Jocelyn Freeman

pianist & conductor

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

About

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.

Projects & Recordings

Flax & Fire: Songs of Devotion, Lieder, Orchid Classics
A disc of songs by Britten, Wolf, Liszt, Schumann and Denis Browne.
Flax & Fire is a recital of songs centred around devotion and passion, with the title inspired by a line from Britten’s Canticle 1, “For I was flax and he was flames of fire”. All the songs encompass a profound feeling of love. In many songs this essence is so intense that it leads to transformation or idolisation, or the infatuation is so strong that we might question the perspective of the object of these affections.
With tenor Stuart Jackson.

“...and along with Freeman the two bring out the remarkable modernity of Wolf's writing… a highly satisfying [programme]” - Robert Hugill

Flax & Fire: Songs of Devotion2020

The Isolated Pianist
As the pandemic stuck in March 2020 I searched for a way to maintain artistic momentum on Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin from lockdown, as I had been preparing to perform it in April. Creating a Patreon account, I shared solo piano video-recordings of songs from this cycle, specifically Liszt’s Müllerlieder. On completion of this set, I began a new musical journey focussing on Thomas Tomkins and Morfydd Llwyn Owen, inspired by the sense of longing I feel for West Wales, known as ‘hiraeth’ in Welsh.

The Isolated Pianist2020

Song Lied Cân, Ty Cerdd Records
A disc of songs by Clara Schumann and Rhian Samuel, Ty Cerdd Records. This collection presents vocal works of the 2019 anniversary composers Rhian Samuel (born 1944) and Clara Schumann (born 1819), two women who play or have played an important role in the development of song during their lifetimes, and displays the beauty, optimism and integrity of their musical languages. The programme juxtaposes brilliant classical mastery and vibrant word setting by Clara Schumann against more angular and dramatic boldness from Rhian Samuel.
With soprano Katherine Dain and bass-baritone Paul Carey Jones.

“Quietly impressive work” - Fiona Maddocks, The Observer

Song Lied Cân2019

Dilys: A Master of Miniature - recital programme performed in the 2018 Machynlleth Festival. After recording ‘Mae hireath yn y môr’ I was inspired to create a varied Lieder programme featuring the works of Dilys Elwyn Edwards alongside composers who inspired her. Her mastery of miniature form and sensitivity to text is remarkable in both Welsh and English song, and she exhibits musical influences as diverse as Schubert, Schumann, Debussy, Delius, Warlock and Howells. Works by Claude Debussy, Dilys Elwyn Edwards, Edvard Grieg, Michael Head, Herbert Howells, Felix Mendelssohn and Charles Hubert Hastings Parry.

Dilys: A Master of Miniature2018

The Poet’s Echo
A recital and recording project of works by Britten, Prokofiev and Shostakovich Not only does The Poet’s Echo present a pioneering new arrangement of Britten’s cycle by the same name but it is also steeped in the milieu of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Moscow: the culture of censorship; the fear artists experienced; and the solace of friendship. Inspired by the poetry of Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837), the project features three composers who enjoyed a significant link with Mstislav Rostropovich and his wife, Galina Vishnevskaya, for whom the original Britten cycle was written during a visit to a composers’ retreat in Armenia.
With baritone Gareth Brynmor John, soprano Gemma Summerfield and cellist Abi Hyde-Smith.

The Poet’s Echo2020

Mae hiraeth yn y mor, Ty Cerdd Records
A disc of songs by Dilys Elwyn Edwards This project holds very fond memories for me: It was significant, not only because it formative for my duo with Elin Manahan Thomas, but it also coincided with the centenary suffragette movement and one hundred years since the birth of one of Wales’ leading composers, Dilys Elwyn Edwards. I am incredibly grateful for Elin who took me on this wonderful journey of discovery through this music, and I am delighted that we could record this première disc of her songs.

Mae hiraeth yn y mor2018

Christmas Carol Service celebrating Women Composers
For this Carol Service at St Laurence Church, Catford I choose to programme choral works solely by female composers. The choir embraced the challenge of learning a whole new programme, and I was delighted to bring this music into greater public awareness. Two of our composers attended, and the featured works were Dilys Elwyn Edwards’ Ivy Carol, Joanna Gill’s Evening Snow, Sarah MacDonald’s O Come, O Come Emmanuel, Rhian Samuel’s What Cheer! and Mairead Sheerin’s Nóiméad.

Christmas Carol Service celebrating Women Composers2018

Night & Novelties: A Piano Recital, Kissan Records
A disc of solo piano music My debut CD includes a combination of charming, lesser-known repertoire alongside some well-loved nocturnal classics. Poulenc’s Novelettes fall into the category with their subtlety and nuance, as does Debussy’s Pour le Piano: the Sarabande was one of his earlier piano works and evokes plainchant and medieval modality. The virtuosity of its outer movements is matched in Liszt’s arrangements of Schumann Lieder. The recital opens with Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight’ Sonata and concludes with Satie’s tenebrous Gymnopedie No. 1.

Night & Novelties: A Piano Recital2012

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… ever-sensitive… exemplary, whether taking the lead or in discreet support.

Richard Wigmore, Gramophone

SongEasel

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.

From Russia With Love 2019

The inaugural SongEasel recital series, From Russia with Love, featured Russian repertoire in programmes that explored the cultural and political links between the former Soviet Union and Europe.

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Wanderlust

The Wanderlust Series 2020

The Wanderlust Series presented songs celebrating both the rewards of roaming in nature and the earnest world of inner, conflicting personal journeys.

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Café Chanson 2021

Our 2021 mini series celebrated the musical cafe culture of nineteenth-century Paris through song, featuring two 2021 centenary composers: Pauline Viardot and Camille Saint-Saëns.

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SongEasel Young Artists

We have now expanded our programme to include three different opportunities for young song duos.

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Icons & Legends 2022

Our 2022 series, Icons & Legends celebrates a notorious dinner meeting in Paris in May 1922, including Proust, Joyce, Picasso, Stravinsky and Diaghilev.

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Friends of SongEasel

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.

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Media

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Schedule

12noon, 19th June 2022

St Laurence Church

Catford SE6 2TS

1pm, 29th July 2022

Holy Trinity Church

Hereford

7pm, 6th August 2022

University Church of St Mary

Oxford

7pm, 17th August 2022

University Church of St Mary

Oxford

7.30pm, 22nd August 2022

Rhosygilwen, Pembrokeshire

7.30pm, 16th September 2022

St Thomas’s Church

Penkhull ST4 5DW

...with heavy, sooty piano chords, deftly shaded by Freeman, fading to a hushed end.

Fiona Maddocks, The Observer

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