SALUTE THE BRAVE
ASSEMBLY HALL, WORTHING
Sunday 13th November 2022 at 2.45pm
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William Alwyn Symphony No. 5
Sir Edward Elgar Sea Pictures
Eric Coates Dambusters March
Sheldon Bair The Homefront
Vaughan Williams Symphony No 3 ‘Pastoral’
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Soloist: EIRLYS MYFANWY DAVIES (mezzo soprano)
Conductor: JOHN GIBBONS
Leader: JULIAN LEAPER
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WSO is delighted to welcome the exciting Welsh opera singer Eirlys Myfanwy Davies as guest soloist for this Remembrance Sunday concert. Born in Trimsaran, Carmarthenshire, Eirlys is the 2017 London Welsh Young Singer of the Year winner, and was named ‘Voice of the Future’ at the Llangollen International Festival. She performs Elgar’s Sea Pictures, which comprises six evocative songs depicting the boundless scale and power of the sea.
William Alwyn’s Fifth Symphony has a literary inspiration dedicated “to the immortal memory of Sir Thomas Browne” (1605 – 1682). Each section carries a vividly impression quotation from Browne’s great elegy on death which demands music of epic proportions, and this great work by Alwyn most certainly delivers.
Vaughan Williams’ Third Symphony was completed in 1922 and was inspired by the composer hearing a bugler practising and accidentally playing an interval of a seventh instead of an octave, with ultimately led to the trumpet cadenza in the second movement. The symphony has earned its reputation of being a subtly plaintiff elegy for the dead of the First World War and a meditation on the sounds of peace.
The programme is completed by Eric Coates’ stirring and patriotic Dambusters March and The Homefront by American Composer Sheldon Bair.
The professional orchestra of
West Sussex
EIRLYS MYFANWY DAVIES
Welsh Mezzo-Soprano Eirlys Myfanwy Davies was born in Trimsaran, Carmarthenshire. A 2017 London Welsh Young Singer of the Year winner, Samling Artist and named Voice of the Future at Llangollen International Festival, Eirlys is a recent Young Artist graduate from the National Opera Studio, London. Previous to her studies at NOS, she studied at the Alexander Gibson Opera School at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, The Royal Academy of Music, London where she was awarded the Maida Jones Award and Alfred Alexander Award after previously gaining a BMus (Hons) in Vocal Studies from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff. A familiar face on the competition platform, a winner of the 2016 Dunraven Young Welsh Singer of the Year, W.Towyn Roberts Memorial Award, Ye Cronies Opera Award, winner of the Miriam Licette Award, runner up in the Clonter Opera Prize, recipient of the prestigious Worshipful Company of Musician’s Silver Medal Award and Llais Llwyfan Llambed Award.
She has also been a finalist in many other competitions such as The Stuart Burrows International Voice Award, Douglas Rees Memorial Opera Singer of the Year, MOCSA Young Welsh Singer of the Year, and performed with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in 2016 and 2014 in the Welsh Singers Competition at St. David’s Hall, Cardiff. 16/17 season included covering the role of Portia The Merchant of Venice for Welsh National Opera, cover Annina La Traviata for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and La Traviata, La Clemenza di Tito, Don Pasquale and Hamlet with Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Tour Chorus. Other operatic credits include Dido Dido and Aeneas, Mistress Ford in Vaughan Williams’ Sir John in Love and Penelope in Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse for the Alexander Gibson Opera School and Pompea in Dove’s The Little Green Swallow for British Youth Opera.
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Tickets here
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