Interview: WENWEN DU and IAN BOSTRIDGE in Ottawa

Vancouver’s Nebula Performances is bringing a one-night special event to Ottawa’s beautiful Carlton Dominion-Chalmers Centre on May 6, 2026. Featuring three-time Grammy award-winning vocalist, Ian Bostridge CBE, performing alongside renowned pianist, Wenwen Du, the evening promises Goethe Lieder selections by Hugo Wolf and the Holy Sonnets of John Donne by Benjamin Britten charming recital of works by Benjamin Britten and Hugo Wolf. Bostridge and Du graciously answered some of my questions about the upcoming recital and provided some insight into what audiences may expect.

Wenwen, can you tell me a little bit about Nebula Performances and its mission?

WD: I co-founded Nebula Performances in Vancouver in 2024 with Alice Chee. It has become a vibrant community for young artists, offering a space for them to develop and share their work through workshops, masterclasses, and performances. Nebula is a multi-purpose space where musical growth and innovation can thrive.

What makes this project especially exciting is that Ian and I are bringing a deeply compelling programme - Wolf’s Goethe Lieder and Britten’s Holy Sonnets of John Donne. We’re returning together to both Ottawa and Vancouver, venues where we’ve performed before.

You have performed together over a period of many years - what do you enjoy about this familiarity and what is it that keeps drawing you back to each other?

WD: What’s special about working with Ian is the level of trust we have built over the years. It allows us to approach performances with real freedom and spontaneity.

We both value a sense of risk in the moment rather than over-rehearsing every detail. He gives me remarkable space as a pianist, and he is an incredibly imaginative singer, and that constantly inspires me to respond, to create in the moment.

IB: I think it's a great privilege to work with a pianist partner who is both a total master of the instrument and full of imagination. The familiarity helps because we are able to respond in the moment to the improvisational quality of performance. It gives us freedom which allows us to make new discoveries and project an immediate living vision. We hope! 

What is the most difficult piece that you have learned musically?

WD: I think the most challenging piece I’ve recently encountered is one particular song in this recital. One of the songs in Britten’s Holy Sonnets of John Donne is especially challenging. Britten can be quite deceptive in how simple it looks on the page, working within a 2/4 or 2/2 time signature, but with subdivisions and groupings that become extremely intricate underneath. AND, Ian and I only have two days before the first recital in Ottawa.

IB: Britten's Holy Sonnets are very vocally demanding with their combination of emotional extremes and a need for technical assurance. I first sang them when I was in my 20s and had ideas, which gave me a sort of freedom. They are something I'll be working towards my whole career. 

This recital focuses on composers Benjamin Britten and Hugo Wolf; can you explain what it is about Britten and Wolf that pairs so well?

WD: What connects Britten and Wolf for me is the intensity in both the music and the poetry - (Goethe and John Donne), and how inseparable the music feels from the text.

Both work with striking emotional contrast, and the music follows the natural rhythm of language, almost as if the poetry is already built in.

IB: Britten loved Wolf. They are both summits of the "art song" repertoire, spanning lyricism, philosophical depth, intense beauty, grief, and joy. 

Wenwen, you and Nebula Performances are both based in Vancouver and Ian is based in the United Kingdom. In addition to the Vancouver recital on May 14th, what made you choose Ottawa for the first performance date?

WD: Ian and I did a recital in Ottawa in 2023 at the same venue, and I was amazed by the full house, the audience, and the whole arts atmosphere there. It's a truly wonderful venue and a rich cultural environment. That whole experience stayed with me. 

We chose Ottawa and Vancouver because we had both performed together in both cities before, and we wanted to return to both. Ottawa will mark a three-year return, and Vancouver - at the Playhouse - will mark a ten-year return. 

The Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre is a beautiful location - are there any specific reasons you selected this venue for your recital?

WD: As I mentioned, Ian and I performed there together before and it was a wonderful experience, so returning to the same venue felt meaningful. It also has the added benefit of being close to the university, which connects nicely with our aim of reaching younger audiences.

Through Nebula Performances, I have the privilege to help bring classical music a little closer to a new generation. Having students from local universities in the audience made it feel like a very natural choice.

What can Ottawa audiences expect from this recital?

WD: I think this is a programme that you don’t hear very often. It moves between moments of intimacy and sudden bursts of intensity, which makes it thrilling both to perform and to hear. It’s not just a musical journey, but a shared human experience we all go through together from beginning to end, for both performers and audiences.

IB: I hope they will not draw breath from beginning to end of each half, that we will draw them in, that their attention will be held without a dip and that they will be moved. Each half is an arc, the song equivalent of the sort of journey you make when you listen to a great symphony. This is some of the most profound and extraordinary music ever written.