Lunchtime Music: Schumann, Debussy, Barat, Bruch

Photo: Eleanor O'Driscoll

Joel Godfrey trombone
Joanne Sealey piano

Barat Andante et Allegro
Bruch Kol Nidrei
Kenny Sonata for unaccompanied trombone

Eleanor O'Driscoll mezzo-soprano
Henry Reavey piano

Schumann Frauenliebe und leben

ii. Er, der Herrlichste von Allen
iv. Du Ring an meinem Finger
vi. Süßer Freund, du blickest mich verwundert an

Larsen Love after 1950
i. A Boy's Lips
iv. The Empty Song

Debussy En sourdine
Mozart È amore un ladroncello (Così fan tutte)

Joel Godfrey attended the Junior Guildhall followed by the Royal Northern College of Music in 2012 where he studied under Rob Holliday, Simon Cowen and Roger Cutts. In his third year, he attended the Hochschule für music und Theatre in Leipzig, studying with Berlin Philharmonic trombonist Thomas Leyendecker. In his final year Joel performed in a Christian Lindberg masterclass, with the RNCM big Band in Malta at the International Arts Festival and with the RNCM trombone choir, which was the first British ensemble to win the ITA Emory Remington Trombone Choir Competition.  

Joel came to Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in 2021, where he is studying for his Masters under Richard Watkins, Anthony Howe and Amos Miller. In his final year, Joel has enjoyed placements with Birmingham Royal Ballet, the NEXT study scheme as part of the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and the CBSO. 

Mezzo-soprano, Eleanor O’Driscoll trains at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire under the tutelage of Louise Crane. There she has performed the roles of Ghost Child 1 in the 2021 production of Turnage’s Coraline, and Charlotte Badger in the 2022 production of McNeff’s Banished. Recent roles in scenes include Carmen, Dorothée (Cendrillon), Larina (Eugene Onegin), Dorabella (Così fan tutte) and Fanny Price (Mansfield Park). In October Eleanor also performed the role of Siebel in Gounod's Faust with Arcadian Opera Company and last summer was part of the National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company's chorus. A prize-winner in the 2022 Edward Brooke’s Lieder Prize, Eleanor was also a recipient of the 2021 Margaret Pascoe scholarship. She has also recently performed Brahms’s Zwei Gesänge as part of the Cecil Aronowitz Viola Competition, as well as performing masterclasses with the Association of Teachers of Singing, and Roderick Williams.