After graduating from high school, Andreas Wolf initially pursued his scientific interests and studied electrical engineering, mathematics and physics, but then decided to follow his artistic inclinations and move to Munich to study at the Musikhochschule München. There he studied orchestral conducting with Prof. Hermann Michael and singing with Prof. Joseph Loibl, while receiving his pianistic training with Prof. Gitti Pirner. Sir Colin Davis, with whom he had the opportunity to work on various projects at the time, had a decisive influence on his musical development. During this time also gained further experience as a repetiteur at the Theater am Gärtnerplatz and as a chorister in the Bavarian State Opera Chorus. While still a student, he won the preliminary round of the Donatella Flick Competition and was invited to London for the final round. After completing his studies with a master class diploma, the Regensburg-born conductor then decided to pursue a career as a classical Kapellmeister.

Hailing from Monmouth, Andrew studied at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and is a recent graduate of the National Opera Studio. He is a member of the studio of the Opéra de Lyon for 2020/21. He was the winner of the 2019 Dunraven Young Welsh Singer of the Year, and studies with Gary Coward.

Anthony Negus studied clarinet and piano at the Royal College of Music London, and gained a music degree at Oxford University. He also joined the newly formed Else Mayer- Lismann Opera Workshop, where he was able to develop his passion for opera, both playing and conducting. He was for severa years a musical assistant in Wuppertal, and in Bayreuth working with Erich Leinsdorf, Heinrich Hollreiser (Tannhauser), Horst Stein (Ring), and Eugen Jochum (Parsifal).

Following a period with Hamburg State Opera, he joined the Welsh National Opera(WNO) music staff.  As a conductor there, he built up a wide repertoire of operas including Beethoven (both Leonore and Fidelio), Gluck, Mozart, Richard Strauss (Elektra, Ariadne, Die Frau ohne Schatten). It was his work with Music Director Sir Charles Mackerras in particular that led to his emergence as a vital and sensitive conductor of Mozart, all of whose major operas from Idomeneo to Tito and Die Zauberflote he has conducted.

Italian Mezzo with Middle-eastern discendent, graduate of the Conservatorio S. Cecilia in Rome, winner of the Sybil Tutton Opera Award 2021 and of the first prize in 2018 at the Simone Alaimo Competition, semifinalist in both the 2019 Handel Singing Competition (London) and the International Singing Competition for Baroque Opera «Pietro Antonio Cesti» (Innsbruck); Arlene has recently completed her studies at the National Opera Studio in London.

Winner of the Nei Stëmmen International Singing Competition in Luxembourg, Benjamin’s recent roles include Orphée in a feature length film of Gluck’s Orphée ed Eurydice with INseries Opera, based in Washington DC, Anführer in Toshio Hosokawa’s Erdbeben Träume with Opera Stuttgart, Seraphim 3 in John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary with Theater Bonn and Tolomeo in Handel’s Giulio Cesare with English Touring Opera. His other roles include Ottone in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea with Ryedale Arts, Hamor in Handel’s Jephtha with Iford Arts, and three roles in the London Handel Festival with Laurence Cummings: Bertarido in Handel’s Rodelinda, Mirtillo in Handel’s Il Pastor Fido and Tassile in Handel’s Alessandro.

Carlos Bonell is one of today’s most celebrated guitarists. He was born in London of Spanish parents and studied at the Royal College of Music with John Williams, where he was appointed the youngest ever professor in 1972. He gained prominence in 1981 through his recording for Decca of Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Charles Dutoit.

Northern Irish mezzo-soprano and Samling Foundation Scholar, Carolyn Dobbin, trained on the Opera Theatre Company Young Artist Programme in Dublin and at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.

Born in Birmingham, Christopher Turner read Music at the University of Hull, furthering his studies with Barbara Robotham at the Royal Northern College of Music and at the National Opera Studio, where he was sponsored by the Scottish Endowment Trust and The Friends of Covent Garden. He has received many prizes, including The Michael and Joyce Kennedy Prize for Singing Strauss, The Frederic Cox Prize, the Elizabeth Harwood Prize, and, most recently, a Countess of Munster ‘Young Star’ Award and the Sybil Tutton Award from the Musicians Benevolent Fund. He was also a major scholar of the Sir Peter Moores Foundation.

A student of Herbert von Karajan in Berlin and Sergiu Celibidache in Munich, Cristian Mandeal is considered to be the most important Romanian conductor nowadays, his activity extending without interruption over a period of four decades.

