Sunday 12th April
Shakespeare Abroad
Jennifer France – soprano
Manon Ogwen Parry – soprano
Katie Bray – mezzo
Lily Mo Browne – mezzo
Anita Monserrat – mezzo
Adrian Thompson – tenor
James Way – tenor
Matthew Rose – bass
And Iain Burnside – piano
With Richard Goulding
11:30am (75 minutes, no interval)
Ludlow Assembly Rooms
Tickets £25; Under 21s £10
We explore Shakespeare’s appeal to composers everywhere, in a globe-trotting programme with songs from Haydn to Berlioz, Poulenc to Shostakovich. Actor Richard Goulding (The Windsors) joins Iain Burnside and an all-star ensemble of eight singers.
“She has the talent to become a household name and, if she chooses, an international export.”
Bachtrack on soprano Jennifer France
With speeches and poetry by William Shakespeare.
| Erich Korngold | Under the Greenwood Tree |
| Come Away Death | |
| Francis Poulenc | Fancy |
| Joseph Haydn | She never told her love |
| Brett Dean | Ophelia Aria |
| Richard Strauss | Ophelia Lieder |
| Hector Berlioz | La Mort d’Ophélie |
| Erich Korngold | Adieu, Good Man Devil |
| Franz Schubert | An Sylvia |
| Peter Dickinson | Who is Sylvia? |
| Franz Schubert | Horch, horch, die Lerch! |
| Hugo Wolf | Lied der transferierten Zettel |
| Ernest Chausson | Chanson de Clown |
| Percy Grainger | Willow, willow |
| Dmitri Shostakovich | Sonnet 66 |
| Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco | Fairies |
Why not sponsor a favourite song?
You can sponsor a favourite song in your own name or anonymously, or dedicate a special piece of music to someone special. It’s the perfect gift for the music lovers and Finzi fans in your life!
We’ll include your sponsorship in the festival programme book next to the song title, with your own personalised wording. Once you’ve chosen a song, email Toria to arrange your sponsorship.
There isn’t a fixed donation amount for sponsorship. We make a suggestion of £50, but if that’s not affordable but you’d like to participate, please get in touch. If you’d like to offer more, or even sponsor a whole event, that’s fine too!
Richard Goulding
Actor Richard Goulding played Prince Harry onstage in Mike Bartlett’s verse drama King Charles III in London and on Broadway (and in its 2017 BBC TV adaptation), as well as in the 2016 television series The Windsors.
Other theatre includes roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company, including in King Lear and Titus Andronicus, and as Konstantin in The Seagull directed by Trevor Nunn, and in Posh by Laura Wade at the Royal Court and in the West End.
Richard played Boris Johnson in Brexit: The Uncivil War (Channel 4), and other work onscreen includes Fresh Meat, White House Farm, The Crown, Belgravia and A Very British Scandal. He grew up in Shrewsbury.
Jennifer France
Winner of the 2018 Critics’ Circle Emerging Talent Award, British soprano Jennifer France was described in WhatsOnStage as the “living jewel in opera’s crown.”
25/26 sees Jennifer sing Tytania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Glyndebourne; First Niece in Peter Grimes at the Royal Opera House; and Cecily Cardew in Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest at Garsington. On the concert stage, she joins the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Hans Abrahamsen’s Let me tell you, and sings Ligeti’s Requiem firstly with Esa Pekka Salonen and the Orchestre de Paris.
A prolific contemporary artist, she has sung Gerald Barry’s The Eternal Recurrence with the Britten Sinfonia, and in the world premiere of Brett Dean’s In This Brief Moment with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. She made her BBC Proms debut in 2017 and Salzburg Festival debut in 2019 singing Pascal Dusapin’s Medeamaterial with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. Contemporary opera includes the title role in The Cunning Little Vixen for Opera Holland Park, Alice in Gerald Barry’s Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, First Niece (Peter Grimes) and Lessons in Love and Violence for The Royal Opera House, La Princesse in Philip Glass’ Orphée for English National Opera, and Ophelia in Brett Dean’s Hamlet for Glyndebourne On Tour.
Manon Ogwen Parry
Welsh soprano Manon Ogwen Parry is currently studying on the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama under Marilyn Rees, supported by the Michael Bryant Bursary and the Tallow Chandlers’ Scholarship. A Gold Medal finalist, she graduated from both the Bachelor and Master of Music programmes at Guildhall.
In 2025, she made her BBC Proms and Edinburgh International Festival debuts with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Antonio Pappano, performing the roles of Una Conversa and the Novices in Suor Angelica. In 2024, she gave her Carnegie Hall recital debut, followed by Wigmore Hall alongside Graham Johnson OBE. Their collaborations include performances at Leeds Lieder, and she has also appeared at the Machynlleth Music Festival with Julius Drake.
