Sponsored by Countywide Lettings  

& Property Management,  Holland-on-Sea

Some Enchanted Evening 

Tara Overend – Soprano,  Ruth Clegg – Mezzo-Soprano, 

 Jonathan Bungard – Tenor,  Matthew Sprange – Bass-Baritone 

together with  

Mark Williams – piano 

present an evening of favourite arias and songs from the shows. 

A night for every music-lover!  

February 2^nd    

Tara Overend studied at Trinity College of Music, graduating with a First Class degree in 2002.  She has an extensive repertoire spanning oratorio, opera and jazz and enjoys a busy and varied career.  She has performed Handel’s Messiah with the London Handel Orchestra and Mozart’s Vespraes Solemnes de Confessore with the London Chamber Orchestra and her other oratorio engagements include Bach’s St John Passion and St Matthew Passion, Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Creation, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Mozart’s Requiem and C Minor Mass and Brahms’ Ein deutches Requiem.  Tara  has also performed such concert works as Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate and Menotti’s Muero porque no muero.    She sings regularly with a number of professional vocal ensembles including the BBC Singers, Tenebrae and EXAUDI.  In a lighter vein, she also occasionally sings with the Piccadilly Dance Orchestra.  Her operatic repertoire includes Musetta (La Boheme), Adina (The Elixir of Love), Micaela (Carmen), Marzelline (Fidelio), Gilda (Rigoletto),  Fiordiligi (Cosi fan Tutte), Gretel (Hansel and Gretel) and Pamina (The Magic Flute), which she sang for English Touring Opera in 2005.  Other pastimes are headed by looking after her beautiful baby daughter Amy, born in September 2007! 

Jonathan Bungard has an increasingly hectic freelance career as a singer, conductor and ‘cellist. Best known as a singer, he divides his time between the operatic stage, oratorio circuit and work as a consort and choral singer. 

Operatic appearances include Don José (Carmen), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Ferrando (Cosi Fan Tutte), Narcisse (Echo et Narcisse), and Il Duca (Rigoletto). Concert engagements include Bach Messe H-Moll and Monteverdi 1610 Vespers, Handel Saul, Samson and Judas Maccabeus, Leighton Crucifixus, Mendelssohn Elijah, Puccini Messa di Gloria, Rossini Petite Messe Solemnelle and Britten's Saint Nicholas and Nocturne. 

He is a Lay Clerk at Westminster Cathedral, a core member of the vocal ensemble EXAUDI, widely credited as one of the finest exponents of contemporary vocal repertoire in the country, and also performs very regularly with Tenebrae, the BBC Singers and many church choirs in London . He has performed in major concert venues around the country and across the globe, and has been broadcast live on national radio in South Africa , Spain , Belgium and Japan as well as Great Britain . 

Recent highlights include a series of performances of Kurt Weill's Seven Deadly Sins in Spain , the tenor solo in the UK premiere of John Tavener's new mass setting and a performance in the City of London Festival of Victorian partsongs and ballads. 

Matthew Sprange gained Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at Royal Holloway, University of London where he began his vocal studies with Wynford Evans.  He is now in his second year of postgraduate study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying with John Evans. Recent oratorio engagements include Handel’s Judas Maccabeus and Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem and Solemn Vespers and Puccini’s Messa di Gloria in venues including St. James’ Church, Picadilly and the Farnham Maltings. Matthew has taken part in masterclasses with artists including Graham Johnson, Helmut Deutsch, Susan Bullock, Rudolf Piernay and Yvonne Kenny.  2007 saw his Wigmore Hall debut and he also took part in a staged song programme devised by Iain Burnside.   On the operatic stage, Matthew’s roles include the High Priest of Baal (Nabucco), Papageno (The Magic Flute), Schaunard (La Boheme), several roles from Gilbert and Sullivan and he covered the role of Mr. Gedge in British Youth Opera’s production of Albert Herring in the summer of 2007.  GSMD productions he has taken part in are Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (Chorus), Richard Strauss’ Capriccio (Diener), Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (Chorus) and in March this year he played the role of Gontran in Offenbach ’s La vie Parisienne.  He recently gave a lunchtime concert at Christchurch Spitalfields as part of its Music@Lunch series.   

Future plans include a recital as part of the Ryedale Festival, covering the role of Minsk Man for BYO’s production of Jonathan Dove’s Flight, a performance in the Spring Weekend of the Windsor Festival in 2009 and in September 2008 he will take up a place on the prestigious Opera Course at GSMD. 

Mark Williams is one of the UK ’s most versatile and exciting young musicians. Appointed the youngest ever Assistant Sub-Organist of St Paul ’s Cathedral in London and Director of Music at St Paul ’s Cathedral  School at the age of 21 in 2000, he relinquished both posts in April of 2006 in order to pursue his rapidly growing freelance career.  Educated in his home town of Bolton and at Trinity College Cambridge where he held both the Organ Scholarship and an academic scholarship, Mark has been described as ‘the shooting star of the international organ scene’ and a ‘boy wonder’ by the international press. He has appeared in the UK , Europe and America with ensembles such as The Sixteen, The King’s Consort, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of London Sinfonia and the London Handel Orchestra.  He has worked as opera repetiteur, harpsichordist and pianist, and has led masterclasses in choral training, singing and organ performance in the UK , the USA and Africa .  Mark has recorded works of Elgar, Mendelssohn, Sweelinck and Duruflé with the Choir of Trinity College Cambridge, Handel with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Rutter with the Cambridge Singers, Rossini with The King's Consort and Padilla with The Sixteen.  Appointed Principal Conductor of English Chamber Opera at the beginning of 2007, his debut met with acclaim following performances of ‘Don Giovanni’ in Ireland and London .  Mark has also appeared on film soundtracks, and is the Musical Director of the award-winning crossover group ‘Blake’.      

Ruth Clegg graduated with a degree in Law from the University of Cambridge , where she was a Choral Scholar at Clare College . Based in London , she is in increasing demand as a talented young soloist. Recent performances include arias in Handel’s Dixit Dominus for Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort in Rome – in the church where the piece was first performed, with Handel himself conducting; and a tour of South Korea and Japan with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Mark Padmore, performing the St John Passion. Ruth features on over 50 CDs with various ensembles (mostly under her maiden name, Massey!), particular highlights being Mozart’s Solemn Vespers with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, recorded live in the Barbican (Coro), and the role of Cloris in Handel’s Parnasso in Festa for Matthew Halls and The King’s Consort (Hyperion).  

Ruth is a passionate consort singer, and works with several professional groups, including The Gabrieli Consort, The Clerks and The Sixteen.  

Operatic roles to date include Giacinta (Mozart La Finta Semplice) and Orindo (Handel Admeto), both for New Chamber Opera, and Medoro (Handel Orlando) with Cambridge Handel Opera Group.  

Engagements later in 2009 include a recording of the alto arias in Handel’s Dixit Dominus for The Sixteen, and a tour of the USA with specialist medieval and renaissance group Alamire.