Love is a Spectrum: Neil Balfour (baritone) & Jonathan Drummond (piano)
- Date: Friday 4 July 2025, 13:00 – 14:00
- Location: Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall, Music
- Cost: Free / pay as you feel
Love is a Spectrum is an intimate look at love and how it can feel so unique for different people, cultures, genders, sexualities and neurodivergences.
Gabriel Fauré & Paul Verlaine - Cinq mélodies "de Venise”
Reena Esmail - Rosa de Sal
Manuel de Falla - Siete Canciones Populares
Robert Schumann & Adelbert von Chamisso - Frauen-Liebe und Leben
Indian-Scottish Neil Balfour is an award-winning Contemporary Baritone, Voiceover Artist, Holistic Voice Coach and Ambient Music Maker. He started his musical journey as a frontman in the pop-punk band Oversight before going on to study piano and conducting at Leeds Conservatoire. He then specialised in voice at The Royal Northern College of Music and is proud to be a Britten-Pears and Samling artist. His love of modern and innovative vocal music have led to over 15 world premieres and performances including his own show at the Glastonbury Festival, Perfume Concerts at the Oxford International Song Festival, beatboxing at Longborough Festival Opera and the creation of many operas for young people.
Upcoming engagements include Jacob in Displaced (world premiere) for CoAlign; Bartley in Riders to the Sea (world premiere) for OperaUpClose; Love is a Spectrum (a recital celebrating neuro-divergence) for Thaxted Festival; and the premiere of Untold Lives (a new song cycle about Indian Soldiers in WWI created by Neil Balfour and Cheryl Frances-Hoad) for the Oxford International Song Festival. Highlights include his American debut as Father in Thumbprint for Portland Opera; Humpty Dumpty in Alice Through the Looking Glass (world premiere) for the London Symphony Orchestra; Safin in The Shoemaker (world premiere) for Welsh National Opera; and Jean Arp in Sophie (world premiere) for Tête à Tête.
Neil is an sE Artist (world-class microphones) and is proud to be supported by Penhaligon’s British Perfumers, VivoBarefoot shoes, Mason Cycles, Hunt Wheels and Tailfin Bikepacking equipment for his endeavours to travel more sustainably.
Neil is also an adventure cyclist and his work as a voiceover artist has had over 100 million plays.
Born and raised in New Zealand, Jonathan Drummond is an accompanist and repetiteur who has called the UK home for the past ten years. He has been an accompanist at Northern Ballet since 2017 and has played for Opera North on countless education projects across England since 2016. Jonathan was the repetiteur for The Dictator (2022) and Maria de Buenos Aires (2023) for Northern Opera Group, and was Assistant Music Director and Repetiteur for Leeds Youth Opera from 2015-2022. Jonathan has worked as an accompanist at the Leeds Conservatoire and has performed in concerts with singers and instrumentalists across the UK and New Zealand.