19.9.23

OPERA GALA 7th October

‘Deception & Delirium’ - arias and ensembles delving into dramatic intrigues, and heightened emotions of operatic plots, with Charlotte Bowden - soprano, Rebecca Leggett - Mezzo Soprano, and Edward Jowle - Baritone. 

Ticket price includes interval refreshments. Limited tickets available. BOOK NOW!

These young opera stars, and pianist extraordinaire Julian Black, are set to entertain and dazzle you with their virtuosity and sense of fun. Expect the usual mixture of tears and laughter, bizarre plot twists, intense passion, and comic relief. And all accompanied by a relaxed interval with drinks and other refreshments, making this a fully sociable and rewarding evening out.

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Charlotte Bowden is a recent graduate of the Royal College of Music Opera Studio. She is also an alumna of the Verbier Festival Atelier Lyrique, Glyndebourne/Jerwood, Opera Holland Park, Britten-Pears, and Philip and Dorothy Green Young Artist programmes. As a 2022 Jerwood Young Artist Charlotte made her debut as Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro for Glyndebourne Festival, which she reprised and covered Susanna for the Glyndebourne Tour. She has sung in concert at the Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, Snape Maltings, the Aldeburgh Festival and the London Song Festival. A finalist in the 2022 Kathleen Ferrier Awards, she gained second prize and the Audience Prize in the 2018 Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards. This year Charlotte played the Dew Fairy in Hänsel und Gretel at Opera Holland Park and will return to Glyndebourne as Zerlina in Don Giovanni in the autumn.

Edward Jowle is a recent graduate of the Royal College of Music Opera Studio. A Samling Artist and an alumnus of the Verbier Festival Atelier Lyrique, he also won the 2022 Somerset Song Prize as well as being a prize-winner of the 2021 Cesti Competition and a finalist of the 2021 Kathleen Ferrier Awards. This year he appeared with English Touring Opera as Emireno/Ottone, Lesbo/Agrippina, Gubetta/Lucrezia Borgia, Antonio/Il viaggio a Reims and Curio/Giulio Cesare as well as playing Starveling in Polly Graham’s new production of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen at Loughborough. In concert he has performed Messiah in Lincoln Cathedral and with The Really Big Chorus at the Albert Hall, as well as Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs with Sloane Square Choral Society. This summer he returned to the London Song Festival for the world premiere of Granville Bantock’s song cycle The Sphynx.

Rebecca Leggett is a 2020 masters graduate of the Royal College of Music, having graduated from Trinity Laban Conservatoire with the TCM Trust Silver Medal for Voice. This year Rebecca became an OAE ‘Rising Star’ 2023/25 and will perform Bach’s Easter Oratorio with the group next spring. This summer she began the 11th edition of the Jardin des Voix of Les Arts Florissants with William Christie and will tour with the ensemble in a new production of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen. Rebecca enjoys performing song repertoire and took first place at the LSF British Art Song Competition 2022 with pianist George Ireland. They were then finalists in the Kathleen Ferrier Award 2023 at the Wigmore Hall.

Julian Black studied conducting with Paul Brough and worked as a freelance repetiteur in London. Highlights included working with Sir Antonio Pappano on Keith Warner’s Ring Cycle at the Royal Opera House, as the Assistant Conductor to Ollie Gooch for the world premiere of Tarik O’Regan’s opera Heart of Darkness at the Linbury Theatre and accompanying performances for the ENO’s Young Artists scheme. He then took up a full-time repetiteur’s position at the Hamburg State Opera, playing on productions including Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Falstaff and Don Carlo.


10.9.23

Sing for Joy on 16 September

Join us for an evening of uplifting sacred and secular music by the Bennet Memorial School Chamber Choir. 

Booking information

This is the school’s premier ​choir and membership is by audition only. The choir rehearses three times a week and enjoys taking part ​in events both in school and the wider community. Highlights recently have been ‘A night at the Proms’ with the Maidstone Salvation Army Band, and a performance of Faure’s Requiem at St Barnabas church and a tour of Amsterdam and ​The ​Hague in February 2023. 

Proceeds from this concert are generously donated towards A Hall for All - the fundraising campaign for the new community hall at King Charles.