JULY 2009 

Ian Yemm bids farewell
to the Chorus of the Welsh National Opera

After six years in the full time chorus of the Welsh National Opera, I am moving on. I have made wonderful friends in the company and have had great fun. I am particularly proud off the work I have done on stage at WNO, side by side with such exceptional singers. The first Opera I saw as a teenager was Mozart's The Magic Flute at the Birmingham Hippodrome with WNO. I couldn't have dreamed that I would sing the role of the First Armed Man in another WNO production of this Opera in the same venue twenty years later.

Thank you to everyone at WNO for the last six years.
I shall miss you!

***********************************************************************************

"exquisite singing and control in the highest register" 

(Click About Me and select Reviews)

Following the pleasure of the Vaughan Williams recital series in 2008, I am planning performances of Schubert's Die Winterreise in the Autumn/Winter of 2010. Watch this space! Or contact me to arrange a recital performance in your venue.

**********************************************************************************************

THANK YOU!

On Saturday 20th June 2009 All Saints Arts hosted the Opera Picnic at All Saints Church in Clifton, Bristol. I was able to welcome colleagues from Welsh National Opera, soprano Naomi Harvey, Mezzo-Soprano Joanne Thomas, Baritone Owen Webb and pianist James Southall to join me for this concert and they were all sensational. The audience gave us a wonderful reception aided by cream teas and picnics in splendid gardens on a pleasantly warm and dry evening.

Thanks are due to many people, not least the exuberant audience who have guaranteed that this event will appear annually in the calendar!

**********************************************************************************************

To all those that came to my recital on Saturday 6th September 2008 to mark the beginning of the 140th Anniversary of All Saints Church in Clifton, Bristol.

It was a very fulfilling recital for me and the atmosphere was hushed and concentrated but also very relaxed.

I was delighted that Andrew Wilson-Dickson was able to play the piano. In addition to the Gabriel Faure's La Bonne Chanson (poems by Paul Verlaine) and Ralph Vaughan Williams Songs of Travel (poems by Robert Louis Stevenson), Andrew played Faure's Nocturne No'4 Opus 36 and I sang Vaughan Williams Silent Noon words by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.