DAME KIRI TE KANAWA AND THE FUTURE STARS OF OPERA with the CITY OF LONDON SINFONIA
World renowned opera star Dame Kiri Te Kanawa will lead the Future Stars of Opera at the event. Combining rare acting ability with one of the most beautiful soprano voices of her generation, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is among opera’s most celebrated contemporary figures. While still a teen she topped several vocal competitions, later winning a four-year scholarship to study at the London Opera Centre. Te Kanawa’s studies there brought her to the attention of authorities at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and in 1971 she made her debut as Xenia in Boris Godunov. Later that year she rose to overnight fame as the Countess in Colin Davis’ new production of Le Nozze di Figaro at London’s Royal Opera House; in the years to follow, she headlined all of the world’s major opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the San Francisco Opera, the Paris Opera, the Sydney Opera, the Vienna State Opera, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Te Kanawa’s repertoire includes Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro, Cosí fan Tutte, Die Zauberflöte and Tosca, La Rondine and Manon Lescaut, plus Simon Boccanegra, Arabella, Otello, La Traviata, Der Rosenkavalier, Faust, Eugene Onegin, Carmen, Capriccio and La Bohème, along with selections of arias from French, Italian and German operas. Dame Kiri is dedicated to working with the next generation of Opera Stars. She has set up her own Foundation to Mentor young Singers from her home Country New Zealand, She regularly works with young singers at the Metropolitan Opera New York and amongst other similar projects teaches each summer at the Solti-Te Kanawa Academia Italy.

KIND OF BLUE AT 50
2009 marks the 50th Anniversary of the original release date of Miles Davis’ Kind Of Blue. To celebrate the anniversary the festival has called on the services of Jimmy Cobb’s So What Band (the only surviving member from the original recording).The album was released in August 1959, stunning the jazz world by practically creating a new language of music. Its influence goes far beyond jazz. Kind of Blue is universally considered to be one of the best albums of all time, of any genre. Fifty years later, Kind of Blue-the epitome of spontaneous invention-is still the best selling jazz album ever and tops the current jazz chart. Legendary jazz drummer, Jimmy Cobb leads a contemporary all-star band featuring Wallace Roney (trumpet), Javon Jackson (tenor saxophone), Vincent Herring (alto saxophone), Larry Willis (piano), and Buster Williams (bass.) The group will perform their interpretations of Kind of Blue’s five masterpieces: “So What”, “Freddie Freeloader”, “Blue In Green”, “All Blues”, and “Flamenco Sketches” plus other classics by Davis, John Coltrane, Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, and original compositions inspired by this era.

WOMAD PRESENTS…
Making its debut in London for the very first time will be PETER GABRIEL’S celebrated festival of world music Womad. Womad Presents is a series of one off performances from artists woven together from all over the world. Saturday 19th will see performances from legendary artist Khaled supported by the Imagined Village (featuring Eliza and Martin Carthy, Chris Wood and Billy Bragg) with other special guests to be announced. Sunday 20th sees an exclusive London performance from the groundbreaking improvising sound clash of The Bays and The Heritage Orchestra supported by the legendary Tony Allen. The ubiquitous Womad flags and workshops will also be a feature of the weekend. Since the first festival in the UK in 1982, WOMAD has held more than 160 festivals, creating events in twenty-seven countries and islands all over the world but amazingly this will be its first time in London. WOMAD has presented more than one thousand artists at their festivals, bringing the expression of more than 100 different countries to a live audience of over one million people.

The Tower Festival was masterminded by impresario Harvey Goldsmith CBE, one of the most respected classical music promoters in the world and the man who invented stadium opera. Goldsmith first delighted the British public in the eighties by promoting and staging such classical music concerts with Luciano Pavarotti at Hyde Park and Wembley Stadium along with the groundbreaking Three Tenor concerts with Pavarotti, Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo. He was also responsible for bringing opera to the masses with Aida at Earls Court and then touring productions of Carmen and Tosca. A larger than life character, Harvey is also a tireless champion and promoter of charitable events and causes, in 1982 he promoted LIVE AID along with Bob Geldof raising £140 million and has since raised hundreds of millions for the Princes Trust, Teenage Cancer Trust, Net Aid and various other charities.

Commenting on the forthcoming Tower Festival, Harvey Goldsmith added; “I am absolutely thrilled and delighted to be working with Historic Royal Palaces and the Tower of London to bring what is arguably the finest classical music and arts festival to be staged in one of London’s most historic and iconic buildings.”
Door times as follows:
Sadler’s Wells is Dance – Doors 6.30pm / Show 8pm
Lesley Garrett and the Fron Male Voice Choir – Doors 6.30pm / Show 8pm
The Yeomen of the Guard – Doors 6pm / Show 7.30pm
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa – Doors 6pm / Show 7.30pm
Kind of Blue at 50 – Doors 6pm / Show 7.30pm
WOMAD – Doors 3.30pm / Show 4.45pm – weekend tickets available

For more information and tickets go to www.towerfestival.com or phone:
Ticketmaster – 0844 847 2519
See tickets – 0871 230 1080
Seatem – 0844 209 0335
Ticketline – 0844 888 9991
For official VIP hospitality package please call 020 8222 8420