Once again we host an international line-up of musicians for the Klosters Christmas Concerts this year. In a series of three concerts, we will hear music ranging from baroque to contemporary, solo to chamber to large choral works, reflective to exuberant! Our performers include the best of the young talent from the leading conservatoire in the world, the ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC, London.
Our singers this year come from Australia and Scotland. Soprano Georgia Melville, who starred in the RCM production of The Merry Widow this year, has also performed at Glyndebourne and at stages across the globe. Scottish bass-baritone, who also starred alongside Georgia Melville in the Lehar operetta (might we have their famous duet at Klosters this year?) is a frequent performer with orchestras and conductors including Thomas Zehetmair and Gianandrea Noseda, the latter at the Verbier Festival.
Our instrumental performers are Samantha Rowe, flute, and Lucia Porcedda, clarinet. Samantha, who comes from Cornwall in England, is not only a wonderful flute player, but also a singer, pianist and composer. Lucia Porcedda, from Italy, has studied in Rome, Paris and now in London. She has played with all the major symphony orchestras in London, and her collaborations have ranged from solo to chamber to projects with musicians and dancers, the the group “Dimensione Danza”.
Once again we welcome a string quartet to our line up – with two return visitors, Emmanuel Webb and Hattie Quick, and two musicians new to Klosters – Deniz Sensoy and Clélia LeBret. This international line-up – UK, Turkey and France – will showcase both their ensemble skills and also their virtuoso performing.
Our special choir friends from Lund, Sweden, and London UK bring their well-known charm and style, and we also welcome back the Swiss star harpist, Elisa Netzer. Our pianists and organists this year will be Hamish Brown, well known to the Klosters audience, and English keyboardist, Eleanor Kornas, featuring for the first time. She followed Stephen Johns (by some years!) as organ scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge, and later went on to study at the RCM. She is soon to be moving to a new post in the Conservatoire in Agen, France.
On Friday evening, music to take us into the Festive Season, both light and serious, and a chance to hear the amazing skills of our young performers.
On Saturday evening we will showcase our choirs and ensemble players. Choral works will include famous numbers from some of the great German oratorios, including Mendelssohn, Brahms and Haydn, along with new arrangements of Swiss songs. The concert will also feature operatic solos and duos, along with some show-stopping virtuoso solos.
Sunday afternoon takes us towards the Christmas season, with both traditional and new music for the season from around the world and featuring our wonderful choirs. The whole programme is once again devised and conducted by Stephen Johns.