Barihunk Samuel Hasselhorn will be replacing fellow barihunk James Newby for the Brahms Requiem with Marin Alsop and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment this weekend.
The first concert is at Basingstoke’s Anvil concert hall on Saturday, November 10th followed by a second concert at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday, November 11th at 7pm. Sunday’s concert will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Monday, November 13th at 7.30pm.
Samuel Hasselhorn sings Brahms' "O Tod, wie bitter bist du":
After the Brahms Requiem, he will appear at Cambridge for a recital of Schubert’s Winterreise with Malcolm Martineau for Camerata Musica at the Peterhouse Theatre. Tickets are available online.
Low male voices swept the 2015 Wigmore/Kohn International Song Competition, walking away with almost trophy in site.
28-year-old Swiss bass Milan Siljanov took 1st Prize and was awarded £10,000. He performed songs by Bennett, Mahler, Sviridov, Poulenc, Schoenberg, Warlock and Wolf.
Samuel Hasselhorn took 2nd Prize and won £5,000. His program included Duparc, Schubert and Reimann. 22-year-old James Newby took 3rd Prize, as well as the Richard Tauber Prize given for the best interpretation of Schubert. His program included Finzi's Let us garlands bring and Schubert's An Sylvia?
Baritones have historically fared well at the competition, with Gavan Ring taking 2nd Prize in 2013 and Dominik Köninger winning the top prize in 2011. The competition is held in odd numbered years.
The jurors including Iain Burnside, Wolfgang Holzmair, Graham Johnson,
Angelika Kirchschlager, Sir Ralph Kohn, Christoph Prégardien, Thomas
Quasthoff, Maxine Robertson, David Stern and Ailish Tynan.
James Newby, Milan Siljanov and Samuel Hasselhorn (L-R)
Barihunks continue to dominate the competition at the 2015 Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition, as 3 of the 5 finalist will be baritones. The final round will be held at 6 PM on Thursday, September 10th at Wigmore Hall.
The finalist are baritone Samuel Hasselhorn and accompanist Renate Rohlfing, baritone James Newby and accompanist Panaretos Kyriatzidis, bass-baritone Milan Siljanov and Nino Chokhonelidze, soprano Aoife Miskelly and accompanist William Vann and tenor Spencer Lang and accompanist Dan K. Kurland.
Samuel Hasselhorn & the Lazarus String Quartet perform Wolf's "Die Nacht":
Each finalist will give a recital lasting a maximum of 30 minutes, which may consist of songs in any language, but must include at least one song written after 1950. 1st prize takes home £10,000, follow by £5,000 for 2nd prize and £2,500 for 3rd prize.
Barihunks are dominating the semi-final round of the 2015 Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition, which will take place on Tuesday, September 9th at Wigmore Hall. Low voices among women and men seem to be dominating this year, as their are 5 baritone and bass-baritones joining 4 mezzo-sopranos in the final 12 singers.
The men include Samuel Hasselhorn, Dashon Burton, Will Liverman, Milan Siljano and James Newby. The sole tenor in the semi-finals is Spencer Lang. The women include mezzos Kate Howden, Rebecca Jo Loeb, Angharad Lyddon and Hagar Sharvit. The two sopranos reaching the semi-finals are Aoife Miskelly and Magali Simard-Galdes.
The program for the semi-final round must be a maximum of 20 minutes and must include songs in German (at least two of which must be by Schubert), songs in French and in English by a British composer. The final round will consist of four finalists, each of whom will give a recital lasting a maximum of 30 minutes, which may consist of songs in any language, but must include at least one song written after 1950. 1st prize takes home £10,000, follow by £5,000 for 2nd prize and £2,500 for 3rd prize.
Samuel Hasselhorn at the Hugo Wolf Song Competition:
Baritone Samuel Hasselhorn, born in Göttingen, Germany in 1990, won first prize in the 2013 International Schubert Competition, as well as the Prix de Lied in the 2013 Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Voice-Piano Competition. He was a fellow of Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, and has performed in New York’s prestigious Carnegie Hall as a participant in Marilyn Horne’s The Song Continues programme. Samuel’s first CD Nachtblicke with Lieder by Schubert, Pfitzner, and Reimann was released in December 2014. Recent debuts include concert appearances at Gewandhaus Leipzig and Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle.
Baritone James Newby is currently studying at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance under the tutelage of Alison Wells. He is winner of the Joyce Budd second prize at the junior Kathleen Ferrier Bursary awards, the Trinity Laban English Song Competition and the Trinity Laban Oratorio/Cantata award. James is a great lover of song and has performed in recital throughout the UK. He is also very fortunate to have performed in masterclasses with some of the world’s leading figures on Lieder and song: Graham Johnson, Wolfgang Holzmair and Ian Partridge.
Praised for his ‘nobility and rich tone’ by The New York Times Dashon Burton is a two time Grammy Award winner. In 2012, Burton won top prizes from the ARD International Music Competition in Munich and the 49th IVC in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Holland. These awards followed First Place wins in both the 2012 Oratorio Society of New York's Competition and the Bach Choir of Bethlehem’s Competition for Young American Singers. He studied with James Taylor at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and graduated with his Master’s Degree in Voice in 2011.
