The Songs & The Plays - Kean on Shakespeare

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The Songs & The Plays Listen on Youtube Love’s Labours Lost (1593-94) A revised and polished version of this play was presented for Queen Elizabeth I and her court at Christmas 1598. However the elevated language and subject matter of the drama suggests it was always intended for a sophisticated and highly literate audience. There are two parallel plots – one ‘high’ comedy and one ‘low’ comedy. In the high comedy the King of Navarre and his friends make a pact to ‘fast and study’ and to have no contact with women for three years. No sooner have they agreed than the Princess of Aquitaine and her ladies in waiting arrive to discuss ‘state matters’. Inevitably the King falls in love with the Princess and his friends with the French ladies in waiting. The Gentlemen find loophole in their vows and woo and win women with a dance. The Ladies become aware of their broken vows and treat the noblemen with scorn. In the low comedy the page Moth and the clown Costard ridicule the exaggerated m...
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Ian Higginson - Biographical Notes on a Lancashire Composer

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Ian Higginson

Conductor – Composer – Organist – Teacher – Examiner

Ian Higginson was born on Merseyside and moved to Gloucestershire in 1983. He is well known as an organist, conductor, accompanist, composer and arranger and has performed in many of the country's leading cathedrals, churches and concert halls. Ian studied the organ with Ian Tracey (Liverpool Cathedral) and John Scott (St Paul's Cathedral), David Saint (St Chad’s Cathedral Birmingham) and the late John Scott (Saint Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue, New York). Ian has also studied conducting with Jonathan Delmar and the late David Willcocks, and he has performed both as an organist and conductor in many concert halls, cathedrals and churches across the UK, USA and Europe.  He has also studied conducting with the late Dr Melville Cook, Jonathan Delmar and Sir David Willcocks.

In addition to conducting Cheltenham Choral Society (a post which he has held since 1989) and the English Concertanté Singers and Orchestra, Ian has also conducted Choral workshops both in the UK and the USA. He is also Organist to the Cathedral Singers of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and Organist and Director of Music at St George's Parish Church, Tuffley, Gloucester.

As a composer, Ian has had many of his compositions and arrangements published and performed both in the UK and USA. One of his most recent works was the setting of a Requiem mass which has won much critical acclaim from both sides of the Atlantic. Ian's publishers include Boosey & Hawkes, Animus Publishing and Parish Publications (a thriving music publishing and recording company he runs jointly with his wife Janine).

"Ian is a prolific composer and has a large output of choral, vocal, organ piano and instrumental music published by a variety of publishers in the UK and the USA, where many of his compositions have attracted excellent national and international reviews. Ian’s Christmas carol compositions and arrangements have been performed world-wide, including notable performances such as the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and chorus, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Bristol Cathedral Concert choir & Orchestra, the City of Glasgow Chorus & Orchestra and the Piccolo Spoleto Festival USA.

A number of Ian’s instrumental and vocal music have also been chosen as set pieces for various competitive festivals in addition to examination boards including: ABRSM, Trinity, Victoria College of Music and the National College of Music. In 2006, Ian also received an award from Cheltenham Arts Council in recognition of his work with choirs in the Cheltenham area.

Ian has been Organist and Assistant Director of Music for the Cathedral Singers of Christchurch Cathedral Oxford and Organist & Director of Music – University of Gloucestershire. He is currently Conductor & Musical Director of: Jubilate Chamber Choir Cheltenham, Cotswold Sinfonietta and Cotswold Camerata. Ian’s other roles include being School organist & tutor in organ & piano at St Edward’s School, Cheltenham, Piano tutor at Sir William Romney’s School, Tetbury, Organist at Beverston Parish Church, Principal & Chief Examiner of TCSM, (Three Counties School of Music remote music assessment board), Assistant Professor of Sacred Music & University Fellow of Sacred Music & Composition at Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi University, USA, where he is currently teaching composition on the Masters course."

His ‘Fear no more the heat o’the sun’ is one of two songs, which have been published in Boosey & Hawkes’ Shakespeare Song Album. The other is a delightful setting of ‘O Mistress Mine’ from Twelfth Night.
Listen on YouTube

With my thanks to Ian Higginson - website

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