Morgan Pearse in recital at Wigmore Hall

Morgan Pearse

Australian barihunk Morgan Pearse will be performing at Wigmore Hall tonight with accompanist James Baillieu, as well as the Françoise-Green Piano Duo. Pearse and the Françoise-Green Piano Duo are 2013 winners of the Royal Over-Seas League Annual Music Competition for singer and ensemble respectively.

Pearse will be performing Schumann's Liederkreis Op. 39 and Vaughan Williams Songs of Travel. Other music on the program includes the Schumann/Debussy Six studies in canon form Op. 56, Bach/Kurtág Chorales and a selection from György Kurtág's Játékok.

Pearse joins a long list of notable winners of the Royal Over-Seas League Annual Music Competition, including Keith Lewis, Jean Rigby, Susan Bullock, Elizabeth Watts, Cheryl Barker, Gillian Keith and Lucy Crowe. Tickets for the July 14th concert are available online.

Last year, Morgan performed the title role in Britten's Owen Wingrave for Sydney Chamber Opera, and as bass soloist in Handel's Messiah for Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Pearse is headed to the United States to continue his studies at the Houston Grand Opera’s Opera Studio, where he is slated to sing Guglielmo in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, Papageno in Mozart's Magic Flute, Yamadori  in Puccini's Madama Butterfly and Anthony in Sondheim's Sweeney Todd. 

Morgan Pearse wins top prize at Royal Over-Seas League competition

Morgan Pearse

The barihunk winning streak continues, as Australian Morgan Pearse just took the top prize at the Royal Over-Seas League singing competition in London. 

For fifty years, the Royal Over-Seas League Arts division has been devoted to the career development of talented young professional artists and musicians from the UK and the Commonwealth. The organization provides scholarships and provides career and performance opportunities for musicians.

Pearse performed Finzi's "The clock of the years," Korngold's "Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen," Mozart's "Hai gia vinta la causa...Vedro mentr'io sospiro" and his "Deh, vieni alla finestra," and three Schumann songs, "Meine Rose," "Belsatzar," and "Der Kontrabandiste." 

Pearse earned his first class honours degree from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and then moved to London late last year to commence a Masters in Performance at the Royal College of Music. He is the inaugural Joan Sutherland Scholar at the College, where he is studying with baritone Russell Smythe.

You can next see Pearse on February 19th at the Queen’s Gate Terrace in South Kensington. U.K. He'll be one of four artists performing in "Lied in London." a concert of Goethe settings by Schubert and Wolf.  Suggested donations are £15 (students £5) and includes wine and cheese.

Pearse will be performing the Count in the Royal College of Music's Le nozze di Figaro in June and then return to Australia to perform Apollo and Pluto in a national tour of Monteverdi's Orfeo with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra. He will also perform the title role in Handel's Imeneo at the London Handel Festival on March 11 and 13,  a Cadogan Hall recital in June, and the title role in the Australian premiere of Britten's Owen Wingrave in August with Sydney Chamber Opera.