Lunchtime Recital - Cecily Shaw (mezzo soprano), Alicia Hernandez (piano)

Programme:

Ado - by Janet Jennings

7 Shakespeare Songs - by Madeleine Dring

La Diva de l'Empire - by Erik Satie

Le Cinema - by Michel Legrand

Jota - by Manuel De Falla

Biography:

Cecily Shaw is in her second year of a Guildhall Artist Masters in voice, under the tutelage of Samantha Malk, and is a Guildhall Scholarship recipient. Her previous studies at the University of Waikato focussed on both vocal performance, and the experiences of neurodivergent musicians. Cecily has been an alto soloist with several notable New Zealand choirs including Bach Musica and Scholars Baroque Aotearoa, and has attended Chamber Music New Zealand’s 2017 Bach Cantata Residency with Juliard415 and Masaaki Suzuki. Cecily’s major operatic roles include Cherubino in Waikato University’s 2016 production of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, and Cornelia in Handel Consort and Quire’s 2019 production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto.

Cecily is a current member of the Josephine Barker Trust, and has been a finalist in Guildhall School’s English Song Competition. In her spare time, Cecily enjoys composing humorous songs and parodies for ukulele, as her alter ego “Socratena”.

Alicia Hernández Huebra (Madrid, 2000) completed her Bachelor's Degree at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid under Maestro Iván Cítera. She is a member of the Madrid Youth Orchestra and Choir and has accompanied the children's choir Menudos Cantantes since 2021.

In 2023, she was selected as a répétiteur for the third edition of the Teatro Real Young Artist Programme Crescendo, receiving guidance from pianists Patricia Barton and Carmen Santoro. She accompanied masterclasses by Martin Winkler, Sabina Puértolas, and Jacques Imbrailo and worked as répétiteur for Amahl and the Night Visitors in the Teatro Real Junior season.

In July 2024, she was répétiteur for The Marriage of Figaro at the Berlin Opera Academy, playing the harpsichord for the recitatives under conductor Tom Seligman and stage director Caterina Panti Liberovici.

She is currently in her second year of a Master’s in Piano Accompaniment at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, studying with Andrew West and Sam Armstrong. She has accompanied masterclasses by Dominic Wheeler and Gerald Finley and collaborates regularly with pianists such as Iain Burnside and Graham Johnson, being an active member of his Song Guild. She also accompanies voice and drama lessons for professors John Ramster and Yvonne Kenny.

No ticket required, free entry, retiring collection - suggestion £5