Baritone Marcus Farnsworth and composer-pianist Eric McElroy present a recital of English-language song encompassing both the new and the familiar. Well-loved selections of Edward Elgar and John Ireland are featured alongside exciting new song-settings of Alice Oswald (Oxford’s Professor of Poetry) and Gregory Leadbetter (Professor of Poetry at Birmingham City University). The programme is proud to include the world premiere of John Joubert’s final composition.
Book by phone via Worcester Theatres – 01905 611 427
Or at the Huntingdon Hall Box Office
CrownGate, Worcester WR1 3LD (Sat nav postcode: WR1 2ES) MAP
3 June 2022 at 1:00PM
Huntingdon Hall
Worcester WR1 2ES
Lunchtime Song Recital at Huntingdon Hall
Baritone Marcus Farnsworth
Marcus Farnsworth – baritone
Eric McElroy – pianist
Edward Elgar
Rondel from Three Songs, Op. 16 (1885-1894)
Is She Not Passing Fair? (1886)
Speak, My Heart! (1903)
Eric McElroy
The Fetch (2019)
- Misterioso
- Stalking
- Statuary I
- Statuary II
- This
John Joubert
The Right Human Face (2018) [*world premiere]
John Ireland
Sea Fever (1913)
The Three Ravens (1920)
Great Things (1925)
Eric McElroy
A Short Story of Falling (2021)
Tickets – £12
American composer and pianist Eric McElroy has performed throughout the United States and Europe, garnering numerous awards at both state and national competitions. He has composed extensively for solo piano, voice, choir, orchestra,\and various chamber ensembles, with works receiving performances in Germany, Austria, Spain, the United Kingdom, and throughout the United States. He has become especially known for his song-settings of contemporary poets, including collaborations with Gregory Leadbetter, Grevel Lindop, and Ruth Fainlight, as well as song-settings of poetry by Alice Oswald, Carol Ann Duffy, and W.S. Merwin. He is currently working and a commissioned piece for the English Symphony Orchestra, and Somm Recordings is producing a CD of Eric’s song-cycles with the distinguished tenor James Gilchrist for release in 2022.
A committed advocated for lesser-known repertoire, Eric has given regional premieres of pieces by American and British composers, including John Ireland, Arnold Bax, William Baines, and Lord Berners. As a collaborative pianist, he has performed in some of Europe’s most distinguished concert halls, notably the Musikverein, Wiener Konzerthaus, Birmingham Town Hall, Symphony Hall, and the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. In addition to his wide-ranging involvement in 20th century repertoire, Eric is a proponent of the music of living composers. He has worked on many occasions with student composers and has also participated in masterclasses and concerts with some of the leading composers of our time, including Frederic Rzewski, Lowell Liebermann, John Joubert, Howard Skempton, Ian Venables, Karlheinz Essl, Edwin Roxburgh, and HK Gruber. He is the current Editor of the Arthur Bliss Society Journal.
After earning his Bachelor’s degree with Gerald Berthiaume at Washington State University, Eric moved to Vienna where he obtained a Master’s degree under Klaus Sticken at Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität der Stadt Wien. He was the only pianist of his graduating class to pass with full honours (mit Auszeichnung bestanden). In 2015, Eric won the prestigious Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Young Artist Composition Competition, and he remains the only person ever to have won the Washington State Music Association Competition, the highest award for collegiate pianists in the state of Washington, in both piano and composition. In 2017, Eric completed an Advanced Diploma in Professional Performance with distinction at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire where he studied with Mark Bebbington and Margaret Fingerhut. He teaches piano at Oxford’s Dragon School and is a doctoral candidate and Tutor in Music at the University of Oxford (Merton College).
Marcus Farnsworth was awarded first prize in the 2009 Wigmore Hall International Song Competition and the Song Prize at the 2011 Kathleen Ferrier Competition. He began his musical training as a chorister at Southwell Minster in Nottinghamshire. He went on to study at Chetham’s School of Music, the University of Manchester and the Royal Academy of Music and is now an Associate of the latter. In addition to a busy career as a performer, Marcus is Head of Vocal and Choral Studies at Chetham’s, Artistic Director of the Manchester Song Festival,
and is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Southwell Music Festival.
He has appeared as a principal artist with opera companies in the UK and abroad including English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Bergen National Opera, Boston Lyric Opera and Teatro Real Madrid. Equally at home on the concert platform, Marcus has performed and recorded extensively with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, Gabrieli Consort, Academy of Ancient Music, Arcangelo, and Aurora Orchestra. He is also a keen recitalist and an advocate for new music. He has given recitals at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, La Monnaie, the Oxford Lieder Festival, Leeds Lieder and the Wigmore Hall.
Marcus lives in East London with his wife and three-year-old son, and thanks to the latter, Marcus has developed an unlikely interest in agricultural vehicles and is always on the hunt for old editions of Farmers Weekly. He is a keen cook and consumer of food and enjoys cycling around London. Despite all these years in the big smoke, he is at his happiest in the hills of the Peak District and hopes to one day live in a place where he can walk directly into the countryside from his front door without having to negotiate the M25.