Trio Recital - Soprano, Mezzo & Harp

Natasha Jouhl (soprano) and Janet Shell (mezzo soprano) provide a sparkling evening of song and opera with Mary Reid accompanying on the harp. This unusual combination provides a twist to the repertoire and adds a touch of magic to this glittering concert.

Enjoy operatic favourites from Mozart (Marriage of Figaro), Handel (Rodelinda), Offenbach (Tales of Hoffmann), Bizet (Carmen) and sit back and hear Puccini's celebrated O Mio Babbino Caro from his opera Gianni Schicci. Threaded throughout all this will be songs by Faure, Purcell, Dowland, Novello and Irving Berlin along with a special Christmas rendition of O Holy Night.

Natasha and Janet have performed many times together. Both studied at Guildhall School of Music and Drama where Natasha was winner of the Gold Medal competition. She is currently performing Musetta (La Boheme) with Glyndebourne Touring Opera. Janet has previously won competitions for French song in Paris and was the first mezzo to be taken on by YCAT. Her busy schedule of concerts recently took her to Birmingham Town Hall to sing the Angel in Elgar's Dream of Gerontius, where the piece was premiered over 100 years ago.

They are delighted to collaborate with young harpist Mary Reid, currently studying at the Royal Academy of Music and have enjoyed exploring traditional and fun repertoire in this engaging combination of voice and harp.

Janet Shell - Mezzo Soprano

Mezzo soprano Janet Shell is widely recognised for her concert, oratorio and recital singing in the UK. A former Head of Music, Janet retrained at Guildhall School of Music and Drama and shortly afterwards won the overall prize in the Royal Tunbridge Wells International Young Concert Artists' Competition going on to win prizes for French song in Paris in successive years. She was the first mezzo to be taken on by YCAT and following a recital tour of South America, Janet was the first singer ever to broadcast live on Classic FM.

Janet (accompanied by John Flinders) was invited to give a recital in Tokyo for John Major (then British Prime Minister) and invited guests. This led to an invitation to Downing Street. With Christopher Goldsack, Janet toured South America and has given song recitals in the Middle and Far East. In the UK she has sung in the Purcell Room and for many festivals and appeared several times on Classic FM and "Friday Night is Music Night" for the BBC. Recently Janet, John and Christopher gave a retrospective recital with anecdotes about their careers to date which was very well received.

In opera, Janet has sung for Welsh National Opera, Opera North, English National Opera and the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. She is involved in many high profile Opera Gala concerts, often singing for the Royal Family and celebrated public figures.

Her enviable oratorio career sees her sing in all the major UK concert halls including the Royal Albert Hall, Birmingham Symphony hall and Town Hall; Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Barbican, The Sage and Cadogan Hall. Abroad she has performed in concert halls in Brussels, Rio de Janeiro and Cairo. Her affinity with Elgar is often commented upon and in particular The Dream of Gerontius which she has just sung in Birmingham Town Hall, the scene of its premiere.

Unusual moments in her career have included singing in Tokyo and subsequently Downing Street for John Major while Prime Minister; singing for the Spice Girls at Geri Halliwell's house following the christening of her daughter; being a backing singer on the Classical Brit Awards; singing the National Anthem on the ice (carefully!) before an Ice Hockey match; recording with hip hop rapper Bobby Whiskers and singing for the first Royal Wedding in the Chapel Royal, Hampton Court for 500 years in September 2009.

Janet teaches singing and has given invited Master Classes at Stetson University, Florida, the Music Conservatoire in Tokyo and in June last year to Julliard Students in New York.

Natasha Jouhl - Soprano

Natasha was born in London and moved to New York at the age of seven. She received her BMus degree in 1998 from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and continued her studies there on the opera course. In July 1999 she won the Gold Medal competition. Natasha completed a year at the National Opera Studio in 2002 and is presently studying with Janice Chapman. Natasha was awarded the Glyndebourne on Tour Promise Award for 2006 and won the John Christie Award in 2009.

Oratorio performances include Handel's Samson, Acis and Galatea and Messiah at Arundel Cathedral, Bridgewater Hall in Manchester and the Waterfront Hall in Belfast (Ulster Orchestra), Haydn's Creation at St George's Chapel as part of the Windsor Festival, Carmina Burana for the RPO, Schubert's Mass in A Flat, Faure's Requiem and Dvorak's Requiem for Goldsmiths Choral Union, and Pergolesi's Missa Romana with the Orchestre National de Lyon.

