Mary Bevan, Kitty Whately, Ben Johnson, Ashley Riches & David Owen Norris
Biography Mary Bevan, Kitty Whately, Ben Johnson, Ashley Riches & David Owen Norris
Mary Bevan
Praised by Opera for her “dramatic wit and vocal control”, British soprano Mary Bevan is internationally renowned in baroque, classical and contemporary repertoire, and appears regularly with leading conductors, orchestras and ensembles around the world. She is a winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist award and UK Critics’ Circle Award for Exceptional Young Talent in music and was awarded a MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list in 2019.
In the 2020/21 season, will return to Royal Danish Opera for her role debut as Marzelline Fidelio and for the production LIGHT Bach Dances with director John Fuljames and conductor Lars Ulrik Mortensen. She will also make her house debut at the Bolshoi Theatre in David Alden’s production of Ariodante as Dalinda. On the concert stage, she will sing the world premiere of Sir James MacMillan's Christmas Oratorio with the LPO and later at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. She performs Haydn Theresienmesse with the Handel and Haydn Society and appears in concert with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Orchestra of the age of Enlightenment.
Highlights of last season included Rose Maurrant in Weill’s Street Scene for Opera de Monte Carlo and Eurydice in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld for English National Opera. Bevan recently garnered praise for her Royal Danish Opera debut as Bellezza in Il Trionfo del tempo e del desinganno, for the title role in Turnage’s new opera Coraline for the Royal Opera at the Barbican, as well as for her return to the English National Opera as Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and her debut as Merab in Saul for the Adelaide Festival. For the Royal Opera House she created the role of Lila in David Bruce’s The Firework-Maker’s Daughter, sang Barbarina Le nozze di Figaro on the main stage, and the title role in Rossi’s Orpheus at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.
On the concert platform, recent highlights include appearences with the BBC Symphony, BBC Concert Orchestra at the Proms, and with Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and the CBSO in the world premiere of Roxanna Panufnik’s Faithful Journey. She joined the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment as Mary in Sally Beamish The Judas Passion; performed Bach Christmas Oratorio on tour in Australia with the Choir of London and Australian Chamber Orchestra; and Handel Messiah with the Academy of Ancient Music. She also headlined a tour of Asia with The English Concert and Harry Bicket and made her Carnegie Hall debut with the ensemble as Dalinda in Handel Ariodante. In 2020 she will make her debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Bevan’s discography includes her art song album Voyages with pianist Joseph Middleton and Handel's Queens with London Early Opera, both released by Signum Records, Mendelssohn songs for Champs Hill Records, Handel: The Triumph of Time and Truth and Handel: Ode for St Cecilia’s Day with Ludus Baroque, and Vaughan Williams Symphony No.3 and Schubert Rosamunde with the BBC Philharmonic. In autumn 2019 Signum will release her second disc with Joseph Middleton including Lieder by Schubert, Haydn and Wolf.
Kitty Whately
trained at Chetham’s School of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the Royal College of Music International Opera School. She won both the Kathleen Ferrier Award and the 59th Royal Overseas League Award in the same year, and was part of the prestigious Verbier Festival Academy where she appeared as Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro and in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy. Kitty was a BBC New Generation Artist from 2013-15, during which time she recorded her debut solo album This Other Eden, made recordings with the BBC orchestras, commissioned a new song cycle from Jonathan Dove, and made several appearances at the Proms.
Recent opera highlights include Isabelle in Bernard Herrmann’s Wuthering Heights for L’Opera National de Lorraine, Mother/Other Mother in the world premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s latest opera Coraline for Royal Opera House at the Barbican, Dorabella Così fan tutte for Opera Holland Park, Nancy Albert Herring for The Grange Festival in the festival’s debut season, as Hermia in the Robert Carson production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Bergan National Opera and in Beijing; the world premiere of Vasco Mendonça’s The House Taken Over for the Aix-en-Provence Festival directed by Katie Mitchell, with performances in Antwerp, Strasbourg, Luxembourg, Bruges and Lisbon; Rosina Il barbiere di Siviglia and Stewardess in Jonathan Dove’s Flight (Opera Holland Park); Hermia A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bergen National Opera); Kate Owen Wingrave (Opéra National de Lorraine); Dorabella Cosi fan tutte (English Touring Opera) and Ippolita / Pallade in Cavalli’s Elena in Montpellier and Versailles for the Aix-en-Provence Festival. She made her Englsih National Opera debut playing several roles in Vaughan Williams’ Pilgrim’s Progress.
