Susan Gritton, Choir of St John's College, Cambridge & Andrew Nethsingha
Biography Susan Gritton, Choir of St John's College, Cambridge & Andrew Nethsingha
Susan Gritton
Winner of the 1994 Kathleen Ferrier Award, Susan Gritton is one of the most accomplished lyric sopranos of her generation, acclaimed for her versatility in roles ranging from Handel and Mozart to Britten, Janacek and Strauss.
After studying botany at Oxford and London Universities she moved her avocational voice training up to a professional level, then took up singing as a career. She joined Graham Johnson in the International Songmakers’ series, and made extensive appearances in recital throughout England, especially in summer festivals, appearing at the Lichfield, Arundel, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Harrowgate, and City of London Festivals, as well as in the Salzburg Mozartwoche. In 1996 she was invited to appear three times in the BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts. One of her early festival appearances was at the Istanbul Festival where she sang the part of Blondchen in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail in the city where the story is set.
The first few years in her operatic career were in smaller and character parts, such as the First Niece in Britten’s Peter Grimes, Frasquita in Bizet’s Carmen, Clarine and Thalie in Rameau’s Platée, Xenia in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, Sister Constance in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites, the Mermaid in Weber’s Oberon, and Tiny in Britten’s Paul Bunyan. She sang Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the Berlin Staatsoper, the Governess in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and Lucia in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia in the Aldeburgh Festival under Steuart Bedford’s direction, Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and Zerlina in Don Giovanni for the Glyndebourne Festival and Touring Operas.
Gritton became known as a reliable recording artist early in her career. On the Tring label she sang the soprano part in Górecki’s Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs), the part of Miss Wordsworth in the Collins Classics recording under Steuart Bedford of Britten’s Albert Herring, a set of Holst songs for the same label, Vivaldi’s Ottone in Villa on Chandos with Hickox conducting, several Purcell discs, sacred music of Handel and Handel’s Deborah and Occasional Oratorio with the King’s Consort on Hyperion, and, on Deutsche Grammophon, Handel’s Solomon (as the Queen of Sheba) and Messiah as well as Beethoven’s little-known Vesta’s Feuer.
Sam Furness
Described as having “all the makings of a star” in the Guardian and hailed as “a lyric tenor clearly going places” in Opera magazine, tenor Sam Furness has sung major roles for Scottish Opera, Garsington Opera and the Teatro Real, Madrid, always earning praise for his compelling acting and innate musicality.
In the 2021-22 season he sings Kudryas Katya Kabanova at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Turiddu Cavalleria rusticana and Beppe Pagliacci at Åbo Svenska Teater, Turku, and Pang Turandot at Grand Théâtre de Genève. He also sings Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore and Mass in C Minor with Hertfordshire Chorus in St Alban’s Cathedral.
Recent highlights include his house debuts at Grand Théâtre de Genève (Vitek The Makropoulos Case), Opernhaus Zürich (Albert Gregor The Makropoulos Case), and Theater an der Wien (Rodolphe Guillaume Tell); White King/Mad Hatter Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, Glass Maker Death in Venice, Novice Billy Budd and Simpleton Boris Godunov (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden); and Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
George Humphreys
was born in Oxford and educated at St. John’s College, Cambridge, the Royal Academy of Music and the International Opernstudio Zürich. His recent Operatic appearances include Don Giovanni, Il Conte in Le Nozze di Figaro and Valentin in Gounod's Faust, all at the Salzburger Landestheater, Eugene Onegin at the Buxton Festival, Leporello in the Nederlandse Reisopera's production of Don Giovanni, and roles at English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, the Aldeburgh Festival and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Recent concert highlights include Mahler Symphony No.8 with Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio Orchestra, Bach's Weihnachts Oratorium with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Dido and Aeneas at the Wigmore Hall, the Matthäus Passion at the London Handel Festival and performances of Handel’s Messiah with the Gabrieli Consort, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He has given Lieder recitals at Lille Opera, Opernhaus Zürich, the Wigmore Hall in London and the Oxford Lieder Festival and he was recently made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in London. He is currently a member of the ensemble at the Salzburger Landestheater.
