Tenor Nicky Spence was made an OBE in the King's first birthday honours list in 2023 and won BBC Music Magazine's 'Personality of the Year' Award in 2022.
Cultural Impact
Noël Coward's song 'Twentieth-Century Blues' is credited with popularising the blues in the United Kingdom.
Composer Biography
Noël Coward, a lower-middle-class child-actor from Surrey, was an autodidact who learned piano by ear and relied on others to notate his melodies.
Performer Biography
Soprano Mary Bevan was awarded an MBE in the 2019 Queen's birthday honours list and is a winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society's Young Artist award.
Compositional Technique
Noël Coward's songs incorporated a new, syncopated rhythm of modernity, blending elements from Edwardian musical comedy, European cabaret, Viennese operetta, jazz, and blues.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Noël Coward disdained 'highbrow' or 'modernist' labels, stating he wrote to entertain audiences and be well remunerated, yet his work often contained a surprising radicalism.
Performer Biography
Pianist Joseph Middleton, specializing in song accompaniment, was the first accompanist to win the Royal Philharmonic Society's Young Artist Award.
You might also enjoy...
Dirty Minds
Exclusive: Verbier Festival Academy 2019 - Kabarett: The Degenerates
The Birds
Schubert, Beethoven, Mendelssohn & Schumann: Lieder
Britten: Winter Words, Seven Sonnets Of Michelangelo, Six Folk Song Arrangements
