Soprano Thalie Knight & Nico de Villiers - Sunday 2nd June
Join us on Sunday evening at Warrington Concert Series for a Soprano Solo recital. Thalie Knights and Nico De Villiers (piano) will perform an exciting programme.
When: Sunday 2nd June
Where: Wycliffe URC Church, Bewsey Street, Warrington, WA2 7HZ
Time: Doors open: 6.30pm, performance begins at 7.00pm
Running time: x2 45 minute performances with a short interval.
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Programme
L'Étranger
Trois Chansons de Billitis – Claude Debussy
La flûte de Pan
La chevelure
Le tombeau des Naiades
The Fields are Full – Ivor Gurney
Go lovely Rose – Roger Quilter
Down by the Salley Gardens– Ivor Gurney
Shéhérazade – Maurice Ravel
Asie
La flûte enchantée
L'indifférent
*interval*
Quatre poèmes hindous — Maurice Delage
Bénarès: Naissance de Bouddha
Jeypur: Si vous pensez à elle
Lahore: Un sapin isolé
Madras: Une belle
Sea pictures – Edward Elgar
Sea Slumber Song
In Haven
Sabbath Morning at Sea
Where Corals Lie
The Swimmer
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Thalie Knight
Praised for her “impressive control and poise” (Early Music Today) and her “commanding stage presence”
(Planet Hugill), French bi-lingual Thalie trained with English National Opera on their distinguished Opera
Works programme (2014/15) and was a 2016 Britten-Pears Young Artist where she performed Bach
Cantatas under the guidance of tenor Mark Padmore. A finalist of the 2017 London Song Festival Lieder
competition, Thalie was personally selected by Malcolm Martineau to take part in his residential
masterclass series in Crear, Scotland, in January 2018. She is an alumna of the Royal Welsh College of
Music and Drama and is mentored by Dame Sarah Connolly.
Recent engagements include a festival debut at Buxton International Festival as
Marc'Antonio Marc'Antonio e Cleopatra, Turio Caio Fabbricio (London Early Opera) and the role of
Andronico Tamerlano (Cambridge Handel Opera Company). Piacere Il Trionfo del Tempo e del
Disginganno (Le Festival de musique du Périgord Noir), Prue The Dancing Master (The Malcolm Arnold
Festival), Hänsel Hänsel und Gretel (Trinity Orchestra and Lambeth Orchestra respectively) and a role
debut as Rose Across The Sky - a new commission for Cheltenham Music Festival which was subsequently
nominated for a Royal Philharmonic Society Award under 'Community Opera'. Thalie also sang the title
role in Handel's Agrippina and Zefka in The Diary of One Who Disappeared alongside tenor Tom Randle
(Dartington Arts Festival).
Thalie looks forward to making her 2023 Tête à Tête Opera Festival debut as soloist in The Golden Thread -
a contemporary cantata composed by Alice Beckwith for mezzo soprano and large chamber ensemble. In
2024 she will sing the title role in Zarqa al Yamama, a new commission by Australian Composer Lee
Bradshaw, conducted by Pablo Gonzalez in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
In concert, Ravel's Shéhérezade (City of Sheffield Youth Orchestra), Mahler's Kindertotenlieder (The
Whitehall Orchestra) and Rückert-Lieder (Lewes Symphony Orchestra). Thalie joined Julian Perkins in
performing a series of Handel Cantatas as part of the Cambridge Summer Music Festival, and performed a
recital series - L'étranger - with Nico de Villiers; repertoire including Ravel Shéhérezade,
Debussy Chansons de Bilitis and Delage Quatre poèmes hindous.
Nico de Villiers
Nico de Villiers is a British-South African pianist, coach, and author. He holds degrees from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, the University of Michigan, as well as the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Nico was the recipient of the ABRSM International Undergraduate Scholarship, a University of Michigan Teaching Assistant Scholarship, and scholarships from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama scholarship fund.
He performed as soloist, accompanist and chamber musician in prestigious venues such as the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Royal Festival Hall in London’s Southbank Centre, the Barbican and St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London; Birmingham Symphony Hall; the Kammermusiksaal in Bonn, Germany; the Mozarteum Grosser Saal in Salzburg, Austria; the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Netherlands, and the Terrace Theatre at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Duo partners have included singers such as Chen Reiss, Siobhan Stagg, Barbara Bonney, William Berger, and Matthew Rose. Festival performances include the Salzburg Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Oxford Lieder Festival, Chopin Birthday Festival in Warsaw, Poland, and the International Johannesburg Mozart Festival in South Africa.
Nico is the Deputy Head of Vocal Studies in the School of Vocal Studies and Opera at the Royal Northern College of Music. He previously served as a vocal coach on the vocal faculties of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Royal College of Music, Trinity Laban Conservatory in London, and the University of Michigan School of Music. As researcher, Nico’s focus has been on the vocal music of Dutch-American composer Richard Hageman. In addition to publishing articles in Classical Singer and Opera Magazine, Nico co-authored Richard Hageman: From Holland to Hollywood (Peter Lang, 2020), the first critical biography on Richard Hageman, with co-authors Kathryn Kalinak and Asing Walthaus. In 2022, Nico collaborated with soprano Siobhan Stagg in recording Voices: Songs by Richard Hageman (Aloud Records), the first album solely dedicated to Hageman’s songs. Nico’s forthcoming monograph on Richard Hageman — Song Composer (Peter Lang) is due for release in November 2024.