Award-winning mezzo-soprano Emily Gray achieved success at an early age when she was named BBC Radio Choir Girl of the Year 2000. She went on to record the album Passiontide for Naxos to critical acclaim.
Emily attended Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance where she participated in a number of masterclasses with Matthew Rose, Roderick Williams, Rory Kinnear, Susan Bullock, Ruby Philogene and James Gilchrist. She is a Trinity Laban Gold Medal Award finalist for 2017, the showcase contest for which will take place at Kings Place on 29th January.
A frequent performer in the vocal and accompaniment masterclasses of Eugene Asti, Emily also performed at Leeds Lieder in April 2016 and toured with Catherine Bott in March 2017. She also took a lead role in the premier of Stephen McNeff’s opera Banished and the role of Ottavia in Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea in July 2016/17. Both performances saw Emily singled out in the national press as "one to watch".
Timothy Salter is a composer, conductor and pianist, whose works include instrumental, chamber and orchestral music, choral music and songs. He was born in Yorkshire and read music at St. John’s College, Cambridge. His numerous public and private commissions comprise concert music in many genres but also include incidental music for television. His compositions appear on several recording labels and have been broadcast throughout the world. As a pianist he performs with singers and instrumentalists in Britain and overseas.
He is musical director of The Ionian Singers, with whom he records and performs internationally. He is a strong advocate of the composer-performer, believing that executant experience has an invaluable effect on composition. In pursuit of this he has written a substantial body of choral works and works including chorus, and much of his wide-ranging instrumental music has been written for colleague performers.
For many years he taught composition and performance studies at the Royal College of Music, London. As a composer and performer he has considerable experience in working with musicians, student and professional, on the performance of contemporary music. In 1995 he founded Usk Recordings for the promulgation of new music and neglected works from the past.
Free recital (retiring collection)