Watford Philharmonic Preview

Watford Philharmonic Society’s Concert at the Watford Colosseum on Saturday 13th March has an exciting last minute change to what was already a very full celebrity programme.

In addition to the internationally renowned baritone, Andrew Shore, singing the solo in Sir William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast, we will be welcoming the exceptionally talented local young pianist Lara Ömeroğlu to perform Saint-Saëns’ Second Piano Concerto.

The choir and orchestra of the Watford philharmonic Society will be conducted by Terry Edwards, former chorus master with The Royal Opera, at Covent Garden.

The full programme will be Saint-Saëns’ Second Piano Concerto, Rejoice in the Lamb by Benjamin Britten, Five Mystical Songs by Vaughan Williams and the magnificent Belshazzar’s Feast by Sir William Walton. (Tintagel, by Sir Arnold Bax, will now be performed at a future concert.)

Joining the Watford Phil for the evening will be one of Britain’s leading baritones, Andrew Shore. A noted concert and operatic performer he currently has a major role with the English National Opera in Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love. Andrew has strong associations with Watford as he lives in Chorleywood.

Lara Ömeroğlu is 16, lives in Watford, and is a pupil at The Purcell School of Music in Bushey and the Royal College of Music’s Junior Department.  In February 2010, Lara made excellent progress in the keyboard section of the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition.  Watford Philharmonic Society hopes that inviting her to play with our orchestra will give her some additional performance experience before she moves on to the later stages of this prestigious bi-annual event.

Rejoice in the Lamb is a work for four soloists and choir, and gives the Watford Phil the opportunity to make use of the Colosseum’s recently restored Compton organ.  Benjamin Britten wrote this work in 1943, which is based on an intriguing, and rather strange poem Jubilate Agno written by the 18th Century poet Christopher Smart.

Written originally for the Three Choirs Festival in Worcester in 1911, Five Mystical Songs is a setting of four verses by the 17th Century poet John Herbert.  The fifth song – Antiphon – is the well-known hymn and anthem ‘Let all the world in every corner sing’.

The final, and main work of the evening, will be Sir William Walton’s great work Belshazzar’s Feast.  This work was written for a double choir, and scoring for a large brass and percussion section.  It tells the biblical story of ‘The writing on the wall’ and the fall of the Babylonian empire.  This will make full use of the Colosseum’s wonderful acoustics and be a grand way to close the Watford Philharmonic’s last concert there for over a year while this famous building undergoes a major refurbishment.

Andrew Shore

Andrew Shore is one of Britain's leading baritones and an operatic 
performer of renowned virtuosity. He is currently appearing with 
English National Opera as the quack Dr. Dulcamara in 'The Elixir of 
Love', the role in which he made his New York debut at the 
Metropolitan Opera in 2006.

In a career spanning thirty years he has become a firm favourite with 
all the British opera companies as well as houses throughout Europe 
and the USA. Over the last twelve months he has made appearances in 
Brussels, Milan (La Scala), at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and with 
the Royal Opera, Covent Garden; and in the summer he will reprise his 
portrayal of the evil dwarf Alberich in Wagner's 'Ring', at the 
Bayreuth Festival, Germany.

His major roles include Verdi's Falstaff, Donizetti's Don Pasquale, 
Dr. Bartolo in Rossini's 'Barber of Seville', Mozart's Papageno in 
'The Magic Flute', Don Alfonso in 'Cosi fan tutte', Leporello in 'Don 
Giovanni' and Berg's Wozzeck. He has recorded most of these roles for 
Chandos and he can also be heard as Alberich on the newly-released 
Bayreuth Ring Cycle, recorded in 2008.

In concert, recent engagements have included appearances at the Royal 
Albert Hall, Wagner at the Edinburgh Festival and the Bridgewater 
Hall, Manchester, (with Mark Elder and the Halle Orchestra), and 
Britten's War Requiem in Lincoln Cathedral.

Lara Ömeroğlu

Lara, aged 16, began learning the piano in January 2000 with Emily Jeffrey and viola soon after with Sarah Barrett. She was awarded a place at the Royal College of Music Junior Department in 2004 where her full musical training commenced, then continuing her viola studies with Jon Thorne. She joined the Purcell School in 2006, holding a full Scholarship under the Government’s Music and Dance Scheme, and furthering her viola studies there with Ian Jewel. 

Lara has performed extensively in concerts from her earliest days with the piano and viola. She enjoyed performing in numerous lunchtime recitals and evening concerts at Francis Holland School during her time as a student there. Particularly important piano performances at the RCM have included participation in the Mozart Sonatathon, the Junior Department Piano Shorts Festival and ‘Les Six’ Festival Programme.  Lara was also chosen by the Purcell School to perform at the Royal Northern College of Music’s Scarlatti Festival, where she was one of only three selected for performance and interview on BBC Radio 3. More recently, Lara performed in the Chopin Society’s fundraising concert, ‘Champagne and Chopin’ at the Arts Club Dover Street, following which she was invited to become a Wall Trust Scholar. (Lara is also the 2009/2010 recipient of the Purcell School Friends’ Scholarship.)  This was followed soon after by a solo recital at Steinway Hall, London. There have, additionally, been several masterclass opportunities for Lara with the distinguished pianists and pedagogues Dmitri Alexeev, Peter Nagy, Ronan O’Hora and Aaron Shorr.

Lara has had numerous successes in competitions.  She was overall instrumental winner of the West London Pianoforte Festival in 2004, the Francis Holland’s Fanny Davies Junior Prize in 2005 and the Ealing Music Festival’s Woodward Trophy in 2006. She has performed at Wigmore Hall as a winner in the Jaques Samuel’s Junior Intercollegiate Piano Competition in 2007. She also performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto in D minor K.466 with the Purcell Sinfonia in May 2008 as a result of winning the Purcell School’s Middle School Concerto Competition. In February 2009, Lara competed in the International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Weimar and was honoured to be chosen as a finalist.  Lara’s most recent competition success has seen her win through to be Keyboard Finalist of BBC Young Musician of the Year 2010.

Not only does Lara love playing the piano as soloist and chamber musician, she has also been a member of numerous orchestras and string quartets as an accomplished viola player.  She was leader of the Francis Holland Orchestra viola section and has been a member of the NCO and the RCM Junior Department String Orchestra.  She is now co-leader of the RCMJD Symphony Orchestra and leads the viola section of the Purcell Sinfonia.