Lesley Garrett and Friends – Programme Notes Lesley Garrett and Friends Queen's Theatre, Barnstaple Thursday 29th June 7.45pm Lesley Garrett Tolga Kashif - Music Director Robin Scott - Keyboards Howard McGill - Wind Instruments/Wind Synthesiser and additional Percussion David Goodier - Double Bass Paul Smith - Drums Programme Legrand/Bergman - Windmills of Your Mind/The Summer Knows Rodrigo - Con Qué La Lavare De Falla - Nana Gershwin - Summertime Gershwin - My Man's Gone Now Instrumental Piece Brel - If You Go Away/Ne Me Quitte Pas Massenet - Adieu Notre Petite Table Louigy/Piaf - La Vie En Rose Dumont/Vaucaire - Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien Interval Porter - Night & Day Kern - Can't Help Lovin' That Man of Mine Carmichael - Skylark Sample/Jennings - One Day I'll Fly Away Instrumental Piece Kashif - Ave Maria Lai - Where Do I Begin Hamlisch/Bergman - The Way We Were Horner/Jennings - The Heart Will Go On Baerwald - Come What May LESLEY GARRETT Lesley Garrett, CBE, is Britain’s most popular soprano, regularly appearing in both opera and in concert, on television and CD; she has won both critical acclaim and the affection of many fans and music lovers. As a recording artist, she has eleven solo CDs to her credit; Soprano in Red received the Gramophone Award for 'Best-selling Classical Artist of the Year', Diva! A Soprano At The Movies, Prima Donna, Simple Gifts, Soprano in Red, Soprano in Hollywood, and I Will Wait for You all received silver discs and A Soprano Inspired and Lesley Garrett both achieved gold discs. Lesley’s most recent albums are Travelling Light, The Singer, and So Deep is the Night and she was also a featured artist on the platinum selling Perfect Day single released by the BBC in aid of Children in Need. Lesley's major television appearances include 'Lesley Garrett…Tonight’ for the BBC featuring Lesley and guest artists as diverse as Renee Fleming and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Marti Pellow, Michel Legrand and Elaine Paige. The series continued as 'The Lesley Garrett Show' featuring programmes from Naples, Seville and New York with guest artists Marcello Alvarez, Ian Bostridge, Alison Moyet, Michael Ball, Maxim Vengerov and Joshua Lesley Garrett and Friends – Programme Notes Bell. Other BBC television appearances have included the documentary ‘Jobs for the Girls’ with Linda Robson and Pauline Quirke, ‘Viva la Diva’ and ‘The Lily Savage Show’. Lesley was also the subject of a South Bank Show on LWT and her music programmes continued on the BBC with 'The Singer', and a specially filmed Christmas concert featuring Lesley and guest artists Jose Cura and Sibonglie Khumalo and ‘Sacred Songs’ featuring sacred music from around the world. Music from the album So Deep is the Night was made into a film titled ‘Lesley Garrett – Desert Dreams’. Lesley’s operatic career included early engagements at the Wexford Festival, Welsh National Opera, Opera North, and Glyndebourne Festival Opera before joining English National Opera in 1984. During her time with ENO, Lesley starred in many productions and won critical acclaim for her portrayals of both comic and serious roles. Lesley made her Royal Opera debut in their production of The Merry Widow in 1997. She returned to the Coliseum in the spring of 2001 for a revival of her acclaimed Rosina in Rossini’s ‘Barber of Seville’, having first performed the role there in 1998. She is now a member of the ENO's Board of Directors. Internationally Lesley has performed throughout Europe, the USA, Australia, Russia, Brazil, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea. For Millennium Eve, Lesley sang opera and pop classics with Bryan Ferry, The Eurythmics and Mick Hucknall in the grounds of the Royal Observatory and National Maritime Museum in Greenwich to celebrate the arrival of the new century. In 2000 her autobiography 'Notes from a Small Soprano' was published by Hodder and Stoughton and during that year she appeared at the first-ever ‘Classical Brit Awards’, a gala fundraising concert and musical celebration for Dame Elizabeth Taylor and performed the very last Abide With Me at the 2000 FA Cup Final (prior to the closure of Wembley Stadium) in aid of the NSPCC. In 2003, Lesley joined the radio station, Classic FM as a weekly presenter with her own show on Saturday evenings. In January 2004, Lesley took part in the inauguration ceremony for Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 before travelling to Australia for concerts at the renowned Leeuwin Winery with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and guest artist, Anthony Warlow. The concerts were such a success that she returned to Australia in 2005 for a concert tour with Anthony. Also in 2004 Lesley was invited to be one of the celebrity dancers on the BBC’s hit show ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, together with her professional dance partner, Anton Du Beke, she reached the semi- finals of the