The October lunchtime concert at Alderley Edge Methodist Church will take place on Wednesday, 21st October, and features soprano Natasha Agarwal who will be accompanied on the piano by Russell Lomas.
The programme will commence with Mozart's Exsultate Jubilate and includes Schumann's song cycle: Frauenliebe und-Leben. The recital will close with a group of lighter songs, finishing with a Noel Coward number.
Natasha Agarwal was born in Liverpool in 1996 and began singing at the age of 5. She has held the titles of 'Liverpool's Voice of the Year', 'Warrington and Cheshire Young Musician of the Year' and 'Young Singer of the Year' at Alderley Edge, Blackpool and Huddersfield music festivals. She was also runner-up in the Association of English Singers and Speakers Junior Recital competition at the Royal College of Music and last year won the local, district and regional rounds of the Rotary Young Musician Competition, and was placed 3rd in the National Final.
She has performed the parts of Dorothy (Wizard of Oz), Cosette (Les Miserables), Christine (The Phantom of the Opera) with Phoenix Youth Theatre, Belinda (Dido and Aeneas), and the soprano soloist in the 'Messiah' (both performances at the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral), second soprano soloist in Handel's 'Dixit Dominus' with the Southport Bach Choir, Frasquita (Carmen) and Hanna Glawari (The Merry Widow), both with Opera Warwick. She has also given numerous recitals and sung in various concerts in the UK, including several with the Una Voce Opera Company.
Natasha has performed solos with choirs in Belgium, Holland and Italy, including St Mark's Basilica in Venice and the Last Post Ceremony in Ypres. Last summer she gave two charity concerts in Mumbai and Goa to raise money for the Shaukat C Chagla Memorial Trust, and earlier this year was invited to sing the soprano role in France of a performance of a new opera 'Evidence', composed and conducted by Paul McGrath.
She is currently studying Mathematics at the University of Warwick where she holds a choral scholarship. She is a member of the University's Chamber Choir, Chorus and Opera Society, and takes singing lessons with Gaynor Keeble.
Russell Lomas was born in Manchester and began piano lessons at an early age. When he was 15, he won a scholarship to study with Gordon Green, Clifton Helliwell and Franz Reizenstein at the Royal Manchester College of Music from where he graduated with a Distinction in both Performers and Teachers Diplomas and was awarded the Ricordi Prize for Accompaniment.
He has given piano duet concerts and accompanied chamber music and vocal recitals throughout the UK, Europe, Jordan and Lebanon, and has made several visits to the United Arab Emirates where he has given concerts in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah. He has broadcast for the BBC, Classic FM and a number of European and local radio stations and has also performed on television for the BBC and several ITV channels.
Until his retirement in 2003, he was a member of the Music Department of Chetham's School of Music for over thirty years, and Head of Accompaniment for the final twelve, and he was the only accompanist to appear on at least one televised programme in every series of the BBC TV Young Musician of the Year competition between 1978 (the year of the first competition) and 2004.
The performance commences at 1pm and will last approximately 45 minutes. Admission is by programme at the door, priced £5.00. Light lunches, charged separately, are available from 12 noon.
Proceeds from this month's concert will be donated to The Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East.
Further information is available on 01625 584410 or 01625 584367.
