EMILY CHRISTINA LOFTUS, SOPRANO
GEORGE IRELAND, PIANO
Thursday 18 August 2022, 1pm, Howden Minster
Free admission with retiring donations
Booking recommended
Massenet Frère, voyez! ... du gai soleil (Werther)
Boulanger Elle est gravement gaie
Boulanger Un poète disait
Handel O thou bright sun! ... With darkness deep (Theodora)
Liszt Der Fischerknabe
Liszt Freudvoll und Leidvoll
Liszt Der du von dem Himmel bist
Mozart Ach, ich Fühl's (The Magic Flute)
Lehmann Evensong
Donizetti Prendi per me sei libero (L'elisir d'amore)
Rodrigo Cuatro madrigales amatorios
Herbert I dare not ask a kiss
Holmès L’heure rose
Hailing from the North of England, soprano Emily Christina Loftus is a 2022 Samling Artist and Oxford Lieder Emerging Artist. For the 21/22 season, Emily performed the role of Pamina for Opera North (WSO:The Magic Flute) and will join the chorus for ENO’s Così Fan Tutte and Opera North’s Parsifal.
Emily graduated with Distinction from the Royal College of Music, where she studied with Rosa Mannion and Caroline Dowdle. Emily was the Leverhulme Arts Scholar, a Josephine Baker Trust Artist and recipient of The Sir James Caird Travel Scholarship. Emily is a First Class graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where she studied with Patricia MacMahon.
Performed roles include: Pamina (WSO:The Magic Flute|Opera North), Papagena (Die Zauberflöte|RCMIOS) Evita/Girl in Jeans (Scoring a Century|British Youth Opera) and Mary Crawford (Mansfield Park|Edinburgh Studio Opera). Other roles include: Sister Constance|Dialogues des Carmélites, Sophie|Werther, Gretel|Hänsel und Gretel (RCM Opera Scenes), Ilia|Idomeneo (RCS Opera Scenes), Oscar|Un Ballo in Maschera and Musetta|La Bohème (Fife Young
Classical Artist).
Emily was a semi-finalist in both the Royal Overseas League Vocal Competition 2021 and the Premiere Opera Foundation International Vocal Competition 2021.
Watch Emily Christina Loftus and George Ireland perform "Prendi per me sei libero" – L'elisir d'amore – Donizetti
George Ireland recently graduated with distinction from the Royal College of Music where he studied collaborative piano under Simon Lepper and Roger Vignoles. He also studied conducting, vocal coaching and continuo.
From a non-musical background, he began to play the piano from scratch, self-taught at the age of 14. He is now 26 and enjoys a thriving career, in demand both as a recital partner with some of the finest singers of his generation, and as a repetiteur in opera and choral music.
In both 2020 and 2021 he accompanied the winning recitals at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards, with Jessica Cale and Hugh Cutting respectively. With Jessica Cale he was an Emerging Artist in the 2021 Oxford Lieder Festival, performing Strauss alongside Gwenneth Ann Rand and Simon Lepper, and with Hugh Cutting he has recently enjoyed an appearance on Radio 3’s In Tune.
A Leeds Lieder Young Artist, George has participated in masterclasses with Roderick Williams, Dame Sarah Connolly, Dame Felicity Palmer, Dame Ann Murray, Helmut Deutsch and Amanda Roocroft.
