World Class Soprano in Irvine 2019Ayrshire Opera Experience
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The world-class soprano Soraya Mafi and renowned Scottish pianist Andrew Johnston are giving a recital of songs and arias as part of the Townhouse recital series in Irvine, co-hosted by Ayrshire Opera Experience.
In addition to appearances on the concert platform, Soraya is blazing a trail in the world of opera.
In the 2017/18 season, Soraya débuted at Garsington Opera, singing her first Nanetta (Falstaff) under Richard Farnes, she made her role début as Cleopatra for English Touring Opera and returned to English National Opera for her role début as Tytania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She also appeared on recordings with Classical Opera as Fortuna in Mozart’s Il Sogno Di Scipione (nominated for a Gramaphone Award), with The BBC Concert Orchestra as Teresa in Gilbert’s The Mountebanks ('Album of the Week', Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times) and with Malcolm Martineau as part of the recital disc series ‘Decades’ (Gramaphone Editor's Choice, October 2018)
Soraya is a Harewood Artist of English National Opera where she has sung Mabel The Pirates of Penzance, Karolka Jenufa and Papagena The Magic Flute.
Other roles have included Suor Genoveva Suor Angelica (Opera North) a role which she performed on the Scottish stage.
Scottish-born pianist Andrew Johnston has performed extensively as a chamber musician and soloist in Britain and abroad, including concerto performances of Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto no. 1, Grieg Piano Concerto and Beethoven Piano Concerto no.3 in Kiev. He gained his Masters Degree in Musicology in 2006 from the University of Edinburgh, and has participated in masterclasses with Norma Fisher, Berndt Goetzke, Leon McCawley, Radoslav Kvapil, Yonty Solomon, Martimo Tirimo and others. He has given a recital and masterclasses in Latvia as part of a course on piano pedagogy, and has also been on the faculty of the Chetham’s International Piano Summer School. He has recently performed the World Premiere of Erik Chisholm’s Concerto for Orchestra, among other engagements.
Doors open 6.45 pm tickets £7 from Ticketsource
