On the evening of Wednesday 28 September 2016 Alison Hill, a member of the Choir of the Chapels Royal, HM Tower of London, enchanted the audience with her selection of songs by Dowland, Johnson and Purcell, acconpanied on the lute and theorbo by Yair Avidor. Notes on both performers appear under the poster below.
Alison Hill is much in demand as a soloist, ensemble singer and teacher throughout the UK and abroad. She sings with several world class ensembles including the Monteverdi Choir, I Fagiolini and Polyphony, and has performed in many of the world’s top concert halls, frequently appearing as a soloist with these groups. Such step-out roles have included singing solos in Handel’s Israel in Egypt on a tour with the Monteverdi Choir, appearing as a soloist at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw in a programme of JC Bach cantatas and again singing solos in the Queen Elizabeth Hall with The Sixteen. Alison also regularly performs as a soloist across the UK, with recent notable performances including Monteverdi’s Vespers in Winchester Cathedral, Bach’s Johannes-Passion in Salisbury Cathedral and being nominated for a Gramophone Award for a recording of Howells’s Sine Nomine with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Upcoming projects include a tour of the USA with the Eric Whitacre Singers, a tour of Italy with I Fagiolini and the Monteverdi Choir’s Bach Magnificat tour in Austria, Germany and the UK.
When Ali is not singing herself, she can be found enthusiastically playing the ukulele whilst encouraging Indian slum children to sing, as part of her work with songbound.com .
Read more about Ali here.
Yair Avidor was born in Tel Aviv and studied lute and early music in Bremen, Milan and London. He plays lute, theorbo and early guitars. He is particularly interested in Elizabethan lute songs and solo lute music, 17th century French Pieces for lute and theorbo and the late suites by J S Bach and S L Weiss.
With his ensemble, the Amphion Consort, Yair has enjoyed playing chamber music from the Elizabethan 'broken consort', to 17th century sonatas by Marais, Biber and Purcell up to works by Boccherini and Beethoven on the romantic guitar. He also collaborates with saxophonist Gliad Atzmon in a Jazz-Baroque fusion project. Yair's long procrastinated solo recordings may be released this year. Read more at lutenist.co.uk .