Saturday 11th April
Shall We Dance?
Finzi in the 1930s
Lily Mo Browne – mezzo
Bethany Horak-Hallett – mezzo
James Atkinson – baritone
Ian Tindale – piano
2:30pm (75 minutes, no interval)
Ludlow Assembly Rooms
Tickets £25; Under 21s £10
The 1930s was the most fruitful time of composer Gerald Finzi’s creativity. Pianist Ian Tindale curates a varied programme, contrasting his songs with other music of the decade from Gershwin to Shostakovich, with mezzos Bethany Horak-Hallett and Lily Mo Browne, and baritone James Atkinson.
“Among the best young singers in Britain today.”
Bachtrack on Bethany Horak-Hallett
“The rising young baritone has the sort of vocal timbre that seems made to sing serious repertoire — weighty yet suave and noble, with a reserve of power that is compelling when unleashed.”
The Times on James Atkinson
| Gerald Finzi | Summer schemes |
| The too short time | |
| Ernest John Moeran | Loveliest of trees |
| John Ireland | Tutto e sciolto |
| Ernest John Moeran | The Merry Green Wood |
| Olivier Messiaen | Paysage |
| Francis Poulenc | La grenouillère |
| Germaine Tailleferre | Mon mari m’a diffamée |
| George Gershwin | Shall we dance? |
| Amy Beach | Dark Garden |
| Florence Price | Forever |
| Gerald Finzi | At Middle-Field Gate in February |
| In five-score summers (Meditation) | |
| Benjamin Britten | The Ship of Rio |
| A Song of Enchantment | |
| Cecil Armstrong Gibbs | Midnight |
| Sailing Homeward | |
| Dmitri Shostakovich | Rebirth |
| Sergei Prokofiev | To your room |
| Richard Strauss | Und dann nicht mehr |
| Hanns Eisler | Lied einer deutschen Mutter |
| Erich Korngold | Desdemona’s Song |
| Gerald Finzi | Waiting Both |
| To Lizbie Browne | |
| Rollicum-Rorum |
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!
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.
Bethany Horak-Hallett
British mezzo-soprano Bethany Horak-Hallett is acclaimed for her expressive artistry and versatility across concert, opera and song repertoire.
Recent operatic highlights include Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro) for the Royal Swedish Opera and Garsington Opera and Camila (The Exterminating Angel) at the Opéra de Paris. Her 25-26 season sees her English National Opera début; Tirinto (Imeneo) with Cambridge Handel Opera; and Yolanda in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s The Railway Children for Glyndebourne.
Bethany has performed with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Academy of Ancient Music and Dunedin Consort and made her BBC Proms debut with the Monteverdi Choir under Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Other engagements include the Royal Northern Sinfonia, English Chamber Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra, Dublin. She has appeared at the Lewes Song, Oxford International Song and Ludlow English Song Festivals. She studied at the University of Leeds and Trinity Laban Conservatoire and is a former Samling Artist and Rising Star of the Enlightenment.
James Atkinson
Baritone James Atkinson is a graduate of the Royal College of Music Opera Studio, a BBC New Generation Artist (2023-2025) and winner of the 2022 Royal Over-Seas League Singers prize.
He made his professional debut singing Masetto (Don Giovanni) for Welsh National Opera, returning in 2024 for Guglielmo (Cosi Fan Tutte). Other roles include Orest (Elektra), Belcore (L’Elisir d’Amore), Steuermann (Tristan und Isolde) and Count Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro). The 2025/26 season includes his role debut as Figaro with the Orchestra of the 18th Century.
Concert experience includes Belshazzar’s Feast with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Haydn’s Creation with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Schubert orchestrated songs with the Luxembourg Philharmonic, Brahms’ Requiem with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Fauré’s Requiem with Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Handel’s Messiah with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Bach’s St John Passion with Polyphony, and St Matthew Passion with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. A distinguished recitalist, his appearances include the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Klosters Festival, Oxford, Wigmore Hall and his BBC Proms debut at Belfast’s Ulster Hall.
Ian Tindale
‘A wonderfully responsive and assured pianist’ (The Telegraph), Ian Tindale has partnered artists such as Benjamin Appl, Helen Charlston and Roderick Williams.
Broadcast highlights include recitals for BBC Radio 3 with Soraya Mafi and BBC New Generation Artist Santiago Sanchez, and for Canada’s Ici Musique Classique with Harriet Burns and Julien Van Mellaerts. Other engagements have taken him to Het Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, and Palau de la Música, Barcelona, as well as the Oxford International Song Festival and Leeds Song.
An ‘articulate and sensitive partner’ (Opera Today), Ian’s recent discography includes acclaimed albums with tenor Nick Pritchard on Signum (Little Wanderer), and with Harriet Burns on Delphian (A Short Story of Falling and Schubert Lieder: Love’s Lasting Power). A passionate advocate for new song repertoire, Ian has collaborated most recently with composers Daniel Kidane, Freya Waley-Cohen, Emily Hazrati and Michael Zev Gordon. Ian is Artistic Director of Shipston Song, which he founded in 2022.