VIDEO PODCAST: Slava Ukraini! - recorded on 24 February 2022, the day Europe woke up to the news that Vladimir Putin's Russian forces had invaded Ukraine. A fifty minute video which also features Caitríona O'Leary and Eric Fraad discussing their new film Island of Saints, and pays tribute to Joseph Horovitz, Malcolm Troup and Maria Nockin.
FROM ROME: Keep in touch with the Italian opera and classical music scene by reading Giuseppe Pennisi's regular reports.
British composer and mezzo-soprano Judith Bingham was born on 21 June 1952 in Nottingham, grew up in Mansfield and Sheffield, and studied with Malcolm MacDonald, Eric Fenby, Alan Bush, John Hall and Jean Austin-Dobson at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She continued to study composition from 1974 until 1980 with Hans Keller, after leaving the Academy. She was a member of the BBC Singers (1983-95) and returned as their Composer in Association (2004-9).
Her output includes the orchestral works Chatres, Beyond Redemption and The Temple at Karnak, plus a bassoon concerto Passaggio and a trumpet concerto The Shooting Star. There's also much choral music, including Salt in the Blood, a lullaby setting of God Be in My Head and a Bromley Missa Brevis, the organ work The Everlasting Crown and music for brass band and other forces.
Technique and Musicianship - Tony Westerman is impressed by the organ playing of Tom Corfield
Ensemble. The Finest of Them All - The 2012 Hereford Three Choirs Festival, reviewed by Roderic Dunnett
Ensemble. A Good Feel - Christmas music from the Sitwell Singers, heard by Mike Wheeler
Ensemble. Compact and Imaginative - Judith Bingham's 'Shakespeare Requiem' receives its first performance, heard by Patric Standford
Chopin in the Boondocks - Stephen De Pledge returns to New Zealand, by Howard Smith