Susan Cook Mezzo- Soprano and David Syrus Piano
Programme to include English Song, Bizet, Gershwin, Sondheim, Joyce Grenfell and Noel Coward….
Free Concert with retiring collection
Susan Cook
Trained with celebrated teachers at the Royal Northern College of Music, the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London with the then Head of Opera, Johanna Peters. She has combined a semi-professional musical career as a concert singer and recitalist over several decades alongside her previous work as a Fleet Steet journalist and Agony Aunt.
In theatres throughout London and the South East including Holland Park Opera, she san a total of 29 principal operatic roles. These included the title role in Carmen (Bizet), Mozart operas principals Dorabella, Elvira and Zerlina, Rosina (Barber of Seville) Meg Page (Falstaff and Merry Wives of Windsor) Rosalind (Die Fledermaus) Amneris (Aida), Navy (Albert Herring as well as The Merry Widow (Lehar) and several Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.
She now works as a psychotherapist and supervisor from her practice in Bath.
David Syrus
Retired from the Royal Opera House in 2017 having worked there for 45 years, the last 23 as Head of Music. While at there he conducted many performances of operas by Mozart, Verdi, Janacek and others. Other opera conducting included Britten in France, Rossini in Japan, Stravinsky in Chile, Donizetti in the USA and Weill in Argentina.
As a lieder accompanist he played in the Musikverein, Vienna, The Carnegie Hall, New York, The Wigmore Hall, London and many other cities. Early years assisting in the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festivals, Latterly ha has taught at Samling, the National Opera Studio and the London Music Colleges.