David Watkins "effortless mastery ... totally spellbinding"
Michael Bochmann "exquisitely lyrical tone"
Jane Leslie MacKenzie "a beautifully drawn Elvira exquisitely sung"

David and Michael often collaborate with Jane in varied concert programmes. David as accompanist in song and lieder recitals, and with Michael in programmes of Opera Arias. Their Purcell and Mozart opera evenings have been enthusiastically received. Jane has sung with the English National Opera, Opera North, the Scottish Opera and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. She also sang the part of the Countess in Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro” in a recent television production.

The music playing is Grüber's Stille Nacht from the CD The Triumph of Time, Part 2

 

Sample Programme
Finchcocks Musical Museum - Midsummer Music 2009 Sunday 21st June 2009 Jane Leslie McKenzie (soprano) David Watkins (single-action harp) Michael Bochmann (violin)
A. Vivaldi	Sonata in C for Violin and Harp Allegro non molto-Larghetto-Allegro
A. Stradella	Pieta Signore
H. Purcell	Queen Dido's Lament
W.Croft	Sarabande and Ground for harp solo
J.Parry	Sonata in D (Allegro) for harp solo
J.S.Bach	Sonata in C for solo violin Largo-Allegro
G.F.Handel	Lascia ch'io pianga Where e'er you walk
INTERVAL
J.S.Bach	Sonata in C for violin and harp Andante-Presto-Siciliano-Allegro
C.W.Gluck	O Del Mio Dolce Arnot
G.Paisiello	Nel Corpiu non mi sento
G.Tartini	Sonata for solo violin
J.B.Mayer	Mozart Variations for harp solo
P.J.Meyer	Two Opera Arias: Dors mon Enfant L'Inconstante
C.F.Abel	Sonata for violin and harp  Allegro - Rondeau
W.A.Mozart	Als Luise - Abendempfindung Voi Che Sapete

Jane Leslie MacKenzie was born in British Columbia, Canada and following a degree in music from the University of Victoria where she studied with the Canadian recitalist Frances James Adaskin, came to London to continue her vocal studies. As part of her studies, she attended the Britten Pears School in Aldeburgh, attending masterclasses given by Sir Peter Pears, Nancy Evans, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Galina Vishnevskaya and consequently performed at the Aldeburgh Festival performing with the Britten Pears Orchestra. She made her operatic debut with Kent Opera as Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) and since then has performed with most of the major British opera companies. With English National Opera she has sung the Countess (Le Nozze di Figaro) and Marzelline (Fidelio); with Opera North, Pamina (Die Zauberflö te), Anne Truelove (The Rake's Progress), Marzelline, Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice), Fiordiligi (Così fan Tutte) , Mimì (La Bohè me) and Donna Elvira; with Scottish Opera, Micaë la (Carmen), Pamina and the Countess, with Welsh National Opera, Mimi and with the City of Birmingham Touring Opera (now the Birmingham Opera Company) the title role in Zaï de, Margué rite (Faust) and the acclaimed production of Fidelio which was televised live for BBC4 and won Graham Vick the Southbank Show Award in 2003.

In 1994, she made her Covent Garden debut as the Countess in Massenet's Cherubin , a role she later performed with the Opera de Monte Carlo. Other performances abroad both in opera, concert and recital include Pamina in Edmonton, Winnipeg and Vancouver, Micaë la in Edmonton, the Governess (the Turn of the Screw), Dafne (Apollo e Dafne) in Batignano, First Lady (Die Zauberflö te) in Geneva, Margué rite and Alice Ford (Falstaff) for the New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv. She and David have done several recitals together including a private recital in the presence of HRH The Prince of Wales at Gwydir Castle in Wales in 1998.

Miss MacKenzie now lives in Kent with her husband, two children and an odd assortment of livestock and bees!

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“A beautifully drawn Elvira exquisitely sung by Jane Leslie MacKenzie”

Sunday Times

“Jane Leslie MacKenzie's Micaëla was beautifully sung”
Financial Times

“In Jane Leslie MacKenzie, Scottish Opera has a micaëla of integrity in both personality and vocal line”
The Arts Guardian

“Best of all is MacKenzie's mimi, no simpering waif but a determined woman with a firm true voice and plenty of stage presence ”

The Independent

Brought up in Turkey and England, Michael Bochmann has been well known in British musical life for several decades. He has performed in the USA, all over Europe and in India. As a student he was a prize-winner in the 1972 Carl Flesch International Violin Competition and the Jacques Thibaud Competition in Paris. He studied with Frederick Grinke in London and also received lessons from Sándor Végh and Henryk Szeryng. At 19, he made his first solo broadcasts for the BBC.

He formed the Bochmann Quartet in 1977 with which he made over 50 broadcasts and TV appearances within in the first 10 years. The quartet has recorded on Pickwick, Redcliffe, Disc D'Or, Metier, Naxos and Chandos labels. In February 1990 he partnered Sir Yehudi Menuhin in the Bach Double Violin Concerto on a 16-concert tour of the USA and Canada.

He frequently directs the English String Orchestra and has performed as soloist with them many times in the UK and abroad. His recording with ESO of The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams has been broadcast many times on Radio 3 and Classic FM.

He visits Germany regularly to perform and teach and for the last ten years has directed the Klanglust Kammerorchester in Fürth.

 

In the present period he is also performing and teaching in Mexico, South Africa, Spain, France, Portugal, Italy and Serbia.

From a recent review:

Concert at Hellens Manor, Herefordshire
Michael Bochmann (violin), David Watkins (harp) and Jane Leslie Mackenzie (Soprano).

"These days, in recitals, soloists don't have accompanists they have collaborative artists".
But when did you last see either an accompanist or a collaborative artist, in the middle of a group of Mozart songs, jump from his stool and plant an impulsive kiss on the cheek of the singer? Especially when the singer's Covent Garden debut had been as the Countess (all right not Mozart's but Massenet's but never mind- she's sung that role too.)

Her musical collaborator here was once Principal Harpist at Covent Garden, in the glory days of Callas and Schwarzkopf, Fonteyn and Nuryer. Perhaps he found the words of Mozart's "To Chloe" just too apt- "When love shines from your bright blue eyes, I just have to clasp you to my breast". And who could blame him? Clearly the passing of the years has not impaired his responses to music or to beauty. To all of which Jane Mackenzie brought womderful purity of tone and unfaltering phrasing and sensitivity.

Supremely satisfying was the interaction of the artists. True chamber music is for the players-and none would know that better than Bochmann as leader of a string Quartet. The audience is there as eavesdroppers. And special pleasure of this recital lay in the way the artists performed for us but also for each other.  

Peter Williams 
Hereford Times 10 April 2008

David Watkins

Michael Bochmann (opens in new window)