The Lady Frances Song Competition

Song Competition this Saturday night at 8pm.

The Lady Frances Song Competition returns to Sidney Sussex College Chapel on Saturday 7th March, aiming to find Cambridge University’s finest solo singer and accompanist. With a distinguished judging panel, featuring Lynne Dawson, Andrew Staples and David Owen Norris, all are welcome to hear the best singers in Cambridge interact with these esteemed professionals. Tickets cost just £2 for students and £5 for adults.

The Competition is judged on the basis of technical ability, musical interpretation and performance skills. The pairs are also encouraged to make use of the three different keyboard instruments: the Mietke harpsichord, the Taylor and Boody chamber organ and the Steinway piano. The semi-finals will take place earlier in the day and four singers from the list below will be chosen to perform five songs in the final.

Semi-finalists:

• Katie Braithwaite (Caius), accompanied by Douglas Tang (King's)
• Sarah Choi (Clare), accompanied by Matthew Jorysz (Clare)
• Oliver Clarke (Sidney Sussex), accompanied by Douglas Tang (King's)
• Nicholas Doig (Caius), accompanied by Liam Crangle (Caius)
• Benedict Kearns (King's), accompanied by Richard Gowers (King's)
• Hannah King (Trinity), accompanied by Owain Park (Trinity)
• Hamish McLaren (John's), accompanied by Benedict Kearns (King's)
• Camilla Seale (Girton), accompanied by Edward Picton-Turbervill (John's)
• William Searle (Sidney Sussex), accompanied by Tom Etheridge (King's)
• Toby Ward (King's), accompanied by Richard Gowers (King's)

Lynne Dawson is the RNCM’s Head of the School of Vocal Studies and has been one of Britain’s best-loved and respected sopranos for more than 30 years. Before becoming a singer, she trained as a translator and interpreter and spent several years in industry before studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Andrew Staples is considered by many to be one of the most versatile British singers.  A favourite for works by Handel, Mozart and Britten, he has also made his mark singing Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, Verdi’s Requiem and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde.  He sings regularly with Simon Rattle, Daniel Harding and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and with orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Bayerischer Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and the London Symphony Orchestra.

David Owen Norris is the modern polymath, maintaining careers as a musicologist, broadcaster and composer alongside being 'possibly the most interesting pianist in the world'. His features on BBC radio and for BBC Music Magazine are critically-acclaimed and he even won awards for his iPhone app about Beethoven's 9th Symphony. He studied at Keble College, Oxford and the Royal Academy of Music and has accompanied such esteemed singers as Dame Janet Baker, Larry Adler and Sir John Tomlinson.

The Competition will be held at 8pm in the College Chapel.