Friday 3rd February

Charlotte Bowden

Soprano

Ella O’Neill

piano

Purcell/Britten

Sweeter than roses

Faure

Chanson d’Amour

Le secret

Après un rêve

Debussy

Fêtes Galantes

(En sourdine, Fantoches, Clair de lune) Fête Galante

Trad/Britten

The Last Rose of Summer

R. Strauss

Mädchenblumen

 (Kornblumen, Mohnblumen, Epheu)

Quilter

Dream Valley

Now sleeps the Crimson Petal

I arise from dreams Love’s Philosophy

Barber

Knoxville: Summer of 1915

Undine Smith Moore

Love let the wind cry

I want to die while you love me

Amy Beach

Three Browning songs

William Walton

Three Songs (Sitwell

Charlotte Bowden is currently studying at the RCM Opera Studio as an H F Music Award holder supported by the Martin Harris Scholarship, Drake Calleja Trust Scholar, Countess of Munster Musical Trust Award holder, and supported by the Josephine Baker Trust and Sussex Opera and Ballet Society. She is also a Britten-Pears Young Artist, Philip and Dorothy Green Young Artist, and alumna of the Verbier Festival Atelier Lyrique. Charlotte has performed at Cadogan Hall, Snape Maltings, the Aldeburgh Festival and recently made her Wigmore Hall debut as Orfeo in Handel Parnasso in festa for the London Handel Festival and Royal Albert Hall debut with Handel Messiah. Last year she played Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) as a Young Artist for OHP, Gretel (Hansel and Gretel) with British Youth Opera/Silent Opera, and Pamina (Die Zauberflote) for the RCM Opera Studio. She has also appeared as Bridesmaid in Der Freischutz with Sir Mark Elder and the OAE and covered roles including Second Woman in Dido and Aeneas with ETO.

In concert she has performed a wide variety of repertoire, including the Bach Passions and B minor mass, Handel Messiah, Haydn The Creation, Mozart Mass in C minor and Requiem, Beethoven’s ninth symphony, Rossini Petite messe solennelle and Stabat Mater, Brahms Requiem, Mahler’s second and fourth symphonies, Strauss Vier Letzte Lieder, and Tippett A Child of Our Time. Future engagements include Gretel (Hansel und Gretel) with the RCM Opera Studio, Bach St John Passion with the City of London Sinfonia at Southwark Cathedral alongside Roderick Williams, and making her European concert debut with Mozart Requiem in Trieste and Handel Messiah in Budapest

Ella O’Neill is in demand across the UK as a pianist for song, chamber music and opera. In April 2019, she won the Help Musicians UK Accompanist’s Prize in Memory of Arthur and Gwyneth Harrison in the Kathleen Ferrier Awards at Wigmore Hall, where she has since returned to perform in the venue’s International Song Competition and the finals of the Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards.

Other performance venues and festivals have included Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Cadogan Hall, the Royal Opera House Crush Room, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Oxford Lieder Festival, Sage Gateshead as a Samling artist, Leeds Town Hall for Leeds Lieder and Opera Holland Park as part of the inaugural Opera in Song recital series. In May of this year, Ella also performed at Brighton Dome as part of the Brighton Festival, accompanying renowned baritone Roderick Williams and guests. Ella made her BBC Radio 3 In Tune debut performing a selection of these Schubert songs live from the studio.

In January 2022, Ella is extremely excited to have been invited to Carnegie Hall to participate in their SongStudio with duo partner Laurence Kilsby. Away from the concert platform, Ella has worked as a répétiteur for companies including Grange Park Opera, English Touring Opera, Mid Wales Opera, Tête à Tête Festival, and Barefoot Opera. Ella graduated with distinction from the Royal College of Music in July 2019, where she studied postgraduate piano accompaniment with Simon Lepper, Kathron Sturrock and Roger Vignoles.