Classical pages


Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4

Click here to hear Wendy's interview.

Listen here to hear the track performed.

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Album Release

Nieper's, long-overdue solo classical album is released. The project was recorded in Derbyshire with Julien Cheriyan on piano, the help of expert sound engineer Dan Grunner and the dedicated ears of Steve Marquiss as producer. The album certainly reflects the heat of the summer and the surrounding countryside. In five days an amazing 18 tracks were recorded from both the classical and cabaret repertoire that Wendy and Julien have performed around the country.

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Classical biography


Wendy Nieper was born in Great Britain. She studied song at the Birmingham Conservatoire receiving a 1st Class Hons degree. Soon after graduating she became a member of international a cappella group The Swingle Singers, recording 5 CD's and performing in concert halls and appearing on TV and radio across the globe. She now lives in London and was trained by Jessica Cash. Wendy Nieper has won the Gordon Clinton Prize for English song and has been awarded an HonBC from the Birmingham Conservatoire of Music.

Her solo performances have ranged from Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate, to Nigel Hess's Old Man of Lochnugar (premiered at Saddler's Wells) and from Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne to Berio’s Folk Songs. She is a regular oratorio soloist around the UK and has performed most of the repertoire available for soprano including Mozart Mass in C minor & Requiem, Mendelssohn Elijah, Poulenc Gloria, Haydn Nelson Mass, Handel Messiah, Vivaldi Gloria, Rutter Magnificat, Beethoven Mass in C, Bach- St Matthew's Passion, Magnificat in D & the Christmas Oratorio & Faure’s Requiem.

Wendy Nieper is a specialist for contemporary music. With the Berio Sinfonia and other music she has appeared with many leading orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Tonhalle Orchestra, the Tokyo and American Symphony Orchestras, the London Sinfonietta and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, a performance recorded for Deutsche Gramophone and described by the Telegraph as an "Exceptionally fine release." She has performed with Belgium group 'The Spectra Ensemble', Uk group Synergy and has performed over 20 world premiers many of which were written especially for her. Composers include Nigel Hess, Philip Martin, Jonathan Girling, Robin Grant, Philip Rathe, and Clement Jewitt.

Wendy has sung Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, the Child in Ravel's L' Enfant et Les Sortileges (New Israeli Opera), many Mozart opera arias and ensemble parts in Luciano Berio Outis at Milan's La Scala and at the Chatelet Paris with the Swingle Singers. She's sung in the voice trio for Peter Eötvös's opera Angels in America (Holland Festival & The Barbican) and in Tatjana by Corgi (La Scala Milan).

Wendy is a founder member of The Oxford Players, a chamber ensemble formed in 2007 to promote classical music from around the world. She has also performed over 100 recitals all over Britain, many with prize winner Julian Cheriyan (Young Musician of the Year keyboard winner). They were both selected as featured artists in the Concert Promoters Network and the duo have just completed their first 2 recordings together with the music of Chopin & Canteloube and Bernstein & Sondheim.

She sings ad hoc London Voices and was vocal coach to Sir Micheal Caine on his latest film. She can also be heard singing on the films of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

 

The Oxford Players


Wendy Nieper - soprano
Kirsten Johnson - piano
Christopher Britton - flute
Keith Fairbairn - percussion

Note: Please first mute any audio currently playing (found in the top right of this page) to avoid the audio clashing when playing the following videos.

The Oxford Players founded in 2007 are a new chamber ensemble of already established musicians. Exploring the world-wide chamber repertoire and their unusual instrumentation they have developed creative and colourful programmes. Their play-list includes music by Ravi Shankar (Indian), Astor Piazzolla (Argentinian - tango), Manuel de Falla (Spanish) and Claude Bolling (French jazz), along with more traditional corners of the repertoire such as Bach and Ravel and featuring pieces by British composers such as Thea Musgrave & Ian Clarke.

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Sample Programme
Contemporary Classical and all that Jazz

Dan Lochlair: The moon commands... (1985)
Gareth Farr: Kembang Suling for marimba and flute
Steve Reich: Piece for 4 players (wood blocks)
Thea Musgrave: Primavera- flute and voice
Villa Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras No.5
Dave Brubeck: Unsquare Dance
       ~~Interval~~
John Tavener: Samaveda
Claude Bolling The First Jazz Suite

 

Sample Programme 2
Extraordinary Music by Extraordinary Composers

Toru Takemitsu: Voice
J. S. Bach: 'Ei wie schmeckt der Kaffee sűβe' from the Coffee Cantata
Henryk Gorecki: Good Night, op. 63
George Crumb: Pieces for Piano
Manuel de Falla: Seven Spanish Songs
       ~~Interval~~
Keiko Abe: Michi
Ravi Shankar: Enchanted Dawn
Steve Reich: Clapping Music
Astor Piazzolla: L’histoire du tango 

 

Vocal recitals


Wendy's extensive recital experience (over 100 concerts around the UK) and her connections to jazz have led her to work with pianist Julien Cheriyan - winner of the Young Musician of the Year Keyboard prize. Together they have developed exciting, colourful and varied recital programmes to reflect all their musical strengths from classical through to jazz and cabaret.

