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Wednesday Lunchtime Concert: Soprano and Piano
April 5 @ 1:10 pm - 1:50 pm
A lunchtime recital of music from soprano Olive Murray and pianist Christopher Foreman – music by Bach, Rachmaninoff, Poulenc and others. Admission free with a retiring collection.
OLIVE MURRAY read history at Cambridge. She has sung a variety of operatic roles including First Lady and Queen of the Night (Magic Flute); Constanza (Il Seraglio); Frasquita and Micaela (Carmen); Female Chorus (Rape of Lucretia); Anna (Nabucco); Zerlina and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni); Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos); Margarita (Faust); Belinda (Dido); Fire, Princess & Nightingale (L’Enfant et les Sortileges); Adele (Die Fledermaus); Angelina (Trial by Jury); Violetta (La Traviata). Giorgetta (Il Tabarro). Last summer she sang the role of Miss Wordsworth (Albert Herring) for Almaviva Opera. She sung the role of ‘Prayer Singer’ at Covent Garden in the production of Porgy & Bess which has subsequently been televised by the BBC. She has gained considerable experience as a recital and oratorio soloist in Britain and abroad singing with many choral societies appearing at Southwark Cathedral, St.James Piccadilly, Fairfields Hall,London, Germany and Montreal Canada. Her oratorio and concert performances include ‘C’ Minor Mass, Coronation Mass and Requiem (Mozart); Nelson Mass (Haydn); Jubilee Cantata (Weber); Messiah (Handel); Solemn Vespers (Mozart); Paukenmesse (Haydn) and Vivaldi’s Gloria; recitals at St.James’ Piccadilly and St.Martin’s-in-the-Field, recently singing there the Pergolesi Stabat Mater. She made her debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall singing the Handel ‘Dixit Dominus’ and the Bernstein Mass and sang in Mendelsohn’s Elijah.
CHRISTOPHER FOREMAN studied at the Royal Academy of Music specializing in piano, piano accompaniment and organ. His professors included Jean Anderson, Rex Stephens, and David Sanger. There he won five prizes for piano, piano accompaniment and history, including the prestigious Tobias Matthay Award, as well as obtaining a 1st class diploma. He was awarded a scholarship for his postgraduate year. He has given piano solo and duo recitals in London and elsewhere in the UK, including 11 concerts at St.James Piccadilly with an international violinist as well as organ recitals in Thuringia, Germany and at various venues in North London. Christopher has been an organist and choirmaster at several London churches. Whilst Director of Music at Shernhall Methodist Church, London he organised, trained the choir and played the organ for 12 full length choral concerts which attracted the pick of young operatic soloists from all over the UK. Since 2012 he is the organist and choirmaster at St. Paul’s, Winchmore Hill with a working repertoire of over 3,000 organ pieces. In April 2017 he conducted a local choir in a performance of Fauré’s Requiem in Winchmore Hill. Christopher has a strong interest in lesser-known British music and has written several articles on the subject for the British Music Society. He is the leading authority on the music of Benjamin Dale, and the author of “Benjamin Dale—A Reassessment”, an extensive four-part essay.
