Richmond Piano Series: Roderick Williams + Christopher Glynn

***World-class classical concerts in the historic heart of Richmond***

Roderick Williams + Christopher Glynn

***Limited number of EARLYBIRD TICKETS***

Adult tickets £20 (£25 on the door)

Limited number of £10 tickets for U30s

U18s go FREE (must be accompanied by adult ticket holder)

Roderick Williams and Christopher Glynn take a winter’s journey deep into the impassioned heart of English song, territory filled with edgy nostalgia and emotional honesty. Their programme includes heart-rending compositions by Ivor Gurney, extraordinary masterworks by Finzi and Britten, and spellbinding miniatures by Doreen Carwithen, Humphrey Procter-Gregg and Errollyn Wallen.

Roderick Williams is one of the UK’s most sought-after baritones and is constantly in demand on the concert platform and in recital, encompassing repertoire from the baroque to world premieres.

Opera engagements have included major roles at leading opera houses worldwide including the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, English National Opera, Dutch National Opera, Dallas Opera, the Bregenz Festival and Oper Köln. He has been involved in many world premieres including Alexander Knaifel’s Alice in Wonderland, several operas by Michel van der Aa, the title role in Robert Saxton’s The Wandering Jew, and the UK premiere of Sally Beamish’s Judas Passion with the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment.

Notable operatic engagements have included Oronte in Charpentier’s Medée, Toby Kramer in van der Aa’s Sunken Garden, Don Alfonso / Cosi fan Tutte and Sharpless / Madam Butterfly and baritone in a staging of Britten’s War Requiem for English National Opera, the title role in Eugene Onegin and Prince Yeletsky / Pique Dame for Garsington Opera, the title role in Billy Budd for Opera North, van der Aa’s After Life at Melbourne State Theatre and at Opera de Lyon, and van de Aa’s Upload for Dutch National Opera, the Bregenz Festival, Oper Köln and at the Park Avenue Armory in New York. He has also appeared as Papageno and as Ulisse / Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Toby Kramer for Dallas Opera, and Christus / St John Passion in staged performances with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, both under Sir Simon Rattle. In 2023 he sang Germont in La Traviata at the St Endellion Festival and recorded the role for a new film by Opera Glassworks which was released on Sky Arts in January 2025. Future engagements include Josh in the new Van der Aa opera, The Theory of Flames, for the Dutch National Opera and Bregenz Festival.

Recent and future concert engagements include performances with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Dresden Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, the Hallé, Bayerische Rundfunk, Britten Sinfonia, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Gabrieli Consort, The Sixteen, The King’s Consort, Le Concert Spirituel, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Berlin Philharmonic, RIAS Kammerchor, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, St Paul Chamber Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, San Francisco Symphony, Music of the Baroque Chicago, New York Philharmonic, Utah Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Sao Paulo Symphony, Bach Collegium Japan, and Singapore Symphony. He is a regular performer at the BBC Proms, featuring as the soloist in the Last Night in 2014, and recently appearing in the St Matthew Passion in 2021, and the world premiere of Matthew Kaner’s ‘Pearl’ in 2022. Other recent engagements included tours of Japan with the BBC SO, of Europe with the RIAS Kammerchor, and of North America with Bach Collegium Japan.

He is an accomplished recital artist who can be heard regularly at venues and festivals including Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, LSO St Luke’s, the Perth Concert Hall, Ludlow Song Festival, Oxford Lieder Festival, Howard Assembly Room in Leeds, Bath International Festival, Three Choirs Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, the Concertgebouw and the Musikverein. In 2019 he performed all three Schubert cycles at Wigmore Hall. His recital programmes often feature repertoire by British composers, including many new works. He appears frequently on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 as both performer and presenter.

His numerous recordings include Vaughan Williams, Berkeley and Britten operas for Chandos, and an extensive repertoire of English song with pianist Iain Burnside for Naxos. Other recent recordings include an award-winning disc of French song with Roger Vignoles for Champs Hill Records, the three Schubert Cycles with Iain Burnside for Chandos, and recordings of Stanford and Somervell with Susie Allan for Somm. He has also recorded Schubert’s Winter Journey in a new translation by Jeremy Samms with Christopher Glynn for Signum. He sang Captain Balstrode / Peter Grimes with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra for Chandos (Gramophone Recording of the Year 2021). He has also recorded his own arrangement of Butterworth’s A Shropshire Lad and other English repertoire with the Hallé and Sir Mark Elder, also for Chandos.

