Concerts in Association with the German YMCA in London
Programme
Tickets
Masterclass 14:00 - 16:30
Competition 17:30—20:00
Lancaster Hall Hotel
35 Craven Terrace
London W2 3EL
Tickets are available from the London Song Festival website:
www.londonsongfestival.org/masterclasses
and at the door.
Adult £20
Concession £15
Student £5
Tickets for the afternoon and evening sessions are sold separately, so anyone wishing to hear both sessions will need to purchase two tickets.
The Competition
The masterclass is open to voice and piano duos age 32 and under, who will be selected by audition.
Each duo is asked to present two Lieder, sung in German, at least one of which must be by Schubert.
At the end of the evening session, Nicky Spence will select the best duo, who will win the 2024 Schubert Song Prize.
They will receive a cash prize kindly donated by the Schubert Society of Britain, and be invited to give a recital as part of the 2024 London Song Festival as well as a recital for the Schubert Society in 2025.
This is the only singing competition in which the winner is selected as a result of a ‘working session’ rather than the traditional competitive set-up. The aim is to have a competition that avoids the negative ‘competitive’ element of every other competition.
The Schubert Society of Britain
in association with
The German YMCA & The London Song Festival
presents
London Song Festival 2024
Masterclass & Prize Giving
with internationally acclaimed opera singer
Nicky Spence
Winner of the BBC Musician Magazine
Personality of the Year 2022
Wednesday, 27 November 2024, 14:00/17:30
_edited.jpg)
Nicky Spence
Winner of the BBC Musician Magazine Personality of the Year 2022, Opera Singer Nicky Spence is an artist and broadcaster of great integrity and one of Scotland’s proudest sons. Nicky was made an OBE in the King's inaugural Birthday Honours in 2023 for services to Music and received the Singer Award from the Royal Philharmonic Society in 2024.
Nicky was schooled locally in Dumfries and Galloway before receiving a scholarship to the Guildhall School. During his training, he won a record contract with Decca Records before taking a place at the National Opera Studio and latterly a position at the English National Opera as one of their inaugural Harewood Artists.
Nicky is prized for his portrayal of Janáček roles and is fulfilling his exciting potential as a Heldentenor having recently made his role debut as Parsifal with the Hallé orchestra under Sir Mark Elder. Nicky has recorded prolifically and is a regular featured recitalist at the Wigmore Hall, London though he can mostly be found on the International stages of Opera de Paris, Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera, New York. In 2020, he won both the BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award and Gramophone’s Solo Vocal Award for his critically acclaimed recording of Janáček’s vocal work The Diary of One who Disappeared with Julius Drake.
Recent operatic successes include his debut at the Deutche Staatsoper as Albert Gregor in Věc Makropulos, his debut as Siegmund Die Walküre directed by Richard Jones, Laca in Claus Guth’s new production of Jenůfa at the Royal Opera, Erik in Der Fliegender Holländer alongside Sir Bryn Terfel for Grange Park, a tour with Jakub Hrůša in Janáček's The Eternal Gospel (Santa Cecilia, Rome / l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France), his role debut as Loge in a new Wagner Ring for La Monnaie with Romeo Castellucci, Thomas Adès' The Exterminating Angel in Paris and Jenůfa in concert with the LSO and Sir Simon Rattle.
Nicky is using his space to bring more people to classical music than ever before and recently presented an acclaimed run of TV programmes: Anyone can sing and Sing when you're winning (Sky Arts), and is host of the English National Opera's new podcast, Opera Actually. Considered a force for good in the classical music world, Nicky is President Elect for the Independent Society of Musicians, an official Ambassador for charity Help Musicians UK and patron for the Scottish Opera Young Company. Nicky gives masterclasses Internationally and is a visiting professor at both the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music, London.