School of Arts and Creative Technologies
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- Yvonne Seymour
Yvonne Seymour (Mezzo-Soprano)
Yvonne Seymour has worked extensively in oratorio, recital and opera and has made a particular study of 17th and 18th Century vocal music; nevertheless, her repertoire, while specialising in earlier music, includes most of the standard 19th and 20th century classics.
She has performed in most European countries and has recorded for BBC, ITV, WDR Köln, and most other European radio and TV stations. She has recently appeared in Denmark, Germany, the Czech Republic, USA, Hong Kong and Corfu.
A recording for WDR of Purcell's Dido & Aeneas has been made for commercial release and other commercial recordings include Mozart's Requiem, sacred songs of George Jeffreys and a Festal Mass by Christoph Straus. BBC recordings have included Purcell's Dioclesian, Clarke's Music on the Death of Purcell and Purcell's Come ye Sons of Art, Biber's Missa Alleluia, programmes of Handel Italian cantatas and Schubert lieder. For WDR she sang music of John Blow in a live EBU broadcast from Köln. In recent York Early Music Festivals she has sung Scarlatti's Su le Sponde del Tebro with Crispian Steele-Perkins and Yorkshire Baroque Soloists as well as Blow and Purcell sacred narratives with Stephen Varcoe. Repertoire in recent seasons has included Mendelssohn's Elijah, Bach's Christmas Oratorio and B Minor Mass, Handel's Saul and Verdi Requiem. Recently she sang in Ryedale Festival (Haydn and Mozart) and gave a series of concerts in Denmark and appeared at Festival Mitte Europa (in Purcell’s Fairy Queen). At the latter festival she shares a week of masterclasses with Thomas Thomaschke in which she teaches English song. She has also recently appeared in Leipzig Bach Festival and York Early Music Festival singing in Dido & Aeneas. She also sang in Handel’s Israel in Egypt in York Minster. She also sang programmes of Purcell in Warwick and at Ryedale Festival and at Merseburg Cathedral and toured Denmark with her daughter Bethany and husband Peter.
Alongside her performing career, Yvonne teaches singing at University of York, University of Huddersfield and for York St John University.
