Saturday 11th April
Thomas Hardy’s World
Katie Bray – mezzo
James Way – tenor
Ossian Huskinson – bass-baritone
Iain Burnside – piano
With Alex Jennings
11:30am (75 minutes, no interval)
Ludlow Assembly Rooms
Tickets £25; Under 21s £10
Actor Alex Jennings CBE (The Queen, The Lady in the Van) returns to Ludlow English Song Weekend, as we trace the lines of Hardy’s life through poems and songs by Finzi and others. He joins Iain Burnside, mezzo Katie Bray, tenor James Way, and bass-baritone Ossian Huskinson.
“Katie Bray sings with goddess-like perfection, seemingly limitless in her range and colour.”
Culture Whisper
“James Way displays a technical security, mellifluousness of timbre and range of tone-colour that excite admiration.”
Gramophone Magazine
“Ossian Huskinson continues to impress as a singer of remarkable poise, personality and promise…He’s a name to remember.”
Music OMH
With poetry by Thomas Hardy.
| Gerald Finzi | Childhood among the ferns |
| When I set out for Lyonesse | |
| Benjamin Britten | At day-close in November |
| Gerald Finzi | The self-unseeing |
| Martin Bussey | A Church Romance |
| Muriel Herbert | Faintheart in a railway carriage |
| Gerald Finzi | Before and after summer |
| At a lunar eclipse | |
| Overlooking the river | |
| Betty Roe | At a watering place |
| Gerald Finzi | Amabel |
| John Ireland | Her Song |
| Gerald Finzi | In the mind’s eye |
| I look into my glass | |
| The Phantom | |
| It never looks like summer | |
| He abjures love | |
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!
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.
Katy 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.
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.
Ossian Huskinson
Winner of The Mozart Prize at Tenor Viñas 2024 and of The Critics’ Circle 2022 Young Talent (Voice) Award, Ossian Huskinson made his debut at Deutsche Oper, Berlin, singing roles including Pietro (Simon Boccanegra).
His engagements have further included Mr Shiner in the premiere of Paul Carr’s Under the Greenwood Tree and Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro) for Dorset Opera Festival; Seneca (L’Incoronazione di Poppea) for Opéra de Toulon; Speaker (The Magic Flute) for English National Opera; Jupiter (Platée) for Garsington Opera; Beethoven Symphony No. 9 at Beethovenfest Bonn; Messiah with Huddersfield Choral Society; and Verdi’s Requiem with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
His debut solo recital The Roadside Fire, with pianist Matthew Fletcher, is available on Linn.
Ossian Huskinson is a member of the Jette Parker Artists Programme at London’s Royal Ballet and Opera. His roles this season include Angelotti (Tosca), Mandarin (Turandot), Marchese d’Obigny (La Traviata), and Abimelech (Samson et Dalila). Ossian Huskinson appears by kind permission of The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
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.