Recent first prizes include the W. Towyn Roberts Scholarship at the National Eisteddfod of Wales, the Osborne Roberts Scholarship, the Paul Hamburger Prize, and the Susan Longfield Award. Operatic roles include Belinda (Dido and Aeneas), Ida (Die Fledermaus), Röschen (Der Wald), and Venillia (Lucrezia).
Katie Bray
Winner of the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize at Cardiff Singer of the World 2019, British mezzo-soprano Katie Bray has become known for her magnetic stage presence and gleaming, expressive tone.
A keen recitalist, she has performed Schumann and Schubert with Sholto Kynoch for Oxford International Song Festival; Britten, Berlioz and Barber with Michael Pandya at Glenarm Festival; music by Pauline Viardot in Dorset; Kurt Weill in Deal; and a semi-staged Italienisches Liederbuch by Hugo Wolf with Christopher Glynn and Roderick Williams at Milton Court Concert Hall and Ryedale Festival.
Highlights this 25/26 season include singing Rosmira (Partenope) at English National Opera under Christian Curnyn; Medoro (Orlando) at Longborough Festival Opera under Christopher Moulds; Bach’s B Minor Mass with Irish Baroque Orchestra under Peter Whelan; a Messiah tour to Tenerife and Madrid with The Sixteen; Dido (Dido and Aeneas) with Royal Northern Sinfonia directed by Bjarte Eike; and performing St Marcus Passion with the Arctic Philharmonic.
Lily Mo Browne
Described as having ‘a richly hued, deep voice,’ which ‘generated expressive, emotional and dramatic power’, mezzo-soprano Lily Mo Browne is the most recent winner of the Kathleen Ferrier award. She is a recent graduate of the Royal College of Music, and is a Young Artist of the National Opera Studio, London under the tutelage of Ben Johnson. She was a Verbier Festival Atelier Lyrique Artist.
Roles include Filipyevna (Eugene Onegin), Dido and Second Witch (Dido and Aeneas), Old Lady (Candide), Zweite and Dreite Dame (Die Zauberflöte), La Regina (La Bella Dormente nel Bosco), and Marie (Airtime). She has performed solos in Handel’s Messiah, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem, and Tippett’s A Child of Our Time. Competition success includes 1st and Audience Prize in the Somerset Song Prize, 1st prize in the AESS’s Patricia Routledge Senior Song Prize, and the Sarah Harrison Prize in HCO’s Singer of the Year competition. She was awarded the Laurus Florentiae in Florence, and the award for the Best Italian Aria.
Anita Monserrat
British mezzo-soprano Anita Monserrat recently won 1st prize at the 2024 SWR Junge Opernstars competition, 2nd prize at Neue Stimmen 2024 and was a semi-finalist at the 30th edition of Plácido Domingo’s Operalia Competition.
In the UK, she reached the final of both the 2023 Kathleen Ferrier Awards and the 2022 Handel Singing Competition. She was a member of the Young Singer’s Project at the 2023 Salzburger Festspiele and also took part in the 2024 International Meistersinger Akademie (IMA). Anita joins the Wiener Staatsoper Opernstudio for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 seasons as the Hildegard Zadek Scholarship holder.
Anita studied at Cambridge University, The Royal Academy of Music and the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Whilst at the MdW, her roles included Hänsel in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, and the principal role in Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine. In concert, Anita has appeared as a soloist at the 2023 Christmas in Vienna at the Wiener Konzerthaus and in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Other concert highlights include Bach’s St John Passion at the Barbican with Britten Sinfonia, Handel’s Messiah with Laurence Cummings and the London Handel Festival, Vivaldi’s Gloria with the Academy of Ancient Music and Bach’s St John Passion with Philippe Herreweghe.
Adrian Thompson
London born Adrian Thompson is an artist of extraordinary versatility with a wide-ranging opera, concert and recital repertoire of works from the Renaissance to Contemporary music periods.
His recent opera appearances include Skuratov (The House of the Dead) and Canio (I Pagliacci) for Opera Frankfurt; Florestan (Fidelio) for Welsh National Opera; Albert Gregor (The Makropoulos Case) and Midas (Die Liebe der Danae) for Garsington Opera; as well as concert performances as Grigory (Boris Godunov) at The Brighton Festival and Bacchus (Ariadne auf Naxos) at the Barbican, London. He has also performed with Glyndebourne; The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; English National Opera; Scottish Opera; Badisches Staatstheater; Staatstheater Stuttgart; Staatstheater Darmstadt; Théâtre des Champs Elysées; New Israel Opera; Netherlands Opera; Opera Zuid; and more. No stranger to the contemporary music repertoire, he has performed Lutoslawski’s Paroles Tisées, recorded Judith Wier’s A Night at the Chinese Opera and given many premieres of works by British and European composers.
