REVIEW: Samling Academy singers serve up a musical treat
The young classical singers of the Samling Academy impressed once agan the concert that was the climax of their latest intensive masterclass weekend.
They rose to the challenge of performing in public, even the newcomers demonstrating the poise and vocal technique instilled by Samling’s professional coaches and accompanists.
On the stage of The Glasshouse’s more intimate Sage Two, they served up a delightful medley of solo and ensemble singing accompanied by some of the professional pianists who have also benefited from Samling nurturing in years gone by.
No microphones, no backing tracks… just the music the human voice can produce with talent and training.
After an ensemble piece by Henry Purcell, it was soprano Megan Moffit who stepped up first with a confident solo rendition of an aria from the Handel opera, Serse.
Then came mezzo-soprano Davina Halford-Macleod with Debussy’s setting of the poem Auprès de cette grotte sombre (Close to this dark grotto).
Yohan James, only soloist representing the heavily outnumbered boys (it isn’t always so), gave us John Ireland’s Santa Chiara – Palm Sunday: Naples, the young baritone commanding the stage.
These were young people in education, Yohan having just entered sixth form at Egglescliffe School & Sixth Form College on Teesside and Davina a student at Newcastle University.
Megan, after several years with Samling Academy and on a gap year after leaving Egglescliffe, is applying to music colleges. She'll be snapped up, surely?
Soprano Ava Da Costa, from Morpeth, rounded off the solo performances with a piece from Kurt Weill’s Street Scene.
A pupil at the town’s King Edward VI School when Samling first came calling in 2020, she is now studying at the Royal College of Music. Having credited the charity with opening a door to her chosen career, this was her Samling Academy swansong and one of which she can be proud.
Identifying talent and providing support and expert tuition is what Samling Academy does, taking inquiries from individuals but also offering free 90-minute workshops in schools under the heading Samling Futures.
This is where pupils like Ava are shown what might be possible for aspiring young singers in the North East.
Schools with a real commitment to music have a chance of becoming Samling Singing Schools, benefiting from tailored coaching for soloists, choirs and staff as part of a special relationship.
Both Egglescliffe and King Edward VI have signed up to be Singing Schools, as has St Leonard’s Catholic School in Durham where education has been disrupted by the crumbling RAAC concrete fiasco.
Soprano Imogen Payne, a St Leonard’s pupil, lined up for the ensemble pieces at The Glasshouse on Sunday and may emerge as a soloist in future concerts.
Those who have followed the Samling story – it will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2026 – will take pleasure in charting progress.
The Samling Academy, for people aged 14 to 21, is just one part of the Hexham-based Samling Institute for Young Artists.
It also offers intensive masterclass weekends for singers and piano accompanists at the start of their careers as part of its Samling Artists programme.
Samling Artists, as they become on attending the weekends at Marchmont House in Berwickshire, are now to be found performing and teaching all over the world.
If you want some insight into how a good singer can be made much better, there’s a public Samling in Masterclass session at Marchmont House (TD10 6YL) on Saturday, November 30 from 1.30pm to 4.30pm.
Italian soprano Barbara Frittoli will lead the session, taking up the invitation of a few years ago that had to be rescinded because of Covid. She will be joined by pianist Caroline Dowdle, actor James Garnon and eight new Samling Artists.
Find ticket details under ‘events’ on the Samling Institute for Young Artists website.