Features

Listen and learn

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In the 24th of a series of articles, David Bird discusses the work of Redbridge Music Society and introduces tenor Michael Gibson and pianist Lucy Colquhoun, who will perform in Wanstead this month

Redbridge Music Society continues its current project of promoting and supporting outstanding young musicians with a recital on 15 February in the Churchill Room at Wanstead Library, to be given by award-winning Scottish tenor Michael Gibson, accompanied by Lucy Colquhoun on piano.

The recital will include some traditional Irish and Scottish folk songs, a popular Neopolitan song and some well-known parlour songs. The recital will end with a performance of Robert Schumann’s famous song cycle Dichterliebe.

Michael Gibson is a recent graduate of the Royal College of Music (RCM) International Opera Studio, where he held the Aldama scholarship and studied with Professor Janis Kelly. Previously, he graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the Royal Northern College of Music. His recent operatic roles include Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Azael (L’enfant Prodigue), Ecclitico (Il mondo della Luna) and Roméo (Roméo et Juliette) at the RCM Opera Studio.

​As an in-demand concert soloist, Michael has performed works including Mozart’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Bach’s St John Passion and B Minor Mass, Finzi’s Dies Natalis and Puccini’s Messa di Gloria. He has also given performances of song cycles, including Beethoven’s An die ferne geliebte, Britten’s Winter Words and Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin.

Michael was a runner-up in the 2021 Clonter Opera Prize, and has participated in public masterclasses with Sir Thomas Allen, Susan McCulloch and Sir Graham Vick. He is a member of the Glyndebourne Opera Chorus and a current holder of the prestigious Making Music Phillip and Dorothy Green Young Artist Award.

Pianist Lucy Colquhoun studied at RCM with Roger Vignoles, winning all the major accompaniment prizes, including the Alisdair Graham, Titanic Memoriam and Joan Chissell Schumann Prizes, along with numerous scholarships. She is a Britten-Pears and Park Lane Group Young Artist and a Samling Artist. She is currently a staff member at RCM.

Lucy has performed at many major concert venues, including London’s Southbank Centre and Royal Albert Hall. She has played at many prestigious UK Music festivals, including the Oxford Lieder and Brighton Festivals. She has broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and Colombian National Television. She has been an accompanist for Sir Thomas Allen and for singers in the finals of the Kathleen Ferrier Awards at Wigmore Hall (including the 2019/2020 winner Benson Wilson).


Michael and Lucy will perform at Wanstead Library on 15 February from 8pm (booking required; visitors: £10: members: £7). Call 07380 606 767. Redbridge Music Society is supported by Vision RCL and affiliated to Making Music.