Each year, four Shipston Song Rising Stars are in residence for the whole weekend. Each day they sing in a public masterclass in which our visiting tutors work with them on a range of song, and our audience has the chance to watch the work that goes on behind the scenes to build a song performance. In 2024 the Shipston Song Rising Stars are Archie Bonham (piano), Eyra Norman (soprano), Ellen Pearson (mezzo soprano) and Redmond Sanders (baritone). 

Masterclass 1: Ian Tindale

2pm-4pm, Friday 20th September

Artistic Director and pianist Ian Tindale brings his expertise in song and lieder to this first masterclass of the weekend.

Masterclass 2: Iain Burnside

2pm-4pm, Saturday 21st September

Thanks to prolific careers both as pianist and award-winning broadcaster, Iain Burnside is one of the UK’s best-known musicians. Iain has worked with a huge number of international singers, notably Dame Margaret Price, Rosa Feola, Ailish Tynan, Joyce DiDonato, Laurence Brownlee, Roderick Williams, and Bryn Terfel, among many others. He has recorded more than 60 CDs, often created around neglected composers, where his curatorial skills are displayed to the full. He is a great champion of young singers, playing a crucial role in introducing them to a wider audience. This year he has taken on an additional role, as founding member of Trio Balthasar, alongside violinist Michael Foyle and cellist Tim Hugh.

Innovative programme planning has led Iain to expand his concert work into a hybrid form of music theatre, creating staged work around Brahms (Shining Armour), Wagner (The View from the Villa) and Gurney (A Soldier and a Maker). He has broadcast extensively on both radio and TV, notably as host of BBC R3’s acclaimed Voices series. In addition to a long association with London’s Guildhall School, Iain is Visiting International Artist at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin. He is Artistic Director of the Ludlow English Song Weekend and Artistic Consultant to Grange Park Opera, Surrey. Future projects include a Rachmaninov Song Series at Wigmore Hall, a Wigmore recital with Roderick Williams which will be broadcast live as part of BBC Radio 3’s Lunchtime Concert Series, a recital in Zurich with Rosa Feola and concerts with Trio Balthasar in Italy and Belgium.

Masterclass 3: Benedict Nelson

11am-1pm, Sunday 22nd September

British baritone and Shipston-on-Stour resident Benedict Nelson was an inaugural Harewood Artist with English National Opera where he sang Valentin Faust, Demetrius A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Belcore L’Elisir d’Amore, Count Le Nozze di Figaro, Figaro Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Ping Turandot, and the title role in Billy Budd. Recent highlights include Henry Cuffe in Britten’s Gloriana for Teatro Real in Madrid, Miles Anthropocene with Scottish Opera, and Matthew in The Second Violinist for Irish National Opera at the Galway International Arts Festival, Dublin Theatre Festival, Barbican and Dutch National Opera. Concert performances include with the CBSO, BBCSO and L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and at the Oxford Lieder and Cheltenham Festivals. He has also appeared with pianists James Baillieu, Malcolm Martineau and Graham Johnson.