This year the usual celebrations of the “Week of Italian Language in the World“, in its 15th edition, this year have the theme “The Italian of Music, the Music of Italian”. So what better opportunity to see how the language works in practice, than a concert dedicated to some of the most famous Italian Arias?
The University of Reading will host the concert within its usual calendar of lunchtime concerts. Soprano Rebeccca Cooch and Accompanist Susan Holmes will lead us through a journey in time and will explore for us the beauty and the musicality of the Italian Language.
La settimana della lingua italiana nel mondo – The Week of Italian Language in the World
The concert will revolve around what makes Italian the perfect language for singing, as the frequency of vowels, with their particular crystal clear nature, as well as the various possibilities for the accent to fall on different positions in the word are special features that contribute to make Italian the best language to convey the melodic line. We will be taken through compositions by Giordani, Mozart, Puccini and other important protagonists of Italian music.
Rebecca Cooch Rebecca has a background in musical theatre and started taking singing lessons aged 14, performing in Benjamin Brittan’s ‘Paul Bunyan’ and as lead role ‘Lucy’ in Menotti’s ‘The Telephone’. She graduated in Law, and pursued her education in music, achieving Distinction in Grade 8 singing in 2014 and is now working towards her Diploma. She is a member of Masquerade Musical Theatre Company in Reading; she was a member of Reading Phoenix Choir from 2006 to 2014 and is passionate about choral singing. She has built her solo repertoire with items at choral concerts, such as ‘The Messiah’. She was ‘Hodel’ in ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ at Portsmouth University. She participated in local festivals, winning the Borough of Basingstoke Cup for the adult with the most honours at Basingstoke Music and Arts Festival two years running and is the current holder of the Norman Morris Recital Trophy from Woodley Festival. Rebecca is also the lead singer of local melodic metal band ‘Incarnadine Coven’ with whom she has recently recorded their first EP and music video (she has a wide taste in music!)
Susan Holmes Susan completed a Master’s degree in Music, graduating with a specialisation in Piano Accompaniment, at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where she was the recipient of the Piano Accompaniment Prize. Susan has been a repetiteur for the Birmingham Summer Festival Opera productions of Vaughan Williams’ The Poisoned Kiss and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, and accompanist for the University of Birmingham Music Society’s Chamber and University Choirs. Most recently, Susan was the Assistant Music Director for the critically acclaimed Opera Up Close production of Strauss’ Die Fledermaus. Susan has performed in such prestigious venues as the Royal Albert Hall, The Tower of London and Wigmore Hall, and is currently an accompanist and piano teacher for Berkshire Maestros, and choir accompanist for Newbury Chamber Choir, the Harry Ensemble, and the University of Reading Chamber Choir and Chorus.
Date: Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Opening times: 1 pm
Venue: University of Reading, Palmer Building, G10. Whiteknights Campus, Reading RG6 6AA
Organised by: University of Reading
In collaboration with: Italian Cultural Institute, London
Free Event Booking Online
Info: email music@reading.ac.uk; dott. Maria Carla Battelli, Visiting Lecturer of Italian c.m.battelli@reading.ac.uk