A very experienced recitalist, Adrian Thompson has made many appearances at the Wigmore Hall and at Festivals in the UK and Europe with pianists Graham Johnson, Iain Burnside, Roger Vignoles and harpist Ossian Ellis. He has recorded discs of works by Vaughan-Williams and Gurney, a volume in the acclaimed Complete Schubert Edition for Hyperion, Warlock’s The Curlew and Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin. His discography also includes Britten’s Serenade, Les Illuminations and Nocturne, Mendelssohn’s Lobegesang and Busoni’s Rondo Arlechinesco.
James Way
Tenor James Way is fast gaining international recognition for the versatility of his voice and commanding stage presence. James is passionate about a career taking in a variety of music as both performer and artistic director.
Having followed his initial interest in baroque music through the young artist programmes of Les Arts Florissants and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment he immediately became in demand as a soloist for conductors including William Christie, Rene Jacobs, Harry Bicket and Trevor Pinnock.
This coming season’s highlights include returning to Glyndebourne for Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Bertie Baigent, Hans Zender’s arrangement of Schubert’s Winterreise with the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Antwerp Symphony Orchestra and Laurence Cummings, St John Passion with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and l’Opera Royal de Versailles, a tour of Mozart’s C Minor Mass with the Orchestra of the 18th Century as well as projects with Les Arts Florrissants.
Matthew Rose
British bass Matthew Rose studied at the Curtis Institute of Music before becoming a member of the Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Matthew’s international career has seen him enjoy a close relationship with The Metropolitan Opera, for whom he gave his 100th performance in 2022. His roles there include Filippo II and Monk (Don Carlos), Raimondo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Claudio (Agrippina), Masetto and Leporello (Don Giovanni), Oroveso (Norma), Ashby (La Fanciulla del West), Talbot (Maria Stuarda), Bottom (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Night Watchman (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Frère Laurent (Roméo et Juliette) and Colline (La bohème).
The 2025/26 season includes Matthew’s return to Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, as Sarastro in The Metropolitan Opera’s beloved Holiday Presentation, and as the Speaker of the House for the Royal Ballet and Opera in London. Matthew also performs in Seattle Opera’s concert performances of Daphne as Peneios and with Sir Mark Elder in L’enfance du Christ at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía. In the summer of 2026, he returns to Grange Park Opera for the roles of Fasolt Das Rheingold and Philip II Don Carlo.
Passionate about music and vocal education, Matthew runs Folkestone on Song, an organisation that brings song and singing to Folkestone and East Kent via an international song festival, a bursary award for emerging artists, and a singing academy. He is also the co-director of the Spoleto Vocal Arts Workshop, in association with Mahler & LeWitt Studios and Vocal Masterclass Stockholm.
Iain Burnside
Interweaving roles as pianist and Sony Award-winning broadcaster with equal aplomb, Iain Burnside (“pretty much ideal” BBC Music Magazine) is also a master programmer with an instinct for the telling juxtaposition.
He has performed in recitals with many of the world’s leading singers. Earlier in his career he had the privilege of working with Dame Margaret Price, Victoria de los Angeles, Galina Gorchakova and Susan Chilcott. More recent collaborators include Rosa Feola, Ailish Tynan, Lawrence Brownlee and Roderick Williams. For Wigmore Hall he has curated a number of recital series, featuring both English and Russian repertoire.
He has been Artistic Director of the Ludlow English Song Weekend since its inception in 2002, committed to exploring this rich, diverse repertoire and to celebrating different generations of vocal talent. His discography of over sixty recordings straddles an exuberantly eclectic repertoire ranging from Beethoven to Judith Weir, with a special place reserved for the highways and byways of English Song. CDs of Britten, Finzi, Ireland and Vaughan Williams with Roderick Williams have been critically acclaimed, as have their recordings of the three Schubert cycles. Burnside’s association with Delphian Records spans both a hugely diverse range of British composers and the complete songs of Rachmaninov (“electrifying” Daily Telegraph).
Burnside has a long association with BBC Radio3, both as programme maker and presenter. In demand as teacher and animateur, he works at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, on the Jette Parker Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House and as International Visiting Artist at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. For Guildhall School Burnside has written and devised a number of highly individual theatre pieces, based variously around Schubert, Brahms, Gurney and Britten. Other musical activities feature Burnside as a committed chamber musician, notably as a founder member of Trio Balthasar. He has served on a variety of international competition juries, both for singers and for pianists, among them Concours Reine Elisabeth in Brussels, Busoni Competition in Bolzano, and Wigmore Hall International Song Competition. He is Artistic Consultant to Grange Park Opera.