Singer Poppy will offer one of the 2017 Festival of Chichester highlights

Poppy Ewence returns to her home city to offer an evening of song for the Festival of Chichester (St Pancras Church, 101 St Pancras, Chichester, Saturday, June 24, 7pm).
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Poppy

A former student at the Prebendal, Poppy will sing a concert of two halves comprising songs picked from a selection of her favourites and popular classics, including early Baroque, English song, folk and some more contemporary works.She will frame each with a short explanation so the evening runs seamlessly, she says. “I want to perform a concert of really popular soprano music that people will recognise. There will definitely be bits by Handel, from The Messiah. I would also like to do some Puccini and possibly from Gershwin as well. I want to keep it light and fun – stuff that people will know well and maybe also pieces they will know less well.”Poppy is a frequent singer in London where she now lives, but she admits she can’t remember the last time she did a solo recital – an omission she is keen to correct more and more.“I do lots of solo singing, but not a recital. I sing at a beautiful church in Chelsea, and I sing solo bits and pieces for various special services, and I also sing a lot at weddings. But I would certainly like to do more solo recitals.”After the Prebendal, Poppy studied at Lancing and then did a degree in music at Kings College London before doing a two-year masters in oboe at the Royal College.“I now work for a boutique music management agency. I mostly create musical acts for events in London and across the world. It’s fun and quite fast-paced and allows me creativity, but I do really miss performing, which is why it is brilliant now to have this chance to sing in the Festival of Chichester. I am hoping that particularly with my singing, this will give me the confidence to do more solo stuff.“Certainly since I left the college, I have done a lot more singing because there is more work. Oboe is a bit more niche and you have to be doing it 24/7 to make a career out of it. “I do the odd bit here and there, solo or orchestral. I play every year in a concert at the Prebendal. But with the singing there is just more opportunity.“I love the feeling of playing in an orchestra, but I also love singing in a choir, and I do an awful lot of it. You are doing it with other people, and in a choir there is so much music to be sung. Most of my greatest friends are people that I have sung with. I just love singing. I really, really think it is my favourite thing to do, and I would love to do more solo work.“When I was at Kings, I was in a choir, and the director of music there, David Trendell, sadly who has now died, gave me a huge amount of confidence and support. “I am very, very grateful to him for giving me the springboard, particularly with the choral stuff, but definitely now I am keen to do more solo stuff.”Tickets £12; concessions £10. Disabled access. Tickets are available from Chichester Box Office, The Novium, Tower Street, Chichester, PO19 1QH; phone 01243 816525 or 775888; website www.thenovium.org/boxoffice; email [email protected]. Don't miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.Here are four ways you can be sure you'll be amongst the first to know what's going on.1) Make our website your homepage 2) Like our Facebook page 3) Follow us on Twitter4) Register with us by clicking on 'sign in' (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.And do share with your family and friends - so they don't miss out!Always the first with your local news.Be part of it.

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