Royal Opera House principal artist and Ukrainian baritone Yuriy Yurchuk will be joined by a host of international singers including Armenian soprano Anush Hovhannisyan and American soprano Alexandria Wregglesworth, accompanied by pianist Ed Batting, for an evening of world-class music in this special one-off fundraising concert. The night will feature a programme of much-loved arias and crowd favourites, with more information to be released over the coming days.
Fresh from his critically-acclaimed ★★★★★ performance in La Traviata at The Grand Opera House, Belfast, award-winning Yurchuk may be recognised for singing the Ukrainian national anthem outside 10 Downing Street at the start of the conflict in a call for peace.
The proceeds will go to The Ukrainian Institute London which champions Ukrainian culture, going beyond the headlines to shape the conversation about Ukraine. Since the launch of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Institute has been working tirelessly to give Ukraine a reliable voice in UK and world media, to respond to a constant stream of enquiries and to maintain our events programme, educational courses, cultural initiatives and support for displaced Ukrainians. The Ukrainian Institute London is an independent charity, and relies on donations to keep up their work.
As the crisis in Ukraine continues, we at Omnibus Theatre stand in solidarity with those impacted. Through this concert we hope to play our part in continuing to spread the word, rally support, and raise vital funds.
“This is going to be a very difficult winter in Ukraine, and people there will need our attention and help like never before. Leonard Bernstein once said: “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” So we should do what we do well – make music, to rally help and recourses, to save, to support in this dire hour of need.” says Yuriy Yurchuk
This unique event follows the final performance of Ukrainian Institute London and Live Canon’s Cassandra, an award-winning new translation of Ukraine’s pioneering feminist writer Lesia Ukrainka.
Yuriy Yurchuk
To date, Yurchuk has graced stages from the Kennedy Centre Awards in front of President Obama, through to Buckingham and Windsor Palaces for the Royal Family, and the glitz and glamour of a Hollywood LA party hosted by academy award winner Goldie Hawn.
He won international competitions in the US, Norway, Spain and Italy. Yuriy has made radio and television appearances including a voice over for a song in the acclaimed BBC War and Peace series, performed for BBC Radio 3 In tune and Shakespeare Live celebration.
Yuriy Yurchuk, remains a prolific performer with plans to return to the RoH, title roles in Belgium, Japan, France, and his native Ukraine. There is ample talent on display from the baritone. Whether from his viral Frozen Instagram covers or his run of Toscas at the RoH, Yuriy remains an inspirational and technically accomplished performer set to continue his path with a run of La Traviata at RoH and as Carlo Gerard in Andrea Chenier at Southbank Centre, on 29 May 2022.
Born in Ukraine, forever obsessed with music, he had to battle his way to make his passion for singing a reality. Having to initially pick finance trade to support the family, he never forgot his true aspirations. The artist sang where he could only to be told as a child that he did not have what it takes.
After years as M&A financial advisor with PwC in Chicago, a good friend took him to his very first opera and helped him to discover his true voice. It was love at first sight. Having studied Vocal Performance at DePaul University School of Music, Yuriy quickly began winning competition after competition, and ultimately got invited to join the Royal Opera House Young Artist Program in London.
Anush Hovhannisyan
British-Armenian soprano Anush Hovhannisyan began her career as a member of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at The Royal Opera House Covent Garden.
Nominated for the International Opera Awards, she made a highly acclaimed debut with Scottish Opera as Violetta La Traviata, which saw Opera Magazine writing, “(she) has the coloratura, the musical intelligence, the rock-solid technique, the evenness throughout an ample vocal range, the dramatic versatility, the imposing but graceful physique – and indeed the pathos” and The Sunday Times acclaiming “a ‘star is born’ moment.”
Recent highlights include her highly acclaimed role debut as Mimi La bohème at Welsh National Opera, performing Musetta La bohème and Violetta La Traviata at The Royal Opera House Covent Garden, debuts as Tatyana Eugene Onegin at Opera Holland Park, house debuts at Israeli Opera and Royal Danish Opera as Violetta La traviata and at the Opéra national de Paris as Emma Khovanschina.
Selected by The Times as “The Face to Watch in Opera 2020” and by Der Theaterverlag as one of the outstanding artists of 2020, she is the winner of First and Public Prizes, Deutsche Grammophon and Royal Danish Opera Special Prizes at the 2016 Stella Maris Competition, the winner of the 2014 Ernst Haefliger International Swiss Competition and represented Armenia at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2017.
A keen advocate and mentor of young musicians, Anush Hovhannisyan is a member of the Board of the Mascarade Opera Foundation and the National Student Opera Society. Believing strongly in supporting the industry by guiding young musicians.
Alexandra Wregglesworth
American Soprano Alexandria Wreggelsworth is fast building an impressive portfolio of operatic roles. She was most recently an Emerging Artist at Mascarade Opera Studio (Florence), and received an Artist Diploma from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London), where she also achieved her Masters in Performance.Among her many roles, Alexandria’s current highlights include performing the roles of Tatyana (Eugene Onegin) and Mimì (La bohème) on the stage at La Fenice as part of a scenes programme collaboration with the opera house and MOS. She also had the pleasure to perform the full role of Tatyana with The People’s Opera and Oxford Alternative Orchestra (Oxford) in 2019 and Mimì for Cyprus Opera Studio (Nicosia) in 2018. Other roles include Nedda (Gianni Schicchi), Eurydice (Gluck’s Orfeo), and the title role of Suor Angelica.
Currently, Alexandria is in preparation to sing the Cockerel in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen with Hampstead Garden Opera in November, and covering the role of Musetta in Puccini’s La bohème with Opera Synergy in Cardiff this December.
Edward Batting
Edward Batting studied with Richard Popplewell at the Royal College of Music.
He is currently Director of Music at St Alban’s Holborn where he conducts and accompanies the professional choir in a wide and diverse repertoire comprising over 1,000 works.
As an organist he has appeared at major venues including St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Cathedral and Westminster Abbey and as soloist in concertos by Poulenc, Leighton and Handel, and performed and recorded with leading choirs such as the Exmoor Singers, Chantage and the National Youth Choir of Great Britain. He was invited to give the first ever organ recital in the Sala Nezahualcoyotl in Mexico City, returning for the solo organ part in Janacek Glagolitic Mass which he has also performed at the Teatro Regio in Turin. Also highly in demand as a vocal coach and repetiteur, Edward has prepared singers for operatic roles at major houses around the world. He has worked on Turandot (Teatro Municipal, Santiago), Il Tabarro, La Voix Humaine (Montelpulciano International Festival), Vanessa (Teatro Massimo, Palermo) L’amour du Loin (Al Bustan Festival, Beirut), Mahagonny Songspiel, Les Malheurs d’Orphee (Mexico city), La Boheme (Glyndebourne). His engagements at the Royal Opera House include La Boheme, Die Zauberflote, Lucia di Lammermoor, Les Vepres Siciliennes (as Assistant Chorus Master) and Tosca, Mitridate, Les Contes D’Hoffman, Salome, Carmen, Alice’s adventures underground, Il Trittico and Il Trovatore.
