Saturday 24th September, pre-concert talk at Bangor University on ‘How Words Become Song’ by Helen Abbott, her long-term collaborator pianist Sholto Kynoch will then be performing a recital of songs in French, German and English with young English soprano Raphaela Papadikis. The talk explores how composers choose words and make them into song – from ‘serious’ poetry (Schubert’s settings of poems by Seidl and Leitner) to commonplace poetry (Poulenc’s settings of Apollinaire under the title Banalités), to popular poetry (Schoenberg’s cabaret songs).

For more information & to book tickets, see: http://www.bangor.ac.uk/concerts/full-event.php.en?nid=5512&tnid=5512

Thursday 20th October, pre-concert talk by Helen Abbott, at the Oxford Lieder Festival: ‘What’s in a name? From chanson to mélodie and back‘, looking at the ‘lowbrow’ and ‘highbrow’ in French song, with reference to the songs by Fauré, Duparc and Ravel being performed by baritone Victor Sicard and pianist Anna Cardona.

For more information & to book tickets, see: http://oxfordlieder.co.uk/events/589

For more information on the project please see http://helenabbott.wordpress.com/