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Gemma Summerfield

Gemma Summerfield makes her house dèbut this summer as Musetta in La Bohème.

Gemma’s has been described as “a show-stopper – pure vocal champagne”. She was awarded  First Prize at the 2019 Concorso Lirico Internazionale di Portofino and is the winner of the 2018 Susan Chilcott Award for Singers.

Wasfi asked Gemma who she conquers nerves – for example when she was competing in the Glyndebourne Cup 2018. Gemma repled that she “has learnt  to make them a friend; shape them into a tool for keenness; make them fight over flight. They keep me on my toes: they mean that no one performance is ever the same as the next.

Competitions are not the ‘be all and end all’  – they’re opportunities. The Kathleen Ferrier Award and the Wigmore Hall Song Competition meant singing in the acoustically generous Wigmore Hall,

There’s a distinct difference between competitions and auditions as well.

College exams look to assess what you can’t do (in order to award a grade and provide feedback  for subsequent learning). In competitions and auditions a panel looks to assess what you CAN do.

 

Gemma Summerfield

Gemma, a keen reader, went on to talk about two recent books she has read read.

“Madeline Miller’s (italics) The Song of Achilles is a brilliant recreation of Classics for the modern era. I studied Classics at school and love a good tale of Gods and Men. Frederik Backman’s (italics) A Man Called Ove,  is honest, heartfelt, profoundly human and I defy anyone to fail to find within it  someone they have in their life. If you dont see them, you are them”.