The Romantic Tenor: A Salon Concert

Renowned musicians Alessandro Cortello and Ralph Woodward come together to bring us an afternoon of music for Tenor voice and Piano from the Romantic era, featuring pieces by Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini, Gounod and Wagner.

Alessandro Cortello is a professional Italian tenor and pianist who trained with Alfredo Mariotti, Claude Thiolas and Luciana D'Intino.  He won two editions of the Seghizzi Singing Competition in Gorizia, in 2005 and in 2007. As an opera singer, he has performed many roles in operas by Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini and Offenbach. His large repertoire includes chamber works such as Schubert's and Schumann's Lieder cycles; works by Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Liszt, Mahler, Strauss, Berg, Fauré, Duparc, Ravel, Poulenc, Rachmaninov, Britten, Copland; and Sacred Music such as Requiem by Mozart, Liszt, Dvořak and Verdi, Haydn's Missa in Tempore Belli, Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle and Orff's Carmina Burana. He's worked with many big names, including conductor Zubin Mehta and tenor Placido Domingo.

Ralph Woodward grew up in Durham, and studied Music as Organ Scholar at Queens’ College, Cambridge. He is now Musical Director of the Fairhaven Singers, Full Score and Orchestral Score. 

He has played concertos on three instruments, worked in 20 Cambridge College Chapels, 20 UK cathedrals, six US states, and over 25 countries, and conducted the London Mozart Players, City of London Sinfonia, The Parley of Instruments, English Chamber Orchestra, and Britten Sinfonia. 

He carries out a wide range of editorial tasks for Oxford University Press and a number of the country’s leading composers. His choral arrangements have been performed all round Europe and on Radio 4’s PM programme.

Past projects have included work with Vladimir Ashkenazy, Emma Johnson, Iestyn Davies and Cradle of Filth, and an appearance on ITV’s Grantchester. 

In addition to his musical interests, Ralph manages a cricket team, plays badminton enthusiastically, gives presentations on the assassination of JFK, and spends as much time as possible eating and drinking in foreign countries.