Ode to Joy

West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge

Saturday 18 January, 4pm

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Piano concerto No 23 in A major K488

Ludwig Van Beethoven – Symphony No. 9

Performed by:

Cambridge Philharmonic Orchestra

Cambridge Philharmonic Chorus

Harry Sever Conductor & Piano

Ellie Neate Soprano

Grace Wain Mezzo-Soprano

Nick Sharratt Tenor

Mark Saberton Bass – Baritone

A glorious combination of one of Mozart’s best-loved works and the towering masterpiece that is Beethoven’s last symphony makes this a completely unmissable evening.

Cambridge Philharmonic’s Music Director Harry Sever directs Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A Major from the keyboard – a work that sparkles with light, laughter and love.

Beethoven’s 9th Symphony – written when the composer was completely deaf – continues to stagger audiences and musicians alike with its bold colours, epoch-defining scale and heart-breaking humanity: a symphonic journey like no other.

The work culminates in soloists and chorus declaiming words from Schiller’s An die Freude (Ode to joy), a paean to nature and friendship. 

‘Seid umschlungen, Millionen! Diesen Kuss der ganzen Welt!’

‘Be embraced, all you millions! Share this kiss with all the world!’

Tickets

Tickets: £15, £20, £25, £30. Student concessions available

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

Soloists

Grace Wain Mezzo-Soprano

Grace hails from The Fens and currently resides in Lanarkshire. She graduated from RWCMD with a BMus (Hons) and an MA in Opera Performance. She is also a Samling Artist.

Her roles include; Waltraute Die Walküre (New Palace Opera), Wellgunde Götterdämmerung (Edinburgh Players Opera Group), Magdalene (Cover) Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Saffron Opera Group), Erika Vanessa (Regents Opera Orchestral Workshop), Zweite Norn (Cover) and Floßhilde (Cover) Götterdämmerung (Longborough Festival Opera), Rose O’Riordan The Ballybruff Trilogy (Opera Workshop Limerick – world premiere), La Zia Principessa  Suor Angelica (Wexford Festival Opera), Grimgerde Die Walküre (Regents Opera), Melissa (Cover) La liberazione di Ruggiero (both Longborough Festival Opera), Blümenmädchen Parsifal (New Palace Opera), Cercatrice 1 and (Cover) Sorella Infermiera Suor Angelica, Hippolyta (Cover) A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Dorabella (Cover) Così fan tutte (all Scottish Opera).

Grace’s appearances on the concert platform include: Symphony for Me Marras (world premiere)/ Sangs from Hyme Ben Lunn, Vox Clamantis Ben Lunn, Messiah Handel, Stabat Mater Haydn, Regina Coeli KV 267 Mozart and Feel the Spirit Rutter, A Ceremony of Carols Britten, Requiem Mozart and C Minor Mass Mozart.

She was a semifinalist for the Elizabeth Connell Prize 2024, won the Carole Rees Award (Wagner Bursary) 2023, competed in the live rounds of IVC ’s-Hertogenbosch 2022 as a Wagner prize nominee and was selected for a masterclass with director John Fulljames.

Grace’s upcoming engagements include: Grimgerde Die Walküre (Regents Opera) and Chorus Parsifal (Temple Music Foundation).

 

Mark Saberton Bass – Baritone

Mark studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and was awarded the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama Trust to study in the Opera School.
He has sung with many opera companies including Royal Opera, English National Opera, Opera North, Scottish Opera, Garsington Opera, Longborough Festival Opera, Opera Holland Park, Mid Wales Opera and Savoy Opera.
He performed and recorded the role of Ben Budge (Beggar’s Opera) with the City of London Sinfonia and Royal Opera. At English National Opera he covered the roles of Zurga (Pearlfishers), Pizarro (Fidelio) and Lepidus/Mereia (Caligula). Other roles include Bottom (Midsummer Night’s Dream) for Longborough Festival Opera; Rigoletto (Rigoletto) and Escamillo (Carmen) for Kentish Opera; Mephistopheles (Faust) for Swansea City Opera; Scarpia (Tosca), Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni) & Figaro (Barber of Seville) for Heritage Opera; Antonio (Marriage of Figaro) for Garsington Opera; Narumov (Queen of Spades) for Opera Holland Park and the Hotel Waiter & Boatman (Death in Venice) for Aldeburgh & Bregenz Festivals. Mark has performed several times with Bampton Classical Opera including Waiting for Figaro under Edward Gardner.
He performed in A New Creation with Timothy West, David Owen Norris and Philip Langridge at Winchester Cathedral, a project featuring 500 school children. His singing features on BBC Radio 3 and he has performed in many oratorios and recitals including Brahms’ Requiem (Birmingham Symphony Hall), Orff’s Carmina Burana (Liverpool Philharmonic Hall), Verdi’s Requiem (St.Edmundsbury Cathedral) and Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony (Rochester Cathedral).
Recent opera engagements include Shoulder to Shoulder by Lenny Sayers with Swansea City Opera, commissioned to highlight the Men’s Sheds organisation and Sharpless in Madame Butterfly with Heritage Opera at Old Bayham Abbey in the Lamberhurst Music Festival.
Acting engagements include Cornwall’s Servant/Knight/Officer in King Lear at the Grange Festival in 2021 with Sir John Tomlinson in the title role, Sir Thomas Allen as Gloucester and Keith Warner directing. He is currently working on another acting project with the same team.
Future concert engagements include Stowmarket Chorale’s Schubert concert on March 15th.

