Conductors |
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Neil Ferris
2022: McDowall Da Vinci Requiem
2018: Verdi Requiem
2016: Mozart Requiem
2018: Verdi Requiem
2016: Mozart Requiem
Neil Ferris is the Chorus Director of the BBC Symphony Chorus, Artistic Director and conductor of Sonoro, and has been the Music Director of Wimbledon Choral since 2009.
In demand as guest conductor at some of the finest choirs in the UK, Neil has worked with the London Symphony Chorus, The Bach Choir, the Choir of the Age of Enlightenment and the BBC Singers. He has prepared choirs for internationally acclaimed conductors including Valery Gergiev, Sir Simon Rattle, Marin Alsop, Bernard Haitink, Sakari Oramo, Sir Andrew Davis, Carlo Rizzi, Edward Gardner and Martyn Brabbins.
Formerly Director of Choral Studies at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Neil is recognised as one of the country’s leading teachers of choral conducting and has led masterclasses in the UK, USA, Ireland and Denmark. In the UK he has been invited to lead masterclasses at the Royal College of Music, Royal Academy of Music, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and for the Association of British Choral Directors.
Neil has conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, Welsh National Opera, New Queens Hall Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Orchestra of the Swan, Orchestra Vitae and Florilegium. He made his Royal Opera House conducting debut in a production of Will Tuckett’s ballet The Wind in the Willows.
Recordings include an album of the choral music of Jonathan Dove with Convivium Singers released on the Naxos label and Fauré’s Requiem on the Convivium Records label. Sonoro’s album Christmas with Sonoro, released by Resonus Classics, was the Christmas album of choice in the BBC Music Magazine, following on from their critically acclaimed debut album Passion and Polyphony featuring works of James MacMillan and Frank Martin. 2022 saw finally the Covid-delayed world premiere recording of Cecilia McDowall's Da Vinci Requiem, with Wimbledon Choral, the Philharmonia, Roderick Williams and Kate Royal.
In demand as guest conductor at some of the finest choirs in the UK, Neil has worked with the London Symphony Chorus, The Bach Choir, the Choir of the Age of Enlightenment and the BBC Singers. He has prepared choirs for internationally acclaimed conductors including Valery Gergiev, Sir Simon Rattle, Marin Alsop, Bernard Haitink, Sakari Oramo, Sir Andrew Davis, Carlo Rizzi, Edward Gardner and Martyn Brabbins.
Formerly Director of Choral Studies at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Neil is recognised as one of the country’s leading teachers of choral conducting and has led masterclasses in the UK, USA, Ireland and Denmark. In the UK he has been invited to lead masterclasses at the Royal College of Music, Royal Academy of Music, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and for the Association of British Choral Directors.
Neil has conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, Welsh National Opera, New Queens Hall Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Orchestra of the Swan, Orchestra Vitae and Florilegium. He made his Royal Opera House conducting debut in a production of Will Tuckett’s ballet The Wind in the Willows.
Recordings include an album of the choral music of Jonathan Dove with Convivium Singers released on the Naxos label and Fauré’s Requiem on the Convivium Records label. Sonoro’s album Christmas with Sonoro, released by Resonus Classics, was the Christmas album of choice in the BBC Music Magazine, following on from their critically acclaimed debut album Passion and Polyphony featuring works of James MacMillan and Frank Martin. 2022 saw finally the Covid-delayed world premiere recording of Cecilia McDowall's Da Vinci Requiem, with Wimbledon Choral, the Philharmonia, Roderick Williams and Kate Royal.
Jeremy Jackman
2022: Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem
2018: Grayston Ives Requiem
2016: Chilcott Requiem
2018: Grayston Ives Requiem
2016: Chilcott Requiem
There is no such thing as a musician who has done everything: but then you glance at Jeremy Jackman's career to date and you begin to wonder....
As a member of the King's Singers for 10 years, he performed many times over in the world's most prestigious concert halls, and made countless recordings and broadcasts. He has worked with Julie Andrews, Placido Domingo and John Denver all at the same time, and once found himself (for TV) singing Christmas music on horseback at 8:30 am on a freezing October morning beside a lake in Yorkshire - wearing a monk's habit (don't ask!)
As a conductor you might expect to find that he has performed at the Royal Festival Hall, the Royal Albert Hall and St John's Smith Square (and you would be right). He has also directed performances at St Paul's Cathedral, St Mark's Venice, and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Less likely venues include St Pancras Station, a Belfast shopping mall, and underground caves in Slovenia: not forgetting the performance of Mussorgsky's 'Night on a Bare Mountain' with full symphony orchestra on a beach in Jamaica. Did he break the world record for conducting the largest number of participants in Benjamin Britten's "Noye's Fludde" at Alexandra Palace in 2009? There were certainly several zoo's-worth of children....
Jeremy's compositions have been performed in concert halls around the world, and he was recently surprised to discover that his music has even reached the silver screen. His arrangement of Bach's 'Bist du bei mir' is featured on the French film 'Polisse', which won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011.
As a member of the King's Singers for 10 years, he performed many times over in the world's most prestigious concert halls, and made countless recordings and broadcasts. He has worked with Julie Andrews, Placido Domingo and John Denver all at the same time, and once found himself (for TV) singing Christmas music on horseback at 8:30 am on a freezing October morning beside a lake in Yorkshire - wearing a monk's habit (don't ask!)
