Lesley-Jane Rogers, Lenard Whiting, Martin Elliott and Valentina Seferinova from Wren Music Will Join Meridian Music in Concert

Heralded as one of the most versatile soloists of today, soprano Lesley-Jane Rogers is renowned for her captivating and evocative performances. An established concert soloist, she specialises in oratorio, “vocal concertos”, solo cantatas, recitals and contemporary music, and is praised for her sensitivity and thoughtful interpretation.

Lenard Whiting was born in Kenora, Ontario, and educated at the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto. He is an alumnus of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble and the Univeristy of Toronto Opera Division. As well, he had the honour of working with famed Canadian tenor Leopold Simoneau in the summer program Opera Piccola in Victoria, BC. Mr Whiting also spent two summers studying in the opera program at the Banff School of Arts.

He lives in Toronto where he is also active as a conductor and music educator He has been on staff as an instructor at University of Toronto, Scarborough College for a number years where he leads a number of choral ensembles and teaches music theory and appreciation. He has also been a choral and vocal instructor at Redeemer College in Ancaster, Ontario. For a number of years, he acted as assistant conductor for The Toronto Welsh Male Voice Choir.

Needing little introduction to Selsey audiences as founder of its newly-formed chamber choir, co-leader of the Selsey Gramophone Society and music director of the town's Jubilee contribution "Shifting Shingle". Martin Elliott has had a long and varied career in the professional world of singing.

Award winning pianist Valentina Seferinova, hailed as a talented child prodigy, gave her first public performance at the age of eight; and her first performance as a soloist with orchestra when twelve years old, performing Haydn’s D Major Concerto with her hometown orchestra, the Vidin Philharmonic. She studied under Professor Dr Lubomir Dinolov at the Bulgarian State Conservatory in Sofia, later becoming Assistant Professor of Performance there at the age of only twenty-seven.

A frequent performer on Bulgarian National Radio and Television, her reputation for the interpretation of works by Romantic era composers soon spread outside Bulgaria and led to the rare honour of being invited by the Trustees of the Claude Debussy House & Museum, St. Germain-en-Laye, Paris, together with fellow pianist Emilia Mihaylova, to give the annual Anniversary Recital in the auditorium, previously the composer’s bedroom.  This was quickly followed by an invitation to give a private solo performance for the AGM of the International Rachmaninov Society, whose President at the time was the Russian maestro, Vladimir Ashkenazy.   Valentina was subsequently invited to give three further recitals for the Society (1999, 2005, and 2009) – including one in London in the presence of two of the composer’s great grandchildren, which earned her a standing ovation.

Her career continued with performances across Europe including Russia, Poland, Ukraine, France, the UK and Turkey. Valentina quickly garnered a reputation not only for the ‘classics’, but for championing those ‘long lost’ composers whose works she felt had been unjustly ignored.Such an interest and reputation resulted in recording contracts with a number of European record companies, chief amongst these being the Polish label Acte Préalable with whom she has recorded five CDs comprising music by Zygmunt Noskowski and the complete extant solo piano music of Ludomir Róźycki.

Her most recent recording project was as a soloist of the Ukrainian Festival Orchestra under Grammy winning conductor John McLaughlin Williams, performing two concertos for piano by the young award winning French composer, Corentin Boissier. This CD was issued by the Toccata label. An even more recent agreement will see her in a Warsaw recording studio next April.

She now lives in the UK where, among her many teaching responsibilities, she is a Lecturer in the Music Faculty of Southampton University.

Valentina currently has a busy schedule of teaching and performances, together with raising a family with her British husband in Hampshire, UK, where any other free time is spent dog walking.

More information can be found at www.ValentinaSeferinova.com and some of her performances from the last 20 years may be viewed on her YouTube channel.

Be sure to join us on Friday 17th January 2025 at 7.30 pm at Edes House in Chichester for a celebration of music featuring the above internationally acclaimed soloists, joined by Meridian Music. More information will be available in due course.