Ellie Neate Soprano

Ellie Neate graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama opera course in 2022.

She has performed Five Eliot Landscapes by Thomas Adès at Oxford Lieder Festival, was broadcast live from the Wigmore Hall for the BBCsang the soprano solo in Carmina Burana with the London Symphony Chorus at Barbican Hall, performed ‘Zero Gravity’ for English National Opera in Liverpool for ENO Does Eurovision, and recorded the soundtrack for the Disney+ television series Rivals

Opera roles include cover Tytania A Midsummer Night’s Dream and cover Papagena The Magic Flute for Opera North, Ellie in The Man in the Moon for the Royal Opera House’s Family Sunday programme, cover Mabel The Pirates of Penzance, Celia IolantheFirst Daughter Akhnaten, and cover Elsie Maynard The Yeomen of the Guard (all at ENO), Elisa Il Re PastoreLisaLa Sonnambula, and Cleopatra Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra by Hasse (all Buxton International Festival), Aline The Sorcerer for Charles Court Opera, Galatea Acis and GalateaMilica Svadba by Ana Sokolović, and Maria Bertram Mansfield Park (all Waterperry Opera), Cunegonde Candide (Blackheath Halls Opera), and Gretel Hansel and Gretel (British Youth Opera) for which she won the Basil A Turner Award. 

Upcoming projects include a return to Opera North to play Papagena in The Magic Flute Lite, a recital on ‘Donizetti and Friends’ for Opera Rara’s 2025 salon recital series, Sylviane in The Merry Widow for Scottish Opera and Opera Holland Park, performing in the summer season of a UK opera festival, and recording a new studio opera recording with Opera Rara in late 2025. 

Nick Sharratt  Tenor

Nicholas Sharratt studied Commerce at Birmingham University, and singing at the Royal Northern College of Music and the National Opera Studio.

He made his Royal Opera debut in the 2016/17 Season singing in The Nose ensemble. Roles include Camille (The Merry Widow), Flute (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and Pedrillo (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) for Opera North; Ernesto (Don Pasquale) and Almaviva (Il barbiere di Siviglia) for ETO; Rudolph (Euryanthe) and First Prisoner (Fidelio) for Glyndebourne Festival; Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore) for Grange Park Opera; Brighella (Ariadne auf Naxos) for Garsington Opera; Lippman (Of Thee I Sing) for Bregenz Festival; Ferrando (Così fan tutte) in Tokyo; Nero (L’incoronazione di Poppea) for Early Opera Company; Richard (The Devil Inside), Nanki-Poo (The Mikado) and Frederic (Pirates of Penzance) for Scottish Opera and D’Oyly Carte Opera Company.

In concert, he has sung Parry Jones A Serenade to Music at the BBC Proms (LSO/Andrew Davis); Tirsi, La Danza at Wigmore Hall (Christian Curnyn); Messiah at CadoganHall and Camille, The Merry Widow at the Royal Festival Hall with John Wilson and the Philharmonia.

Recent performances include Angel 3 (Written on Skin) under George Benjamin (Paris Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus), First Priest (Die Zauberflöte), Parpignol (La Bohème), and Giuseppe (La Traviata) for The Royal Opera, Covent Garden.

TRAVEL & PARKING

West Road Concert Hall is situated on the University’s Sidgwick Site, only a few minutes’ walk west of the famous Cambridge Backs and King’s College, West Road Concert Hall is easily accessible on foot, by bike, on public transport, or by car.

For further information click HERE

The address is 11 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DP