Kitty is in high demand as a recitalist and concert artist. She made her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, singing Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as well as a recital alongside Malcolm Martineau at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Further recent concert performances included the premiere of a new work by Sally Beamish at the Three Choirs Festival; recitals at the Oxford Lieder Festival and Wigmore Hall. She has given performances with most of the UK’s major orchestras, including Duruflé’s Requiem and Mozart’s Requiem (in Oslo with the Dunedin Consort and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra), Bach’s B Minor Mass (Royal Northern Sinfonia and Scottish Chamber Orchestra), Beethoven’s Mass in C Major (Philharmonia Orchestra), Haydn’s Nelson Mass (Britten Sinfonia on tour in Spain and the Netherlands), Bach’s Magnificat (Britten Sinfonia and Choir of King’s College Cambridge), Elgar Dream of Gerontius at St John’s Smith Square and Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Handel Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall. Kitty has given recitals at the Edinburgh International Festival, Oxford Lieder, Leeds Lieder, Cheltenham, Ludlow and Buxton festivals, working regularly with renowned accompanists including James Baillieu, Julius Drake, Graham Johnson, Simon Lepper, Malcolm Martineau, Gary Matthewman, Joseph Middleton, Anna Tilbrook and Roger Vignoles.
Kitty made her BBC Proms debut in Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Suite from Act II of Caroline Mathilde, and also appeared in a Chamber Music Prom singing the music of Stephen Sondheim. Her frequent performances with the BBC orchestras include De Falla’s The Three Cornered Hat (BBC National Orchestra of Wales) and Nancy in a concert performance of Britten’s Albert Herring with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, as well as recordings of Ravel’s Sheherezade with BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne with with John Wilson and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and songs by Rodgers & Hammerstein, Jerome Kern and Cole Porter with BBC Concert Orchestra.
Last season, Kitty released her second album, Nights not spent alone, to critical acclaim. Recorded in a co-production between Champs Hill Records and the BBC, and accompanied by distinguished pianist Simon Lepper, the disc presents complete works for mezzo-soprano by Jonathan Dove. It includes a song cycle of the same name dedicated to Kitty, which she premiered at the Cheltenham Music Festival in 2015.
In the season 2018-19, Kitty sings Paquette in Bernstein’s Candide at Bergen National Opera following a concert performance of the role at The Grange Festival. Further operatic engagements include Isabella Wuthering Heights Opera National de Lorraine, Nancy. She returns to ENO for the classic Jonathan Miller production of The Mikado. As a regular recitalist, concerts include a BBC Radio 3 recital as part of the NI Opera Festival in Belfast with pianist Simon Lepper, with whom she will also perform a solo recital at Wigmore Hall, Mahler Das Lied von der Erde at the Mizmorim Festival, Basel, The Dream of Gerontius with Crouch End Festival Chorus at QEH, and performances of works by Jonathan Dove from her most recent disc Nights not Spent Alone at the Salisbury International Arts Festival. She returns to ENO for the classic Jonathan Miller production of The Mikado.
Ben Johnson
was born in Llandudno, Wales, in 1946. He studied at the Royal College of Art and has lived and worked in London since 1965.
His first solo exhibition was at the Wickesham Gallery, New York, in 1969 immediately after graduating from the Royal College. He is best known for his paintings based on architectural spaces (some almost forensically accurate, others heavily manipulated) and his large-scale, intricately detailed cityscape paintings, which include panoramas of Hong Kong, Zürich, Jerusalem, Liverpool and, most recently, his view of London which was completed as part of a residency at the National Gallery, London, in 2010.
Over the past 46 years he has exhibited widely in galleries and museums across the world, including the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; the Art Institute of Chicago; Kunsthalle Tübingen; and the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. At the first Venice Architecture Biennale in 1991, Norman Foster portrayed his work solely through Johnson's images and he included him again in his installation there in 2012. His work was part of a travelling exhibition which toured museums in Europe from 2012 - 2017 with several venues achieving record visitor numbers, and the first retrospective exhibition of his paintings opened in September 2015 at the Southampton City Museum and Art Gallery. Johnson has for years been an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects for his contribution to the public’s understanding of contemporary architecture and, in 2015, was made an Honorary Fellow of Glyndwr University, Wales, for services to the public appreciation of the Arts. In 2017 he was made a Member of the Royal Cambrian Academy in Wales.
He has undertaken commissions for the Royal Institute of British Architects, the British Museum and National Museums Liverpool as well as for IBM, HSBC, JP Morgan, British Steel, Hong Kong Telecommunications and many others.
His work is included in the permanent collections of museums worldwide, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Regional Services Museum, Hong Kong; and the Government Art Collection.
