The Wight Proms is delighted to bring you music throughout the year and not just in August for the festival!

Join soprano Belinda Williams and pianist James Longford, for an intimate lunchtime recital with a theme of Shakespeare in the stunning setting of Northwood House’s Ballroom. You can join them for lunch directly after the concert, served in the Drawing Room.

PROGRAMME

Arne, Thomas: ‘Blow, blow, thou winter wind’

Quilter, Roger: Three Shakespeare Songs, Op 6: ‘Come away, death’, ‘O mistress mine’ and ‘Blow, blow, thou winter wind’

Parry, Hubert: Fours Songs by William Shakespeare: ‘When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes’, ‘Farewell! Thou art too dear for my possessing’, ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?’ and ‘When to the sessions of sweet silent thought’

Tippett, Michael: Songs for Ariel: ‘Come unto these yellow sands’, ‘Full fathom five’ and ‘Where the bee sucks’

Dring, Madeleine: ‘Take, o take those lips away’, ‘Come away, death’ and ‘Crabbed age and youth’

BELINDA WILLIAMS

International star soprano Belinda Williams studied at the Royal Academy of Music Opera Course, and gave her Wigmore Hall debut recital at age 26. Belinda then went on to forge a successful operatic career in Germany. Belinda has recently appeared as Gerhilde for the British Wagner Society alongside Sir John Tomlinson, and travels to France this summer to reprise the role of Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at Opera de Baugé. In 2021 she was named the Women’s Radio Classical Woman of the Year, and made her Wight Proms debut last year narrating Peter and the Wolf.

JAMES LONGFORD

“A very special, very beautiful sound…” Jury, International Schubert Competition

“Exquisitely detailed playing…” Birmingham Post

James Longford has a wide-ranging career as a collaborative pianist, soloist and chamber musician.

Forthcoming engagements include concerts with the BBC Singers and Eric Whitacre, the BBC Concert Orchestra, an opera gala for Cowes Fringe and solo recitals in Japan and New York City.

He works regularly with major opera companies and BBC ensembles, as well as with many island choral ensembles.

James won the Tagore Gold Medal at the Royal College of Music and was organ scholar at St.Martin-in-the-Fields. A Junior Fellowship at the RCM followed, and residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada, and the Britten-Pears School. He was delighted to be selected as a Steinway Artist in 2014.

For more information visit linktr.ee/jameslongford

Wight Proms Wednesdays take place in the Ballroom at Northwood House at 12:30 on the dates above, each lasting 40-60 minutes.

If you would like to join us for lunch afterwards, please pre-order by the end of the Monday, two days before the concert.

Welcome to Wight Proms Wednesdays! We would like to bring you a bit of the Wight Proms throughout the year and not just in August, and so we launched this lunchtime concert series. Taking place at 12:30 on Wednesdays and each lasting 40 minutes, they are the ideal addition to your lunch break.

Tickets and more information is from the official Wight Proms website: www.wightproms.co.uk/wednesdays