SEA

Wed 14 Oct, 13.10pm

LIVE from Laidlaw Music Centre

""I have longed to hear a performance of Sea Pictures in St Andrews. In this performance as part of the University Music Centre's LAIDLAW LIVE, Alycia and Amy will perform the first movement from Elgar's Song Cycle. Sea Slumber Song is sung from the sea's viewpoint: The “Sea-Mother” lulls her fractious “child” to sleep, to an accompaniment kept appropriately light, gently rocking save for the second and last verses where deep, throbbing waves are suggested. A gem in the middle of a beautiful programme fitting to the theme of Coasts and Waters"

Amanda, Festival Director

PROGRAMME

Bantock
Song to the Seals

Fauré

Eau Vivante

Au Bord de l'eau

Bizet

Comme Autrefois (from Pearl Fishers)

Rachmaninoff

Zdes Khorosho

Siren

Dvorak

Song to the Moon (Rusalksa)

Elgar

Sea Slumber Song

The Swimmer (Sea Pictures)

Gershwin

The Lorelei

ALYCIA FASHAE

Soprano

From Perthshire, Alycia studied at the RNCM before joining the Centre de Formation Lyrique de L'Opéra National de Paris, making her solo debut for the Opéra National de Paris in Rigoletto and undertaking roles in operas as diverse as Lulu, Bataclan and La Clemenza Di Tito.

On returning from Paris Alycia toured throughout Europe performing lead soprano roles in Die Zauberflöte, L’Elisir D’Amore, Cosi Fan Tutte, Lucia Di Lammermoor, La Cenerentola, Roméo et Juliette, Dialogues des Carmélites, Carmen, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Die Fledermaus (Adele and Roselinda), Falstaff, Don Pasquale and La Fille du Regiment. She also toured 29 US states in the title role of The Merry Widow for London City Opera/Columbia Artists.

Signature roles have included Mimi and Musetta La Bohème, Leila Les Pêcheurs de Perles, Violetta La Traviata, Gilda Rigoletto, Pamina Die Zauberflöte and Donna Anna Don Giovanni, for companies including ENO, Diva Opera, Opéra des Azuriales, Théâtre de Neuchâtel, Festival de la Vézère, The Water Music Festival of Ireland, Swansea City Opera, Carl Rosa Opera, Opera Box, Opera Project, Garden Opera and Mid-Wales Opera.

Concert and oratorio repertoire includes Strauss Four Last Songs, Beethoven Missa Solemnis, Rossini Stabat Mater, Orff Carmina Burana, Handel Messiah, Schubert Mass in A flat, Brahms Requiem and Verdi Requiem. Alycia now lives and teaches singing in North East Fife.

AMY CHANG

Piano

Taiwan-born and New Zealand-raised pianist Amy Chang specialises in opera and song, and is currently in her final year of training on the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's Repetiteurship programme.

Back in New Zealand Amy kept a busy calendar as an accompanist, especially high in demand for regional and national singing competitions such as the New Zealand Aria, North Shore Senior Vocal & Becroft Aria, and in 2019 was appointed as the official accompanist of the prestigious Napier Aria Competitions.

An alumna of the University of Auckland, Amy holds a Master of Music with first class honours in vocal accompaniment under the tutelage of Rachel Fuller, and upon graduation was retained as pianist for recitals of Schubert's Die schöne Müllerin, and vocal coach for Die Fledermaus (2019) and Orpheus in the Underworld (2020).

Her upcoming engagements include the operas Giulio Cesare, Flight, L'Enfant et les Sortilèges, and Impressions de Pelléas.