Sedbergh Music Festival 2010

Alla Kravchuk

Simon Philips

Alla Kravchuk

Alla Kravchuk was born in Ukraine and gained her diploma at the Kiev Conservatory before coming to Britain. She completed her training with the famous Hungarian teacher Vera Rosza and for the last ten years she has been fully employed as a lyric soprano soloist in Germany, initially in Hannover and latterly in Stuttgart.

In 1995 she was a prize winner at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod in Wales. In 1998 she won a place with the European Opera Centre working with Brigitte Fassbaender and Kent Nagano. Further engagements followed with Welsh National Opera, Mid Wales Opera, Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg, and the Petersburger Kammeroper.

In 1999 Alla took the role of Der Gräfin in a Moscow production of “Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke” by Siegfried Matthus. It won the prestigious Russian “Golden Mask” Theatre prize.

Two years later Alla Kravchuk joined the ensemble of the Staatsoper Hannover. Over the next eight years she performed a number of roles including Pamina in “Die Zauberflöte”, Susanna in “Le nozze di Figaro”, Cleopatra in “Giulio Cesare”, Antonia in “Les contes d’Hoffmann”, Nedda in “Cavalleria Rusticana”, Liù in “Turandot”, Michaela in “Carmen”, Marie in “The Bartered Bride” and Hanna Glawari in “The Merry Widow”.

In the 2009 season she sang Giunone in “La Calisto”, Mimi in “La Bohème”, Micaëla in “Carmen”, Ilia in “Idomeneo” und Liù in “Turandot”, a performance given with guest tenor José Cura.

The highlight of her career in Hannover came in the new production of Debussy’s “Pelléas et Mélisande”, in which she took one of the title roles. After winning national acclaim the production was performed at both the Wiener Festwochen and later the Edinburgh Festival before being taken up by the Staatsoper Stuttgart. Alla remained with the production throughout.

The success of “Pelléas et Mélisande” in Suttgart was followed in 2009 by an acclaimed production of Gluck’s “Orphee et Euridice” in which Alla again took one of the title roles. She also sang Liù in the Stuttgart production of “Turandot” and returns later this year to reprise her Melisande.

In 2008 Alla made her debut as Susanna in “Le nozze di Figaro” at the Semperoper In Dresden. She has also performed at the Theater Freiburg, Theater Kiel, Staatstheater Nürnberg, Staatstheater Wiesbaden and the Nationaltheater Weimar. As well as her opera work she is now involved in a number of concert ventures including a semi–staged Baroque event based on the music of Antonio Vivaldi by the Hannover ensemble Musica Alta Ripa.

Alla’s recital programmes range from popular English, German, French and Russian Lieder and Art song to the less familiar work of her native Ukraine, as well as the songs of Nikolai Medtner and Edison Denisov.

Simon Phillips

Simon Phillips was a music scholar at Winchester, where he studied piano with Robert Bottone, before he went to Queens’ College Cambridge to read modern languages and law. Since then he has appeared frequently as soloist, accompanist and in chamber music, including in the Guildford Schubert Festival and the Guildford Spring Music Festival as well as accompanying Alla at the Sedbergh Music Festival and elsewhere. In recent years he has given a number of recitals of piano duet and two-piano music with his duo partner Stephen Ridge. Simon also enjoys his singing with the Guildford Chamber Choir.