Sunday 13th April
One that kept his word
Bethany Horak-Hallett – mezzo
Liam Bonthrone – tenor
Jolyon Loy – baritone
Iain Burnside – piano
2.30pm (75 minutes, no interval)
Ludlow Assembly Rooms
Discover the life of A.E. Housman through letters and songs, in a unique programme devised by Ludlow Song’s Artistic Director Iain Burnside.
Housman’s collection of poems A Shropshire Lad inspired a torrent of musical settings, the archetypal English songs of several generations. The poet himself was a difficult man: a tightly buttoned, unapproachable Classics professor who refused to suffer fools and disliked music. We unravel some of Housman’s many complexities, interweaving his letters through some of the magical songs his poems, contrary to his wishes, inspired.
“Burnside’s vivid narrative is extraordinarily moving.”
What’s On Stage review of ‘A Soldier and a Maker’, a portrait of Ivor Gurney
With songs by Arthur Somervell, John Ireland, EJ Moeran, Elaine Hugh-Jones, Benjamin Burrows, Arnold Bax, Lennox Berkeley, Rebecca Clarke, George Butterworth, Morfydd Owens, Martin Bussey and Roderick Williams.
Plus the World Premiere of settings of two letters by Housman, by Alexander Papp and Hannah Lam, composers who took part in our Young Composers workshop in 2024.
Bethany Horak-Hallett
British mezzo soprano Bethany Horak-Hallett is an Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Rising Star alumni, and a recent Samling Artist.
This season she joins the Northampton Bach Choir, Tiffin Oratorio Choir, Sheffield Oratorio Choir, and Huddersfield Choral Society as guest soloist on the concert platform, and makes her solo recital debut at Bechstein Hall alongside Dylan Perez and Dan D’Souza; she makes her Royal Swedish Opera debut as Cherubino in their new production of Le Nozze di Figaro, directed by Linus Fellbom, and will create the role of Yolanda in newly commissioned opera The Railway Children by Mark-Anthony Turnage for Glyndebourne Festival Opera; and she will also partner with Delphian Records to record her debut album alongside duo partner Natalie Burch.
Recent highlights include concert performances with the Dunedin Consort directed by John Butt, the English Chamber Orchestra directed by Nicholas Kraemer, the London Handel Players, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Irish National Symphony Chorus as guest soloist, and her Wigmore Hall and OISF recital debuts. She made her Opéra National de Paris role and house debut as Camila in the new Calixto Bieito production of Thomas Adès’ The Exterminating Angel, and made her role debut as Cherubino in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro for Garsington Opera.
Liam Bonthrone
Scottish tenor Liam Bonthrone joined the Opera Studio of the Bayerische Staatsoper, in the 22/23 season where roles included Rustighello (Lucrezia Borgia), Brighella (Ariadne auf Naxos), Ein Junger Seemann (Tristan und Isolde), Eurimaco/Pisandro (Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria), Un Lampionaio (Manon Lescaut), Edler I (Lohengrin), Pasek (Cunning Little Vixen), Player 2 (Hamlet) and Bedienter (Lear).
In 23/24 his roles in Munich included: Pedrillo (Die Entführung aus dem Serail); Brighella (Ariadne auf Naxos) which went on tour to the Hong Kong Arts Festival; Gran Sacerdote (Idomeneo); and Remendado (Carmen). He also sang the role of Der Waldgeist in Rimski-Korsakow’s Schneeflöckchen at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl and made his debut with Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under Sir Simon Rattle singing Gran Sacerdote (Idomeneo). In the 24/25 season Liam will take on major roles for The Royal Danish Opera and Glyndebourne Festival as well as returning to the Bayerische Staatsoper.
“High-flying tenor Liam Bonthrone has all the notes for Count Almaviva and can get around the coloratura with the best of them.” The Stage, 2022
Jolyon Loy
Jolyon Loy’s recent engagements have included some notable debuts.
For The Royal Opera, he appeared as Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia, a co-production with Britten Pears Arts, directed by Oliver Mears and conducted by Corinna Niemeyer, with performances at Snape Maltings Concert Hall and Linbury Theatre; for English National Opera, he appeared as Aye in Phelim McDermott’s Olivier award-winning production of Philip Glass’s Akhnaten; and at Buxton International Festival as Zoroastro (Orlando) with Liberata Collective & Ensemble Hesperi. He also took part in Internationale Opernwerkstatt – Festival der jungen Stimmen and returned to The Royal Opera in the 2024 / 2025 season.
Awarded an Extraordinary Prize at the 60th Tenor Viñas Competition, Jolyon read French and Italian at Magdalen College, Oxford, furthering his studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Royal Academy of Music, and, as a Glyndebourne New Generation Artist, at London’s National Opera Studio, graduating in 2021. He is a Britten Pears Artist, Winner of the Bayreuth Scholarship at the 2019 Wagner Society Singing Competition and an alumnus of the Verbier Festival’s Atelier Lyrique.
His recordings include Apollo in John Eccle’s Semele with Academy of Ancient Music, available on AAM CD and nominated for a Gramophone Award.
Upcoming engagements include his mainstage debut at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and his debut with Grange Park Opera.
Alex Jennings
Alex Jennings is an English actor of stage and screen who has worked extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre.
For his work on the London stage, Jennings received three Olivier Awards, winning for Too Clever by Half (1988), Peer Gynt (1996), and My Fair Lady (2003). He is the only performer to have won Olivier awards in the drama, musical, and comedy categories. He is known for his film work, particularly his performance as Alan Bennett in Nicholas Hytner’s film The Lady in the Van (2015) opposite Dame Maggie Smith. His other film appearances include The Wings of the Dove (1997), as Prince Charles in The Queen (2006), Babel (2006), Belle (2013), Blitz (2024), The Phoenician Scheme (2025), directed by Wes Anderson, and The Ballad of a Small Player (2025), directed by Edward Berger.
Jennings has won acclaim for his performances in television including for his portrayal of Edward VIII, the Duke of Windsor, in the Netflix series The Crown acting opposite Claire Foy. Recent television appearances include Stephen Frears’s A Very English Scandal (2018), Unforgotten (2018, BAFTA Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor), Steve McQueen’s Small Axe: Mangrove (2020), Mr Bates vs the Post Office (2024), A Very Royal Scandal (2024), and Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light (2024).
Alex was appointed CBE in 2024.
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.
