2026 ARTISTS

HARRIET BURNS
soprano

Time is the Very Lens; Saturday 19 September 2026

"Brilliant and rich, comfortable even in stratospheric heights" (BBC Music Magazine), Harriet Burns is in demand for her singing both in recital and on stage. An acclaimed interpreter of song, Harriet has performed at renowned recital venues such as Wigmore Hall, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Oxford International Song Festival, Salle Bourgie Montréal, Ryedale Festival and de Singel with pianists including Imogen Cooper, Christopher Glynn, Graham Johnson, Sholto Kynoch, Malcolm Martineau, Joseph Middleton and Ian Tindale. Harriet’s next record release will be Schumann in English, Vol. 2 with Christopher Glynn, Nick Pritchard & Kate Wakeling with Signum Records.

On the operatic stage, recent and upcoming roles include the title role in Susanna (cover, Opera North, Handel), Nunzia (La liberazione di Ruggiero, Caccini) Berta (cover, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Rossini) for West Green House Opera, Sifare (cover, Mitridate, re di Ponto, Mozart) and Oriana (cover, Amadigi, Handel) for Garsington Opera. In concert, she has sung Thea Musgrave Songs for a Winter's Evening with the Southbank Sinfonia and Gabriella Teychenné, Vivaldi Dixit Dominus with Nicholas McGegan and the Royal Northern Sinfonia at Sage Gateshead, Strauss Four Last Songs with the Oxford Millennium Orchestra, and Handel Messiah with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

Harriet was a member of the Guildhall Opera School where she graduated with Distinction on the Artist Diploma programme and was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2023.

DR KATY HAMILTON
speaker

Friday 18 to Sunday 20 September 2026

Dr Katy Hamilton is one of the UK’s most sought-after speakers and writers on music. She gives frequent talks for organisations including the BBC Proms, Philharmonia Orchestra and Wigmore Hall. In addition, she writes programme notes for the Salzburg Festival, Philharmonia Orchestra and Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, as well as a range of European record labels. Katy has published widely on the music of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, writing for both academic and general readers, and is a frequent contributor to BBC Radio 3. She is increasingly in demand as a panel host and interviewer, working over the past few years with Mark-Anthony Turnage, James MacMillan, Caroline Shaw, Davone Tines, Judith Weir and Pekka Kuusisto.

Katy teaches music history classes at City Lit and is also an expert lecturer for Martin Randall Travel. She holds a PhD from the Royal College of Music, worked as Graham Johnson’s research assistant for his monumental Franz Schubert: The Songs and their Poets (Yale) and is an editor and contributor to Brahms in the Home and the Concert Hall (Cambridge University Press) and Brahms in Context (Cambridge University Press). You can find out more about her work at http://www.katyhamilton.co.uk/

JAMES NEWBY
baritone

Die schöne Müllerin; Sunday 20 September 2026

James Newby is a former BBC New Generation Artist, Rising Star for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, a Borletti Buitoni Trust Award Winner and a European Concert Hall Organisation Rising Star.

He won the Richard Tauber Prize for best interpretation of a Schubert Lied at the 2015 Wigmore Hall/Kohn International Song Competition and enjoys a close relationship with the Hall. Recent appearances include Mahler Rückert Lieder in 2023 with Mitsuko Uchida; Die schöne Müllerin with Simon Lepper and a mixed programme of Dowland, Schubert, Wolf and Liszt with Joseph Middleton. James was a member of the Ensemble of the Staatsoper Hannover (2019-2022), where his roles included Eddy in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Greek, Guglielmo Così fan tutte and the title role in Eugene Onegin.

James has appeared with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra and performed baroque repertoire with David Bates, Jonathan Cohen and John Butt. Other concert highlights include a new commission for baritone by Michael Zev Gordon with the Britten Sinfonia, The Poet in Otto Ketting’s Ithaka Symphony with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and, in addition to his regular appearances at the Wigmore Hall, gave recitals at the Oxford Song Festival, Leeds Lieder and at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam.

NICK PRITCHARD
tenor

The Dance Continued; Friday 18 September 2026

Tenor Nick Pritchard is gaining fast recognition for his performances of the music of Bach and in particular his interpretation of the Evangelist in the Passions. Described as a ‘Masterly Evangelist’ in The Guardian, he has sung the role in Bach’s St John and Matthew Passions around the world. His recording of the St John Passion (Evangelist) for Deutsche Grammophon with Sir John Eliot Gardiner was nominated for a Grammy Award for best Choral Performance (2023).

He has performed under conductors including Sir George Benjamin, Harry Bicket, John Butt, Laurence Cummings, Christian Curnyn, Maxim Emelyanychev, Adam Fischer, Emmanuelle Haïm, Simon Halsey, George Petrou, Raphaël Pichon, Christophe Rousset, Sir András Schiff, Ryan Wigglesworth, Richard Egarr and Masato Suzuki. In 2021 he made his BBC Proms debut with Britten Sinfonia under David Bates performing Mozart’s Requiem.

Equally at home on the operatic stage, roles have included Oronte, Alcina for Opera North, Lysander, A Midsummer Night’s Dream as part of the Aldeburgh Festival’s 70th anniversary, Tamino, Die Zauberflöte for Glyndebourne on Tour and for Irish National Opera and Peter Whelan, Ferrando, Cosí fan tutte for Opera Holland Park and Amphinomus, The Return of Ulysses for the Royal Opera House.