"..a beacon of artistic achievement which needs - and deserves - the fuel of the public's psychological, spiritual and financial support." Willard White international opera bass Patron of Magdala

Born in Jamaica, he studied at the Jamaica School of Music,and the Juilliard School, New York.
Since his debut with the New York City Opera he has appeared in the world's leading opera houses and concert halls, including the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, New York, San Francisco Opera, Hamburg Opera, Opera Bastille, Paris, La Monnaie, Brussels, the Salzburg and Glyndebourne Festivals.
His repertory includes roles by Handel, Mozart, Verdi, Mussorgsky, Wagner, Debussy, Strauss, Puccini, and Gershwin.
Recent engagements have been Timur (Royal Opera), Falstaff (the Festival d' Aix-en-Provence), the Grand Inquisitor (Festival d' Orange), Sparafucile, (Opera Bastille Paris).
He has sung Golaud (ENO, Netherlandse Opera, San Francisco Opera, Metropolitan Opera), Mephisto - Damnation of Faust (ENO, Salzburg Fest., Netherlands Opera), Wotan (San Francisco), Porgy (Glyndebourne Fest., ROH) and Joseph in the world premier of John Adams' El Nino (Chatelet Paris).

His plans include Parsifal, Falstaff, (Paris), (St. Francois d' Assisi), San Francisco, (Rusalka) New York, Khovanschina (Brussels), and concert appearances with the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the City of Birmingham, and leading London Orchestras.

Gerald Finley - Baritone

This Canadian baritone has become one of the leading singers of his generation, recording with major labels and performing at the major opera and concert venues in a wide variety of repertoire, all to critical acclaim. In opera, Mozart's Figaro has become a foundation for his work, but this has developed into performances of all the leading Mozart baritone roles, most recently Don Giovanni with Antonio Pappano. He has performed in all the leading roles in recent world premieres including Mark Anthony Turnage's 'The Silver Tassie' (as Harry Heegan) at English National Opera and the title role in 'Fantastic Mr. Fox' at L.A. Opera. He has also performed the titles roles in Vaughan Williams' 'Pilgrim's Progress' with the Royal Opera Covent Garden and Britten's 'Owen Wingrave' at Glyndebourne and also in Margaret Williams' film for Channel 4 with Kent Nagano.

His close association with Glyndebourne, where he has performed most seasons since1986, continued last summer with Nick Shadow in 'The Rake's Progress' and in the future as Agamemnon in 'Iphigenie en Aulide'

At the Metropolitan Opera New York, he sings Papageno, Marcello and the title role in Don Giovanni while at the Royal Opera Covent Garden he has sung Creonte in Haydn's 'Orfeo' and is to sing the title role in 'Don Giovanni' and the Forester in 'The Cunning Little Vixen'. He works regularly at the Opera de Paris with roles including Valentin and Sharpless and had great success singing the title role in 'Don Giovanni' He has recently recorded Argante in Handel's 'Rinaldo' with the Academy of Ancient Music and Christopher Hogwood for Decca.

His concert work is equally prestigious, and he has featured in recordings of Haydn, Schumann, Brahms and Mozart. He is a frequent guest of many orchestras throughout Europe and he continues his work from Bach, Haydn and Handel to Britten, Stravinsky and Webern. As a recitalist, he has appeared many times at the Wigmore Hall, and he has recorded a number of song discs, including the penultimate disc in the Hyperion Schubert series with Graham Johnson. His disc 'Songs of Travel' won the Canadian Juno award for best Classical Album 1998. He has recently recorded the complete songs of Henri Duparc for the CBC label in Canada. He works regularly with Julius Drake and Roger Vignoles.

Gerald Finley began singing as a chorister in Ottawa, Canada and completed his musical studies in the UK at the Royal College of Music, King's College Cambridge, The Countess of Munster Musical Trust, and as the winner of the Glyndebourne's John Christie Award. He currently studies with Armen Boyajian.

Louise Winter Mezzo Soprano

Born in Preston, Lancashire, Louise Winter's training was at Chetham's School of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music as a pupil of Frederic Cox.

Her association with Opera Houses around the world began at Glyndebourne and has taken her from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden to Toronto, Berlin, Brussels, Barcelona and English National Opera, and her roles have included Rosina ('Il Barbiere di Siviglia'), Dorabella ('Cosi fan tutte'), Pauline ('Pique Dame'), Diana ('La Calisto'), Marguerite ('La Damnation de Faust'), Sextus ('La Clemenza di Tito'), Beatrice ('Beatrice and Benedict'), and the title roles in 'Xerxes' and 'Carmen'.

Louise Winter's concert engagements include appearances with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis and Leonard Slatkin, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with Sir Simon Rattle, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under Slatkin, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Sinaisky, The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Dutoit. Her repertoire in these concerts include Mahler's 'Des Knaben Wunderhorn' and 'Das Lied von der Erde'; Judith in 'Duke Bluebeard's Castle'; Jocasta in 'Oedipus Rex'; 'La Damnation de Faust'; Britten's 'Phaedra', Rossini 'Petite Messe Solennelle'; 'Pulcinella'; Elgar 'Sea Pictures' and 'La mort de Cleopatre'.

Louise Winter has also appeared in recital at the Wigmore Hall, St John's Smith Square, at the Theatre du Chatelet, Paris and the Bath Festival performing Schubert, Brahms, Dvorak and Wolf. She can be heard on Hyperion's 'The Songs of Frank Bridge' and has frequently performed on BBC Radio.

Current engagements include a recital at the Belfast Festival with Julius Drake, 'Sea Pictures' with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Jerzy Maksymiuk, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Masur, the 'Glagolitic Mass' with the Washington National Symphony Orchestra under Slatkin, her first Octavian in 'Der Rosenkavalier' at the New Zealand Festival of the Arts under John Keenan, Preziosilla in 'La Forza del Destino' with the Opera de Rouen under Oswald Sallaberger and Diana/Destino in 'La Calisto' at the Berlin Staatsoper.

Lady Walton

Susana Walton was born in Buenos Aires on 30 August 1926, the daughter of an argentine lecturer and lawyer, who decreed that his children were to learn English before they were allowed to speak their native tongue. Susana was brought up at an exclusive school run by Spanish nuns where she took a diploma in accountancy followed by a degree as public translator in English. At a time when girls were still supposed to be chaperoned, Susana found a full time job in the Buenos Aires office of the British Council, causing considerable consternation in her family. This was where she was working when William Walton came to Buenos Aires in the autumn of 1948.

Walton was one of the delegates to an international conference of the performing Rights Society. Walton, who had clearly fallen in love at first sight, asked her to marry him. They were engaged within two weeks and married a month later. They had a full and rich life together, which spanned over thirty years.

They set up home together in Ischia in the Bay of Naples, where Walton worked hard to produce masterpieces. Susana turned her attentions to her legendary garden 'la Mortella' the local word for myrtle. Apart from the music itself, the most obvious enduring asset is the retreat he and Susana created for themselves, much more than an Englishman's house and garden, which Susana still opens for Sunday afternoon concerts when she welcomes students to annual opera master classes in celebration of her husband.

The music of William Walton lived and lives on in performance: its supreme strengths are its immediacy, energy, directness, colour and excitement. So it was only right that whatever was organised as his memorial should in some practical way feed off and flow from performance. It was also right that any memorial should make use of what already existed by way of testament to the composer.

In July 2001, Lady Susana Walton was conferred Honorary DMus at the University of Nottingham.