal Academy of Music and later with Ruben Lifschitz at the Fondation Royaumont. He is a currently professor of collaborative piano and a vocal repertoire coach at the Royal College of Music, London where he also in charge of the collaboarative piano course. Since 2003 he has been an official accompanist for the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition Performance highlights have included an invitation from the Wigmor... Read Full Biography
Tristan Hambleton
Tristan Hambleton
Bass-baritone
Born in London, Tristan Hambleton studied at St John’s College, Cambridge, Heidelberg Universität and then at the Royal Academy of Music, London. During his time at RAM, he was awarded the inaugural ABRSM scholarship, a Countess of Munster Trust Scholarship and the D’Oyly Carte Trust Scholarship. After graduating from the RAM Opera School in 2015, Tristan went on to make his professional debut creating the role of Karl in the world première of David Bruce’s youth opera Nothing at Glyndebourne, a joint commissio... Read Full BiographyFestival Passes
This event is part of a series:
Connections Across Time - A Brief History of Song
Over a packed eight days, world-class artists including Benjamin Appl, Ian Bostridge, Sarah Connolly and Roderick Williams will present some 40 concerts and events, from venues across Oxford and completely live. From the comfort of your own home, you will be able to enjoy these concerts live-streamed in the highest quality. We’ll be exploring every possible advantage of this temporary ...