'Song at St. Mary-le-Bow' has been set up to fill a void within the musical concert scene in London. There are thousands of fantastic concerts in the city every year but, in my view, too few of these are song recitals. It seems that young performers in particular suffer from a lack of opportunity to share their love and passion for the song repertoire with audiences. The voice is one of the most natural forms of musical expression; it comes directly and unaided from the human body and connects the performer to the audience through its ability to communicate feelings through the combination of words and music. It is my opinion, therefore, that there is a great need for more exposure for this art-form and for up-and-coming young artists and audiences alike, and so it delights me to be able to welcome you to the start of this new seven-concert series of song recitals.

I am indebted to Gresham House plc for giving me the freedom and encouragement to embark on this very worthwhile and important project. Gresham House is a company involved with helping young businesses to grow, which perfectly fits with the aims of this series of concerts and the ideas behind its creation. The venue for any concert series is also important and I am delighted that we are to be based in the wonderful setting of St. Mary-le-Bow Church, famed for its famous 'Bow Bells' and its beautiful Christopher Wren design. I am also very excited to welcome Sir Thomas Allen as Patron of the series and am extremely grateful for his support for this initiative.

All of the young singers and musicians involved are either on the brink of very successful careers, or are already making their mark on the international stage. Recitals next year will also feature pianist Julius Drake, who is widely acknowledged to be one of the very top lieder and chamber music pianists in the world today. You can read more about the artists involved in 2008 and the music they will be performing throughout this website. For those of you who feel the urge to delve a little deeper into the minds of both the composers and the poets who feature during the series, there will be pre-concert talks before several of the performances. These will be given by Richard Stokes who is a global authority on all things linguistic and, in particular, how language interacts with music.

I look forward to seeing you at some or all of the seven concerts we have planned. Please put the dates in your diaries!