Saturday 20 December 2025, 4pm
West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge
Hector Berlioz – L’Enfance du Christ
Conductor: Harry Sever
Cambridge Philharmonic Chorus
Cambridge Philharmonic Orchestra
Frances Gregory: Mezzo-Soprano
James Way: Tenor
Jolyon Loy: Baritone
Jihoon Kim: Bass
Alistair Miles: Bass
Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ is a work of profound humanity. This sacred oratorio charts the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt with music of tenderness, grace and dramatic intensity.
Radiant choral writing and intimate orchestration create a timeless meditation on exile and hope – a poignant masterpiece from one of music’s great storytellers.
Jolyon Loy – Baritone
Awarded an Extraordinary Prize at the Tenor Viñas 2023, Jolyon Loy read French and Italian at Magdalen College, Oxford, furthering his studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Royal Academy of Music, and, as a Glyndebourne New Generation Artist, at London’s National Opera Studio, graduating in 2021. He is a Britten Pears Artist, Winner of the Bayreuth Scholarship at the 2019 Wagner Society Singing Competition and an alumnus of the Verbier Festival’s Atelier Lyrique.
Jolyon Loy made his debut with The Royal Opera as Tarquinius The Rape of Lucretia, a co-production with Britten Pears Arts, directed by Oliver Mears and conducted by Corinna Niemeyer, with performances at Snape Maltings Concert Hall and Linbury Theatre, and at Buxton International Festival as Zoroastro Orlando with Liberata Collective & Ensemble Hesperi. He also took part in the 2023 Internationale Opernwerkstatt – Festival der jungen Stimmen.
His recordings include Apollo in John Eccle’s Semele with Academy of Ancient Music, available on AAM CD and nominated for a Gramophone Award, and Songs from Faust on Champs Hill Records.
Recent highlights have included Earl of Morton Mary, Queen of Scots for English Natonal Opera, Schaunard La bohème for London’s Royal Ballet & Opera, Marullo Rigoletto for Tiroler Festspiele Erl and Paolo Simon Boccanegra for Grange Park Opera.
Current engagements include Moralès Carmen for English National Opera, the title role in Don Giovanni for Blackwater Valley Opera Festival and Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs with Sinfonia Viva.
Frances Gregory – Mezzo – Soprano
Frances Gregory is an alumna of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s Rising Stars Scheme.
She was a Studio Artist at Opéra national de Lyon, an Alvarez Young Artist at Garsington Opera and an Emerging Artist at Longborough Festival Opera. She created the role of Laura in Tom Coult’s Violet at the Aldeburgh Festival and has also appeared with Music Theatre Wales, Northern Opera Group and Opera North. For her performance as Sycorax in Jeremy Sama’s pastiche The Enchanted Island, she was awarded the Dame Hilda Brackett Award from Sadler’s Wells.
In Summer 2024, she created Ellie Gifford in the premiere of Paul Carr’s Under the Greenwood Tree for Dorset Opera Festival and her recent engagements have included Arethuze / Proserpine La descente d’Orphée aux Enfers at Buxton International Festival; Arnalta L’Incoronazione di Poppea with The English Concert and at The Grange Festival; Cherubino Le nozze di Figaro for The Mozartists; Dido Dido and Aeneas for Eboracum Baroque, Cambridge; Alcandro in Pergolesi’s L’Olimpiade for Vache Baroque; B Minor Mass and Solomon with Gabrieli Consort; Mary L’Enfance du Christ with NFM Wroclaw Phlharmonic; and Messiah with The Ulster Consort; as well as Sea Pictures with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
Highlights of her current season include Cherubino Le nozze di Figaro for Opera North and Luna Rotherham Opera for London’s Royal Ballet & Opera.
Jihoon Kim – Bass
Winner of many international competitions, Jihoon Kim studied at Seoul University and the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan. He went on to join the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera Covent Garden and subsequently was invited to be a member of the Royal Opera for one year. His roles include Don Basilio Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Israeli Opera); Pietro Simon Boccanegra (Royal Opera, Israeli Opera); Colline La Boheme (Royal
Opera and Welsh National Opera); Ashby Fanciulla del West, Monk Don Carlo, and Angelotti Tosca (Grange Park); Old Hebrew Samson et Dalila (Palau de Les Arts Valencia); Ferrando Il Trovatore (Cadogan Hall); Sarastro Die Zauberflöte (Longborough Festival and Welsh National Opera) and the Verdi Collection (Scottish Opera). Most recently he appeared as Don Basilio Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Opera Holland Park), Bonze Madama Butterfly (Grange Park Opera) and sang Timur Turandot for the Cambridge Philharmonic.
He regularly appears as bass solo in concert both in the UK and abroad. Concerts include the Beethoven Symphony No. 9, Haydn Nelson Mass, Mozart Requiem Mass, Rossini Petite Messe Solonelle and the Verdi Messa da Requiem.
Alastair Miles – Bass
Described by The Guardian as “The finest British bass of his generation,” Alastair Miles appears regularly at London’s Royal Opera House and in the UK has also sung for English National Opera, Glyndebourne, Grange Park Opera, Scottish Opera and Welsh National Opera, his repertoire including the title role in Boïto’s Mefistofele, Claggart Billy Budd, Arkel Pelléas et Mélisande, Enrico Anna Bolena, Alfonso d’Este Lucrezia Borgia, Leporello Don Giovanni, Timur Turandot, King Philip 11 Don Carlo, Zaccaria Nabucco, Fiesco Simon Boccanegra and Daland Der fliegende Holländer.
International engagements have taken him to the Metropolitan Opera, New York; the Salzburg Easter and Summer Festivals; the Theater an der Wien; the Wiener Staatsoper; the Flanders Opera; the Opéra Royal de Wallonie; the Opéra de Lille; the Opéra national de Paris; the Bavarian State Opera; the Deutsche Oper, Berlin; Oper Köln; the Dutch National Opera; and the Teatro Real, Madrid. He has also sung widely in concert with major conductors throughout the UK, Europe and North America. He has made over ninety recordings, including L’Enfance du Christ with Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra on Linn CD, as well as a huge variety of operatic repertoire.
Recent highlights have included Strominger La Wally at the Theater an der Wien (now available on Unitel DVD / Blu-Ray), Arkel Pelléas et Mélisande for the Orchestre national de France, Melisso Alcina and Father Trulove The Rake’s Progress for Glyndebourne, Le Baili Werther and Crespel Les contes d’Hoffmann for London’s Royal Ballet and Opera, Commendatore Don Giovanni at Zurich Opera, Lord Gordon Mary, Queen of Scots and Don Basilio Il barbiere di Siviglia for English National Opera, Prospero Miranda for Oper Köln, Ghost of Hamlet’s Father Hamlet at Teatro Regio Torino, Claudius Hamlet and Silva Ernani for Buxton International Festival, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis at Bucharest’s Enescu Festival, Schumann’s Szenen aus Goethes Faust with Orquesta y Coro nacionales de España and Verdi’s Requiem with Royal Choral Society.
Tickets
Tickets: from £15 (student concessions and free carers’ tickets available)
Pre-bookable programme £2
Tickets will be on sale from September.
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.
If you require a free carer’s ticket or have additional access requirements, please get in touch tickets@cam-phil.org.uk
