Camilla Kerslake
As the top names in classical music gather together for the announcement of the winners of seven awards, the audience will be treated to performances from the biggest names in the classical spectrum under one roof.
Joining Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and the previously announced André Rieu and the Johan Strauss Orchestra will be: acclaimed welsh baritone Bryn Terfel, The Band of the Coldstream Guards, Rolando Villazón and soprano Julia Lezhneva. Additionally, the Royal Albert Hall stage will play host to two very special collaborations as five nominees put aside their battle for the NS&I Album of the Year award to perform together.
For the very first time Blake, Camilla Kerslake and Howard Goodall’s Enchanted Voices will perform together and uniting their welsh voices will be Rhydian with Only Men Aloud. Orchestral accompaniment will come from the London Chamber Orchestra.
Making his debut Classical BRIT Awards performance, Dutch violinist André Rieu and the Johan Strauss Orchestra recently broke the record, originally set by Nigel Kennedy, for the highest-charting instrumental album with ‘Forever Vienna’. The Strauss Waltzes have earned him the title of the fifth biggest selling artist (of any genre) in the UK this year.
Multiple Classical BRIT Award winner and one of the nominees for this year’s Male Artist of the Year, Bryn Terfel, makes a welcome return to the ceremony. Welsh born Bryn Terfel started singing at an early age and made his operatic debut in 1990 as ‘Guglielmo’ in ‘Cosi fan Tutte’ at the Welsh National Opera. Since then he has had several successful albums and made critically acclaimed operatic performances around the globe.
Another debut Classical BRIT performance comes from The Band of the Coldstream Guards, whose debut album for Decca, ‘Heroes’, sees them nominated for the coveted NS&I Album of the Year. Established in 1785, the band of the Coldstream Guards is one of the oldest military bands in the British Army and can be seen regularly at the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace in the summer months.
Following his successful and critically acclaimed return to the opera stage in Vienna last month, the Classical BRIT Awards 2010 welcomes back Mexican tenor Rolando Villazón. His appearance alongside Katherine Jenkins as a judge on the ITV1 reality show ‘Popstar To Operstar’ led to a very successful album release in February and he is set to have a very exciting 2010.
Dame Kiri te Kanawa’s latest protégé, the 20-year-old Russian soprano, Julia Lezhneva, will also be making her debut performance at the Classical BRIT Awards this year and looks set to shine. After graduating with a distinction from Gretchaninov Music School Julia is now studying with Tenor Dennis O’Neill at Cardiff International Academy of Voice and has previously attended master classes with Elena Obraztsona. Julia has won many awards including the Russian ‘Triumph’ award for her contribution to art and culture.
Classically trained Rhydian will be performing in collaboration with fellow Welsh natives Only Men Aloud at the Classical BRIT Awards ceremony this year. Rhydian Roberts first burst into the public eye as a finalist on the X Factor in 2007 and went on to sell over 500,000 copies of his debut album. Flexing their vocal chords next to Rhydian will be the 20 strong male voice choir Only Men Aloud. First formed in 2000 by Welsh National Opera singer Tim Rhys Evans, Only Men Aloud first rose to fame in 2008 by winning the BBC reality series ‘Last Choir Standing’. Both acts are nominated for NS&I Album of the Year.
Coup of the night will come from triple NS&I album of the year collaboration featuring Camilla Kerslake, Blake and Howard Goodall’s Enchanted Voices.
Demonstrating her extraordinary voice will be 21-year-old Camilla Kerslake. The determined soprano managed to get herself signed to Gary Barlow’s record label ‘Future’ by turning up on a daily basis to a London studio where Take That were recording and thrusting her demo at Gary. It paid off, Gary was “captivated” by Camilla’s voice and Ms Kerslake now has a chart-topping album and will be touring with The Priests this summer.
She joins the massively successful vocal quartet Blake. The four young men first discovered how good their voices sounded together by spontaneously performing a rendition of ‘Moon River’ at a house party in London. They triumphed with a Classical BRIT win in 2008. The final addition to the triple performance will be Howard Goodall’s Enchanted Voices. Winning ‘Composer of the year’ at last year’s Classical BRIT Awards Howard Goodall is currently ‘composer-in-residence’ for the Classic FM radio station and his album ‘Enchanted Voices’, a modern exploration of ancient chants, has proved to be a best seller.
In the genre of Opera, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is a familiar figure in the leading opera houses of the world. Her operatic repertoire includes major heroines of the Austro-German school; Mozart’s Countess (Le Nozze di Figaro), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Pamina (Die Zauberflote) and Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte), Richard Strauss’ Marschallin (Der Rosenkavalier), Countess (Capriccio) and the title role in Arabella in addition to Italian roles such as Mimi (Puccini’s La Boheme), Violetta (Verdi’s La Traviata) and Elizabeth (Verdi’s Don Carlos) and the French roles of Marguerite (Gounod’s Faust) and Micaela (Bizet’s Carmen). Amongst her many defining moments, in 1990 Dame Kiri Te Kanawa recorded an extraordinary version of Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story with José Carreras.
