Turning 30 calls for a party and you can be there
Special Samling anniversary
They’re getting ready to party at the Samling Academy to celebrate three decades of musical excellence and talent development.
There are to be two evening performances of Samling Academy: The Party at The Glasshouse featuring some of the region’s best young classical singers and guest soloists with strong Samling connections.
One, tenor Ted Black, is even flying in from Austria for the occasion.
“This semi-staged concert celebrates 30 years of the Samling Institute inspiring young musicians to aim high and go further,” goes the concert promo.
“Expect a lively mix of words and music.”
Songs and scenes from operas including La bohème and La traviata will stoke the party atmosphere, along with a homage to Gilbert and Sullivan, courtesy of The Gondoliers.
“Fancy getting into the spirit?” goes the blurb. “Dress up and join in – party clothes or black tie, your call.”
Every region of the country could probably do with something like the Samling Institute for Young Artists (to give the charity its full title) but it’s easy to argue that in the North East the need is greater.
There have been opera stars from the North East – Sir Thomas Allen (from Seaham Harbour), Janice Cairns (Ashington), Anne-Marie Owens (South Shields), Graeme Danby (Consett), to name a few – but the path into classical singing isn’t especially well trodden.
Those who’ve made it have often relied on an astute teacher or someone in a choir or musical theatre society. In many cases, you could put their success down to luck.
Nowadays no account of North East classical singing would be complete without mention of the Samling Institute which owes its existence to Darlington-born entrepreneur Roger McKechnie who died in April.
Best known for his Phileas Fogg line of snacks, he subsequently set up a hotel or corporate retreat in the Lake District. It was called The Samling at Dove Nest (‘samling’ being an old Norse word for gathering).
Alongside it, The Samling Foundation, as it was then called, was established to help young artists (visual artists as well as singers in the early days) at the start of their careers.
Karon Wright, instrumental in setting up the Samling artist initiative 30 years ago and still its director today, remembered Roger as “a one-off – whacky, challenging in all the best ways, kind, generous, clever and a whole lot of fun to be with”.
The hotel was sold in 1999 and the Samling Institute for Young Artists is now based in offices in Hexham.
It runs regular series of masterclasses for early career singers and piano accompanists with each selected cohort spending a week immersed in singing and being coached by experts at Marchmont House in Berwickshire.
Every year their number swells so it’s quite unusual now for an opera production in the UK not to feature a ‘Samling Artist’.
The Samling Academy, for young people across the North East, was set up in 2012 and provides tuition with leading vocal coaches and specialists in acting, movement and other disciplines.
Working with Durham and Newcastle universities and The Glasshouse, the Samling Academy also provides performance opportunities for its young singers, many of whom have gone on to study at top music colleges.
Word from Samling is that the latest of these, The Party, is a glittering, cabaret-style concert, semi-staged and costumed and inspired by the parties in The Great Gatsby.
As well as music, it will feature dance and the spoken word.
Among those taking part will be Zoë Jackson, originally from Washington, who discovered opera through the Samling Academy and is now on the postgraduate opera studies programme at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
She will be joined by Camilla Harris, who became a Samling Academy member while at Durham University, went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music and now sings professionally.
Last year she sang the part of Musetta in La bohème and will revisit the role for the Gateshead concert.
Ted Black attended the Samling Artist masterclass session in 2021 which was led by conductor Sir Mark Elder, Sir Thomas Allen, soprano Yvonne Kenny and actor Alex Jennings.
He then spent two years at the Vienna State Opera and is currently with Opera Graz. This will be his first appearance at The Glasshouse.
Another making his Glasshouse debut will be pianist and Samling Artist Sid Ramchander, from Manchester, who also attended a masterclass week in 2021 and is the founder and director of specialist piano academy The Virtuoso Project.
The concerts at The Glasshouse will be directed by singing coach Miranda Wright, herself a Samling Artist, with movement director and choreographer Desirée Kongerød.
The concerts are on Saturday, July 11 and Sunday, July 12 at 7.30pm and tickets can be bought via The Glasshouse website.
FOOTNOTE: The Samling Institute has set up a 30th Anniversary Appeal which, if it hits its target of £30,000, will receive the same sum from a donor.