Farnham

James Anthony "Jim" Sturgess is a British actor and singer-songwriter. His breakthrough role was appearing as Jude in the musical romance drama film... Across the Universe . Sturgess was born in London, England on 16 May 1981. He attended Frensham Heights School, in Farnham, Surrey. He spent most of his youth skateboarding around his local car parks and started his first band as early as 15 years old where they would rehearse in the garage of his Friend's Dad's house. The band would also play gigs in and around his local area to any publican that would turn a blind eye to the fact that they were all under age. Jim's first acting experience came when the local theatre group came to his school, looking for kids to audition for the local play. Quickly realising that he would be able to miss school, he went along to the audition and landed one of the parts in the play. It was clear to both his school and his parents that he had a natural talent but it was always music that was at the forefront of his mind.
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Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears CBE was an English tenor who was knighted in 1978. His career was closely associated with the composer Edward Benjamin... Britten. He was born at Newark House, Searle Road, Farnham, Surrey, and educated at Lancing. He went on to study music at Keble College, Oxford, serving as organist at Hertford College, but left without taking his degree. He later studied voice for two terms at the Royal College of Music. He claimed that it was hearing the tenor Steuart Wilson singing the Evangelist in J.S. Bach's St Matthew Passion that "started me off". In 1936, while a member of the BBC Singers, he met Benjamin Britten, who was to become his life partner. Pears and Britten gave their first recital together in 1937 at Balliol College, Oxford University. In April 1939, Britten and Pears left for America together as pacifists, a few months before the outbreak of war between the British Empire and Germany. There, in 1940, Britten composed Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, the first of many song cycles for Pears.
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