Gioachino Rossini
Stabat Mater
Rossini's Stabat Mater (1841) is a warm, operatic setting of the medieval poem. Scored for four soloists, choir, and orchestra, it divides critical opinion — some find it too theatrical for a sacred text, others celebrate its unashamed Italian lyricism. The tenor aria "Cujus animam" and the final "Amen" fugue are particular highlights.
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Movements
Stabat mater dolorosa
Eja, mater, istud agas
Inflammatus et accensus
Quando corpus morietur
Amen. I sempiterna saecula
Chorus
Charlotte Richardson
Charlotte Richardson is a soprano now training at the Royal Northern College of Music, following earlier study at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, King's College London and a choral scholarship at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. Before conservatoire she spent several years touring the world as a soprano soloist with the Irish vocal ensemble Anúna. She has been selected for both the Opera North and ENO chorus mentoring schemes and sings as an extra chorus member with Opera North.
Chris Webb
Chris Webb is a bass and former choral scholar of Clare College, Cambridge, where he also sang with the University Chamber Choir. Now a lay clerk at Southwark Cathedral, he performs with the Monteverdi Choir, London Voices, Farm Street Singers and Blossom Street, and has sung abroad with the Zürcher Sing-Akademie. His operatic roles include Colline in Puccini's La bohème for Merry Opera Company and Sarastro in Mozart's Magic Flute for Opera Anywhere; he took part in ENO's Opera Works programme in 2016–17 and studies with Alex Ashworth.
Emily Wenman
Emily Wenman is a soprano who completed her MA in Vocal Performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama under Leah Marian Jones, and now studies with Gail Pearson. She is a principal soprano with Blossom Street, the St Martin's Voices Fellowship at St Martin-in-the-Fields, the Gesualdo Consort, Seren Singers and Newman Hall Choir, and a former choral scholar of King's College London and the BBC National Chorus of Wales. An experienced singing teacher and vocal animateur, she has led projects for the BBC National Chorus of Wales, the Arts Active Trust and WNO Max.
Graham Neal
Graham Neal is a tenor who read music at the University of Surrey, winning the Robert Naylor prize, before further study on ENO's Knack course and at Trinity College of Music. His operatic work has taken him to the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, l'Opéra Comique and Grange Park Opera. As a consort singer he performs with the Monteverdi Choir, The King's Consort, Philharmonia Voices, English Voices, Sonoro, Orpheus Britannicus, the Hanover Band and Cappella Nova, and sings with the London Oratory choir.
Phillipa Thomas
Phillipa Thomas is a soprano who began in the Cantamus Girls' Choir before reading music at the University of York, where she took an MA, won the University Concerto Prize and became a founder member of Blossom Street. She continued her studies at Birmingham Conservatoire, winning the Conservatoire Singing Prize and placing as a finalist in several competitions. Alongside operatic work she remains active on the London choral scene and continues to sing with Blossom Street.
Rene Bloice Sanders
René Bloice-Sanders is a baritone who trained as a treble in Canterbury Cathedral Choir and joined the National Youth Choir in 2004. He holds a BA (Hons) from the University of Nottingham (2010) and a Master's in Vocal Studies from the Royal Academy of Music (2013), where he gained a Distinction and the Nora Carstairs Bland Award. His operatic roles include Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Marcello in La bohème, Marco in Gianni Schicchi and Belcore in L'elisir d'amore, and his concert work spans Handel's Messiah, Bach's Johannes and Matthäus Passion, Brahms' Requiem and Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony.
Robert Jenkins
Robert Jenkins is a tenor who took his BMus (Hons) at Birmingham Conservatoire in 2012, winning the Cecil Drew Oratorio Prize, and spent five years as Tenor Lay Clerk at Birmingham Cathedral. He sings with the BBC Singers, Ex Cathedra, Polyphony, Philharmonia Voices, Siglo de Oro and the Proteus Ensemble, and with the choirs of Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Chelsea Old Church and Westminster Cathedral. Alongside his choral work he maintains an active solo career and has appeared in a range of operatic roles.
Vanessa Heine
Vanessa Heine is a London-based soprano who sings as a consort singer with the BBC Singers, Philharmonia Voices, Metro Voices and London Voices. Through these ensembles she has worked with conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Sir Colin Davis, Vladimir Jurowski and Esa-Pekka Salonen, and she records with Opera Rara and sings in the extra chorus at ENO. On stage she has sung the title role in Carmen and created a solo part in the premiere of Stockhausen's Mittwoch aus Licht; her voice features on soundtracks including The Hobbit, Alice in Wonderland and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Musical Director
Hilary Campbell
Hilary Campbell is a freelance choral conductor who founded and directs the professional chamber choir Blossom Street, and is Musical Director of Bristol Choral Society, Chiswick Choir and the Music Makers of London. Her guest conducting includes the BBC Symphony Chorus, Trinity Laban Chamber Choir, the BBC Radio 4 Daily Service Singers and the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Chorus, whom she prepared for Mahler's Symphony No. 2 under Semyon Bychkov; she also directed the P&O Ferries Choir to victory in BBC Two's The Choir. She collaborates each year with Judith Weir at the Royal Academy of Music, works as an adjudicator and workshop leader, and is a published, prize-winning composer and founding member of the Voices of London Festival.
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