7:30pm Sat 22 Nov 2025
St Nicolas Church, Newbury
"Love Stories"
Glinka – Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture
Wagner – Tristan and Isolde Prelude & Libestod
Soprano Soloist: Antonida Kocharova
Prokofiev – Extracts from Romeo and Juliet ballet suite
Tickets are availabable via Eventbrite or at the door.
Antonida is a Russian soprano based in Oxford. Her solo singing career began when she was studying law at St Hilda’s College Oxford and performed a wide repertoire with the college choir, including opera, song, and oratorio. She qualified as a barrister prior to completing a Masters in Vocal & Operatic Performance at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the Opera Greenwich Emerging Artist Programme. At RBC, Antonida was the winner of the Edward Brooks Lieder Prize, 2nd in the Delius Prize, and joint 2nd in the RBC Vocal Department Prize, and she has subsequently appeared in the live rounds of the Elena Obraztsova International Opera Competition in St Petersburg and the International Puccini Competition in Lucca.
Antonida’s primary interest is in opera, and her recent roles include Fiordiligi (Così fan Tutte, Vienna Opera Academy), Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus, Berlin Opera Academy), Countess (Le Nozze di Figaro, cover, Peterborough Opera), Santuzza (Cavalleria Rusticana, cover, North Wales Opera Studio), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte, Opera Greenwich), Mother (Hänsel & Gretel, RBC and Leicester Symphony Orchestra), and the title roles in Orchestra Vox's The Golden Cockerel and “Ophelia: In Her Own Words” (a staging of Ophelia’s scenes from Hamlet together with Prokofiev's Ophelia songs). Aside from opera, Antonida regularly performs in concert, with recent projects including a joint recital with the Russian Cultural Centre in Tallinn, the Purcell and Handel Weekends with the Cherubim Trust in Tisbury, and returning to sing Mozart’s Requiem for St Hilda’s College Anniversary Concert.
Antonida Kocharova
Dr Jonathan Williams is a renowned conductor, orchestrator, composer and musicologist. Recent highlights include standing in for Sir Simon Rattle, composing for a new Sony video game and the release of a CD with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He is the director of the Rameau Project and is currently co-editing a volume on Rameau. He was appointed as the first director of College Music in 2006 at St Hilda's College Oxford.
Jonathan Williams
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Elgar Pomp & Circumstance March #4
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Theme: Music and Sport
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Conductor: Jonathan Williams
