Recital touring projects with pianist Ann Martin-Davis

Ann and Susan are known for their hugely popular and innovative projects. There are plenty more on the horizon! Here are just a few of their award-winning collaborations...

Lutoslawski:
The Complete Piano Music

Sound Bites

Sound Bites is a music-touring project developed from a set

of recipe songs by Leonard Bernstein.

Bernstein's 'La Bonne Cuisine' is a collection of tongue-in-cheek songs with gruesome recipes from 'La Bonne Cuisine Française' by Emile Dutoit. The songs are hugely popular with audiences across the board.

Classical duo Ann Martin-Davis and Susan Legg commissioned two new song-cycles from Graham Fitkin and Howard Skempton, inspired by and based on recipes from 'How to Eat' by Nigella Lawson.

'…Sound Bites with recipe songs? Any entertainment of this sort has to be of the highest quality and Susan Legg and Ann Martin-Davis certainly were; lovely singing with incredible diction and superb accompaniment made the evening, with all its props, great fun.'
- Buxton Festival review

The three song cycles are theatrically presented to form a gastronomically gluttonous programme.

Sound Bites was nominated for the Royal Philharmonic Society's prestigious 2002 Audience Development Award. The popular project has taken the duo to Salisbury, Cheltenham, Greenwich, Buxton, Buckingham and Stratford English Music Festivals, as well as tours of Nottingham and Yorkshire.

‘A Tasty appetizer!’ - Newbury Herald

Cycles

A compelling new song-cycle by poet Sophie Hannah and composer Gabriel Jackson is performed alongside Schumann's legendary song-cycle 'Frauenliebe und Leben.'

With newly written poems by celebrated poet Sophie Hannah, A Woman's Life and Loves is a contemporary reworking of Robert Schumann's 'Frauenliebe und Leben', a setting of eight poems which follow a young woman's journey through adulthood, from first love, to marriage, pregnancy and widowhood. Produced by Ann Martin-Davis, both song-cycles form an illuminating and thought-provoking programme.

The project has toured major Poetry Festivals, including the Manchester and Bristol Poetry Festivals as well as performances for The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival, Trinity College, Cambridge, Hebden Bridge, Frome, Lichfield and Leicester Festivals.

'Gabriel Jackson…knows he has something to say and he says it with directness and clarity'
- The Times

The Singers Ensemble

Susan’s work with The

Singers Ensemble  has taken  her from stately homes and

theatres, to venues

such as Grieg’s House

in Troldhaugen, Norway.

With a steady stream of opera galas, concert performances and oratorios, the ensemble are always in demand. They have performed in theatres from Sussex to Mexico and are known for their versatility and wonderfully communicative programmes.

All members of the group are sought-after soloists from the international opera scene and concert stage. Jacquelyn Fugelle, soprano, Andrew Mackenzie-Wicks, tenor, Giles White, baritone and Terence Allbright, piano, bring their expertise and dynamism to this illustrious ensemble.

The group are frequently invited back to perform at country houses and stately homes and their most recent semi-staged opera gala at Goodwood House, Chichester, was a runaway success.

‘The audience and sponsors roared their approval and demanded encore after encore’
- Evening Gazette

Projects with guitarist Helen Sanderson

 

Susan and Helen both studied at the Royal College of Music, and formed their duo as musicians on Lord Menuhin's "Live Music Now!" Scheme. Their repertoire features works from the guitar's Spanish heritage and the Folk Song tradition.

 

The duo have given successful Summer Schools, and their workshops for Lord Menuhin's Live Music Now! Scheme have taken them to schools, colleges and centres around the UK. Susan and Helen champion the music of Rodrigo and Manuel de Falla. Their concert at Winchester Guitar Festival this year which featured excerpts from ‘El amor brujo’ with the Eden-Stell Duo was rapturously received!

 

A NIGHT AT THE OPERA

Chichester Festivities
Goodwood House Ballroom

Overture Die Zauberflöte Semele Ariodante Fidelio Carmen L’Elisir d’Amore Serate Musicali The Mikado The Tales of Hoffmann Geneviève de Brabant Samson et Dalila The Land of Smiles Guiditta Kismet Porgy and Bess

Danse des Bouffons Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen Pa, pa, pa, Papagena Where E’er You Walk Scherza Infida Mir ist so wunderbar Entracte Je dis que rien ne m’épouvante Seguidilla Una Furtiva Lagrima La Regata Veneziana Interval Madrigal Barcarolle Gendarmes Mon coeur s’ouvre a tà voix Dein ist Mein Ganzes Herz On My Lips Every Kiss is Like Wine The Elopers And This is My Beloved I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin

W.H Squire Mozart Handel Handel Beethoven Bizet Donizetti RossiniI Gilbert & Sullivan Offenbach Offenbach Saint-Saens Léhar Léhar Herbert Oliver Forrest Gershwin