Julia works behind the scenes at Westminster Abbey as a PA. Outside of her job, she sings with a variety of ensembles in London and further afield, and undertakes freelance editorial and writing projects – from concert programmes to tasting notes.
The Philharmonia Orchestra's Paris: City of Light 1900–1950 reaches its climax, where Debussy and Messiaen combine for a radiant, dazzling programme. Pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard crowns an emotionally intense Turangalîla-symphonie.
Julia Savage reviews The Sound of Chaplin at the Barbican (BBC Symphony Orchestra, Timothy Brock). New and original scores accompanied screenings of four Chaplin films, adding extra comic value to these already funny farces.
The enthusiasm with which Laura Mvula had promoted her Late Night Prom on the radio, in the press and on Twitter in the preceding few days was tangible the minute she walked on stage at the Royal Albert Hall, resplendent in a black gown with silver embellishments.
Steve Reich's 'opus number one', It's Gonna Rain, for magnetic tape, and The Desert Music for chamber ensemble and singers, came together for this Late Night Prom. Both pieces were almost hypnotic, and made for a very intense, but highly satisfying musical experience.
This Late Night Prom put together a Battle of the Bands between two groups of musicains to represent the bands of Count Basie and Duke Ellington. Basie's and Ellington's bands never in fact battled it out in real life, so this showcased what might have been.
Prom 23 contained a mixed programme of McLeod, Beethoven and Mozart. Whilst each piece was enjoyable in its own right, and some truly outstanding musicianship was evident throughout the evening, the lack of connection between the pieces left a feeling of unsettledness.
The John Wilson Orchestra has rapidly established itself as a Proms highlight. Following on from a standout My Fair Lady in 2012, this year's Kiss Me, Kate showed the Orchestra at its very best, with an equally fabulous cast and crew.
For the first time in the Proms' history, the programme for the first of this season's Late Nights included the premiere of A Man from the Future, a groundbreaking new piece about codebreaker Alan Turing.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra's current season is dedicated to performances of works for which its conductor, Charles Dutoit, has received critical acclaim in interpreting. This all-French programme of three very different works by Ravel, Berlioz and Saint-Saens continued the season in style.
This Southbank Centre concert of five of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's symphonies, alongside his Concerto in E flat for Harpsichord and Fortepiano showed just how much of a revolutionary this oft-overlooked composer was. The OAE were conducted by Rebecca Miller.
J S Bach's opus ultimum, the Mass in B Minor, was also the opus ultimum of the year-long Bach Unwrapped series at Kings Place. Unfortunately, it proved not to be the crowning glory it might have been.
To describe this revival of Puccini's much-loved Madam Butterfly as a visual spectacle would be to do it a disservice. Originally directed by Anthony Minghella in its first outing in 2005, it is one of ENO's greatest success stories.
A combination of Russian and English masterpieces formed the fourth concert of the London Symphony Orchestra’s 110th season. Three of the pieces were written and/or performed during the Second World War, whilst the remaining piece – Prokofiev’s magnificent Piano Concerto no.
The Last Night of the Proms provided a welcome tying-up of the various strands that have permeated this year’s season: British light music, the 60th anniversary of the Coronation, a host of premières and new BBC commissions, and the significant anniversaries of a number of composers (including the big-hitters of the season, Wagner and Britten).
In conversation with Petroc Trelawny at the fourth of the Proms Chamber Music concerts, the 25-year-old Norwegian trumpeter Tine Ting Helseth casually dismissed her ten-piece brass ensemble tenThing’s all-female set-up as “just a gimmick”.
Hot on the heels of this year’s Hollywood Rhapsody Prom came its less glamorous, perhaps geekier sibling, the Film Music Prom. There was less of the fanfare and opulence here; this was about the silver screen (and by that, I don’t mean the sort that is coming back into use for 3D films) and sci-fi.
Hot on the heels of the Urban Classic Prom came this, the BBC 6 Music Prom. Yet another first in this year’s Proms saw BBC Radios 3 and 6 Music bring together the likes of Cerys Matthews, Laura Marling, Xenakis, The Stranglers, Varèse and the London Sinfonietta, and produce a programme comprising styles that might loosely be described as “alternative”, from the fringes of pop to punk rock via mode