Between 1987 and 2009 Cristian Mandeal acted as Principal Conductor and General Music Director of the Bucharest Philharmonic and oversaw its rise as an orchestra on the international scene and leaving behind him a benchmark institution. Alongside the positions he has occupied in Romania, Cristian Mandeal has been Artistic Director of the Northern Israeli Orchestra, Haifa (1999–2002) and the Euskadi Symphony – Basque National Orchestra, San Sebastian (2001–2008), Permanent Conductor of the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento (2000–2003), Principal Guest Conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, Manchester (2005–2010—the first to hold this title in the 150-year history of the orchestra), the Belgrade Philharmonic (the 2006–2007 season), and the Copenhagen Philharmonic (2006–2013).

Dawid was born in Johannesburg and he moved to the UK in 2001 to further his studies at the Royal College of Music in London. Dawid subsequently attended the National Opera Studio and received a position on the Royal Opera House Jette Parker Young Artist Programme which commenced in 2009. He also represented South Africa in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in 2009.

Edmund grew up in London and began singing as a chorister at the London Oratory. He read aerospace engineering alongside a choral scholarship at Bristol University and studied singing with Angela Hickey. He received a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music where he studied with Mark Wildman and Iain Ledingham supported by the Josephine Baker trust. He was a 2017/18 National Opera Studio young artist as part of the Glyndebourne New Generation Programme, supported by Peter and Helen Blumer.

Welsh Mezzo-Soprano Eirlys Myfanwy Davies was born in Trimsaran, Carmarthenshire. A 2017 London Welsh Young Singer of the Year winner, and named Voice of the Future at Llangollen International Festival, Eirlys is a recent Young Artist graduate from the National Opera Studio, London.

Hailing from the South Wales Valleys, Emyr trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. And in 2017/18 was a Young Artist at the National Opera Studio, London.

Francesco studied Orchestral Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music (London) with Sir Colin Davis and Colin Metters, at the Accademia Chigiana with Gianluigi Gelmetti and at the Accademia Musicale di Stresa with Gianandrea Noseda.

In 2015 Francesco made his debut at the Gran Teatro La Fenice in Venice with La Scala di seta, and in the symphonic season of Orchestre d’Auvergne in France. In 2016 he will conduct Cosi Fan Tutte at Oper Koeln (DE), Le Nozzedi Figaro at Kimmel Center (Philadelphia, US) and Mefistofele in Pisa and Lucca.

Hilary Davan Wetton is Artistic Director of the City of London Choir and Associate Conductor of the London Mozart Players.  He is Conductor Emeritus of the Milton Keynes City Orchestra and the Guildford Choral Society.

A student of Sir Adrian Boult at the RCM, he won the Ricordi conducting prize in 1967.  Over a career spanning 50 years, he is particularly admired for his interpretations of twentieth-century British music, conducting many first performances for British composers as well as neglected works by Gardner, Parry, Holst, Dyson, Bridge, Sterndale Bennett and Samuel Wesley.

Hrolfur Saemundsson initially studied singing at the Reykjavik Vocal Academy before completing his MA in Music at the New England Conservatory in Boston, 2002.

In 1989 Ian Fountain became the youngest winner of the Arthur Rubinstein Piano Masters Competition in Tel Aviv at the age of 19.

He was educated as a chorister at New College, Oxford and later at Winchester College. He studied piano under Sulamita Aronovsky at the RNCM.

Since that time he has enjoyed a wide-ranging and varied career, performing extensively throughout Europe, the USA, the UK and the Far East, with orchestras such as the London Symphony and Sir Colin Davis, the Israel Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta, and the Czech Philharmonic and Jiri Belohlavek. He has also performed with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, Halle, CBSO, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Singapore Symphony and Utah Symphony amongst many others. In Moscow he was invited to open the 1992/3 season of the Moscow Conservatoire and in Poland he marked the 150th anniversary of Chopin’s death by playing both Chopin Concertos in Krakow.

Jevan McAuley CV 2021

John Gibbons studied at Queens’ College, Cambridge, the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music winning numerous awards as a conductor, pianist and accompanist. He has conducted across the world, including the Spier Festival, Cape Town, the Crested Butte Festival in Colorado and the Romanian premiere of Walton’s First Symphony with the Georges Enescu Philharmonic. He has also given many world premieres including the Third Orchestral Set by Charles Ives, William Alwyn’s Violin Concerto, Martyr by Tarik O’Regan, Roxanna Panufnik’s Christmas Kompot and Malcolm Arnold’s opera The Dancing Master.

