Guiting Music Festival
Guiting Power
Cheltenham
GL54 5TX
Ellington Take the "A" Train
Kern The Way You Look Tonight from Swing Time
Kern Can't help lovin dat man from Show Boat
Strauss Serenade op. 7
Alma Mahler Mild Summer Night from Five Songs 1910
Alma Mahler Harvest Song from Four Songs 1915
Gustav Mahler Adagietto from Symphony no. 5
Gershwin Someone to watch over me from Oh, Kay!
Elgar Chanson de Nuit
Strauss Die Nacht from Songs op. 10
Elgar Chanson de Matin
Strauss Morgen from Four Songs op. 27
Sondheim Send in the Clowns from A Little Night Music
Porter I Get a Kick Out of You
Gershwin Let's Call the Whole Thing Off from Shall We Dance
Gershwin Summertime
With arrangements by Harry Baker
Fantasia returns to Guiting Music Festival with a programme featuring the soaring romanticism of Alma Mahler and Richard Strauss to the bittersweet elegance of Cole Porter and Stephen Sondheim.
A love letter to twentieth century song in its many different forms, this programme has lush orchestral arrangements of songs for solo voice that are heard alongside music from beloved twentieth century shows and musicals.
Join us in the idyllic Cotswold village of Guiting Power, with its rolling hills and glorious countryside, for a concert that features one of Europe's finest mezzo-sopranos, Beth Taylor.
Tickets on sale in Spring 2026.
Beth Taylor is a Scottish mezzo-soprano known for her expressive musicianship and versatility across opera, concert and song repertoire.
Beth Taylor studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She made her Carnegie Hall debut, performing her acclaimed interpretation of Cornelia in Handel’s Giulio Cesare. She also performed with the LA Philharmonic in Mahler’s 2nd Symphony and returned to the BBC Proms as the soloist in Mahler’s 3rd Symphony. Her performances as the Angel in Dream of Gerontius were remarked on by the Times as “immensely powerful, with melting quality and electrifying musicality…a natural successor to Janet Baker”, “her farewell providing one of those moments of transcendence that even the greatest art produces only rarely”.
In 2022 Beth made her acclaimed debut at the Glyndebourne Festival as Bradamante in a new production of Alcina and as Cornelia in the well-loved revival of Giulio Cesare. Following her Deutsche Oper Berlin debut as La Cieca in La Gioconda, she returned to this theatre to make her role debuts as Arsace in in a new production of Rossini’s Semiramide, as Erda in Das Rheingold, Erste Norn in Götterdämmerung and Schwertleite in Die Walküre. Her recent debut in the title role of Cenerentola with the Opéra de Lorraine received huge accolades for her “bold, unique and polished interpretation of an otherwise not immediately obvious role for her voice-type” and “radiant coloratura”.
She was a grand finalist of the 2023 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, the winner of the 2022 Elizabeth Connell Award, 3rd prize winner of the 2019 Wigmore Hall Competition and the winner of the 2018 Gianni Bergamo Classical Music Awards.
Lauded by The Guardian for her “dark and focused” voice, “sensational coloratura” and “spectacular singing” and by The Times for her “fierce, indeed terrifying, cane-swishing” characterisations, Beth Taylor is one of today’s most electrifying young mezzo-sopranos.
Tom is Fantasia's Conductor & Artistic Director.
Tom Fetherstonhaugh is Artistic Director of Fantasia Orchestra, which he founded in 2016.
Alongside Fantasia, in the 25/26 season Tom returns to the BBC Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Manchester Camerata, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, and Ulster Orchestra.
Guiting Music Festival
Guiting Power
Cheltenham
GL54 5TX