Bach’s St. Mark Passion

The Marekerk in the Atlas de Wit, 1698

Bach’s St. Matthew and St. John Passions are perhaps his most often performed works during Holy Week. The St. Mark Passion is less well-known and it was nearly lost completely.

First performed in 1731, the St. Mark Passion was revised in 1744, and then the manuscript was lost. Fortunately, it was possible to reconstruct much of the work for two reasons: firstly, because the libretto survived, and secondly, because the St. Mark Passion reused music from Bach’s other works. This included movements from the Christmas Oratorio, the ode Laß Fürstin, laß noch einen Strahl (BWV 198), and the two arias from the cantata Wiederstehe doch der Sünde (BWV 54). In order to complete the work, the remaining words were set to other Bach arias or as recitative.

Emma will sing extracts of the St. Mark Passion together with soprano Caroline Stam and baritone Frits Karskens and the Brederode Consort in a concert on 31st March. They are accompanied by an period instrument ensemble with conductor Henk Gijzen.

The concert will also include extracts from a St. John Passion which was originally considered to be an early work of Handel. More recently, the work has been attributed to Bohm. The Brederobe Consort will also perform a composition of conductor and organist Henk Gijzen

Saturday, 31st March, 16:00

Marekerk, Leiden, the Netherlands

Free entry: a collection may be taken to support the work of the church

2018-03-29T15:28:49+02:00March 30th, 2018|

Liszt’s Via Crucis

On 30th March, Emma will sing during the Good Friday service in the Hooglandse Kerk in Leiden, the Netherlands. The Leidse Cantorij are singing extracts from Liszt’s Via Crucis during the service. Emma has been invited to sing as a guest soloist.

The video above is of Emma singing Ave Crux in 2015 with pianist Willem Brons and the Pancras Consort, with conductor Hans Brons.

Friday, 30th March, Hooglandse Kerk, Leiden, the Netherlands, 19:00. 

2018-03-29T15:22:11+02:00March 24th, 2018|

First World War Centenary Concert

Singing during the Last Post Ceremony with the West Yorkshire Police Band on Remembrance Day in 2016.

On 24th March, Emma will appear as a guest soloist with the West Yorkshire Police Band and the Cheshire Constabulary Corps of Drums in Pontefract, England. The concert is to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War this year. Emma will sing popular songs and songs of remembrance.

Emma has sung with the West Yorkshire Police Band in Flanders in 2016 and 2017, at ceremonies in Tyne Cot CWGC cemetery, the Menin Gate, the New Zealand Memorial, and Messines Ridge. She is delighted to be joining them in England for the first in several events this year to mark the centenary of the armistice.

The concert is sponsored by the Hospice and Charities Darts and Domino League and hosted by the Rotary Club. All proceeds from the tickets will be donated to the Prince of Wales Hospice .

Saturday, 24th March, St. Giles Church, Pontefract, England, 19:00.

Tickets are available by contacting Bill Henderson on +44 7939 100 215

2018-03-29T15:24:29+02:00March 14th, 2018|

Alpe d’HuZes Dutch Cancer Foundation

The Alpe d’Huez is a Dutch initiative in which people ascend the Alpe d’Heuz mountain in France six times, either by foot or by mountain bike. They have the motto “Never, ever quit.”

In Emma’s hometown of Leiden, the Netherlands, staff at the Leiden University Medical Centre are raising funds for the Alpe d’HuZes Dutch Cancer Foundation and participating in the climb. A concert has been arranged for 14th March in the hospital foyer. There, Emma will sing Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Song of the Shepherd Lell” from his opera the Snow Maiden, arranged for mezzo-soprano, piano, and clarinet by Pamela Weston. Hein Putter will play the piano and John Macfarlane the clarinet.

Wednesday, 14th March, 17:00, Boerhaaveplein, LUMC, Leiden, the Netherlands.

2018-03-02T12:08:19+02:00March 11th, 2018|

A Poem Against War

Harrie Janssen speaks about his composition.

On 11th March, Emma will sing Harrie Janssen‘s “A Poem Against War” with Het Fanfare Collectif and conductor Jurgen Nab at the Flemmish Open Wind Band Championships in Heist-op-den-Berg, Belgium.

“A Poem Against War” is a beautiful piece for mezzo and wind band. The poem, by New York poet Karen Karpowich, is the reflections of a person seeing a war memorial and realising the futility of war and the tragedy that the soldiers are forgotten.

2018-03-02T12:05:58+02:00February 15th, 2018|

Karin Churchill (1930-2018)

Karin and Patrick Churchill, photograph: Matt Cardy

Last Wednesday, Emma sang at the funeral of an extraordinary lady, Karin Churchill.

“I first met Karin in Normandy in 2015. She paid me a complement that suggested she understood about singing. It turned out that her mother was a mezzo-soprano.

I noticed she was wearing a medal on her left side, which meant it was her own. Karin had received her medal for rebuilding her local church after the blitz. The church in question was the Frauenkirche in Dresden.

During the blitz Karin sheltered with her mother and her twin brother in the cellar of their Dresden apartment. An unexploded British bomb left a shaft from the cellar up to the street. Karin’s brother walked out first and was immediately blinded by the heat, a blindness that would last for the rest of his lift. Karen went next. She let go of her mother’s hand to step outside.

It was the last contact she would have with her mother. When Karin returned to the cellar some days later, she found only her mother’s blue enamel earrings: her body had been cremated.

After the war, Karin decided she wanted to become a nurse and work for Mother Theresa in Calcutta. She learned Hindi and Sanskrit and she wrote to Mother Theresa. She received a reply which said she first needed to improve her English: “We have more stones here than bread,” wrote Mother Theresa, “you are much needed here.”

So Karin moved to Oxford to learn English. It was there that she met Patrick Churchill. They married in 1964, a Dresden survivor and a D-Day Commando. She never made it to India.

Karin worked at the Rivermead Rehabilitation Hospital in Oxford for people with brain injuries. One of her patients had served in the RAF as a navigator in a Lancaster Bomber: he had been flying over Dresden on the night Karin’s mother was killed. She helped him recover and in his gratitude he gave her his navigator’s torch.

At Karin’s funeral, Patrick asked me to sing the last song her mother had ever sung in public, Bach-Gounod’s “Ave Maria.” Her last performance had been a New Year’s Concert at the Frauenkirche in 1945, some six weeks before she was killed by the firebombs.”

The funeral was held in the local church in their Oxfordshire home town of Witney. Emma sang Bach-Gounod’s “Ave Maria.”

2018-03-02T12:13:25+02:00February 3rd, 2018|
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