Soprano Clare Lesser and pianist David Lesser are joined by guest cellist Laura Chapple for a recital of regional premieres.

The concert will include André Previn’s haunting ‘Vocalise’ and his ‘Four Songs’, setting texts by Toni Morrison, Hans Joachim Hespos’ experimental music theatre ‘Weiβschatten’ written for Clare and David Lesser, Ned Rorem’s intense settings of Wallace Stevens and Jürg Wyttenbach’s surreal take on the madrigal repertoire.

Biographies

Soprano Clare Lesser studied at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, the University of Birmingham, Birmingham Conservatoire and the University of Sussex. She specialises in the performance of twentieth century and contemporary music, and her work in this field has been nominated for a Royal Philharmonic Society award. She regularly collaborates with composers on new works, giving over fifty world premieres to date. She has made critically acclaimed recordings of the music of Wolfgang Rihm, Michael Finnissy, Hans Werner Henze, Giacinto Scelsi and many other contemporary composers on the Metier and Divine Art labels. She has appeared at the Edinburgh, Gaudeamus and Avignon International Festivals, and has also appeared regularly on radio and television. She is currently Lecturer of Music at New York University, Abu Dhabi.

David Lesser studied at The Royal College of Music, London, and the University of Huddersfield. He was Senior Teaching Fellow in Music at the University of Warwick, UK, and since moving to the UAE, he has taught extensively at the American Universities of Dubai and Sharjah and at New York University, Abu Dhabi where he currently teaches piano and composition. His music has been widely performed in Britain and Europe and is published by Edition Tre Fontane, Münster. He specialises in the performance of twentieth century and contemporary music and accompanying choral and solo vocal repertoire, and has given a number of world premieres. He performs regularly at NYUAD, and throughout the UK and Europe. He is recorded by Metier and Divine Art.

As a recitalist, chamber musician and orchestral player, British cellist Laura Chapple has performed across North America, Europe, and the Middle East. She is a graduate of Reading University, the Royal Northern College of Music, Northern Illinois University, and the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, from where she received her D.M.A. degree in Cello Performance. Her principal teachers have included Margaret Moncrieff, Marc Johnson, and Yehuda Hanani. She has participated in numerous festivals including Nova Scotia, Aspen, and the Lake District Summer Music Festival, and she has also been an artist-in-residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada. She lives in Muscat where she is the cello tutor for the Muscat Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for the Royal Court.