W ELCOME to this evening’s concert. We are delighted to present a joint performance of the powerful and moving Requiem by Verdi. Our conductor Cathal Garvey is Musical Director of both choral societies, Newbury and Billingshurst, so it is with pleasure we join forces to create what we hope will be a memorable evening of great music making. For more information about our choirs, either about future concerts or about joining us, please see the displays in the foyer, go to our websites or talk to any member of the choirs. Liz Wallace - Chair, Newbury Choral Society & David Eckford - Chair, Billingshurst Choral Society CATHAL GARVEY - MUSICAL DIRECTOR Cathal Garvey joined Newbury Choral Society as Orchestra and Morley Musical Director in September 2009 and College Choir. He is also Billingshurst Choral Society in March 2015. Musical Director of Newbury Choral Society He began his career in Ireland where he made his and for two seasons was name as a choral and orchestral conductor. As an Chorus Master and Opera Chorus Master, he worked for most of Assistant Conductor at Ireland’s major opera companies, including Opera Grange Park Opera. He Ireland, Opera Theatre Company, Anna Livia Opera is currently on the Festival, Opera South and Lyric Opera. For these conducting staff of the Royal Academy of Music. companies he worked on over fifty opera productions and has acted as Assistant Conductor Cathal began violin and piano studies in his native for several of them. He has also conducted several Cork at an early age, continuing at the Cork School musicals in Cork and Dublin. During his ten years of Music and later reading music at University in Dublin, Cathal conducted the National College Cork. After completing his Masters Degree Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the RTÉ Concert in Conducting he studied for two years at the Orchestra, the Orchestra of St Cecilia, Irish prestigious College of Moscow Conservatory. As a Sinfonia, the Dublin Baroque Players, the Royal violinist, he has played with the National Youth Irish Academy of Music Wind Ensemble, Dublin Orchestra of Ireland and with numerous Concert Band, the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir, Bray professional orchestras, including the National Choral Society and from 2001 to 2006 was Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the RTÉ Concert Principal Conductor of the Dublin Orchestral Orchestra and the German-based Philharmonia of Players. the Nations. He currently works as a freelance player in London. He has sung and toured with From 2004 to 2009 he was Musical Director of the many choirs, among them the Irish Youth Choir, Dun Laoghaire Choral Society with whom he had a University College Cork Choir, Madrigal '75 and highly successful tenure, covering a wide range of the College of Moscow Conservatory Choir. sacred music and oratorios. During this time he was a noted champion of British music, conducting In 2015, he founded the Ulysses Symphony many works by Elgar, Delius, Britten, Tippett, Orchestra and, more recently, its sister-orchestra the Stanford (Irish!) and Vaughan Williams. London Ulysses Orchestra, which he took on a six-city tour of China in 2017, including a Since moving to London in 2009, he has conducted performance at the Great Hall of the People in Southern Sinfonia, London International Orchestra, Beijing. Covent Garden Chamber Orchestra, I Maestri, London Repertoire Orchestra, London Medical Orchestra, King's College London Symphony Tonight’s Concert 1. REQUIEM & KYRIE ELEISON 2. DIES IRAE Dies irae Tuba mirum Liber scriptus Quid sum miser Rex tremendae Recordare Ingemisco Confutatis Lacrymosa 3. OFFERTORIO: DOMINE JESU 4. SANCTUS 5. AGNUS DEI 6. LUX AETERNA 7. LIBERA ME In order to enable all of us to enjoy the music in tonight’s concert, please ensure that your mobile phone is switched off, or set to silent mode. You are reminded that audio or video recording by any method is not permitted. ELIZABETH DONOVAN SOPRANO Elizabeth Donovan was the 2002 Welsh Singer of the Year and represented Wales at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World in 2003. A graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music she completed her studies at the National Opera Studio in London. A former Welsh National Opera Associate Artist, roles for the company included Blumenmädchen Parsifal, Erste dame Die Zauberflöte, Echo Ariadne auf Naxos, Berta Il barbiere di Siviglia, Barbarina Le nozze di Figaro & Zerlina Don Giovanni. She covered roles including Micaëla Carmen, Valencienne The Merry Widow and Susanna Le nozze di Figaro. Other roles include Héro Béatrice & Bénédict, Marzelline Fidelio, Konstanze Die Entführung aus dem Serail (all for Welsh National Opera); several roles in the world premiere of Under Milk Wood: an opera, written by John Metcalf; Pamina Die Zauberflöte, Fiordiligi Così fan tutte, Donna Anna Don Giovanni & Ortlinde Die Walküre (all for Longborough Festival Opera); Norina Don Pasquale (Diva Opera); Konstanza The Seraglio (English Touring Opera) and Clorinda La Cenerentola (Scottish Opera). Most recently Elizabeth has performed