Menotti’s witty gem The Old Maid and the Thief - the first opera written for radio in 1939, and a work rarely performed on stage - comes to life under the baton of Thomas Hawkey-Soar, with singers and orchestral musicians from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. The first in a series of performances.

Miss Todd Eli Street

Laetitia Phoebe Curcher

Bob William Swinnerton

Miss Pinkerton Millie Royale

Conductor Thomas Hawkey-Soar

Piano Alex Wyatt

Musicians from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld arrives in a fresh new staging that brings out the operetta’s wit, charm and irreverent humour, led by conductor Paul Wingfield and director Rebecca Meltzer, with the Musicians of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

Cast
Aristée / Pluton — Tom Hawkey Soar
Eurydice — Hannah Devereux
Orphée — Ethan Jacobs
Jupiter — Gianpiero Greatorex
John Styx — Samuel Weakley
L’Opinion Publique — Mari McGillivray
Vénus — Abigail Baylis
Additional castings to follow.

Creative Team
Director — Rebecca Meltzer
Conductor — Paul Wingfield
Orchestra — Musicians of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld arrives in a fresh new staging that brings out the operetta’s wit, charm and irreverent humour, led by conductor Paul Wingfield and director Rebecca Meltzer, with the Musicians of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

Cast
Aristée / Pluton — Tom Hawkey Soar
Eurydice — Hannah Devereux
Orphée — Ethan Jacobs
Jupiter — Gianpiero Greatorex
John Styx — Samuel Weakley
L’Opinion Publique — Mari McGillivray
Vénus — Abigail Baylis
Additional castings to follow.

Creative Team
Director — Rebecca Meltzer
Conductor — Paul Wingfield
Orchestra — Musicians of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

An evening of song at the historic Lamport Hall with tenor Tom Hawkey-Soar, presented as part of his ongoing scholarship link with the venue. Programme, tickets and further details to be announced.

Tom Hawkey-Soar - Tenor

Love and nature are in full bloom in this programme of evocative imagery and shimmering harmony.

Selections from Claude Le Jeune’s innovative 16th-century Le printemps set spring as the season of love, while the transient beauty of nature and youth is explored in Eric Whitacre’s Three Flower Songs. Love and longing is the timeless subject for Palestrina - a giant of the Italian Renaissance - and for Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur, who brings impressionistic colour and intimacy to his choral masterpiece.

We are thrilled that our 2025-26 cohort of talented Scholars will perform this concert as part of the new Live at the Centre series and that they will give the world premiere of a new commission from Bobbie-Jane Gardner.

Programme includes:
Daniel-Lesur Le Cantique des cantiques
Gardner Title TBC (world premiere)
Le Jeune Le printemps
Palestrina Surge, propera, amica mea
Whitacre Three Flower Songs

EX CATHEDRA Scholars Ensemble
Jeffrey Skidmore conductor

Tom looks forward to joining Northampton Bach Choir for the first time as soloist for their performance of G F Handel’s ‘Messiah’.

Northampton Bach Choir

Simon Toyne - Conductor

Rebecca Bottone - Soprano

Other soloists TBA.

Tom joins Ex Cathedra and Jeffrey Skidmore, where he is an Enhanced Student Scholar, for their annual Good Friday Performance of J.S Bach’s Passions.

Dramatic choruses place us at the heart of the story, while poignant solo arias and achingly beautiful orchestration explore the characters' emotional depth - and offer us space to pause and reflect. Three centuries after that first performance, it is a masterpiece that still speaks to us profoundly, regardless of belief.

We get closer still to the Good Friday traditions of Bach’s time with chorale preludes, motets, readings and communal hymns.

Sung in German with English surtitles.
Running time: 3 hours including a 30-minute interval.

EX CATHEDRA Choir, Baroque Orchestra
& Academy of Vocal Music
Jeffrey Skidmore conductor

Sebastian Hill Evangelist
Thomas Lowen Jesus
Lawrence White Pilate
Imogen Russell, Katie Trethewey soprano
Martha McLorinan alto
Daniel Marles tenor

Love and nature are in full bloom in this programme of evocative imagery and shimmering harmony.

Selections from Claude Le Jeune’s innovative 16th-century Le printemps set spring as the season of love, while the transient beauty of nature and youth is explored in Eric Whitacre’s Three Flower Songs. Love and longing is the timeless subject for Palestrina - a giant of the Italian Renaissance - and for Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur, who brings impressionistic colour and intimacy to his choral masterpiece.

We are thrilled that our 2025-26 cohort of talented Scholars will perform this concert as part of the new Live at the Centre series and that they will give the world premiere of a new commission from Bobbie-Jane Gardner.

Programme includes:
Daniel-Lesur Le Cantique des cantiques
Gardner Title TBC (world premiere)
Le Jeune Le printemps
Palestrina Surge, propera, amica mea
Whitacre Three Flower Songs

EX CATHEDRA Scholars Ensemble
Jeffrey Skidmore conductor

Gian Carlo Menotti’s sparkling one-act radio opera The Old Maid and The Thief, forms the centrepiece of an evening of American music curated by musicians of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Written as the first Opera specifically for radio in 1939, this witty tale of small-town intrigue, gossip and deception is paired with Barber’s radiant Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Gershwin’s Three Preludes for Piano and more to complete an evening of trans-atlantic mid-century elegance and charm.

Full Programme

Knoxville: Summer of 1915 ​​​Samuel Barber

​Elissa Street - Soprano

8 Poems of Emily Dickinson​​ Aaron Copland

​III. The World Feels Dusty

​VII. Going to Heaven

​VIII. The Chariot

Three Preludes for Piano​​​ George Gershwin

​Alex Wyatt - Piano

- Interval -

The Old Maid and the Thief ​​​Gian Carlo Menotti

Miss Todd - Elissa Street

Bob - William Swinnerton

Laetitia - Phoebe Curcher

Miss Pinkerton - Millie Royle

Musicians from Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

Conductor - Tom Hawkey-Soar

Piano - Alex Wyatt

Ticket details via the link below.

Tom joins Ex Cathedra and Jeffrey Skidmore, where holds an Enhanced Student Scholarhsip, for a performance of Rachmaninoff’s Vespers (All Night Vigil) at Lichfield Cathedral as part of the Lichfield Festival

This masterpiece of unaccompanied choral writing is a radiant tapestry of ancient chant and lush Romantic harmony. From its hushed opening prayer to its triumphant final blessing, the work moves with deep spiritual intensity and overwhelming emotional sweep.

Running time: approx. 1 hr 40 minutes, including interval.

EX CATHEDRA Choir
Jeffrey Skidmore conductor

Martha McLorinan mezzo soprano
James Robinson tenor
Simone Rebello bells

Tom joins Ex Cathedra and Jeffrey Skidmore, where holds an Enhanced Student Scholarhsip, for a performance of Rachmaninoff’s Vespers (All Night Vigil) at Gloucester Cathedral as part of the 2026 Three Choirs Festival.

This masterpiece of unaccompanied choral writing is a radiant tapestry of ancient chant and lush Romantic harmony. From its hushed opening prayer to its triumphant final blessing, the work moves with deep spiritual intensity and overwhelming emotional sweep.

Running time: approx. 1 hr 40 minutes, including interval.

EX CATHEDRA Choir
Jeffrey Skidmore conductor

Martha McLorinan mezzo soprano
James Robinson tenor
Simone Rebello bells