Sunday 5 July 2026, 4pm
Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden
Claude Debussy: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
John Ireland: These Things Shall Be
Ralph Vaughan Williams: A Sea Symphony
Performed by:
Cambridge Philharmonic Chorus
Cambridge Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Tom Primrose
Simon Hewitt Jones : lead violin
Jenny Stafford: Soprano
Armand Rabot: Baritone
Duration – 90 minutes with interval
Our season closes with a monumental choral-orchestral programme at Saffron Hall. Join Tom Primrose and our combined orchestra and chorus, plus two exceptional guests for a journey through three dramatic musical landscapes.
Debussy’s languid Prélude conjures a sun-drenched reverie, while John Ireland’s choral epic These Things Shall Be offers a utopian vision of peace and progress.
Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony, set to Walt Whitman’s stirring verse, is a glorious voyage into the vastness of the ocean – and the soul – in one of the repertoire’s most exhilarating choral symphonies.
Jenny Stafford: Soprano
Jenny is now firmly established as one of the brightest talents on the UK opera stage. In March 2018, she made her major house debut, with Dutch National Opera, as Sarah in James MacMillan’s Clemency. Bachtrack.com praised how her ‘soprano soared in Sarah’s ecstatic music with dramatic intensity’.
Jenny Stafford trained at King’s College, London and the Royal Academy of Music – winning the Isabel Jay Operatic Prize and the Dame Eva Turner Award – and at ENO Opera Works and the Georg Solti Accademia di Bel Canto.
In the UK, Jenny Stafford has appeared with Bampton Classical Opera as Tisbé (Cendrillon) and as Eginia (Gli sposi malcontenti); at the BBC Proms as Prima Cercatrice (Suor Angelica, conducted by Pappano); with the Buxton International Festival as Prima Donna (Viva la diva); at the Cadogan Hall as Vitellia (La clemenza di Tito); with English National Opera as Mary Seton (Mary, Queen of Scots); with English Touring Opera as Despina, Manon Lescaut, Melissa (Amadigi), Musetta (La boheme), and Soprano Soloist (St John Passion); with Nevill Holt as Musetta; with Opera North as the Piper (The Pied Piper of Hamelin); at Theatre Royal Bath as Miss Jessel (Turn of the Screw); with Welsh National Opera as Pamina and Papagena (The Magic Flute); with West Green House Opera as Nedda (Pagliacci), Suor Angelica and Tatyana (Eugene Onegin), and Wild Arts as Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte).
Rupert Christiansen wrote in The Telegraph that: ‘Jenny Stafford shines as Manon Lescaut. It was Jenny Stafford as Manon who really commanded the stage, with impressive ringing top Cs for declarations of undying passion, and interestingly subtle moments when you could feel a dawning, regretful awareness of her own flightiness.’
Season 2025/26 engagements include: Female Chorus (The Rape of Lucretia) with English Touring Opera, the world premiere of Elena Langer’s To Die For with Nederlandse Reisopera, cover Mimi at the Royal Ballet and Opera, and a gala concert at West Green House Opera.
Season 2026/27 engagements include: further performances of To Die For in the Netherlands and at English National Opera; Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte) and cover Suor Angelica at the Royal Ballet and Opera and her first Ariadne (Ariadne auf Naxos).
Armand Rabot: Baritone
British-Sri Lankan baritone Armand Rabot is a current member of the Bayerische Staatsoper Opernstudio. He was previously part of the Aix-en-Provence Festival Académie in 2025 and a Young Singers Project artist at the Salzburger Festspiele in 2024, and he studies with Ben Johnson.
Recent projects include his return to Salzburger Festspiele to sing Roucher Andrea Chénier, concert appearances with Graham Johnson, Dreams of Gerontius at Truro Cathedral and Saffron Hall.
Additional notable performances include Mendelssohn’s Paulusat Wakefield Cathedral, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Spires Philharmonic Orchestra, and Elijah with Birkenhead Choral Society. He has sung Mozart’s Requiem at Liverpool Cathedral and with Marple Choral Society, and Handel’s Messiahwith Salford Choral Society, Birkenhead Choral Society, and at Shrewsbury Cathedral.
Armand has also performed Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem and Puccini’s Messa di Gloria with Formby Choral Society, Haydn’s The Creation with Keele Bach Choir, Fauré’s Requiem at Blackburn Cathedral, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with the Amadeus Choir, and Saint-Saëns’ Oratorio de Noël at Shrewsbury Cathedral.
Armand frequently collaborates with the Liverpool Bach Collective, having performed numerous Bach cantatas (including BWV 62, 158, and 32), as well as both the St John Passion and the St Matthew Passion.
In the upcoming season, he will appear in a Schubert lecture-recital alongside renowned pianist Graham Johnson OBE at the Salle de Musique de Chambre, Philharmonie Luxembourg and his roles at the Bayerische Staatsoper include Ping Turandot, Tom in a new production of Die englische Katze, the KaiserlicherKommissär in Madama Butterfly, Ein Cappadocier in Salome, and Male Consort IV in the world premiere of Of One Blood.
Recent and upcoming projects include a house debut at the ROH as Cristiano Un ballo in maschera, Der Direktor in Der Spieler at the Salzburger Festspiele, as well as appearances with The Grange Festival in L’incoronazione di Poppea (Littore, Famigliari3) and The Rake’s Progress (Keeper of the Madhouse). He has performed Father in Hänsel und Gretel for Hampstead Garden Opera, and Narumov and cover for Surin in Queen of Spades at The Grange Festival.
Simon Hewitt Jones : Lead Violin
English violinist Simon Hewitt Jones is a musical omnivore, involved with a wide array of cross-disciplinary creative projects as a performer, teacher, writer, presenter and producer.
Simon performs extensively across the UK with the London Concertante chamber orchestra, often as leader or soloist. He is Concertmaster of the Guildford Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Leader of the Worthing Philharmonic, and violinist of House of Light, a Berlin-based new wave, shoegaze rock band.
Simon works as a session musician and recording artist in London, where he has recorded for artists as diverse as Massive Attack, Ed Sheeran, Deltron3030 (including Glastonbury Festival), the Medici Quartet, and the late Sir John Tavener. He was awarded a BBC Premiere Award for chamber music recording, made an acclaimed solo recording with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, and has broadcast extensively on TV and Radio.
As a soloist and chamber musician, Simon has performed at many leading festivals, including Spitalfields, Aldeburgh, Henley, Gregynog, and at most of the UK’s cathedrals and major concert halls. Simon is an experienced teacher and workshop leader and has worked across all levels of music education in the UK and Ireland, from early years and primary, to special educational needs and teacher training. For over a decade he has contributed to educational and cultural development programmes in the Palestinian Territories.
In TV/film, Simon has been a music consultant and actor coach for major productions by Disney, Netflix and other networks. He founded ViolinSchool, a leading UK provider of adult education programmes for the violin, and was previously a researcher at the Royal Academy of Music.
Tickets
Tickets: from £16, some concessions and free carers’ tickets available via Saffron Hall.
Please note that tickets are purchased on a non-refundable basis.
Access: The building is fully accessible to wheelchair users, with wheelchair / companion seating ramps and accessible toilet facilities.
Click HERE to find out more.
Photo Credits: Bill Hiskett