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The performers

CHRISTINA SAMPSON was born in Bristol. She was a music scholar at Redland High School (violin and piano), a City Wait for Bristol, and was also a member of Bristol Cathedral Girls’ Choir and Clifton Cathedral Choir. Later she studied music at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and subsequently joined the English National Opera The Knack vocal performance course. She was awarded a distinction for her postgraduate degree (Vocal Studies) last December at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Last summer, Christina made her debut at the Berlin State Opera, singing in a staged production of Handel’s Belshazzar (Soprano 1 chor-solist), conducted by René Jacobs, with further productions at the 2008 Aix-en-Provence and Innsbruck festivals and a live broadcast on Arte television. Later in 2008 she won second prize in the Hampshire Singer of the Year competition. Other recent performances include contemporary song concerts at the Wigmore Hall and the Arcola theatre in London, as well as a wide variety of Baroque repertoire, including Handel’s Messiah at St Giles Church Cripplegate and Bach cantatas at the London BachFest with the Steinitz Baroque Players. Other recently-performed oratorio repertoire includes Mozart Requiem and Regina Coeli, Bach St John and St Matthew Passion, and Requiem settings by Bruneau, Duruflé and Fauré.

In GSMD opera scenes, Christina has played Romilda (Serse), Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare), Helena (Britten A Midsummer Night’s Dream), and Marzelline (Fidelio) and she sang Gretel in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel with Runaway Opera. She also sings with choirs such as the BBC Singers, appearing in the Proms as well as concerts and recordings. She sang with English Voices in Monteverdi’s Orfeo at the 2007 Aix-en-Provence festival, conducted by René Jacobs. Christina performs frequently in London churches, including St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street, Brompton Oratory, Farm Street Church, Mayfair, and St Paul’s Cathedral.

Future projects include a recital at St Bride’s church, Fleet Street, playing Musetta (La Bohème) with Southgate Opera and Juliet (cover - Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet) with West London Opera. Christina also teaches singing at Godolphin and Latymer School and Falkner House School in London. She studies with John Evans and Jonathan Papp.

PAMELA HUDGE graduated from the Royal College of Music where she studied singing and piano. She combines a busy singing career with a private teaching practice and, after some years of freelance teaching, is now Head of Music at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. Pamela is much in demand in this country and abroad for concert work, adjudicating and running vocal workshops for choral societies and professional theatre groups. Throughout this year she is running vocal workshops in the south and east of England and for Bristol University.

Pamela’s repertoire of oratorio works is extensive: recent performances include Tippett’s A Child of Our Time, Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solonelle and various Messiahs, Elijahs and Mozart Requiems. Pamela is equally at home on the operatic stage; a recent interesting chamber opera was Bon Appetit!, a one-woman opera in which she played the Delia Smith of North America and cooked a chocolate cake on stage!

Pamela has been music director for many societies in the Bristol area over the years, conducting numerous shows, choral and orchestra concerts, and currently conducts Organum, a Bath-based choir. She recently conducted and played keyboards for Moll Flanders, a Bristol Old Vic Theatre School production at Bristol Old Vic Studio Theatre.

MARTIN LE POIDEVIN is well known as an oratorio soloist, and has also played a large number of opera roles. He is an active recitalist with several performances planned this year. Recent performances have included Britten’s song cycle Songs and Proverbs of William Blake and creating the role of Brunel in Martin Kiszko’s new cantata A Radius of Curves. Martin is also a composer, writing mainly choral and chamber music. He has several published and broadcast works. Alongside his singing career, Martin works as a journalist, and has written on subjects as diverse as cookery, space flight, horse racing and computing, as well as music. www.martinlepoidevin.me.uk

How to find St Alban's Church

From Clifton in Bristol:
Go up Whiteladies Road and get into the middle lane at the top of Blackboy Hill. Follow the road round to the right and stay in the middle lane marked 'Redland'. Take the second exit off the roundabout, with the BUPA hospital on your left. Carry on down that road to a roundabout. Turn left, then immediately first right into Coldharbour Road. The church is on your left just after the second turning on the left.

From Gloucester Road in Bristol:
Drive from the arches up towards the traffic lights (away from the City Centre, towards Horfield). At the lights next to 'Amici', turn left, then immediately right at the next set of lights into Cranbrook Road. Keep going to a set of traffic lights, and turn left onto Coldharbour Road. St Alban's is on your right just after the third turning on the right.

From the M4:
Follow the M4 to the M4/M5 junction, then get onto the M5 southbound (South West). From the M5 take junc 17 and follow signs for A4018 into Bristol. Go over 3 roundabouts (1. Cribbs Causeway, 2. Rugby ground, 3, Crow pub on right). Keep going over 3 sets of traffic lights at junctions, until you get to a roundabout - in total 2 miles or so from Crow pub roundabout. At this roundabout, turn left into North View, then immediately right into Etloe Road, which becomes Bayswater Road. Carry on to the end of the road, and St Alban's church is on the corner on your right hand side.

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