2021 - 2022 Season

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Haydn's Creation

7 pm Saturday 28 May 2022

Tickets are now on sale at TicketSource.
£20 for adults and £5 for children plus TicketSource booking fee. (No concessions.)
Soloists to be announced.
For more information or help email tickets@ercu.org.uk.
Please note the early start time.

Soloists:
Emma Morwood (soprano):           Gabriel/Eve
James McIntyre (tenor):
Uriel
Ed Birchinall (bass baritone):        Raphael/Adam

Haydn’s tuneful oratorio The Creation, composed between 1796 and 1798, was inspired by the oratorios of Handel which Haydn heard on two visits to England in the 1790s.
The first work ever to have been published bilingually, in German and English, its first public performance, in March 1799, was sold out weeks in advance and was an instant hit. It was performed some 40 times in Germany, England and further afield before the composer’s death in 1809, its US premiere finally happening in 1819.
The work is based on an English poem called The Creation of the World and will be sung in English at this concert. It tells the Genesis story, day by day, from the dawning of Light out of the darkness of Chaos, through to the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. There are fabulously colourful descriptions, musically as well as in the libretto, of the first whales, mammals, birds and fish – and, on the sixth day, of the first man and woman. The text draws on John Milton’s epic poem  Paradise Lost alongside the biblical story, but the joins are seamless. Composed in a post Newton but pre-Darwin world, it reflects a simple but devout faith in a God-created order.

Soloists

Emma Morewood

Born in Belfast, Emma Morwood studied at the Royal Northern College of Music where she was awarded the Dame Eva Turner Award and the Claire Croiza Prize for French Song. Currently working with Patricia McMahon she has sung with many of Europe's finest orchestras and conductors.
Recent concert highlights include Barber's Knoxville: 1915 (Meadows Chamber Orchestra); Beethoven's Missa Solemnis (Manchester Philharmonia);  Orff Carmina Burana (Belfast Philharmonic); Verdi Requiem

(Edinburgh Royal Choral Union (ERCU)); Christmas Gala (RTE National Symphony Orchestra); Mozart's C Minor Mass (Ulster Orchestra); Handel Opera Arias (Prussian Chamber Orchestra, Berlin); Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Simon Halsey); and Beethoven Ninth Symphony, (Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Vladimir Ashkenazy).
Recent opera performances include the roles of Amore and Minerva in The Return of Ulysses (Monteverdi) with Opera Collective Ireland and the Akademie für Alte Musik, conducted by Christian Curnyn. Other roles include Lila (cover) in David Bruce’s The Firework Maker’s Daughter (Opera North); Diana (cover) in Offenbach’s Orpheus in The Underworld (Scottish Opera/NI Opera); Pamina in The Magic Flute (Opera Theatre Company (OTC)); Morgana in Handel’s Alcina (Buxton Festival/OTC); Micaela in Carmen (New Devon Opera); and Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro (Irish tour/OTC).

James McIntyre

James McIntyre is a young Scottish tenor from Dumbarton currently in the first year of his postgraduate studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland under the tutelage of Scott Johnson. Last year, he graduated from there with a First Class Honours degree while studying with Iain Paton.
Recently, he won the Elgar Spedding Memorial Lieder Competition with his duo partner Anna Michels and was awarded First Prize in the Hugh S Roberton Prizes for Scottish Singing including the William Allan Prize. Other competition successes include 2nd Prize in the Leonie Kayser Prize for Singing and being Highly Commended in the Norma Grieg French Song Prize.

Last summer, James performed the role of The Leader in Kurt Weill’s forgotten opera The Tsar Has His Photograph Taken as part of Scottish Opera’s Live at No. 40 outdoor festival and previously toured their new show Amadeus and the Bard around Scotland in Autumn 2019 as well as being a member of the Young Company.
During his undergraduate studies, he was selected by Karen Cargill to work closely with her as part of the Associate Artist Programme which culminated in a performance alongside her at Drumlanrig Castle in March 2020.
James is especially passionate about chamber music and the song repertoire, having a special interest in promoting the performance of Scottish Art Songs. He is also an artist with Live Music Now Scotland alongside guitarist Ross Morris and together they enjoy bringing the treasures of the tenor and guitar repertoire to a wider audience.

Ed Birchinall

Ed Birchinall, a bass-baritone from Hertfordshire, started singing as a chorister at Ely Cathedral, where, with the help of his singing teacher Vanessa Scott, he developed a keen interest in classical singing. Ed finished his music degree at the University of Edinburgh under the tutelage of Eric Von Ibler, and he is now studying for a masters degree at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with John Evans.

Ed has appeared in the 2017 and 2018 BBC Proms with the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, of which he was a member of the chamber choir. He now sings with the Philharmonia Chorus as part of the student scholar scheme. Ed was also prominent within Edinburgh University’s music scene and sang with the Edinburgh University Chamber Choir, Edinburgh Studio Opera, and performed as a soloist in concert. Notable solo performances include the Dvorak’s Stabat Mater (Edinburgh University Music Society), Nicholas Hytner’s production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute (ENO) as one of the three spirits, Oliver at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, ‘Simone’ in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi (Edinburgh Studio Opera), ‘Alfio’ in Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana (ESO), ‘Roman Candle’ in ESO’s original zoom production The Remarkable Rocket. In 2018 he won the Margaret Fletcher Lieder Competition and in 2019 won the Edinburgh University Tovey Memorial Competition. Ed will be singing his masters recital on the 28th June in Milton Court Concert and the Brahms Requiem in November.

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We look forward to welcoming you to one of our concerts this year. 

Season Overview

Greyfriars Kirk Concert

Saturday 19 March 2022, 6pm

Messiah

Sunday 3 April 2022

Haydn's Creation

Saturday 28th May
St Cuthbert's Church

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Past Concerts

To read reviews of previous concerts, click here.