Reaching Out to the Mystic East
Friday 11th December, 7pm
Hinde Street Methodist Church, London W1U 2QJ

Natalka Pasicznyk – soprano
Sian Sulke – mezzo-soprano
Nigel Foster – piano
Martin Handley - speaker

The Orient has long been a source of fascination and wonder to Europeans; an ancient and huge civilisation, exotic and mysterious, and very different from anything European. Chinese poetry was known in Europe through translations by Franz Toussaint (into French), Launcelot Cranmer-Byng (into English) and others, and this programme, devised by Nigel Foster, takes settings of those translations by composers including Albert Roussel, Marguerite Canal, Armande de Polignac, Rebecca Clarke, Constant Lambert, Granville Bantock and Charles Griffes. These songs will be woven together with readings from Europeans who have travelled to China, from Marco Polo in the 13th century to John Barrow, who was part of the first British diplomatic mission to China in 1793.

Natalka Pasicznyk is studying at the Royal College of Music. She is an Oxford International Song Young Artist and a Leeds Song Young Artist.
Sian Sulke is a Samling Young Artist, and member of the Royal College of Music Opera Studio. Her competition successes include the Joan Chissell Schumann Competition at the RCM, and the Nicholas Partridge Award at the Eastbourne International Singing Competition.
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.
Martin Handley is a presenter on BBC Radio 3, and also a conductor, pianist and actor.