Natasha's operatic roles include Elisetta in The Secret Marriage, Ilia in Idomeneo and First Wood Nymph in Rusalka for Opera North, First Lady in The Magic Flute for Opera North and Holland Park Opera, Emma Khovanshchina for WNO, Tamiri Il Re Pastore for Garsington Opera, Il Tempo del Postino for the Manchester International Festival, Lia in Debussy's L'Enfant Prodigue, the title role in Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snowmaiden, Bernadette in the world premiere of Andrew Schultz's Going into Shadows at the Guildhall (including a collaboration project in Brisbane, Australia), Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Papagena in The Magic Flute for Longborough Festival Opera, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus (Wexford Festival Opera) , Nella in Gianni Schicchi for the William Walton Foundation in Ischia, Angelica Orlando for Opera Theatre Company and Donna Anna in the Graham Vick production of Don Giovanni for Birmingham Opera Company. At Glyndebourne, Natasha has covered the roles of the title role in Rusalka, Cleopatra Giulio Cesare, Mélisande Pelléas et Mélisande and title role in Rodelinda and made her Glyndebourne debut in the role of Fiordiligi Cosi fan tutte in the summer of 2006 and returned to Glyndebourne as Micaela Carmen on the 2008 tour.

Natasha also made her US debut as Kumadha in John Adam's The Flowering Tree for Chicago Opera Theater in 2008. Recent engagements include Romilda Xerxes for Opera Theatre Company, Mass in B Minor at St George's Chapel, Windsor and St Matthew Passion in Chelmsford Cathedral. For 2009/2010 her engagements included First Woodnymph Rusalka and cover Alice Ford Falstaff at the Glyndebourne Festival, Faure Requiem at Cadogan Hall, title role Alcina for English Touring Opera, Micaela Carmen for the Royal Danish Opera, Copenhagen and First Woodnymph for Opera North. She also performed Donna Anna in Don Giovanni for Glyndebourne on Tour.

Subsequent engagements for 2011/2012 include Rossini Stabat Mater, Tatiana Eugene Onegin for Stanley Hall Opera and Musetta La Boheme for Glyndebourne on Tour.

Mary Reid - Harp

Mary grew up in Edinburgh, Los Angeles and Chicago before moving with her family to England in 2005. She began to play the pedal harp when she was 11 and currently holds a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music under Skaila Kanga, Professor Emerita of Harp.

Solo highlights this last past year include a recital at All Saints, Hove and performances at the Second International Harp Festival in Caernarfon and at Amsterdam Conservatory. Mary was invited to play at the Russian Harp Festival in Moscow and the Focus on Youth Programme at the 2011 World Harp Congress in Vancouver. Mary has participated in master-classes with several distinguished harpists, including Isabelle Moretti, Erika Waardenburg and Dr. Ann Yeung. As part of the Royal Academy's Harp Ensemble, Mary has performed at Southwark Cathedral, Bury St. Edmunds Cathedral and Regent's Hall, London.

In addition to solo recitals, she plays with various orchestras, including Stoneleigh Youth Orchestra, the Watford Symphony Orchestra and the Rehearsal Orchestra based in London. She also plays regularly with the Promenade Girls Choir in Surrey and at Surbiton Club for the Blind.

Other musical activities include piano studies and performances with her chamber trio of flute, viola and harp.

Concert Review

Members and guests of Andover Music Club came to The Lights Auditorium on Thursday evening 24 Nov 2011 for the Club’s third concert in its 65th season. By tradition the November concert always ushers in Christmas, and this was no exception as the audience left to the strains of ‘Have yourself a merry little Christmas’ still ringing in their ears. Another annual tradition honoured in the concert was to remember Gladys New, the Club’s founder in 1946 and its organiser for well over 40 years. Gladys was a professional singer of distinction. It was fitting that we remembered her in a concert full of superb singing by Natasha Youhl (soprano) and Janet Shell (mezzo-soprano) beautifully accompanied on the harp by Mary Reid, whose playing belied her age – she is still a student at the Royal Academy.

There is absolutely no doubt that Natasha and Janet could sing. Together their voices blended perfectly, and the audience felt their enjoyment as they sang whether in unison or in harmony. Individually they were very different: Natasha with a huge voice which in her high register more than filled the auditorium, and Janet with such bravura in Carmen’s Habanera and such pathos in Purcell’s ‘Remember Me’ from Dido and Aeneas.

The programme presented a cameo of singing from the Renaissance to modern times. Janet and Natasha presented opera from Monteverdi through Handel, Mozart, Puccini, Délibes, Bizet, Gounod, Humperdink, Offenbach and Dvorak to Lehar and Novello. Janet presented songs from Baroque England by Monro and Purcell and from 20th century France with exquisite performances of songs by Fauré, de Séverac and Hahn.

And so towards Christmas with old favourites sung wonderfully. Adam’s ‘O Holy Night’ made a lovely bridge between the serious programme and the countdown to Christmas. This was followed by Irving Berlin’s ‘Sisters’ and ‘White Christmas’ from the show ‘White Christmas’ made into a delightful medley with Bernard/Smith’s Winter Wonderland, Martin/Blane’s ‘Have yourself a merry little Christmas’ and Willson’s ‘It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas’ (a very fitting end with only 30 days to go).   DE