Following his debut at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall earlier this year, and his appearence with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in September, the BBC New Generation Artist baritone Benjamin Appl will be accompanied by British pianist Gary Matthewman on a seven-date tour of Ireland this November. In their programme, Appl and Mattewman will perform a new work by Irish composer Marian Ingoldsby, Never give all the heart, commissioned by Music Network and based on Yeats’ poem. 

The wide-ranging programme will also include arias from several Mozart operas, Lehár’s The Merry Widow, Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos and Wagner’s Tannhäuser, as well as lieder by Mendelssohn, Wolf, Schubert and more. The baritone will visit Skibbereen, Clifden, Dublin City, Tipperary, Cork, Dún Laoghaire and Warrenpoint between 15 and 23 November as part of a Music Network autumn tour.

Appl was greatly influenced by the legendary Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who mentored and taught him as his last private student until his death in May 2012. Appl was awarded the prestigious Schubert Prize by the Deutsche Schubert-Gesellschaf the same year and for 2015–16 he has been selected for the European Concert Hall Organisation’s Rising Stars programme, performing in a range of leading European venues, including the Wigmore Hall.

Gary Matthewman is one of the UK’s leading song pianists and has worked with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Mark Padmore and many more. His recording of Schubert’s Winterreise with Matthew Rose was a BBC Radio 3 disc of the week.

Watch an interview with Benjamin Appl below. For more information and tickets, visit http://bit.ly/20mYRl8