Soprano Jessica Hopkins & Nico de Villiers - Landscapes of Love and Dreams

Join us on Sunday evening at Warrington Concert Series for a Soprano Solo recital. Jessica Hopkins (soprano) and Nico De Villiers (piano) will perform an exciting programme, Landscapes of Love and Dreams.

In Landscapes of Love and Dreams, Jessica Hopkins and Nico de Villiers explore the different facets of relationships, ranging from the sometimes ill-matched lovers in Poulenc’s Fiancailles pour rire to the Symbolist explorations of Debussy’s Proses Lyriques. 

When: Sunday 2nd June

Where: Wycliffe URC Church, Bewsey Street, Warrington, WA2 7HZ

Time: Doors open: 6.30pm, performance begins at 7.00pm

Running time: x2 45 minute performances with a short interval.

Programme Details

Landscapes of Love and Dreams

Jessica Hopkins — Soprano

Nico de Villiers — Piano

Fiançailles pour rire (FP101) Francis Poulenc

La Dame d'André

Dans l'herbe

Il vole

Mon cadavre est doux comme un gant

Violon

Fleurs

The Daisies (op. 2, no. 1) Samuel Barber

Ah, Love, But A Day (op. 44, no. 2) Amy Beach

The Year’s at the Spring (op. 44, no. 1) Amy Beach

Sure on this shining night (op. 13, no. 3) Samuel Barber

Four Selected Songs Richard Strauss

Begegnung (WoO 72)

Nachtgang (op. 29, no. 3)

Cäcilie (op. 27, no. 2)

Morgen (op. 27, no. 4)

——Interval——

Proses Lyrique (L90) Claude Debussy

De rêve

De grève

De fleurs

De soir

Selections from Cabaret Songs William Bolcom

Waitin’

Toothbrush Time

Meet The Musicians

Jessica Hopkins

Jessica is a soprano from Buckinghamshire who is currently based in Manchester. At present, Jessica is studying for a PGDip in Vocal Performance under the tutelage of Mary Plazas at the Royal Northern College of Music, where she previously completed her MMus. Prior to this, she graduated with a Double First from Clare College, Cambridge, where she read Music as a choral scholar and was awarded the Donald Wort Prize, the Royalton-Kisch Prize for Music, and several academic prizes over the course of her studies.Opera roles Jessica has performed include Giulia in Rossini’s La Scala di Seta (RNCM), Snow Maiden in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden (RNCM), Maria Bertram in Dove’s Mansfield Park (RNCM), Cendrillon in Massenet’s Cendrillon (Bedfordshire Youth Opera), Clorinda in Rossini’s La Cenerentola (Aylesbury Opera), and Marianna in Rossini’s Il Signor Bruschino (Edinburgh Fringe). Excerpts include Susanna in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Mariane in Mechem’s Tartuffe and Berenice in Rossini’s L’occasione fa il ladro. Later this year, Jessica looks forward to singing the roles of Flora and Annina in Verdi’s La Traviata for the Musique Cordiale International Festival.Over the past year, Jessica has had considerable competition success, winning both the Frederic Cox Award for Singing and the Joyce and Michael Kennedy Award for the Singing of Strauss at the RNCM, as well as the Clonter Opera Betty Bannerman Award for French Song. Jessica was also a finalist in the 2023 RNCM Concerto Competition, and represented the RNCM at the Clonter Opera Prize in February 2024.As a regular oratorio and concert soloist, Jessica has performed repertoire including Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem; Vivaldi’s Gloria; Handel’s Messiah, Saul and Samson; Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater; Parry’s Ode on the Nativity; and Rutter’s Requiem under Rutter himself; as well as Mozart’s Requiem, Vesperae solennes de confessore, and Regina Coeli K108. In the coming months, Jessica looks forward to joining the Liverpool Sinfonia to perform Mozart’s Coronation Mass and to making her debut at the Wigmore Hall to perform Nico Muhly’s Endless Space.Jessica was recently selected by Opera North to take part in the 2022-23 RNCM / Opera North Chorus Mentor Scheme, and appeared as a Young Artist with the Buxton International Festival for their 2022 and 2023 seasons, performing in the chorus for Rossini’s La donna del lago and Bellini’s La Sonnambula. Jessica has also continued professional choral work, with recent performances including Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle at Southrepps Music Festival, Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at St John’s Smith Square in London, and Haydn’s The Creation with the London Mozart Players at the Eilat International Chamber Music Festival.

Nico de Villiers

Nico de Villiers is a British-South African pianist, coach, and author. He holds degrees from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, the University of Michigan, as well as the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Nico was the recipient of the ABRSM International Undergraduate Scholarship, a University of Michigan Teaching Assistant Scholarship, and scholarships from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama scholarship fund.

He performed as soloist, accompanist and chamber musician in prestigious venues such as the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Royal Festival Hall in London’s Southbank Centre, the Barbican and St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London; Birmingham Symphony Hall; the Kammermusiksaal in Bonn, Germany; the Mozarteum Grosser Saal in Salzburg, Austria; the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Netherlands, and the Terrace Theatre at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Duo partners have included singers such as Chen Reiss, Siobhan Stagg, Barbara Bonney, William Berger, and Matthew Rose. Festival performances include the Salzburg Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Oxford Lieder Festival, Chopin Birthday Festival in Warsaw, Poland, and the International Johannesburg Mozart Festival in South Africa.

Nico is the Deputy Head of Vocal Studies in the School of Vocal Studies and Opera at the Royal Northern College of Music. He previously served as a vocal coach on the vocal faculties of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Royal College of Music, Trinity Laban Conservatory in London, and the University of Michigan School of Music. As researcher, Nico’s focus has been on the vocal music of Dutch-American composer Richard Hageman. In addition to publishing articles in Classical Singer and Opera Magazine, Nico co-authored Richard Hageman: From Holland to Hollywood (Peter Lang, 2020), the first critical biography on Richard Hageman, with co-authors Kathryn Kalinak and Asing Walthaus. In 2022, Nico collaborated with soprano Siobhan Stagg in recording Voices: Songs by Richard Hageman (Aloud Records), the first album solely dedicated to Hageman’s songs. Nico’s forthcoming monograph on Richard Hageman — Song Composer (Peter Lang) is due for release in November 2024.