Wagner, Elgar & Brahms
WAGNER: Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
ELGAR: Sea Pictures Op. 37
BRAHMS: Symphony No.4 in E minor Op. 98
Duration -120 minutes
East Anglia Chamber Orchestra
Leader: Jamie Foreman
Joined by: Conductor : Jacques Cohen
Siv Misund: Mezzo Soprano
Saturday 24th January 2026, 7.30pm
West Road Concert Hall Cambridge
Tickets via ADC £25 (£22 concessions, Student's £10, Under 18s £5)
www.adcticketing.com 01223 300085
Saturday 31st January 2026, 7.30pm
Apex Bury St Edmunds
Tickets via Apex £25 (£22 concessions, Students £10, Under 18s £5) – PLUS £2 Apex booking fee
www.theapex.co.uk 01284 758000
NOTE: advance reservations for either concert can be made by emailing Julian Brandon HERE
The East Anglia Chamber Orchestra is delighted to return to the West Road Concert Hall in Cambridge and the Apex in Bury St Edmunds with another exciting, romantic, and demanding programme.
Under the baton of Jacques Cohen, the concert will begin with Wagner’s Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Setting the scene of the famous guild’s singing contest and the triumph of true art, the prelude is both pompous and joyous.
The orchestra is then joined by the fabulous Siv Misund: the Norwegian mezzo-soprano whose voice has been described as “heartbreakingly beautiful.” She will bring her warm and luscious timbre to the performance of Elgar’s Sea Pictures. This setting of five poems, written for the Norwich Festival and premiered there in 1899, portrays both the fear and fascination created by the deep.
His Fourth Symphony was Brahms’ last and arguably greatest symphonic masterpiece. Eduard Hanslick described it as “like a dark well; the longer we gaze into it, the more brightly the stars shine back.” Resolutely in E minor, the symphony is a veritable tour de force and both intellectually and emotionally satisfying.
Do join us for a wonderful evening of marvellous music-making!
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Siv Misund : Mezzo Soprano
Praised for her warm, luscious timbre, seamless technique and captivating stage presence, Norwegian mezzo soprano Siv Misund is one to watch of the new generation of dramatic voices emerging from the Nordic
countries. Her voice is reminiscent of the golden era of opera.
Recent and forthcoming engagements include finalist in the Concourse des Voix d’Opera d’Afrique in Paris,
Kommandant C in Bertil Palmar Johansen's Cella Mi for Opera Trøndelag, Mary in Wagner's Der Fliegende
Holländer at Opera Østfold, Azucena in Verdi's Il Trovatore for Opera Kristiansund in Norway, and Ulrica in Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera for Opera På Skäret in Sweden.
Siv made her debut as Amneris in Verdi’s Aida in August 2019 with Oscarsborg Operaen in Norway. Other recent role debuts include Eboli in Verdi’s Don Carlo, with Fulham Opera and Azucena in Verdi’s Il Trovatore, with Winslow Hall Opera (England), both earning her rave reviews from audience and critics alike. She also earned great acclaim for her debut as Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana with Ringsaker Operaen (NO).
A critic wrote; “Her voice soaring through the chorus and orchestra was so heartbreakingly beautiful as to be almost unbearable.”
In 2017 she placed second in The Fulham Opera Robert Presley Memorial Verdi Prize. Other engagements that year includes a gripping performance of the title role in The Rape of Lucretia at the Norwegian National Opera, Dryade in the North Norwegian Opera’s star-studded production of Ariadne auf Naxos, and 3rd lady in a modernist production of Die Zauberflöte with Opera Trøndelag. Other roles include Ulrica Un ballo in Maschera, Dinah Trouble in Tahiti, Flosshilde Das Rheingold, Zita Gianni Schicchi, Frugola Il Tabarro, Zia Principessa Suor Angelica, and Die
Knusperhäxe Hänsel und Gretel. Siv has worked with Bergen National Opera, North Norwegian Opera and Symphony Orchestra (NOSO), Oslo Opera Festival and Live Opera in Oslo, and many more.
Siv is also an avid concert singer and enjoys programming new art song repertoire in her recitals. She sang in “Hidden Too Long: Black Women in Song” at London’s Steinway Hall in 2017. This collaboration connected her with Nadine Benjamin, Allyson Devenish, Errollyn Wallen and Michael Harper to rediscover Afro British and Afro American female composers.
She completed The Norwegian Academy of Music MFA degree in 2007, and won the Ellen Kirby Smith Rice Scholarship to Princeton’s CoOPERAtive program in 2010. In 2011 Misund won the KammerOper Schloss Rheinsberg prize, and this earned her the role of Nutrice in L’incoronatione de Poppea which was well received.
She trains with renowned Verdi mezzo Dolora Zajick, London-based voice teacher Michael Harper and vocal coach John Lidal in Oslo. She has also worked with prominent professionals such as Fiorenza Cossotto, Trish MacCaffrey, Laura Brooks Rice, Anthony Manoly and Kamal Kahn.
Jacques Cohen : Conductor
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Jacques is equally known as conductor and composer.
Widely regarded as a musician’s conductor, he is Music Director of the Cohen Ensemble (formerly Isis Ensemble) and has conducted concerts and broadcasts with such groups as Kremerata Baltica, National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Sofia Soloists, BBC Concert Orchestra, Albania Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, and Bucharest Philharmonic. In addition to professional orchestras Jacques loves working with young musicians, having conducted concerts with many of Europe’s top youth orchestras. He has conducted at the UK’s leading conservatoires where he has also given master classes and composition seminars, and is Principal Conductor of the Royal College of Music Junior Department Symphony Orchestra.
He has worked with many choral groups such as Oxford Camerata, The Shout and Lloyd’s Choir for whom he is Music Director. He has been Music Director on several opera productions with a variety of companies, and is a passionate communicator, especially renowned for his unique ability to engage audiences in concerts.
Jacques’ compositions and arrangements, published by Norsk Musikforlag, include music for choir, orchestra, chamber works and opera. Commissions include pieces for Dame Evelyn Glennie (Firefly), Onyx Brass (Concertino), Piatti Quartet, (From Behind Glass), Fitzwilliam Quartet (Nun danket alle Gott), National Youth Wind Ensemble (Pantheon), Tête-à-tête opera (The Lady of Satis House) and Lloyd’s Choir (The Denial of St Peter). His string orchestra arrangements, particularly that of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, are fast becoming staples of the repertoire.
His large-scale oratorio, Creation, was greeted with a momentous reception in the Barbican in 2023 as the centrepiece of the Lloyd’s Choir centenary, and a CD comprising his chamber opera and other works for string quartet (Tippett Quartet/Meridian) released last year met with uniformly excellent reviews. He has just recently recorded his song cycle Love Journeys with the Cohen Ensemble and soprano Susanna Davis.
Jacques read music at Oxford where he conducted the university orchestras and performed his own compositions. He was awarded the Conducting Scholarship at the Royal College of Music where prizes included the August Manns Conducting Prize, Constant Lambert Award, Janet Blacklock Choral Conducting Award and Tagore Gold Medal, the college’s award for its most outstanding student.
He went on to work with such groups as Bombay Chamber Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra (Assistant Conductor). In addition to numerous awards for composition, Jacques took First Prize in the NAYO British Reserve Conducting Competition and was also a Prize-winner in the Leeds Conductors’ Competition.
