MASTERCLASS F0R SINGERS with PETER CROCKFORD
27 May 2025
Dulcie Conway – mezzo-soprano
Sea Slumber-Song – Edward Elgar – Sea Pictures, op.37, No.1
Anna Slavina – soprano
L’amor suo mi fe’ beata – Gaetano Donizetti – Roberto Devereux
David Banburry – bass
Vesna, Vesna (The Spring, The Spring) – Dmitry Shostakovich, op.128,
(poem by Alexander Pushkin)
Interval
Sheree Oxenham – soprano
Son pochi fiori – Pietro Mascagni – L’amico Fritz
Alan Young – baritone
Der Soldat – Robert Schumann - 5 Lieder, Op. 40: No. 3
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Many thanks to our accompanist Geoffrey Whitworth
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Peter Crockford studied piano at the Birmingham School of Music (now the Royal Conservatoire) and then won a scholarship to study piano accompaniment at the Royal Northern College of Music. Most of his career has been spent working with singers both in opera and on the concert platform. He has been fortunate enough to travel over much of the world playing, conducting and coaching and feels he has hit both the heights and depths that this world can afford – recitals and concerts at the top of the world in Kathmandu and accompanying Janine Roebuck at the bottom of the world on a cruise through Antarctica!
He has had two teachers who have had a particularly fundamental effect on his music making:- Peter Gellhorn and George Hurst. These two were exacting in their demands, without ego regarding the music, and imparted the sort of knowledge which is, unfortunately, not so readily available these days.
There are many wonderful things that happen to performers during their career and among his own personal favourites (apart from the above) are: conducting the European Tour of West Side Story, being assistant to the General Music Director at the Stadt Theatre, Freiburg, the many tours as Musical Director for operas and concerts all over the Middle and Far East, and, probably, most of all, working with the young performers of the National Youth Music Theatre and several extremely talented amateur groups.
His ethos when working is to help the performer or student achieve their potential, awaken them to the joy of sharing music and above all to have humility in the face of any work being studied or performed.