The West Cork Chamber Music Festival celebrates its 30th anniversary between 27 June and 6 July in Bantry with a programme including a performance from Australian mezzo soprano Lotte Betts Dean. We asked her the BIG questions . . .
Lotte will be joined by her father, the viola player and composer Brett Dean, for a special recital on Monday 30 June at 4pm in St Brendan's Church.
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The programme will feature music by Vaughan Williams, Sally Beamish, Hindemith, Stuart MacRae, Brett Dean and others.
This year’s festival will also feature the Tchalik Quartet, who will perform the world premiere of Sam Perkin’s Celebration Quartet in the opening concert in Bantry House on Friday 27 June at 8pm.
Woodpecker Recorder Quartet bring Bach and the Birds to St Brendan’s Hall on Monday 30 June at 2pm, Norwegian violinist Henning Kraggerud will be accompanied by his three children for a special family concert in St Brendan’s Church on Thursday 3 July at 2pm, and Soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon joins forces with her husband, the pianist Ryan McCullough, for the Irish premiere of Katherine Balch’s estrangement in the main evening concert on Friday 4 July in St Brendan’s Church.
Tickets for the festival are available here.
Tell us three things about yourself . . .
I am addicted to coffee, Manchego cheese, Haribo tangtastics, sneakers and nail extensions.
My favourite person in the world is my two-year-old nephew Hugo, closely followed by his mother, my younger sister Kiki.
I was born in Berlin and was raised bilingual, for which I am extremely grateful.
How would you describe your music?
Varied!! I perform all kinds of classical music, from baroque to opera to song to new music, as well as non-classical things like pop covers, jazz and folk. I love doing all sorts and am never bored.
Who are your musical inspirations?
Sinéad O’Connor, Anne-Sofie von Otter, Caroline Polachek, Charli XCX, Cocteau Twins, Chet Baker, Dame Janet Baker, and my father, composer and violist Brett Dean.
What was the first gig you ever went to?
It would have been an orchestral concert by the Berlin Philharmonic, of which my father was a member, when I was a toddler! I do remember my first opera, which was a particularly grizzly production of Boris Godunov at Salzburg Festival when I was seven years old. I loved it.
What was the first record you ever bought?
The first album was Britney’s debut album (#freeBritney forever) and the first single (remember those?!) was Whitney Houston’s My Love is Your Love, a song I still adore.
What’s your favourite song right now?
I’ve been falling asleep to Kali Malone’s solo experimental pipe organ album The Sacrificial Code for a month. It is a godsend.
Favourite lyric of all time?
Don’t have a favourite, but a lot of Joni Mitchell’s lyrics floor me every time I hear them. The flow, the casualness, the unexpected shocking profundity.
If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?
This is SUCH a cruel question!!! Can I ask for one piece of music? Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium.
Where can people find your music/more information?
My website, via my management company Askonas Holt, or on socials: @dottelettsbean on Instagram / @lottebettsdean on x.
Alan Corr
