^{BY SIMON MUNDY | FIRST PUBLISHED 13 DEC 2025}

The musical Bevan family has, over the last 70 years, begun to resemble the intricate web, or maze, of the Bachs. If both families had been around at the same time, they could have filled several floors of a large hotel and supplied a large concert hall with orchestra, chorus and soloists. The Bachs had more composers, the Bevans have more singers, but they could, if you’ll forgive the pun, have had fun comparing notes.

At the moment, the two best known performers in the Bevan family are sisters Sophie and Mary, both sopranos, Sophie being the elder by a couple of years. Mary Bevan is one of the Patrons of Continuo Foundation. She is also one of the most engaging and, I think she will like the word, playful, operatic actresses on the stage.

Mary kindly supplied me with an annotated who's who of the clan. The sense of dynasty is strong. It began with Roger and Maurice Bevan in the 1950s. Roger was the former Head of Music at Downside School in Somerset, and Maurice the constant bass of the Deller Consort that did so much to launch the Early Music movement. I remember hearing that consort sing half a century ago and being astonished at how such a coherent and full sound could come from such a small group, often sitting down. Maurice was Mary’s great-uncle.

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^{Video footage of the famed Deller Consort performing several English madrigals by Weelkes, Morley, Dowland, Cornysh and Gibbons for French television in 1964}

In the next generation, Mary’s father, David, was a composer and choir director, based for many years at the Catholic church on Cheyne Walk in Chelsea, the Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer and St Thomas More, just next door to where More, Henry VIII’s unbending Chancellor, lived from 1524. Mary says, ‘Dad discovered the Maltese Choirs who gave choral singing the full Callas treatment. He encouraged us to sing full voice and when we sang in Chelsea it was so loud! This may be a departure from the English choir tradition, but it is our tradition.’

When talking to Mary, she asked her cousin, Benedict Carter, to join us to talk about the Bevan Family Consort, the group of singers all related who are meeting a few times each year to make recordings and give an occasional concert, conducted by Graham Ross, who is Director of Music at Clare College, Cambridge. Benny is one of the non-professional musicians in the group, but has just as distinguished a career in the arts as Head of Indian and Islamic Art at Sotheby’s.

‘In our generation,’ Benny explains, ‘there are seven professional singers. John is a guitarist, and Sebastian is a music producer for Eurovision. Uncle Ben is a baritone.’ Then there is Sophie and Mary’s younger sister, Daisy (also a soprano), tenors Dominic Bevan, Edward and Harry Ross, and in the basses David Bevan. By chance, none of the altos are in the business.

Benny continued, ‘The Bevan Family Consort happened because we wanted to have fun with each other and come out with an album at the end. Musicologist Francis chooses all the music. We decided not to perform more than a few times per year. It’s completely impossible to get us all together for more than that. We have recorded some albums of 16th-century polyphony, Passiontide, and (in 2024) Christmas. Now, we are looking at other repertoire. Francis [the family musicologist] has about six albums planned in his mind. We want music that makes proper use of the bigger voices with richer singing. We are not the next Sixteen, singing without vibrato.’

^{The Bevan Family Consort (dir. Graham Ross) performs Victoria’s O magnum mysterium (arr. Francis Bevan)}

I wondered whether they had ever thought of starting their own festival. Both said it had occurred to them but wondered where, when and how. The where seems relatively easy to suggest itself. ‘Although Mary lives in London’, Benny says, ‘our home territory is Somerset. Our grandfather Roger came from Ludlow, but he taught at Downside, and so the family settled in that area. We moved away, of course, but now there seems to be a generational move back.’

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^{The Bevan Family Consort performs Versa est in luctum by Alonso Lobo | video by Ben Stoney}

While the Bevan Family Consort convenes for its irregular meetings, Mary's own career is flourishing. She received great plaudits for her performances as Morgana in Handel’s Alcina at Covent Garden in 2022, in Richard Jones’s staging. ‘I loved doing that Alcina, it gave me the chance to dance and sing at the same time. I never planned to specialise in Handel and Purcell. It just so happened that, as I was coming out of college, this is what I was offered, and then I got involved in the Early Music groups. I’m doing three Handel operas this coming year.’

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^{Mary Bevan performs Handel’s ‘Süße Stille’ from Nine German Arias, accompanied by Davina Clarke (violin), Alex Rolton (cello), Sergio Bucheli (theorbo) and Tom Foster (harpsichord)}

‘I’m often asked to sing the early repertoire. I’m really enjoying Rameau, but while I do love the stuff where I cry, most of the time I prefer comedy. People are so desperate to pigeonhole singers. Really I will sing whatever comes along. In October, for example, I sang extracts from Nixon In China, with composer John Adams conducting the Hallé Orchestra; then we took it to L’orchestra e Coro dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome in November.’

^{Purcell’s An Evening Hymn (arr. Britten) from Mary Bevan’s latest album, Elegy, with pianist Joseph Middleton}

Mary’s voice is becoming richer as it matures, but not all the change is due to nature. ‘I changed teachers three years ago. I had a very bright sound before. My teachers are a couple who have been my friends since university. I’m working on a more operatic sound, but that makes singing harder now – going from silvery light to big theatre – but it has to be done if I want to sing all three strands of opera’ [Baroque, Romantic and contemporary].

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^{Mary Bevan discusses the inspiration behind her latest album, Elegy, released on Signum Records in October 2025}

Those qualities are also evident in her most recent recital album, Elegy, with her long-time accompanist, Joseph Middleton. It ranges from Purcell to Barber and Errollyn Wallen via fourteen other composers including the Schumanns, Viardot, Mahler, Richard Strauss, and Vaughan Williams. It reflects the time a few years ago when the close family gathered at her father’s bedside as he was dying. The recital, though, is about consolation, songs that might bring people comfort in times of sorrow. ‘I would love people to listen to Elegy,’ she says, ‘because it tells an important story.’

Both Mary Bevan’s new album, Elegy, and Christmas with the Bevan Family Consort from 2024 are available to purchase from Signum Classics, and to download on all major streaming platforms. In March 2026, Mary will appear (alongside Helen Charlston and Roderick Williams) in Dutch National Opera's production of Michel van der Aa's new film-opera, Theory of Flames. She will also take part in Iestyn Davies’s Dowland 400th-Anniversary Weekend at Wigmore Hall (27-29 March).