Grenfell Tower Benefit Concert

In the wake of the terrible fire at Grenfell Tower, the soprano Nazan Fikret decided to rally fellow performers and put together a concert to raise funds for those affected.

BBC Radio 3’s Petroc Trelawny presents a concert in two parts on 17 September at 6pm at Cadogan Hall. The first half will include solo songs by Schubert, Schumann, Strauss and Quilter, followed by the Super Orchestra, conducted by Edward Gardner, accompanying Ailish Tynan and Christine Rice in the Evening Prayer from Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, an extract from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde sung by Stuart Skelton and Lee Bisset, the Quartet from Rigoletto, and the full company singing the Sanctus from Fauré’s Requiem.

Part Two will be launched with a performance of I’ll Sing by award-winning composer Rebecca Dale, and will carry on via Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro and Die Zauberflöte, to Puccini’s Tosca with Natalya Romaniw singing ‘Vissi d’arte’, and Keel Watson and Gweneth-Ann Rand in ‘Bess, you is my woman now’ from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. The pick of today’s most promising young singers will perform Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music.

This is a one-off event and everyone involved has given their services for free. The music-making will be exceptional, and all funds raised will go to the London Emergencies Trust (Registered Charity No. 1172307).

Singers to include: sopranos Lee Bisset; Francesca Chiejina; Samantha Crawford; Nazan Fikret; Janis Kelly; Louise Kemény; Anna Patalong; Gweneth-Ann Rand; Natalya Romaniw; Kirsty Taylor-Stokes; Ailish Tynan; Jennifer Witton; Lauren Zolezzi; mezzo-sopranos Katie Grosset; Anna Huntley; Maria Jagusz; Héloïse Mas; Christine Rice; countertenor Jake Arditti; tenors Luis Gomes; Robert Lewis; Stuart Skelton; Jack Swanson; baritones Gary Griffiths; Martin Häßler; Benedict Nelson; Alan Opie; Joseph Padfield; Ricardo Panela and bass-baritone Keel Watson

Pianists to include: Eugene Asti; Dylan Perez; Michael Pugh; Linnhe Robertson and Susanna Stranders

Conductors to include: David Angus; Douglas Boyd; Richard Hetherington; Matthew Morgan and James Sherlock

Super Orchestra composed of players from the leading London orchestras including: Philharmonia; Royal Opera House Orchestra; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and others