Promoters have commented "...They were outstanding in all respects, I've had an avalanche of positive comments about them..." (Edenbridge, Kent) "A super programme, what sumptuous sounds!" Thanks to you both for a wonderful concert." (London St Olaves Church) and "It was an absolute delight. A wonderful programme with so much variety, and both musicians so inspirational and enjoying their work. The post interval selection was so unexpected and the final item had me laughing until the tears flowed."

In one week they set about recording 2 CD's back to back. The first "Songs of Chopin & Canteloube" covers some beautiful repertoire rarely heard on the recital platform. Chopin wrote only 19 songs in total, four of which are recorded here. and a surprise track The Minuite Waltz, with lyrics! The Chants d'Auvergne by Joseph Marie Canteloube are a collection of songs most commonly heard with full orchestra but the piano reduction can render the songs beautifully and again four were recorded here including the exquisite La Delaïssádo and lullaby Brezairola.

The second CD recorded (Songs EP) were of songs by Bernstein & Sondheim and a few little extras. All taken from Wendy and Julien's recital programme, this CD includes some wonderful West End treats such as Sooner or Later, Not While I'm around, Send in the Clowns and the Wrong Note Rag.

The duo have been selected artists on the Concert Promoters Network, and it was after seeing Wendy and Julien perform that the Edenbridge Music and Arts Trust decided to award a grant to Wendy.

 

Classical reviews


Handel's masterpiece came spectacularly to life.
Tonbridge Philharmonic's performance of Messiah last Saturday, was a sell-out and enjoyed by an audience of nearly 600.

"... Wendy Nieper sang the angel's recitative with perfect simplicity and then gave her arias exactly the operatic style Handel requires, complete with beautifully judged ornamentation and sparkling fioritura. Her performance of 'I know that my Redeemer liveth' was a moment of true musical perfection." Charles Vignoles Kent and Sussex Courier & thisisKent.co.uk 2009

A sublime show by choral society "The choral singers were encouraged in no small measure by guest solo soprano Wendy Nieper, a singer of small stature but with a magnificent voice who gave depth and a haunting beauty to the sacred music of Poulenc's Gloria"... "the orchestra and singers gave the work (Mozarts Mass in C minor) an integrity and depth but whose piece de resistance was undoubtedly Miss Nieper's solo cadenza with woodwind accompaniment, a sublime experience."
Dorset Echo November 26th 2008

"One of the highlights for me so far was last nights performance of some glorious Chopin and Canteloube songs by Wendy Nieper and Julien Cheryian."
Oxford Leider fringe festival 2008

"The duet for solo violin & soprano had an aching lyricism" BBC Proms, Tom Service, The Guardian 2004

"Nieper's rapt, plaintive, slightly jazz-inflected and beautifully controlled Rachmaninov Vocalise was the show stopping highlight" Birmingham Evening Post

"After the interval Mozart burst upon us again with the superb Motet, Exsultate Jubilate... An extraordinary piece full of challenges for the singer's technique. Wendy Nieper was up to the challenge and gave us an excellent display of virtuosity" Edenbridge Post, Kent 2007

"Dido was sung by outstanding young soprano Wendy Nieper" Sunday Herald (Deccan Herald e-newspaper) Art & Culture 2005

"The singing, too, was of high order, with Wendy Nieper a persuasive Dido"
www.highbeam.com reviews 2005

"A composer's dream - absolute perfection"
Robin Grant (composer) 2006

"Without question your music gave us more than I can express in words". Tom Butler, St Olaves Church, London 2006

"Magnificent, the Handel totally lifting the roof off the church." Wiltshire wedding engagement 2005

"A super programme, what sumptuous sounds! Thanks to you both for a wonderful concert."
St Olaves Church, London 2005

"...They were outstanding in all respects, I've had an avalanche of positive comments about them..."
Promoter from Kent recital 2005

"It was an absolute delight. A wonderful programme with so much variety, and both musicians so inspirational and enjoying their work. The post interval selection was so unexpected and the final item had me laughing until the tears flowed."
Buckingshire recital 2005