Wye Valley Music’s next concert at 3pm on Sunday, June 18th in St. Briavels Church, St. Briavels, will be given by Lorna Day (mezzo-soprano) and Olivia Dance (pianist). The programme showcases the settings by British composer Madeleine Dring (1923-1977) of songs by Shakespeare and poems by John Betjeman together with the Cabaret Songs by Benjamin Britten ( settings of poems by WH Auden) and works by composers who influenced her including Ralph Vaughan-Williams, Arthur Sullivan, George Gershwin and Cole Porter

Lorna and Olivia met at the Royal Northern College of Music, where they discovered a shared love of English Song, including the work of Madeleine Dring. However, their plans were derailed by the Covid lockdowns and their recital at the Northern College had to be cancelled. They then graduated into a lockdown-hit world in which all performing was nigh on impossible. Two years on, Lorna is steadily building a successful career both on stage and the concert platform, where her solo highlights include a recent recital at the English Music Festival. She is a member of the Kantos Chamber Choir and the BBC Radio 4 service singers. Olivia, meanwhile, is one of the key developmental music team behind their acclaimed Music Memory Café, for people living with dementia in the Lower Wye Valley, and has become a regular performer for both our ‘Schools’ and ‘Mind’ community engagement programmes.

Madeleine Dring was born into a talented musical family in 1923 and on her tenth birthday, won a scholarship to study at the Royal Conservatory of Music in London, and eventually studied composition with Herbert Howells, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Gordon Jacob. Madeleine was soon composing “genial and graceful” incidental music and songs for amateur and professional theatre . Six volumes of her songs were published after her early death in 1977 and since then many of her other works have been rediscovered, published, performed and recorded, especially in the United States.

Wye Valley Music is delighted to have Lorna and Olivia on June 18th to give their long planned recital in St.Briavels church for what promises to be a perfect concert for a summer afternoon!

The programme includes; Madeleine Dring – Shakespeare songs and Betjeman songs; Ralph Vaughan Williams – Silent Noon; Benjamin Britten – Cabaret Songs; Arthur Sullivan – Orpheus With His Lute & The Willow Song

George Gershwin – The Man I Love, I Love to Rhyme & Isn’t it a Pity?

Tickets are £18 (£15 for WVM members and £5 for students 25 and under). A printed programme is included in the ticket price. To buy tickets, visit the website www.wyevalleymusic.org.uk and follow the links. If you have any difficulty booking, please leave a message on their help line 01291 330020.