Honiton Festival Opera Gala evening with English Touring Opera soloists

A recital of opera highlights with principal singers from English Touring Opera Spring Season at Honiton Festival‘s second Opera Gala evening at St Paul’s Church, Honiton on Friday March 26 at 7.30pm.

The concert will celebrate the arrival of spring and the promise of summer to come, with arias of midsummer from some of the world’s most famous composers. It will serve as an ‘appetiser’ for the forthcoming festival of music in May the Honiton Festival, which takes place between May 6-22.

Performing with arias on the evening will be Paula Sides, Mark Wilde and Andrew Slater.

Paula studied at the Royal College of Music and received the Coutts & Co Award along with the Sir Thomas Allen Scholarship. Winner of the Eric Falk Trust Award. Paula has worked with a range of companies both in this country and on the continent, recording the soundtrack for a Peroni cinema advert.

Mark Wilde was a chorister at Dundee Cathedral. He studied at the University of East Anglia and the Royal College of Music. In 2000 Mark made his Glyndebourne debut in Così fan Tutte. Other appearances have been with Glyndebourne Touring Opera, Welsh National Opera, Opera North and Birmingham Opera Company. Mark makes regular appearances on the concert platform both in the UK and abroad and has recorded Handel’s Ode to St Cecilia’s Day.

Bass-baritone Cheshire born Andrew Slater worked as a Physics teacher in Toxteth before studying at the Royal Northern College of Music. He joined the Glyndebourne chorus in 1990 and was given the John Christie Award, allowing him to study at the Saint Petersburg Conservatoire. He now works as a freelance soloist with major UK opera companies and in Europe.

Alongside this stage career, Andrew has developed links with a number of choirs around the country who regularly invite him to bring his particular zeal to their choral concerts, either performing together in oratorio or giving a solo recital between choir numbers. He also finds time to teach part time at the university in Huddersfield.

The Opera Gala at St Paul’s Church, Honiton takes place on Friday, March 26, at 7.30pm. Tickets £7, £11.50, £13.50

For more information visit the Honiton Festival site.

(Image of Paula Sides courtesy of Richard Hubert Smith)