Classical and Jazz: Latest news > June 24
Published: 24 June 2010
by SEBASTIAN TAYLOR
CELEBRATED opera and jazz singing stars are getting together on Saturday to raise funds for University College Hospital’s leukaemia and cancer unit.
The fundraiser Night of Opera and Jazz Songs will be at Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel in Hampstead.
Among the singers will be acclaimed Australian soprano Seija Knight, now living in Parkway, Camden Town. She’s got an extensive repertoire, ranging from Maria in West Side Story to Papagena in The Magic Flute. She is well known to football fans for her rendering of the English and Russian national anthems before a crowd of 86,000 at Wembley Stadium for the England/Russia Euro 2008 qualifying match.
Jazz songstress Stella Star is coming over from Monte Carlo to sing at the fundraiser. While she’s widely known as a jazz singer, she’s better known for her burlesque acts such as Red Rooster Feather Fan Dance and Indian Princess Peacock Feather Fan Dance.
Celebrated jazz singer Tina May will also be at the concert. She’s one of the most expressive and technically gifted singers on the jazz scene at the moment. Lastly, the soloists will include composer/pianist Renara Akhoundova, born and brought up in Baku, Azerbaijan, now living in Paris. She says her music is about coziness, humaneness, harmony; absolute love and indiscriminate forgiveness.
The concert is being arranged by pianist David Thomas.
• UCH leukaemia & cancer unit fundraiser, Night of Opera and Jazz Songs, Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel, Hampstead,
020 7240 4421, 7.30pm, £10