Out of the Shadows

Festival Glasperlenspiel
OUT OF THE SHADOWS
Fri, July 5th at 10 pm St John’s church (Jaani kirik), Tartu
Ben Vonberg-Clark (tenor, UK), Jonathan Eyers (baritone, UK), Nigel Foster (piano, UK)
Robert Hugill

Why should I seek to ease intense desire
With still more tears and windy words of grief,
When heaven, or late or soon, sends no relief
To souls whom love hath robed around with fire?
Why need my aching heart to death aspire,
When all must die? Nay, death beyond belief
Unto these eyes would be both sweet and brief,
Since in my sum of woes all joys expire!
Therefore because I cannot shun the blow
I rather seek, say who must rule my breast,
Gliding between his gladness and his woe?
If only chains and bands can make me blest,
No marvel if alone and bare I go
An arméd Knight’s captive and slave confessed.

Robert Hugill / Michelangelo (Sonnet XXXI “Love’s Lordship”)

Musicians Ben Vonberg-Clark, Jonathan Eyers and Nigel Foster, prominently active in London’s vibrant cultural scene, will bring to the Glasperlenspiel an interesting and thoughtful programme, which premiered in London in February 2023. At the heart of it are two cantatas by British contemporary composer Robert Hugill, one inspired by re-reading of Graham Robb’s book Strangers: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century, telling the story of the homosexual men’s gradual emergence in the 19th century, and another exploring different approaches to life after death using texts from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Walt Whitman’s poetry and others. Alongside the cantatas, a number of songs will be performed celebrating love in all its forms.

Ben Vonberg-Clark is a tenor and conductor. Working across the world, he has developed a reputation for high quality and high energy music making, whether singing a solo recital as part of the Aldeburgh Festival, or taking a primary school singing workshop. Vonberg-Clark studied in Durham, Vienna and London, and is now taught by Nicky Spence. He has performed The Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion and Christmas Oratorio, The Swan in Orff’s Carmina Burana, Jenik in Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, Lensky in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Tamino in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Flute and Lysander in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Acis in Handel’s Acis and Galatea. Vonberg-Clark has sung in numerous masterclasses, including by tenor James Gilchrist and Sir Thomas Allen. He has also performed with the Sixteen, Stile Antico, the Eric Whitacre Singers, the BBC Singers, Polyphony and La Nuova Musica, among others.

Jonathan Eyers is a baritone from New Zealand and is currently training as a Young Artist on the Global Talent Programme at the National Opera Studio. He has recently completed the Opera Studies Course at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying with Robert Dean and holds a Bachelor of Music with First Class Honors at the University of Waikato. His peratic experience includes roles such as Figaro and Fiorello in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Perückenmacher and Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos, Ernie in It’s a Wonderful Life. Tancredi in Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, Simon in Judith Weir’s Miss Fortune, Der Zar in Weill’s Der Zar lässt sich photographieren, Pierrot in Smyth’s Fête Galante and many others. In 2023 Eyers was an Alvarez Young Artist at Garsington Opera. His recent song performance highlights include recitals at St Martin-in-the-fields and the Armourers’ Hall, the Oxford International Song Festival, the London Song Festival, and recording Detlev Glanert’s Gesang des Achill for BBC Radio3. Passionate about contemporary music, Eyers has recently premiered new song works by Emily Hazrati, Nathan Williamson, and Luka Venter.

Nigel Foster studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where his teachers were Roger Vignoles, Graham Johnson and Iain Burnside. At both the Academy and the Guildhall he won every prize and award available for piano accompaniment, and has since been appointed an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. In 2015 Foster was a Steinway Artist. He has played for singers including Roderick Williams, Ailish Tynan, Nicky Spence, Elizabeth Watts, James Gilchrist, Julien Van Mellaerts, Ashley Riches, Diana Moore, Simon Wallfisch, Louise Winter, Ruby Hughes and Elizabeth Llewellyn, and instrumentalists including violinist Madeleine Mitchell. He performs at major UK venues including the Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre, Royal Opera House Covent Garden (Crush Room) and St John Smith Square in London, and St David’s Hall in Cardiff. Foster has given concerts all over Europe as well as in Asia, New Zealand, USA and Colombia. In 2007 he founded the London Song Festival to promote the song repertoire that he loves, and since then it has grown into one of Britain’s most innovative festivals. Foster has given masterclasses and led workshops in the song repertoire at summer courses and music programmes all over the UK, in Belgium, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg and the USA. His CD recordings include The Silver Hound, a disc of songs by Betty Roe with Robin Tritschler, Sarah Leonard, Madeleine Mitchell and others, recently released on the Divine Art label; several discs of contemporary music and anthologies of songs of Alun Hoddinott and Mansel Thomas with Jeremy Huw Williams for the Sain label and collections of English song with Stephen Varcoe. 

Download the complete lyrics (PDF, 6 pages) of Out of the Shadows concert programme.

Video / YouTube: For David, on his Birthday – Ben Vonberg-Clark & Nigel Foster in a taster for Out of the Shadows

Organizers:
Peeter Vähi – artistic director
Tiina Jokinen – executive director
Kadri Kiis – producer, accountant
Meeta Vardja – musicologist, editor of festival booklet
AI – design
Olavi Sööt – co-producer, video, logistics
Reno Hekkonens – marketing director, PR
Johannes Vähi – co-producer, webmaster, sound engineering, logistics
Marje Hansar – social media

Special thanks: Tartu City Government, Urmas Klaas, Triin Käpp, Jana Raud, Ministry of Culture of Estonia, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Toyota, Kaupo Kiis, Kristel Leppik, Anne-Liise Kiis, volunteers