competition. In the autumn she sang the role of The Fox in Rachel Portman’s new opera, ‘The Little Prince’, which was filmed for BBC2, and took part in BBC1’s series ‘Who Do You Think You Are? In February 2005 Lesley was invited to be one of the judges of the BBC’s ‘Comic Relief Does Fame Academy’ and in May she both sang at and hosted the 2005 ‘Classical Brit Awards’, filmed at the Royal Albert Hall. In the autumn Lesley took the title role in Welsh National Opera’s new production of The Merry Widow which toured the UK. In spring 2006 Lesley joined ITV’s hit show ‘Loose Women’ as a regular weekly guest. Lesley was awarded a CBE in the 2002 New Year's Honours List for Services to Music. THE LESLEY GARRETT FAN CLUB Fans will receive a twice-yearly newsletter from Lesley, concert and appearance information, special events and much more! If you would like to join the Fan Club, please send a self- addressed stamped envelope to: The Lesley Garrett Fan Club Po Box 26182 LONDON Lesley Garrett and Friends – Programme Notes SW8 1YQ www.lesleygarrett.co.uk Tolga Kashif Music Director London born Tolga Kashif is regarded as one of the most diversely talented musicians of his generation, with success ranging from a critically-acclaimed CD of Richard Strauss tone poems to the musical direction of the BBC Children in Need's Platinum-selling single, 'Perfect Day'. He studied conducting and composition at the Royal College of Music, then later at Bristol University with Derek Bourgeois. His professional début was with the London Philharmonic, after which he has been a frequent guest in this country with the Royal Philharmonic, City of London Sinfonia, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Northern Sinfonia. In 1992 was appointed Associate Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra. Overseas engagements have included conducting the Polish National Symphony and the St Petersburg Philharmonic and he undertook a successful series of concerts at the 1989 Istanbul International Festival with the RLPO. He gave several concerts with the Presidential Orchestra of Turkey and returned to Turkey at the end of 2003 to conduct in Bursa. Since 1989 Tolga Kashif has been an established composer and a creative partner in The Music Sculptors, one of the principal music companies specialising in sound-to-picture, with numerous commissions from the BBC and all of the major broadcasters. Combining the roles of Composer, Conductor and Producer, he has worked with the BBC Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony, English Chamber and National Symphony. Among notable successes are the soundtrack for the award-winning animation 'First Snow of Winter', 'Where the Heart Is' for ITV and documentaries such as 'QED' and the BBC's 'Gulf War'. He has also written and performed many prominent advertising campaigns. 1997's 'Perfect Day' single featured artists such as Elton John, David Bowie, Bono, Lesley Garrett, Sir Andrew Davis, the Brodsky Quartet and Courtney Pine and led to the receipt of many accolades and media awards. Media work includes the score of a feature film, 'The Criminal', released in Spring 2001 and available on DVD, and he also conducted the English Chamber Orchestra on a CD of guitar works. He conducted the world premiere of his composition 'The Garden of the Prophet' with the ECO at the Barbican. In 2001 he composed two songs and arranged a third for Lesley Garrett's CD ‘Travelling Light’ on EMI. The animation '2nd Star to the Left', featuring the voices of Hugh Laurie and Barbara Windsor was broadcast on BBC TV on Christmas Day 2001, featuring another successful score. March 2002 saw the world premiere of a new song written by him commissioned by the National Foundation for Youth Music. "Drop in the Ocean" was performed at the Royal Festival Hall and received a further performance at the Commonwealth Day Observance at Westminster Abbey in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Further performances number over 500, with the total number of performers in the ‘000s. In 2001 Tolga Kashif was commissioned by EMI Classics to compose a symphony piece based on the music of legendary group, Queen. The Queen Symphony was released on EMI Classics in 2002, and received its world premiere at the Royal Festival Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by the composer. Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor attended the performance, as did Freddie Mercury’s mother Jer Bulsara and the CD has been a great success, featuring regularly in international Classical Top 10’s. Tolga was also Arranger and Producer for Lesley Garrett's last two CDs, both released on EMI Classics. Lesley Garrett and Friends – Programme Notes In 2003 he directed the Northern Sinfonia in a successful UK tour with Lesley Garrett and in June gave the Turkish premiere of The Queen Symphony as the opening concert of the International Izmir Festival with the Royal Philharmonic before an audience of 4,500.