Reaching Out to Spain
A concert celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Manuel de Falla
Thursday 26th November, 7pm
Hinde Street Methodist Church, London W1U 2QJ

Lorena Paz Nieto – soprano
Julien Van Mellaerts – baritone
Nigel Foster – piano

Spain has long had a vibrant place in the European imagination – so near yet so far, cut off physically from France by the Pyrenees, a land of mystery and romance that few had visited but everyone had heard of. This programme, devised by Nigel Foster, explores this pan-European fascination with Spain. Manuel de Falla (born on 23rd November 1876, so this concert is just three days after his 150th birthday), is perhaps everyone’s archetypal Spanish composer. Each of his songs is paired with a song inspired by Spain, but written by a non-Spanish composer, and in a language that is not Spanish. These are by Hugo Wolf (from his Spanisches Liederbuch), Robert Schumann, Adolf Jensen, Ravel, Jacques Ibert, Honegger, Louis Albert, Delibes, William Walton, Frederick Keel, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich.

Spanish soprano Lorena Paz Nieto was an Oxford Lieder Young Artist and winner of the Ludmilla Andrews Russian Song Prize, and Vocalist of the Year’ at the 2019 LUKAS awards. She has given recitals in the Crush Room and Linbury Foyer at the Royal Opera House, the Heidelberger Frühling Festival, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Sinfonia Smith Square, two recitals and a masterclass on Spanish song in Japan, and recently a tour of China visiting ten cities to give recitals, lectures, vocal masterclasses and adjudicating music competitions. 
Julien Van Mellaerts has won the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition and the Kathleen Ferrier Awards. He has sung for the Verbier Festival, the Salzburg Mozartwoche, the Oxford International Song Festival, Leeds Lieder, for Opera Holland Park, New Zealand Opera, and at the Wigmore Hall, Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall.
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.