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Firstly some important news!

MATTHEW BROOK & PETER SEYMOUR
York Early Music Festival: Event 11
Live Streaming on Thursday 15th July 1.00pm
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What a challenging year and a bit this has been! Whilst the world comes to terms with a pandemic, we see vaccines are steadily distributed and find there is a little recovery in the performing arts. It is a slow process, but musical institutions are trying their best to plan and do safe performances for the time being.

I am lucky to have been busy preparing for the summer ahead. Nothing can be certain in these days but rest assured, we are working hard to give our audiences as best an experience as possible. I have new projects and I am delighted to say my next performance will be at the Barbican Centre, London, playing the role of Aeneas in Errolyn Wallen’s Dido’s Ghost. It has the complete Purcell Dido and Aeneas in its core, but either side of it there is another story unfolding, of Anna, Dido’s sister, her story goes into what happened after Dido killed herself. It will be available online and a lucky few will get to see it live too. June 6^th is the date. Book your tickets now!

We get to perform the piece three times at the Buxton International Festival too, and, although it has not been announced yet, further performances will happen in the summer. Watch this space!!

The Leeds Lieder Festival has been a fantastic source of inspiration and work for many, and I will be performing with Iain Burnside, Susan Bickley and Victoria Newlyn in our theatrical story around the Wesendonck family and Richard Wagner. I play Otto Wesendonck and I get some fabulous music to sing. Wagner is quite a different world away from my normal repertoire, and it has been a joy to get my teeth into this highly romantic music. June 17^th Leeds Town Hall is the date to note for this.

My work with the Dunedin Consort has been a treasure trove of delight. This season they have kept me busy, we have recorded “Ich habe genug”, Bach Cantata 82 and other music for Linn records and this CD will be released in October this year. I have heard the final edit, and it promises to be a delicious disc, with wonderful playing and direction by John Butt and his team.

In celebration of 25 years of music making, the Dunedin Consort perform this music we recorded and other music, in covid safe performances online and possibly with small audiences in July. Venues will be in Edinburgh and London.

I will be performing with Paul McCreesh and his Gabrieli Consort singing Bach, and I will also be singing in York on 15^th July for the York Early Music Festival 2021 Encounters week. I perform with a dear friend of many years Peter Seymour. We will sing Handel and Bach. Opera arias and secular cantatas that are brimming with interest and variety.

Maggie Faultless has been a dear colleague over the years and with her group Music for Awhile we will sing a full performance of Dido and Aeneas. Covid safe, as always, in the most beautiful setting of Alton Priors, Wiltshire.

There are plenty of other things to look forward to, but we await official announcements from Festivals and promoters. It is tricky to know how to handle upcoming projects but we hope they will all able to be fulfilled as planned.

Thanks for visiting my website.

Matthew Brook