Reaching Back to Childhood
celebrating the centenary of the publication of A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh
Saturday 14th November, 2pm
Hinde Street Methodist Church, London W1U 2QJ

Harriet Burns – soprano
George Robarts – baritone
Nigel Foster – piano

Winnie-the-Pooh has been a staple of children’s reading for the last 100 years, and when I was young, I was obsessed by the adventures of Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Owl, Rabbit and all the other inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood. These stories are the inspiration for a programme devised by Nigel Foster, based on adults looking back on their childhood, with songs by Brahms, Schubert, Finzi, Vaughan Williams, Rachmaninov, Florence Price, Charles Ives, Dvořák, and others, and some settings of ‘The Hums of Pooh’ by Harold Fraser-Simson, published in 1929. Who has not looked back on their childhood with nostalgia for what it was, or for what it might have been?

Harriet Burns has performed at Wigmore Hall, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Oxford International Song Festival, Leeds Lieder Festival, International Lied Festival Zeist, Ryedale Festival and de Singel in Antwerp. Her competition successes include the Compulsory Song Prize and Recital Prize at the International Vocal Competition in 's-Hertogenbosch and First Prize at the Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards. She is a City Music Foundation Artist, a Samling Artist, and a Britten-Pears Young Artist.
George Robarts won the 2025 Lotte Lenya Competition in New York. He is an Oxford International Song Young Artist and has sung Schubert at the Leeds Song Festival. In 2026 he sang leading roles with English Touring Opera and the Buxton International Festival., and previously with Longborough Festival Opera, Garsington Opera, Nederlandse Reisopera, Opera Holland Park, the Edinburgh International Festival and the BBC Proms.
Nigel Foster is the Director of the London Song Festival. His career as a collaborative pianist has taken him all over Europe, as well as in Asia (Japan, Malaysia), New Zealand and the Americas (USA, Colombia) as well as London’s Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre, Royal Opera House Covent Garden (Crush Room) and St John Smith Square. He has broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM in the UK and on French, Welsh, and Greek television.