Charles Cunliffe joined the Musicians' Company Young Artists' Programme after winning our Silver Medal at the #RoyalAcademyofMusic in 2019. Here he performs Die Mainacht by Brahms, Sorge infausta una procella from Handel’s Orlando and Loveliest of Trees from Butterworth’s 6 songs from a Shropshire Lad. Charles says: "Over the last year, I believe that a great deal of the population have become reconnected with nature. Whether using their allotted exercise time, or meeting a friend (socially distanced of course) during lockdown, I believe we have learnt to treasure the time we have outside. I selected and recorded my programme after thinking about what repertoire could describe multiple emotions whilst still being connected to nature. My first piece is Die Mainacht by Brahms. The text is written by Hölty and describes a moonlit, slumbering night. This reminds the poet of a lost love, and a single tear seems to run down his face (...die einsame Träne rinnt). My second piece is Sorge infausta una procella from Handel’s Orlando, which describes an incoming storm. My third is Loveliest of Trees from Butterworth’s 6 songs from a Shropshire Lad, with text by A E Housman, who writes about how we should make the most of the time we have on this earth, and to enjoy all that Spring and nature has to offer. My final piece is The Mouse and the Bumblebee by Richard Rodney Bennet from his Songs Before Sleep, in which animals seem to take on personality! My name is Charles Cunliffe, and I currently study at the Royal Academy of Music with Giles Underwood and Joseph Middleton. At the moment, I am midway through my first year as an MA student. In my final year as an undergraduate I was put forward to receive the Company of Musicians Silver Medal for outstanding studentship at the RAM. I started singing at the age of eight, when I joined Peterborough Cathedral Choir, and continued to become a choral scholar for two years before joining the RAM as an undergraduate." -------------------------------------------------- Musicians' Company Profile - http://www.wcom.org.uk/yeoman/charles-cunliffe About our Silver Medals - http://www.wcomarchive.org.uk/--ramrcmgsmd-silvers Charles' Twitter - http://twitter.com/CharlesCunliffe Charles' Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/charlescunliffe -------------------------------------------------- Join our weekly #MiddayMusic e-news at http://eepurl.com/dv0ccr #MiddayMusic is supported by generous donations from the public, along with funds from the Musicians' Company’s Prince’s Prize which received a generous endowment in 2015 from The Eranda Rothschild Foundation and Rothschilds Bank, in memory of Leopold de Rothschild, a Liveryman of the Musicians’ Company for over 50 years. Donate to support The Musicians' Company Young Artists - http://www.justgiving.com/musicianscompanyfund