This Award comes at a pinnacle moment in Dame Kiri Te Kanawa’s career as she uses her lifetimes experience to nurture brand new talent. Not only does she have her own foundation helping young New Zealand students, but she also teaches each July at the Solti Te Kanawa Accademia in Italy as well as doing master classes around the world including the Met where she is currently performing and teaching. Shortly Dame Kiri Te Kanawa begins a nationwide search for an opera star of the future. The BBC Radio 2 Kiri Prize will look for real vocal talent that, through the medium of radio, will be judged solely on vocal talent alone. In fact, early in Dame Kiri Te Kanawa career, she herself won a radio competition, bringing her story full circle.
Returning for their third year is the London Chamber Orchestra (LCO). LCO is the longest established professional chamber orchestra in the UK, founded in 1921 by Anthony Bernard, and premiering at the London home of Viscountess Nancy Astor. The LCO’s patron is HRH The Duchess of Cornwall who attended the Classical BRIT Awards in 2007 and 2009. They will be conducted by Christopher Warren-Green.
The Classical BRIT Awards were established in 2000 to recognise the outstanding achievements of classical musicians and the growth of classical music sales in the UK. The awards have proved their vital importance to the UK music industry with the huge impact the event has on record sales of those artists performing, winning and nominated.
As the top names in classical music gather together for the announcement of the winners of seven awards, the audience will be treated to performances from the biggest names in the classical spectrum under one roof.
Joining Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and the previously announced André Rieu and the Johan Strauss Orchestra will be: acclaimed welsh baritone Bryn Terfel, The Band of the Coldstream Guards, Rolando Villazón and soprano Julia Lezhneva. Additionally, the Royal Albert Hall stage will play host to two very special collaborations as five nominees put aside their battle for the NS&I Album of the Year award to perform together.
For the very first time Blake, Camilla Kerslake and Howard Goodall’s Enchanted Voices will perform together and uniting their welsh voices will be Rhydian with Only Men Aloud. Orchestral accompaniment will come from the London Chamber Orchestra.
Making his debut Classical BRIT Awards performance, Dutch violinist André Rieu and the Johan Strauss Orchestra recently broke the record, originally set by Nigel Kennedy, for the highest-charting instrumental album with ‘Forever Vienna’. The Strauss Waltzes have earned him the title of the fifth biggest selling artist (of any genre) in the UK this year.
Multiple Classical BRIT Award winner and one of the nominees for this year’s Male Artist of the Year, Bryn Terfel, makes a welcome return to the ceremony. Welsh born Bryn Terfel started singing at an early age and made his operatic debut in 1990 as ‘Guglielmo’ in ‘Cosi fan Tutte’ at the Welsh National Opera. Since then he has had several successful albums and made critically acclaimed operatic performances around the globe.
Another debut Classical BRIT performance comes from The Band of the Coldstream Guards, whose debut album for Decca, ‘Heroes’, sees them nominated for the coveted NS&I Album of the Year. Established in 1785, the band of the Coldstream Guards is one of the oldest military bands in the British Army and can be seen regularly at the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace in the summer months.
Following his successful and critically acclaimed return to the opera stage in Vienna last month, the Classical BRIT Awards 2010 welcomes back Mexican tenor Rolando Villazón. His appearance alongside Katherine Jenkins as a judge on the ITV1 reality show ‘Popstar To Operstar’ led to a very successful album release in February and he is set to have a very exciting 2010.
Dame Kiri te Kanawa’s latest protégé, the 20-year-old Russian soprano, Julia Lezhneva, will also be making her debut performance at the Classical BRIT Awards this year and looks set to shine. After graduating with a distinction from Gretchaninov Music School Julia is now studying with Tenor Dennis O’Neill at Cardiff International Academy of Voice and has previously attended master classes with Elena Obraztsona. Julia has won many awards including the Russian ‘Triumph’ award for her contribution to art and culture.
Classically trained Rhydian will be performing in collaboration with fellow Welsh natives Only Men Aloud at the Classical BRIT Awards ceremony this year. Rhydian Roberts first burst into the public eye as a finalist on the X Factor in 2007 and went on to sell over 500,000 copies of his debut album. Flexing their vocal chords next to Rhydian will be the 20 strong male voice choir Only Men Aloud. First formed in 2000 by Welsh National Opera singer Tim Rhys Evans, Only Men Aloud first rose to fame in 2008 by winning the BBC reality series ‘Last Choir Standing’. Both acts are nominated for NS&I Album of the Year.