York Musical Society presents Dvorak’s Stabat Mater, York Minster, March 20 (From York Press)

York Musical Society presents Dvorak’s Stabat Mater, York Minster, March 20

2:48pm Friday 19th March 2010 in

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NORTH Yorkshire mezzo-soprano Julia Riley will return to her roots tomorrow evening when she will be a soloist for York Musical Society’s performance of Dvorak’s Stabat Mater in York Minster.

Julia was born in Poppleton and attended Poppleton Primary School and King James’s School, Knaresborough, where her singing first blossomed, culminating in her being awarded first prize in the 2007 Mozart Singing Competition.

“I learned the piano and flute from an early age but didn’t start singing until I was 18,” Julia recalls. “This was purely by chance as a friend and I were messing around singing our old-fashioned school song in an operatic style when my friend’s Mum turned around in shock and said ‘Hey, you’ve got a great voice’!

“At the time I was doing my Music A-level and I was lucky to find a fabulous singing teacher in York, Linda Suggitt, who encouraged me to take Grade 8 singing straight away. I had a battle with the head of music at King James’s, Bryan Western, who said I should stick to flute and piano but when I received a distinction in my singing he quickly backed down.”

She started a music degree at Edinburgh University but lasted only the first term. “I quickly realised I wanted to perform rather than write essays on Monteverdi. A late place at the Royal Academy of Music ensued and I’ve never looked back,” says Julia, who has performed roles at Glyndebourne, Paris Opera Comique and the BBC Proms and will record her debut CD of Brahms and Clara Schumann works this season.

Soon she will have another role too. “I’m expecting my first baby with my husband, who is also a professional singer,” reveals Julia. “But this isn’t going to stop my singing: I’ll be performing in Mozart’s Magic Flute in Toulouse a few months after the birth.”

Welcoming Julia back to York, YMS publicity officer Fiona Long says: “I’m sure there will be many people who will remember Julia growing up and who have followed her career with interest. She doesn’t often have the opportunity to sing in York so the Stabat Mater will be a rare opportunity to hear Julia singing on home territory.”

Dvorak’s lyrical, sumptuous interpretations of the medieval devotional text Stabat Mater will be performed under the baton of Philip Moore, and Julia’s fellow soloists will be soprano Sarah Redgwick, tenor Nicholas Ransley and bass James Arthur.

Tickets for York Musical Society’s Music for Passiontide concert are available at £8 to £17 on 0844 939 0015 or via email to boxoffice@yorkminster.org

* FORTY students, teachers and friends from Bootham School and 20 more from The Mount School will link up with the York Musical Society Chorus and Orchestra for tomorrow’s concert.

“We invited them to join us because they sang the Stabat Mater last year in a Friends’ Schools concert and we thought it would be good to offer them the chance to sing it again in such a large-scale performance,” says publicity officer Fiona Long.

“We’re thrilled at the response we’ve had from them and are really looking forward to having them sing alongside us.”