Building on the success of their acclaimed opera productions at the Rye Arts Festival, Euphonia Studio is instituting a concert series at Rye Creative Centre on New Road. On the last Sunday of each month, Alisdair Kitchen, the Artistic Director of Euphonia Studio, will present a varied classical programme by candlelight, showcasing the talents of his colleagues, accompanied by himself at the piano.
Alisdair says: “Given the popularity of classical music in Rye, I have always found it surprising that no one has set up a regular concert series here. So I have teamed up with Sam Williams at Rye Creative Centre – where the theatre houses a lovely piano – to present a recital every month. Audiences will recognise some familiar faces from Euphonia’s operatic performances, but I look forward to introducing some new faces too. It’s a great opportunity for the music lovers of Rye and beyond to enjoy some fantastic music-making in an intimate setting, and I hope these “Rye-citals” will develop a following!”
While he is known in town as a stage director and conductor, Alisdair trained as a pianist at London’s Royal College of Music and has performed across the country and abroad, though never in Rye until now.
He begins the Rye-cital series on February 26 at 3:30pm, with a solo piano recital of Viennese Classics, featuring music by Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven. A recital of English Song, given by tenor William Wallace, who entranced audiences in Britten’s Turn Of The Screw at the 2016 Rye Arts Festival, will follow in March.
Tickets are £10, and are available on the door from 3pm, or by calling the Rye Creative Centre on 01797 229797. A bar will be open during the interval and afterwards.
Visit www.euphoniastudio.com for more information. Venue information can be found at www.ryecreativecentre.co.uk.
Is this the same Alistair Kitchen who has taken part in the Rye Arts Festival ‘series of concerts’ performed every September ,for the last few years?
This is Alisdair Kitchen – the youthful conductor, artistic director and producer of the company Euphonia Studio which he founded and which is responsible for all the critically acclaimed operas staged at Rye Arts Festival in the last few years including Iphigenie en Tauride, Cosi Fan Tutte, Don Giovanni, Don Pasquale and The Turn of the Screw!
Alisdair is also a theatre director, having produced a fabulous series of Chekhov short plays using opera singers as the actors, which played in London and at the Rye Creative Centre just before Christmas, and thrilled the audiences.
A young artistic polymath, who has brought the highest quality in music and theatre to Rye over the last six years, he is also a pianist of note.
In his spare time he is studying for a doctorate on the influence of Shakespeare on Mozart!
He also paints!