We discover new barihunks in a variety of ways, with the most common way still being from readers. It used to come almost exclusively from emails and Facebook, but lately we're seeing more suggestions appear on Twitter.
That's how British barihunk Felix Kemp came to our attention. In fact, it came from fellow barihunk James Newby, who we introduced to readers in August 2013 and recently featured on the site.
Kemp lives in London and studies singing with Neil Baker at postgraduate level at Trinity Laban, where he's supported by the Kathleen Roberts vocal scholarship. He also receives coaching from mezzo soprano Wendy Dawn Thompson.
Felix Kemp
Recent concerts have include the bass solos in Bach's St John Passion in Oslo, Bach's Magnificat in London and Bach's Christmas Oratorio in the English town of Leighton Buzzard. Last summer he performed as part of the Grange Park chorus in Britten's Peter Grimes and Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades. He also participated in masterclasses with British Youth Opera.
In 2014, Felix won the audience prize at the John Kerr Award for English Song competition, and performed in a masterclass with Sir John Eliot Gardiner as part of the Greenwich International Early Music Festival.
Engagements this season include bass solos in Mozart's Coronation Mass and Solemn Vespers Tunbridge Wells, Dvorak's Stabat Mater in Leeds, and Wagner's Parsifal in Valencia with the Philharmonia Chorus as part of their Professional Singers' Scheme. He returns to Grange Park Opera this Summer to appear in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and Fiddler on the Roof alongside Bryn Terfel.
You can follow both James Newby (@jamesn103) and Felix Kemp (@Felix_Kemp) on Twitter.
British barihunk James Newby is performing two very different lovers, both of whom don't see their stories end too well. He just wrapped up a run in the title role of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin at St Andrews Church in London and will return to the venue from April 11-16 when he sings Don Giovanni with the Moon-Little Theatre. We'll have additional details soon.
We first featured James Newby back in August 2013, when the 20-year-old rugby-playing baritone was brought to our attention via Twitter (follow him@jamesn103) . He is currently in his third year of study at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London. Newby previously studied with barihunk Omar Ebrahim, who blew up our site when he went for the Full Monty in a post.
We subsequently featured him with vlogger Davey Wavey as part of the barbershop quartet Short, Back and Sides singing "To Russia With (Gay) Love.” The video showed the worldwide support for LGBT Russians from people across the globe. Check out their website and their selection of soundclips.
If you love great low voices, visiting Artist in Voice at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music Matthew Rose will perform Schubert’s Die Winterreise with pianist Gary Matthewman on February 6th as part of their Chapel Concert Series. The event is free, but requires tickets.
The barbershop quartet Short, Back & Sides and featured baritone James Newby
We posted this on our Twitter feed yesterday, but we feel like it should be featured on the main site, as well. It's a video that was posted by vlogger Davey Wavey and includes barihunk James Newby as part of the barbershop quartet Short, Back and Sides singing "To Russia With (Gay) Love.” The video is intended to show the worldwide support for LGBT Russians from people across the globe.
Short, Back and Sides describes themselves as "a barbershop quartet boasting a great blend, rich tones and devilishly good hair." Even their bios have references to their hair. Newby's says, "James is Short, Back and Sides' Baritone and arguably their most Stylish member. He is 20 years old and currently studying at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. He holds a choral scholarship at the Old Royal naval college chapel choir and sings with a number of other ensembles. James has his hair cut once a month and his preferred product is wax."
In the video, a quartet of young men harmonize in a beautiful a cappella rendition of the song “I Can Sing a Rainbow” as supporters in Montreal, London, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Singapore, and Melbourne write messages of hope to LGBT Russians on an oversize card.
The global response was prompted by President Vladimir Putin signing a law this summer that imposes fines and jail time for anyone found to be distributing or discussing "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations" in a venue accessible to minors.
Make sure to check out Short, Back and Sides' website, where you can listen to plenty of music samples. You can also follow them on Twitter @barbershopsbs or follow them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/barbershopsbs.
We caught some Twitter messages going back and forth between friends a few weeks ago. One friend suggested that the other should be on Barihunks. The other replied that "this accolade could complete me as a human being!"
The latter response came from 20-year-old baritone James Newby, who is currently in his second year of study at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London. He currently studies under Alison Wells and previously studied with Robert Dean and Omar Ebrahim (who has been on this site in all his glory). We're happy to help him in his quest to become a complete human being.
Newby is due to represent Trinity Laban in the junior Kathleen Ferrier award in October after receiving the second highest mark in the year for his end of year recital.
Previous operatic experience includes Papageno in Mozart's The Magic Flute with Suffolk opera, Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen with Puzzle piece opera, Gugliemo in scenes from Mozart's Cosi fan tutte with G and T opera and covering Apollo in Trinity Laban's production of Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld. Oratorio performaces include Bach's "St John Passion" and Haydn's "Nelson Mass" with the Old Royal Naval college chapel choir, Britten's "Rejoice in the Lamb" with the Rodolfus choir and Stainer's "Crucifixion" with the Stamford endowed schools chapel choir.
We have to confess that we were also intrigued that he's been playing rugby since he was fourteen.
James is also a member of TV star Gareth Malone's new choir, whose innovative new album will be released in November.
Gareth Malone's choir performs their rendition of Guillotine by Death Grips
