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Our Patrons
W11 Opera is proud to acknowledge the support given to us by our patrons.
Lady Valerie Solti
As Valerie Pitts, Lady Solti enjoyed a high-flying television career in the 1960s. Her work ranged from arts reporting to presenting BBC’s Playschool. In 1967 she married the legendary conductor Sir Georg Solti and gave up her work to support him and bring up their two daughters, Claudia and Gabrielle, both of whom appeared in W11 Opera productions in the early 80s.
Valerie Solti has held, and continues to hold, numerous voluntary posts within the cultural world. Since her husband’s death in 1997 Lady Solti carries on his work in many areas and is particularly committed to the support of young musicians. Having played a key role in the inception of the World Orchestra for Peace (the unique orchestra first assembled by Sir Georg Solti for the UN's 50th anniversary), she still serves as its Patron. Together with her daughters, Valerie Solti created the Solti Foundation to assist young professional musicians at the start of their careers.
Lady Solti and her husband were both staunch supporters of W11 Opera in the 80s. Click here to read a letter from Sir Georg which appeared in the 1983 programme and W11 Opera is most grateful for Lady Solti’s continued support to this day. Follow this link to read her forward to the 2001 programme.
“Bravo W11 Opera... for everything you have done to introduce young children to the joys of making music together. Music is so important in children’s lives.”
Nicholas Kraemer
Nicholas Kraemer co-founded W11 Opera with Serena Hughes in 1971 when Britten’s Noye’s Fludde was presented in St.James’s Church in W11. He went on to conduct every performance of the company during its first eighteen years, and was also responsible for commissioning the operas during that period thus building the foundation of W11’s now substantial repertoire.
At the time, Nicholas was principally a harpsichordist with ensembles such as the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields and the Monteverdi Orchestra. From 1975 he began to conduct the English Chamber Orchestra with whom he had an association until 1984, and from 1982 the Manchester Camerata with whom he is still principal guest conductor. Subsequently he has been closely associated with numerous orchestras around the world.
“W11 Opera has been an unforgettable experience for me: I was working with children who wanted to be there because it was a neighbourhood project, also I was working with composers on new pieces, always an exciting prospect, and it lasted 18 years!”
For more of Nicholas Kraemer’s reminiscences, click .
Eve Best
Eve Best’s first stage role was that of a sheep in the 1980 W11 Opera production of Mak the Sheep Stealer! She appeared in three further productions and was later to return to W11 in the early 90s as Stage Director for Traveller’s Tale, Antiphony and The Dancing Princesses.
After studying English at Oxford she went on to RADA before commencing her successful stage career. In 1999 her performance in ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore at the Young Vic Theatre won both the Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle Awards for Best newcomer.
In 2005 Eve starred in Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler at the Almeida and Duke of York’s theatres. She won both the prestigious Olivier Award and the Critics Circle Best Actress Award for her performance in the leading role.
Eve’s earlier theatre work includes Howard Davies' production at the National Theatre of Mourning Becomes Electra, for which she also won the Critics Circle Best Actress Award. Amongst her many other stage roles she has starred in the National’s The Coast of Utopia, The Cherry Orchard and as Masha in Katie Mitchell’s production of The Three Sisters. Eve Best is currently starring opposite Kevin Spacey on Broadway in the Old Vic's much acclaimed revival of Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten.
“I think every child should have the opportunity to do something like W11 Opera. It makes a major difference not just to anyone thinking of a stage career but to your whole life.”
At the age of thirteen Sophie first performed with W11 Opera. Two years later she was back to star as Gaston in the 1994 production of Antiphony which, coincidentally, was directed by another W11 Opera patron, Eve Best. Within three years she was already enjoying chart success as lead vocalist with the indie band theaudience. By 2000 she was a solo artist and recorded several hit records including the No 1 Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) and the even more popular solo Murder on the Dancefloor which stayed in the charts for 23 weeks.
Sophie took a break from the music industry after her first two albums in order to spend the early years with her baby son. Her new album was released in Spring 2007.
“There’s music as a way to be famous, and all of that side of it. And there’s music because you love singing.”
Sebastian Faulks
© Venetia Dearden
Sebastian Faulks is the author of several books, including Human Traces (2005) and Birdsong (1993). He can sometimes be heard on the book quiz, The Write Stuff, on Radio Four. He is a long-time resident of W11, though is own operatic career was restricted to a part in the chorus of a school production of Carmen (1967). His elder son William performed in the W11 2003 production Game Over and he hopes that one of his other children will follow. He was awarded the CBE in 2002.
"Children love being part of W11. It's a local enterprise but is gaining a national reputation."
George Fenton
Photograph © Luk Monsaert
George Fenton composed Birthday for W11 Opera in 1982, revived in 1998.
In 1982 he was nominated for an Oscar for his score for Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi. Since 1982 he has been nominated for three more Oscars (for Cry Freedom, The Fisher King, and Dangerous Liaisons) and three Golden Globes, won three BAFTAs, two Ivor Novello Awards, and an Emmy and written music for more than 100 television productions including Bergerac, The Jewel in the Crown, Talking Heads, and The Blue Planet.
Following the broadcast of The Blue Planet in 2001 for which he won Ivor Novello, BAFTA, and Emmy awards for best television score, he has taken the show, Blue Planet Live! on tour around the world. He has subsequently written the score for the BBC documentary series Planet Earth.
His most recent film scores are Nick Hytner’s The History Boys and Ken Loach’s The Wind That Shakes The Barley, winner of the Palme d’Or -- the top prize at the Cannes film festival in May 2006.