The Wessex Award Celebration Recital
4th June 2006
The Wessex Award, instituted in 1997, provides a bursary for a deserving young singer from the
Glyndebourne Chorus, and is funded by events organized by the Wessex Glyndebourne Association. This
evening’s recital celebrates the achievements of the 2005 winner, Malin Christensson. Malin is
accompanied by Gary Matthewman.
Performers’ Biographies
Malin Christensson
Born in Sweden, Malin Christensson graduated from the Royal College of Music in 2002 with a first class
degree. Her operatic training has included the roles of Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Zerlina (Don
Giovanni), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Governess (Turn of the Screw), Rosina (Barber of Seville), Sophie
(Werther), Elisa (Il Re Pastore), Semele, Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Adèle (Die Fledermaus), and Tytania
(Midsummer Night's Dream).
In 2004, she had a tremendous success singing Soeur Constance in Poulenc's 'Dialogues des Carmélites' at
the Royal College; the Financial Times wrote of her performance ‘Malin Christensson sang…with charm
and simple sweetness.’ At Glyndebourne she has understudied Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) and performed
the role of Younger Sister in Jonathan Dove’s ‘Pig’.
Last autumn she made her debut with Glyndebourne on Tour singing Barbarina (Le nozze di Figaro).
Engagements this year include Papagena at both the Vienna and Aix-en-Provence Festivals, conducted by
Daniel Harding. In concert, her engagements have included ‘Messiah’ with the RIAS Kammerchor,
‘Solomon’ with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and René Jacobs in Paris, London and New York
and Mozart's 'C Minor Mass' at Tewkesbury Abbey. A keen recitalist, she recently performed a solo recital
at the Innsbruck Festival with Roger Vignoles to great critical acclaim, and a BBC lunchtime recital at the
Wigmore Hall broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. She has also performed Wolf's 'Italienisches Liederbuch' for
the Oxford Lieder Festival with Malcolm Martineau and in Santiago de Compostela with Roger Vignoles.
Gary Matthewman
Gary Matthewman is the current holder of the Legal & General Junior Fellowship at the Royal College of
Music. As a student there he received several prizes, graduated with first class honours, and was awarded the
Postgraduate Diploma (Accompaniment) with distinction. He developed his strong interest in song
accompaniment and chamber music early on in his studies, and he now works almost exclusively within
these fields of repertoire.
Abroad, Gary has performed as a song/chamber music recitalist in Germany, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland,
South Korea, Canada and the USA. At home, he has appeared at the Aldeburgh and Bath Festivals, and in
London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Opera House and churches of St James Piccadilly and St-Martin-inthe-Fields. Gary has performed alongside some of today’s leading young singers and instrumentalists; these
include Stephan Loges (baritone), Elizabeth Watts (soprano), Jared Holt (baritone) and the Sacconi and
Doric String Quartets. He makes his Wigmore Hall debut with Elizabeth Watts in October of this year.
This evening’s programme
G. F. Handel
Lusinghe più Care (from ‘Alessandro’)
G. F. Handel
V’adoro, pupille (from ‘Giulio Cesare’)
W. A. Mozart
Deh vieni (from ‘Le nozze di Figaro’)
W. A. Mozart
Concert aria: Vado, ma dove
Richard Strauss
Four Lieder:
Schlagende Herzen
Die Nacht
Hat’s gesagt, bleibt’s nicht dabei
Morgen
Sergei Rachmaninov
Prelude in D Major (op. 23, no. 4) – piano solo
Benjamin Britten
Be kind and courteous (from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’)
Giuseppe Verdi
Sul fil d’un soffio etesio (from ‘Falstaff’)
Jules Massenet
Gavotte (from ‘Manon’)