
SongEasel Young Artists
We have now expanded our programme to include three different opportunities for young song duos.
Freeman brings a full range of colours to her touch, as well as a sensitive response to harmony and terrific control of texture.
Natasha Loges, BBC Music Magazine
The award-winning Welsh collaborative pianist and conductor Jocelyn Freeman is lauded for her artistry, programming and powers of communication. She is an advocate for diversity in a range of artistic endeavours, and a skilled communicator on the concert platform, and in broadcast, recording and social media. Founder-director and curator of SongEasel, an initiative established to provide a platform for song in South East London, Jocelyn has curated extensive concert and recording projects to wide critical acclaim.
Jocelyn’s engagements have taken her to four continents including broadcasts in the UK and Germany; performances in the Wigmore Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre and the Sage, Gateshead; and awards from Internationale Hugo-Wolf-Academie, International Marlow Concerto Competition and Snape Maltings. Notable collaborations feature Jamal Aliyev, Fleur Barron, the Broomwood Ensemble, Stuart Jackson, Gareth Brynmor John, the Lakewood Sinfonia, Stephan Loges, Joseph Shiner, Elin Manahan Thomas and Julien Van Mellaerts.
A prize-winning graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, Jocelyn’s repertoire champions standard song and concerto repertoire alongside lesser-known and contemporary composers. Her discography comprises releases with Kissan Records, Ty Cerdd and Orchid Classics.
Jocelyn is grateful for the support of the Carne Trust, Victor Wood, the Oleg Prokofiev Trust, the Nicholas Boas Foundation and Arts Council England.
… ever-sensitive… exemplary, whether taking the lead or in discreet support.
Richard Wigmore, Gramophone
SongEasel was established in 2018 to fill South East London with song. With threefold-aims to provide a platform for outstanding singers in the area; to bring new repertoire to established audiences; and to introduce standard repertoire to new audiences. Each series holds diversity and inclusivity at the heart of its mission, in harmony with showcasing exceptional musical quality at an international standard.
Our 2022 series Icons & Legends celebrates a notorious dinner meeting in Paris in May 1922 that included Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Pablo Picasso, Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Diaghilev. Six song recitals in St Laurence Church Catford and Blackheath Halls pay homage to the meeting of minds of these creative luminaries.
SongEasel would like to extend its deepest gratitude to the Arts Council England, Blackheath Halls, the Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust, the Friends of SongEasel, the Church of St Laurence Catfor, The Leche Trust and the Oleg Prokofiev Trust.
We have now expanded our programme to include three different opportunities for young song duos.
Our 2022 series, Icons & Legends celebrates a notorious dinner meeting in Paris in May 1922, including Proust, Joyce, Picasso, Stravinsky and Diaghilev.
Join our family of Friends and share our journey of song! We rely on the support of our Friends: without this amazing generosity, our work simply would not be possible.
Baritone Julien Van Mellaerts and I take an eclectic programme of song to Penkhull Festival of Music and Art, including works by Brahms, Sibelius, Butterworth and Ravel.
7.30pm, 16th September 2022
St Thomas’s Church
Penkhull ST4 5DW
Postponed from June 2022, I perform a recital of chamber music and song with Gemma Summerfield, Gareth Brynmor John and Abi Hyde-Smith, including the world-premiere of our arrangement of Britten's The Poet's Echo.
7.30pm, 24th October 2022
Blackheath Halls
London SE3 9RQ
I return to Oxford Lieder Festival for a recital of Britten, Schubert, Amy Beach and Julian Philips with Stuart Jackson (tenor) and George Strivens (horn).
5pm, 25th October 2022
Holywell Music Room
Oxford OX1 3BN
Stuart Jackson and I perform a varied Lieder recital including works by Mahler, Brahms, Purcell/Britten and Amy Beach.
7.30pm, 31st October 2022
The Oriental Club
London W1C 1ES
In recital with Ailish Tynan, I perform a recital celebrating the legendary creative exchanges at a notorious Parisian dinner meeting, the inspiration point of this year's SongEasel series.
7.30pm, 29th November 2022
Menuhin Hall
Surrey, KT11 3QQ
Iconic Austrian baritone Florian Boesch and I perform a special recital for SongEasel in Dulwich, including Lieder and Ballades by Loewe and Schubert, and the Heine Schwanengesang settings.
6.45pm, 13th December 2022
Old Library, Dulwich College
London SE21
...with heavy, sooty piano chords, deftly shaded by Freeman, fading to a hushed end.
Fiona Maddocks, The Observer
Sign up for the newsletter to find out the latest about Jocelyn and SongEasel.
Read our Privacy Policy.