Countess Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro for Diva Opera and covered the title role in Jenůfa, in Czech and English, for Scottish Opera and Opera North. HANNAH PEDLEY MEZZO SOPRANO Hannah has recently returned from playing the title role in Bizet’s Carmen in Dublin and London. Last year she recorded Elina Firsova’s Night Songs with the Marsyas Trio for Meridian Records and made her US debut singing Mozart’s Requiem with Harry Christophers and the Boston Handel and Haydn Society. She also performed St Matthew Passion with Harry Christophers and Streetwise Opera which was televised on BBC4. In 2015 she toured the UK with the Warsaw Symphony Orchestra performing Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and Szymanowsky’s Stabat Mater and again sang Carmen for ROH2 at the front of The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Other roles have included Olga - Eugene Onegin, Cherubino - Nozze Di Figaro, Lola - Cavalleria Rusticana and Rita the Rat - Fantastic Mr Fox all for Opera Holland Park. Romeo - I Capuleti e i Montecchi for Grange Park, Ottavia - Coronation of Poppea and Medea - Giasone for English Touring Opera, Nancy - Albert Herring for New Kent Opera, Melissa - Anna Nicole (cover) Royal Opera House and the title role in the Rape of Lucretia in Oxford. She has performed as a soloist many times for Buxton Festival, ROH2 and the Dynamic Second Movement. On the concert platform highlights include Beethoven Missa Solemnis, 9th Symphony and Handel Messiah with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Messiah with Manchester Camerata and Les Agremens (Brussels and Namur) and Verdi Requiem at The Lighthouse Poole. She has performed galas in Italy, Russia and South America and recitals for Opera Diversa in Prague, Wexford and Buxton Festivals. DAVID JUNGHOON KIM TENOR A 2017 graduate of the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme, Korean tenor David Junghoon Kim is the winner of the much coveted Francisco Viñas, Voci Verdiane and Toulouse singing competitions. A graduate of the Seoul National University, he made his professional debut as Rodolfo La bohème and subsequently joined Royal Opera House in September 2015. Over the two years at the programme he was heard as the Italian Singer Der Rosenkavalier, Venditore Il tabarro, Arturo Lucia di Lammermoor (also covering Edgardo), Ruiz Il trovatore, Flavio Norma, Nathanael Les contes d’Hoffmann, Lamplighter Manon Lescaut, Gastone La traviata, Augustin Moser Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Count Lerma and Herald Don Carlo and Pong Turandot. On the concert platform Kim has performed Verdi Requiem at the Cremona Cathedral, Italy, and Beethoven Symphony No. 9 at the Seoul Art Centre with Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. This season Kim makes a series of role and house debuts: Alfredo in a new production of La traviata at Oper Köln, Macduff Macbeth at the Royal Opera House, Roméo Roméo et Juliette at Grange Park Opera and Leone de Casaldi in concert performances of the world première of Donizetti’s L’ange de Nisida with Sir Mark Elder at the Royal Opera House, recorded and later released by Opera Rara. Further ahead he makes debuts with Opern Zurich and Teatro Municipal de Santiago de Chile. KEEL WATSON BASS BARITONE Keel Watson studied singing and trombone at Trinity College of Music with Elizabeth Hawes and Roger Brenner. In recent seasons he has performed Dr Bartolo The Marriage of Figaro (English National Opera); Zuniga Carmen (Teatro São Carlos, Lisbon); the UK première of Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezín in Durham; and King Shariyaati in the world première of Ravi Shankar’s Opera Sukayna (Royal Opera House and London Philharmonic Orchestra). Future engagements include further performances for English National Opera and his return to Opera Holland Park. Other roles performed include Bosun Billy Budd (Royal Opera House); Fasolt Das Rheingold (Lisbon and Palermo); Iago Otello, Dosifey Khovanshchina and Don Pizarro Fidelio (Birmingham Opera); Zuniga Carmen and Mandryka Arabella (Opera North). He has also performed regularly with Opera Holland Park and English Touring Opera. He also appeared as Second Armed Man in Kenneth Branagh’s 2006 film version of The Magic Flute. Major concert engagements include the concert version of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess (Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra); Carmina Burana at the Royal Festival Hall and A Child of our Time (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra). CHOIR DIRECTOR’S LIST OF RULES 1. I LEAD 2. YOU FOLLOW ANY QUESTIONS? GIUSEPPE VERDI 1813-1901 Born in the hamlet of Le Roncole, near Busetto in the district of Parma, the son of an innkeeper, Giuseppe Verdi became one of the most revered of Italian composers. His work consists overwhelmingly of vocal music, chiefly opera, of which Nabucco (1842), Rigoletto (1851), Il Trovatore (1853), Aida (1871) and Otello (1887) are among the best known. As a child, Verdi studied first with the local schoolmaster and organist in Le Roncole and later with Ferdinando Provesi, organist and music master in Busetto.