He is an established composer and has recently taken up the role of Composer in Association of the BBC Singers. Commissions include a major work, World without End, for the RIAS Kammerchor and BBC Singers, as well as a commission to celebrate the centenary of the RAF. He was Artistic Director of Leeds Lieder + in April 2016 and Artist in Residence with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra 2020-2022. Currently he is Artist in Residence of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and ‘singer-in-residence’ for Music in the Round in Sheffield presenting concerts and leading on dynamic and innovative learning and participation projects that introduce amateur singers, young and old, to performing classical song repertoire. In 2023 he was Artistic Director of the St Endellion Summer Festival, and Artist in Residence at the Aldeburgh Festival.

In 2016 he won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Singer of the Year award, and in June 2017 was awarded an OBE for services to music. He also performed at the Coronation of King Charles III in 2023.

Christopher Glynn is a Grammy award-winning artist and one of the UK’s foremost collaborative pianists. Praised for his ‘breathtaking sensitivity’ (Gramophone), ‘irrepressible energy, wit and finesse’ (The Guardian) and ‘revelatory performances’ (BBC Music Magazine), he performs with leading singers, instrumentalists and ensembles throughout the world and has made many acclaimed and ground-breaking recordings.

His recital partners have included Sir Thomas Allen, John Mark Ainsley, Benjamin Appl, Fleur Barron, Sophie Bevan, Julian Bliss, Claire Booth, Ian Bostridge, Allan Clayton, Dame Sarah Connolly, Hugh Cutting, Sophie Daneman, Bernarda Fink, Steven Isserlis, Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Christiane Karg, Jonas Kaufmann, Dame Emma Kirkby, Dame Felicity Lott, Christopher Maltman, Mark Padmore, Ian Partridge, Rowan Pierce, Joan Rodgers, Kate Royal, Kathryn Rudge, Nicky Spence, Bryn Terfel, Sir John Tomlinson, Robin Tritschler, Ailish Tynan, Adam Walker, Elizabeth Watts, Roderick Williams and many others.

Chris also performs with many leading chamber ensembles; with choirs including The Sixteen and VOCES8; and on historic pianos with artists including Rachel Podger, with whom he has recorded Mozart and Beethoven sonatas (‘performances of supreme eloquence and style’ – The Scotsman).

Highlights include performances at the BBC Proms, Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Aldeburgh Festival, Royal Opera House, Barbican, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Vienna Konzerthaus and tours to Japan, USA, Canada, Brazil, China and South Asia. Chris has also collaborated with a wide range of organisations, from the Richard Alston Dance Company to Streetwise Opera, and is often heard on Radio 3 and Classic FM.

Recognised by The Times as a ‘visionary’ and ‘inspired programmer’, Chris combines his performing life with the role of Artistic Director at the Ryedale Festival, where he programmes around 70 events every year in beautiful and historic venues across North Yorkshire. He has also been invited to curate several concert series for the Wigmore Hall, and to guest-direct projects at the National Portrait Gallery, Royal Academy of Music, King’s Place and several international festivals.

In 2015, Chris founded Polyhymnia to bring classical song to a wider audience, initially by commissioning Jeremy Sams to create new English versions of song cycles by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Wolf. These new translations have been performed widely (including on a nationwide schools tour with Roderick Williams) and recorded for Signum Records. The Telegraph described the project as ‘quietly daring yet superbly accomplished’, while The Scotsman praised it for having ‘done more to make music accessible than any number of Arts Council initiatives.’

In 2021, Chris was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music. Future plans include the world premiere of a new song cycle by Gavin Higgins, and recitals and recording projects with Roderick Williams, Claire Booth, Eric Whitacre, Hugh Cutting, Harriet Burns, Nick Pritchard, Rowan Pierce, Tamsin Waley-Cohen, Mathilde Mildowsky, VOCES8 and Rachel Podger.

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