Judy Louie Brown CV

Cork-born soprano Kim Sheehan, “sporting a super voice” (Opera Now) has sung many of the roles in the coloratura repertoire in Germany, Switzerland, the UK and Ireland working with such established companies as the Royal Opera House, Zürich Opera House and Wexford Festival Opera to name but a few.

Kirstin Sharpin’s recent engagements include a critically acclaimed role debut as Senta Der Fliegende Holländer for Longborough Festival Opera, the title roles in Beethoven’s Fidelio for Melbourne Opera and for the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra (with Giordano Bellincampi, opposite Simon O’Neill) and Leonore (1805) for the Buxton Festival, and in Smetana’s Libuše at the work’s British staged premiere.

British-Australian soprano Kristy Swift has performed extensively in the UK and abroad. She recently sang the role of Erste Dame Die Zauberflöte for Mid Wales Opera, and Marzelline in Beethoven’s Leonore for the Buxton Festival. Prior to this, she was the featured soloist in the Strauss Gala UK and Turkey tour for two consecutive seasons with Raymond Gubbay.

Kristy has also sung the title role in Luigi Rossi’s Orpheus (cover), First Sprite/cover Noémie Cendrillon.

British soprano Lizzie Holmes is gaining a reputation as a versatile and dynamic singing actor and keen spokesperson for classical music. Recent highlights include her Royal Opera House Crush Room recital debut, Despina Così fan tutte (Longborough Festival Opera), Queen of the Night The Magic Flute (Oxford Playhouse), Laurette in Bizet’s Doctor Miracle (Wexford Festival Opera), Dew Fairy and cover Gretel Hänsel und Gretel (Grange Park Opera).

Award winning Spanish soprano Lorena Paz Nieto is an alumna of the National Opera Studio, a previous winner of the Oxford Lieder Young Artist Platform, the Ludmilla Andrews Russian Song Prize, and ‘Vocalist of the year’ at the 2019 LUKAS awards.

Bass-Baritone, Louis Hurst, is the Winner of the Audience Prize at the Fulham Opera Robert Presley Memorial Verdi Prize and Finalist for the Wagner Society of England’s Singing Competition. Selected to participate in ENO’s Opera Works Programme and with British Youth Opera, Mancunian-born Louis gained his MMus with Distinction from the Royal Northern College of Music. His studies were made possible by the generous support of Michael Oglesby, the Drapers Guild, and the Musician’s Benevolent Fund.

Lucy was a 2021 Emerging Artist at Longborough Festival Opera, where she played Rooster & Jay in The Cunning Little Vixen, and covered the role of Despina in Cosi fan tutte. Other professional roles have included Norina/Don Pasquale for Burry Port Opera, Zerlina (cover)/Don Giovanni for Longborough Festival Opera, as well as the roles of Olympia, Antonia, and Giulietta in Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann at the Arcola Theatre London (Grimeborn Festival).

Belfast-born baritone Malachy Frame was Northern Ireland Opera’s ‘Voice of 2016,’ having won the competition at the company’s annual Festival of Voice in August.

Welsh Soprano Mari Wyn Williams is a Graduate of The Wales International Academy of Voice where she studied with the International Tenor Dennis O’Neill.

In September 2013 Mari won third place at the Montserrat Caballe Competition in Zaragoza. Other competitions successes include finalist at the London Wagner competition and finalist at the Elizabeth Connell competition in Sydney.

Marius Vlad made his debut, aged 21, in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and his operatic debut as Lensky at the Hungarian Opera House, Cluj.  His other roles for Romanian National Opera included Rodolfo (La Bohème), Alfredo (La Traviata) and Tamino (Die Zauberflὂte).

British musician Matt Scott Rogers recently completed four seasons on the conducting staff of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, latterly as a member of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme. Future engagements include returns to Malmö Opera for The Nutcracker and The Makropulos Affair; Chelsea Opera Group for Oberto; The Royal Danish Opera for Seven Deadly Sins, Manualen and The Handmaid’s Tale as assistant; Grange Park Opera for Otello; and, as composer, the premiere of his song cycle at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Scottish soprano Monica McGhee is a current Young Artist at the National Opera Studio and a graduate of the RSAMD (now RCS) and the RCM. She is based in London, where she studies with Marie McLaughlin.

