The Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado del Asturias recreates the influences of East and West in its second OSPAFest, one of the projects initiated by Chief Conductor Nuno Coelho, with the programme curated by IMG Artists mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron, with four concerts “that carry a message of union and connection between cultures.” Born in Northern Ireland to a Singaporean mother and British father, Fleur grew up in Hong Kong and later New York, and is committed to the way music can facilitate cross-cultural dialogue and healing. She is passionate about curating inclusive chamber music programming that amplifies the voices of diverse communities.
OSPA Fest East/West will bring this multidisciplinary cultural event again to Oviedo/Uviéu and Gijón/Xixón, from 11 to 20 April 2024, offering different activities around the relationship between East and West through symphonic concerts and chamber music. Reference Chinese artists such as Wu Wei , Wu Man and the American composers of Chinese origin Fang Man and Du Yun will participate. The festival programmw will be completed with emblematic works by European composers inspired by the East: Sheherazade by Rimsky Korsakov and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, where Fleur Barron shares the song cycle with tenor Nicky Spence .
For full details of the performances see: ospa.es
Hailed as “a knockout performer” by The Times, Singaporean-British mezzo Fleur Barron recently triumphed at the San Francisco Symphony in the title role of Kaija Saariaho’s opera Adriana Mater in a production helmed by Peter Sellars and Esa-Pekka Salonen, and at the Aix-en-Provence Festival as Ottavia in Monterverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea. She is a current Rising Star of Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and a passionate interpreter of opera, chamber music, and concert works ranging from the baroque to the contemporary.
Fleur’s 23/24 season includes a return to the London Symphony Orchestra in their Season Opening Concert at the Barbican, performing Claude Vivier’s Wo bist du Licht, and in performances of Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, both under the baton of Barbara Hannigan, and she also begins a multi-season partnership with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and conductor Ludovic Morlot, joining them to record Ravel’s Shéhérazade and Trois Poèmes de Mallarmé, and for performances of Shéhérazade and Montsalvatge’s Cinco Canciones Negras at L’Auditori Barcelona and on tour to Hamburg and Stockholm. Further orchestral engagements include Mahler’s Symphony no.3 with the Czech Philharmonic and Semyon Bychkov at the Baden Baden Festival, both Das Lied von der Erde and Mahler Symphony no.2 with Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias under Nuno Coehlo, and Freya Waley-Cohen’s Spell Book with the Manchester Collective at the Barbican. Autumn 2023 saw the release on Pentatone Records of her performance in the title role in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with La Nuova Musica, and in 23/24 Fleur debuts three opera roles: Penelope in Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria with baroque ensemble I Gemelli, which tours to major venues including Teatro Real Madrid, Opéra de Bordeaux and Théâtre du Capitole Toulouse; multiple roles in George Benjamin’s two-person opera Into the Little Hill with the Staatskapelle Berlin under Finnegan Downie Dear; and the title role of John the Baptist in Maria Margherita Grimani’s baroque opera La Decollazione di San Giovanni Battista with Haymarket Opera in Chicago.
For more information see www.fleurbarron.com
Photo credit: Victoria Cadisch
