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6 pm Sarah Leonard reecital
Conway Hall £8 (£5 concessions) admits to whole festival

You are earnestly requested to bring food and drink to share

Sarah Leonard, soprano; with Mark Bebbington, piano

SARAH LEONARD is one of this country's most versatile sopranos. She has a wide repertoire, with a particular interest in 20th century music. Operas include Dr. Faustus, Giaccomo Manzoni, La Scala Milan, To Be Sung, Pascal Dusapin, Theatre des Amandiers, Paris, Dirty Tricks, Paul Barker, London, Das Madchen mit den Schwefelholzern, Helmut Lachenmann,and Al Gran sole carico Ýamore, Luigi Nono, both at Hamburg Opera, and Angel Magick, John Harle, BBC Promenade concerts. Sarah works with many European chamber ensembles Ensembles and regularly gives song recitals. She is particularly interested in English, American and German song. Sarah broadcasts extensively in the UK and Europe, and has made over 30 CDs. These include When the Heart is Young, a recital of songs by Franz Lehar, A 6 CD series called A Century of English Song with SOMM Recordings and Neither by Morton Feldman, Hat Hut Records. Recent releases include Alistair Hinton's String Quintet op13 with soprano, on Altarus Records.

MARK BEBBINGTON is one of the leading pianists of his generation, sustaining an exciting International career and achieving distinction for both his work as soloist and for his concerto work with many of the world¹s leading orchestras.

Described by Aldo Ciccolini as "... quite simply one of the most stunningly gifted young pianists I have been privileged to encounter..." Mark has established a particular reputation as an exceptionally refined and elegant exponent of French music and under the auspices of the Kirckman Concert Society, he has given critically acclaimed South Bank recitals that have laid special emphasis on French Nineteenth and Twentieth Century pianistic traditions. His Erik Satie café concert, featuring the UK première of "Sports et Divertissements" in its original version for narrator and piano toured festivals in this country during Spring 2002, before playing two sold out performances at "le chat blanc" cabaret club in Paris.

His passionate advocacy of unjustly neglected composers was reflected in a fifteen-concert European recital tour during autumn 2001, featuring premières of major works by Sir Malcolm Arnold and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Mark¹s programmes also demonstrate a commitment to the music of our time and during 2002/2003, he performed the solo piano repertoire of Judith Bingham, Toru Takemitsu, Julian Anderson and Paul Max Edlin.

Over recent seasons, Mark has toured extensively throughout Central and Northern Europe, the Far East and North Africa and has appeared as soloist with the London Philharmonic and Philharmonia Orchestras at the Barbican and Royal Festival Halls.

He has worked with many leading conductors, including Sir Georg Solti, Marco Zambelli, William Boughton, Norman del Mar and Grant Llewellyn, and has appeared both as concerto soloist and recitalist on BBC Television and Radio and also on Radio France.

Writing in The Times of his Wigmore Hall debut, Hilary Finch described him as "... an artist who has clearly already made his mark. Bebbington always uses his virtuosity as a means not an end." His Paris debut recital in 2001 at the Musée des Invalides - Grands Interprètes, Premières Armes Series - elicited an equally enthusiastic critical response and his distinctive artistry has been further confirmed by concerto performances at Birmingham¹s Symphony Hall and Three Choirs Festival with the English Symphony and London Concert Orchestras and his inclusion in numerous International recital and festival series.

In October 2003, Mark began a major South Bank and St John's Smith Square five-recital retrospective of the British Piano Sonata in the twentieth century. The series, which is the first of its kind in London for over fifty years, mines a seam of pianistic riches, including works by Bax, Bridge, Hurlstone, Benjamin Dale and York Bowen.

His CD debut release, which appeared last August on the Somm "New Horizons" label, features a critically acclaimed première recording of major works for solo piano by the twentieth century Italian composer, Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

Born in Coventry, Mark studied at the Royal College of Music with Phyllis Sellick and Kendall Taylor and later in Italy with Aldo Ciccolini.