British soprano Natasha Page is a graduate of the Royal College of Music International Opera Studio, where she studied with Rosa Mannion. Natasha recently covered the role of Adele in Le Comte Ory for Garsington Opera as an Alvarez Young Artist 2021.

Paula was awarded the Tagor Gold Medal from the Royal College of Music, and was the winner of the Karavoitis Prize in the Les Azureal International Competition. She recently performed Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine for English Touring Opera’s socially distanced Autumn season, and has performed on stages and concert platforms across the UK, the United States and Europe.

Piran Legg is a Bass – Baritone originally from Kent and a graduate of Kent University, where he studied history. He went on to become a Masters graduate of the Guildhall Opera Course and Artists Diploma. Piran has performed extensively in Opera and concert around the UK and abroad, singing roles with companies such as Wexford Festival Opera, Garsington Opera and the LSO. He has ranged from characters such as Schaunard in La Boheme at the Cadogan Hall and Giorgio Germont in Clonter Opera’s 2015 production of La Traviata to Antonio in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Ferrando in Verdi’s Il Trovatore.

Romanian-born mezzo-soprano studied at the George Enescu Academy in Bucharest and won numerous singing competitions. She was a member of the Timisoara Opera Company singing roles such as Zita (Gianni Schicchi), Prince Orlofski (Die Fledermaus), Fenena (Nabucco), Witch (El amor brujo) and Principessa di Bouillon (Adriana Lecouvreur).   Ramona has made guest appearances at opera houses in Cluj-Napoca, Iaʂi, Bucharest, Luxembourg, Brussels, Riga, Seoul, Moscow, Berlin, Stuttgart and Hamburg. In her star role as Carmen she appeared at the Opera Festival in Steinbruch, St Margarethen, Latvian Opera Riga, Stuttgart Opera, and Deutsche Opera Berlin. In 2018/19 she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Maddalena (Rigoletto). She has been a member of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein ensemble since the 2014-15 seasons where she made a celebrated debut as Dalila in Samson et Dalila alongside Carmen.

Soprano Sarah Marie Kramer has been described as ‘an outstanding artist’ by Austrian Radio (ORF). She is fast establishing herself as a formidable talent on the operatic stage, following performances as Sieglinde/Die Walküre,  Ottavia/ L’incorinazione di Poppea, Countessa/Le Nozze di Figaro, and Amelia/Un Ballo in Maschera.

Satriya Krisna CV

Stephen Higgins studied at Oxford University, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio in London and is a conductor who has worked extensively in major opera houses and festivals both in the UK and abroad.

He spent his early professional career on the music staff of ROH, Glyndebourne and ENO and has worked on a wide variety of repertoire, ranging from Monteverdi, Mozart, Puccini, John Adams and Stephen Sondheim.

The Belgian soprano SYLVIE DE PAUW began her musical career at an early age as a chorister in the children’s choir of her hometown. She graduated  as a pedagogue and took private singing lessons with Andrea Névry in Ghent and Malcolm King in Vicenza. Recently she was coached by Diane Forlano and specializes with Mr. George-Emil Crasnaru.

Winner of the Czech Song Prize at the Emmy Destinn Young Singer’s Award and Finalist for the Wagner Society of England’s Singing Competition, Australian Soprano Tanya Hurst is a graduate of the  Royal Northern College of Music gaining a Master of Music with Distinction.​

Last year she continued performances with Oper Bonn as Nedda and was to be covering the title role for Welsh National Opera’s Jenůfa (postponed Spring 2022). Current and future engagements for 2021 include Scottish Opera (cover Alice Ford) and English National Opera (cover Gerhilde).​

Lyric tenor Telman Guzhevsky finished postgraduate vocal studies at Trinity College of Music where he won the Ricordi Opera Studies Prize, and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.  He studied with Sally Burgess from 2006 -2009, and then with Carlo Bergonzi in Italy.

Telman Guzhevsky sang Count Vronsky on the soundtrack for the film Anna Karenina by Joe Wright, which was nominated for Oscar and received the Ivor Novello Award in 2013.

Originally from Nottingham, Thomas is an Associate Young Artist at The National Opera Studio and is a Sybil Tutton award winner supported by Help Musicians. He was previously a Young Artist at The National Opera Studio and graduated from Royal Northern College of Music where he earned his MMus and Postgraduate Diploma. In 2017 Thomas was also the recipient of The Wexford Festival Opera’s Aria Friends Bursary.