 | |
| Type | Company limited by guarantee, registered charity |
|---|---|
| Industry | Music & entertainment |
| Founded | 2002 |
| Headquarters | Oxford, England |
Key people | Sholto Kynoch: Founder-director |
| Website | oxfordsong |
The Oxford Lieder Festival is a UK-based classical music festival, specialising in the art-song repertoire.
The Festival was founded in 2002 by the pianist Sholto Kynoch, [1] and in a short space of time grew to be the United Kingdom's largest art song festival. [2] Oxford Lieder is now a registered charity and in addition to the annual festival which takes place in October, [3] there are regular concerts and masterclasses throughout the year, and a growing programme of educational events. While most events are held in a core set of venues (including Holywell Music Room [4] and the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building), there has been a recent show of concerts outside of central Oxford, England.
In 2010, Oxford Lieder made its first recording with Stone Records under the Oxford Lieder Live banner. The disc, released in 2011, [5] was the first in a series that will comprise the first complete recordings of the songs of Hugo Wolf. [6] Seven of a total of eleven discs have now been released. In 2013, Oxford Lieder & Stone Records released a live recording of the complete Canticles of Benjamin Britten and a CD entitled 'Schubert Lieder Year by Year', featuring one song from each year of Schubert's compositional life.
Since 2014, the festival has broadcast filmed performances online. Jeremy Hamway-Bidgood's 2014 film, 'Franz Schubert: Erlkönig' featuring music performed by Daniel Norman (Tenor) and Sholto Kynoch (Piano). [7] During the 2020 festival, British-Iranian soprano Soraya Mafi performed a setting of Rumi's poem "Heart Snatcher" by Iranian composer Mahdis Kashani. [8]
Since 2023, the Oxford Lieder Festival has been renamed to Oxford International Song Festival.
Oxford Lieder runs a Young Artist Platform, promoting young singer-pianist duos to music clubs and societies around England, Wales and Scotland. It is part of the Oxford Music Network, [9] and works with local schools during the annual festival. [10]
Performers who have participated in the festival include:
| Name | |
|---|---|
| Soprano | Soraya Mafi, Mary Bevan, Sarah-Jane Brandon, Sophie Daneman, Geraldine McGreevy, Kate Royal |
| Mezzo-soprano | Sarah Connolly, Anna Grevelius, Kitty Whately |
| Tenor | Nicky Spence, James Gilchrist, Daniel Norman, Mark Padmore, Ian Partridge, Robin Tischler |
| Baritone | Thomas Allen, Olaf Bär, William Dazeley, Gerald Finley, Thomas Guthrie, Wolfgang Holzmair, Jonathan Lemalu, Stephan Loges, Christopher Maltman, Roderick Williams, Nicky Spence, Mark Stone, Håkan Vramsmo |
| Pianist | Eugene Asti, Iain Burnside, Julius Drake, Michael Dussek, Iain Farrington, Graham Johnson, Sholto Kynoch, Natasha Loges, Malcolm Martineau, Paul Plummer, Sholto Kynoch |
| Harpsichordist | Julian Perkins |
| Narrator | Simon Callow |
Artur Schnabel was an Austrian-American classical pianist, composer and pedagogue. Schnabel was known for his intellectual seriousness as a musician, avoiding pure technical bravura. Among the 20th century's most respected and important pianists, his playing displayed marked vitality, profundity and spirituality in the Austro-German classics, particularly the works of Beethoven and Schubert.
Alfred Brendel KBE is an Austrian classical pianist, poet, author, composer, and lecturer who is noted for his performances of Mozart, Schubert, Schoenberg, and Beethoven.
Hugo Philipp Jacob Wolf was an Austrian composer of Slovene origin, particularly noted for his art songs, or Lieder. He brought to this form a concentrated expressive intensity which was unique in late Romantic music, somewhat related to that of the Second Viennese School in concision but diverging greatly in technique.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau was a German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music, one of the most famous Lieder performers of the post-war period, best known as a singer of Franz Schubert's Lieder, particularly "Winterreise" of which his recordings with accompanists Gerald Moore and Jörg Demus are still critically acclaimed half a century after their release.
Sir Bryn Terfel Jones, is a Welsh bass-baritone opera and concert singer. Terfel was initially primarily associated with the roles of Mozart, particularly Figaro, Leporello and Don Giovanni, and has subsequently shifted his attention to heavier roles, especially those by Puccini and Wagner.
Thomas Quasthoff is a German bass-baritone. Quasthoff has a range of musical interest from Bach cantatas, to lieder, and solo jazz improvisations. Born with severe birth defects caused by thalidomide, Quasthoff is 1.34 m, and has phocomelia.
Dame Mitsuko Uchida, DBE is a Japanese-British classical pianist and conductor, born in Japan and naturalised in Britain, particularly noted for her interpretations of Mozart and Schubert.
Elisabeth Sara "Elly" Ameling is a Dutch soprano, who is particularly known for lieder recitals and for performing works by Johann Sebastian Bach. Performing with distinguished pianists and ensembles around the globe, she was awarded various honours and recording prizes.
Hyperion Records is an independent British classical record label.
Graham Johnson OBE is a British classical pianist and Lieder accompanist.
Ian Charles Bostridge CBE is an English tenor, well known for his performances as an opera and lieder singer.
Malcolm Martineau, OBE is a Scottish pianist who is particularly noted as an accompanist.
Wolfgang Holzmair is an Austrian baritone.
Julius Drake is an English pianist who works as a song recital accompanist and chamber musician.
Sholto Kynoch is an English pianist.
Alisdair Hogarth is a British-born classical pianist, best known for his creation and direction of the vocal ensemble, The Prince Consort, which focuses on piano-accompanied song. He also has a background in solo playing and made his concerto debut in 1996, at the age of fifteen, as soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall broadcast live on Classic FM. He has since performed concertos with a variety of orchestras, including tours of Hungary and the Czech Republic (Rudolfinum). He has broadcast for BBC television, BBC Radio 3 and World Service, Classic FM and New Zealand Concert FM.
Michael Dussek is an English pianist specialising in chamber music and song accompaniment.
Ailish Tynan is an Irish operatic soprano. She was born in Mullingar, Ireland.
Ria Ginster was a German soprano who appeared mainly in recital and concert, including international tours. She was an academic voice teacher at the Zürich Conservatory, and gave master classes internationally, including at the Mozarteum, in Philadelphia and in New York.
Benjamin Appl is a German-British lyric baritone, a classical singer who has appeared world-wide in opera houses and concert halls, particularly known as a Lieder singer.