Evening Recital: Anna Chechotkina & Beatrice Heasman | Song Evening

Programme:

Join us for an evening of Ukrainian music and well known arias, brought to you by two wonderful singers from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

Anna Chechotkina - Soprano

Mykola Lysenko -  ‘Oh, I’m a Girl From Poltava’ (from Natalka-Poltavka)

Vasyl Mykhailiuk - Cheremshyna

Folk Song arranged by Petro Boychenko - Gandzia

Folk song arranged by Anatoliy Kos-Anatolsky - May’s Night

Nina Andriievska - If I Knew How to Embroider

Folk song arranged by Leopold Yashenko - The Deep Well

Folk song arranged by Mykola Vilinsky - In The Cherry Garden

Folk song arranged by O. Doskalov  - The Violin Is Playing Outside

Folk song arranged by Mykola Stetsiun - Oh, I Know I Have a Sin

Interval (15 mins)

Beatrice Heasman - Mezzo-Soprano

Brahms - Vergebliches Ständchen

Wolf - Das Verlassne Mägdelein

Brahms - Dein Blaues Auge

Wolf - Verborgenheit

Ireland - Her Song

Vaughan Williams - Dreamland

Vaughan Williams - Silent Noon

Schubert - Gretchen am Spinrade

Anna Chechotkina:

Ukrainian soprano Anna Chechotkina has always had a big passion for singing and music. Since the age of 5, answering the question about her future career to adults, she always said, ‘I’ll be a singer… If I don’t, then I’ll switch to be a dentist’. However, since then Anna has gone a long way from Kharkiv Specialised Music School to the Conservatoire. Before the war in Ukraine, Anna studied opera singing at the Kharkiv I.P. Kotlayevsky National University of Arts but following the Russian invasion she had the privilege of continuing her studies in the UK. Currently Anna is a third-year soprano student at the Vocal and Operatic Department at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, studying under Amanda Roocroft.

Anna has been taking her first steps in the world of opera since 2024. Her previous productions now include the role of the Second Spirit from Massenet’s Cendrillon in the production of RBC Spring Opera 2024 and Euridice (Gluck’s Orfeo et Euridice) and Frasquita (Bizet’s Carmen) in DIY Opera Scenes 2024 under the direction of the student committee. Her recent production was RBC Opera Scenes 2024 where she sang the part of Clorinda from Rossini’s La Cenerentola. She is also involved in the upcoming RBC Summer Opera in the role of Second Witch in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.

Beatrice Heasman:

Beatrice Heasman is a mezzo soprano from Sussex currently in her third year in the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. She is passionate about singing German Lieder, recently taking part in the BIP winter academy in Leipzig in Febuary 2025. 

Beatrice’s recent performances recently include Coraline in Turnage’s Coraline as part of RBC’s 2024 opera scenes, Armelinde in Viadot’s Cendrillion, and chorus in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta. She was also recently a finalist in the Edward Brookes Lieder prize. 

Music has always been a large part of Beatrice’s life; she credits taking part in Glyndebourne’s youth opera during her teenage years as the main catalyst in her desire to pursue music as a career. She enjoys singing a wide range of reptoire from opera to oratorio to art song to early music and looks forward to taking part in Ethel Smythes Fete Galante as a Puppet in RBCS summer opera.