Robert Rice & William Vann

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Iain Milne (tenor) and Nicolai Karlsen (piano), who were scheduled to give the final concert of the Inverurie Music season on Saturday 25th May 2024, are now unable to do so.

The concert will instead be given by Robert Rice (baritone) and William Vann (piano) and their programme will include works by Finzi, Gibbs, Howells and Britten and the first performance of a new work by locally-based composer Phillip Cooke. We are delighted that these new arrangements have been made at short notice and we are looking forward to welcoming these artists to Inverurie. More details about the concert will follow. The concert will take place at Acorn Centre, West High Street, Inverurie as previously planned.

The programme for the concert features works by Finzi, Gibbs, Howells and Britten as well as contemporary composers such as Robert Walker and Charlotte Marlow. A evening of beautiful music will include settings of works by Walter de la Mare and William Shakespeare.

Tickets for the concert cost £13 for non-subscribers and are free for under 25s in full-time education, and to those on disability or low-income benefits. These are available on Eventbrite here, at Novello Gifts (29 West High Street, Inverurie) or at the door.

On the day after the concert (Sunday 26th May 2024), there will be an opportunity for local musicians to learn from these outstanding artists in masterclasses and a choral workshop held at the MacRobert Building, University of Aberdeen. More information about these events (and a bonus String Ensemble workshop in June) can be found here.

Robert Rice

One of the UK’s most versatile baritones, Robert Rice was a choral scholar at King’s College, Cambridge before gaining a DipRAM under Mark Wildman. His concert repertoire is extensive and varied: drawing on his experience in vocal consorts, he is often praised for his interpretations of the baroque masterworks; as a mature singer he equally enjoys Verdi, Elgar and Vaughan Williams. In recent seasons he has performed composers as varied as Humperdinck, at the Berlin Konzerthaus, Bach – St John Passion at the Southern Cathedrals Festival – and Howard Goodall at St Paul’s Cathedral in London. His main specialism is in works of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and he has been involved in premières of diverse new pieces throughout his career, those by Jacques Cohen, Paul Drayton, Errolyn Wallen and Hayley Jenkins being notable recent examples. His experience in performing contemporary music led to the creation of roles in stage works by Paul Clark, Judith Bingham and Nigel Osborne. He made his debut at London’s South Bank in a staging of Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King. Robert appeared in the staged recital Art Sung: Alma Mahler (Wilton’s Music Hall), and with pianist William Vann has regularly performed at York’s Late Music series, most recently celebrating Walter De la Mare with several premières. He has collaborated with guitarist Erich Schachtner in Germany and the UK on programmes of lieder and lute songs.

William Vann

A multiple-prize winning and critically acclaimed conductor and accompanist, William Vann is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, the Director of Music at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, Musical Director of Dulwich Choral Society, a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians, the Chairman of Kensington and Chelsea Music Society, and a regular conductor and vocal coach at the Dartington and Oxenfoord International Summer Schools. His extensive discography includes recordings for Albion, Champs Hill, Chandos, Delphian, Etcetera, Navona and SOMM. www.williamvann.com