Iain Burnside is a pianist who has appeared in recital with many of the world’s leading singers. He is also an insightful programmer with an instinct for the telling juxtaposition. His recordings straddle an exuberantly eclectic repertoire ranging from Beethoven and Schubert to the cutting edge. Burnside’s passion for English Song is reflected in acclaimed albums of Britten, Finzi, Ireland, Butterworth and Vaughan Williams, many with baritone Roderick Williams.
Away from the piano Burnside is active as a writer and broadcaster. For Guildhall School of Music & Drama Burnside has devised a number of singular theatre pieces. A Soldier and a Maker, based on the life of Ivor Gurney, was performed at the Barbican Centre and the Cheltenham Festival, and later broadcast by BBC R3 on Armistice Day. Iain Burnside is Artistic Director of the Ludlow English Song Weekend and Artistic Consultant to Grange Park Opera.

Born in County Durham, the mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly studied piano and singing at the Royal College of Music and continued her studies with Gerald Martin Moore. She made her United States début in the 1999/2000 season in the title role of Ariodante. This was followed in the 2000/2001 season by her début at the San Francisco Opera singing both Ino and Juno in Semele. She has since returned to the NYCO as Romeo in I Capuleti ed i Montecchi and in the title role of Xerxes. In 2005 she made an acclaimed Metropolitan Opera début as Annio in La clemenza di Tito and her Carnegie Hall recital début in the Weill Hall. Opera engagements in Europe have included Nerone in L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Maggio Musicale in Florence and her débuts at the Paris Opéra as Sesto in Giulio Cesare; at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées as Juno and at the Munich Festival in the title role of The Rape of Lucretia. At English National Opera her roles include Handel’s Xerxes and Ariodante, Ruggiero in Alcina, Susie in The Silver Tassie, Ottavia in L’incoronazione di Poppea, Dido in Dido and Aeneas and in The Trojans, Sesto in La clemenza di Tito, for which she was nominated for an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera, and the title role in The Rape of Lucretia, which was televised by the BBC. She has appeared at Glyndebourne and at La Scala, Milan. Her concert engagements include appearances at the Salzburg Festival, Tanglewood Festival, Vienna Konzerthaus, Berlin Philharmonie and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, with distinguished conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Roger Norrington, Edo de Waart, Philippe Herreweghe and Daniel Harding. She is a regular guest artist at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall and was invited to take part in the opening festival of Carnegie’s new Zankel Hall in New York. Sarah Connolly is committed to promoting new music, and her world première performances include Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Twice through the heartwith the Schoenberg Ensemble conducted by Oliver Knussen; Jonathan Harvey’s Songs of Li Po at the Aldeburgh Festival and Sir John Tavener’s Tribute to Cavafy at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham. She has collaborated in a number of important recordings in repertoire ranging from Bach to Schoenberg and Vaughan Williams.