As a conductor you might expect to find that he has performed at the Royal Festival Hall, the Royal Albert Hall and St John's Smith Square (and you would be right). He has also directed performances at St Paul's Cathedral, St Mark's Venice, and the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Less likely venues include St Pancras Station, a Belfast shopping mall, and underground caves in Slovenia: not forgetting the performance of Mussorgsky's 'Night on a Bare Mountain' with full symphony orchestra on a beach in Jamaica. Did he break the world record for conducting the largest number of participants in Benjamin Britten's "Noye's Fludde" at Alexandra Palace in 2009? There were certainly several zoo's-worth of children....
Jeremy's compositions have been performed in concert halls around the world, and he was recently surprised to discover that his music has even reached the silver screen. His arrangement of Bach's 'Bist du bei mir' is featured on the French film 'Polisse', which won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011.
Mark Jordan
2022: Mozart Requiem
Described as dynamic, engaging and fun to work with, Mark Jordan is a freelance musician who works in all aspects of choral music.
He is the Musical Director of Milton Keynes Chorale and Oxford Pro Musica Singers, one of Oxford’s premier choirs. He is a member of the choral conducting team at the Chester Choral Week. He has been associated with the John Lewis Partnership Music Society for many years, primarily as accompanist, and in 2022 was elevated to the post of Music Director for the Society, succeeding Manvinder Rattan. Mark is a regular guest conductor of the Cathedral Singers of Christ Church Oxford, and of the award-winning chamber choir Canzonetta. He has also been Musical Director of the Hardynge Choir.
In demand as a freelance conductor throughout the UK, Mark recently worked as Chorus Master for Sir Karl Jenkins’ birthday UK tour.
He has a passion for training conductors and in addition to private lessons, he is a member of the conducting tutor team for the two national conductor training organisations: Sing for Pleasure and the Association of British Choral Directors.
In addition to his conducting work, he remains a skilled choral accompanist and has held previously held positions with Manchester Chorale, Canzonetta, Manchester University Chorus, John Lewis Partnership Music Society and Opera Unlimited. He is in demand for individual engagements and has been fortunate to work with a number of prominent soloists and conductors, including Lesley Garrett.
Mark is also a highly experienced choral singer having sung with several award-winning choirs including Canzonetta, Choros Amici, Singscape, Encoro, Chantage, Ensemble 45 and many others.
He is the Musical Director of Milton Keynes Chorale and Oxford Pro Musica Singers, one of Oxford’s premier choirs. He is a member of the choral conducting team at the Chester Choral Week. He has been associated with the John Lewis Partnership Music Society for many years, primarily as accompanist, and in 2022 was elevated to the post of Music Director for the Society, succeeding Manvinder Rattan. Mark is a regular guest conductor of the Cathedral Singers of Christ Church Oxford, and of the award-winning chamber choir Canzonetta. He has also been Musical Director of the Hardynge Choir.
In demand as a freelance conductor throughout the UK, Mark recently worked as Chorus Master for Sir Karl Jenkins’ birthday UK tour.
He has a passion for training conductors and in addition to private lessons, he is a member of the conducting tutor team for the two national conductor training organisations: Sing for Pleasure and the Association of British Choral Directors.
In addition to his conducting work, he remains a skilled choral accompanist and has held previously held positions with Manchester Chorale, Canzonetta, Manchester University Chorus, John Lewis Partnership Music Society and Opera Unlimited. He is in demand for individual engagements and has been fortunate to work with a number of prominent soloists and conductors, including Lesley Garrett.
Mark is also a highly experienced choral singer having sung with several award-winning choirs including Canzonetta, Choros Amici, Singscape, Encoro, Chantage, Ensemble 45 and many others.
Bob Porter
2018: Rutter Requiem
Robert (Bob) Porter began studying the bassoon aged 11 and at 14 was accepted as a Junior Exhibitioner at the Royal Academy of Music. Two years later, after playing with the National Youth Orchestra, he decided to give up all thoughts of a future in maths and instead, began a career which now encompasses musician, conductor, teacher, concert promoter and artistic director.
After studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Bob worked as a musician and teacher, returning to Guildhall to teach in the Junior Department from its inception and becoming Head of Wind Brass and Percussion in 1985 — a position he still holds today. As a performer he plays regularly with the London Mozart Players and has worked with every major professional orchestra in London.
In the early 1980s Bob founded the Brandenburg Sinfonia, the first of a group of orchestras under his artistic direction, which now also includes the Brandenburg Brass and Brandenburg Baroque Soloists. Playing regularly both in this country and abroad, one residency, at St Martin-in-the-Fields, gave him the idea for a Choral Festival based around some of the most beautiful churches in London. Starting in 2009 with six concerts at St Martins, the Brandenburg Choral Festival is now one of the largest and most significant Choral Festivals in the country. This year the Festival boasts over 120 choirs and concerts, covering the standard masterpieces of the choral repertoire along with jazz, barbershop and gospel, also making it one of the most varied and inclusive choral festivals.
In 1991 Bob was made a Freeman of the City of London for services to music — an honour which allows him to drive a flock of sheep over London Bridge... something he fully intends to do one of these days. In his spare time he is passionate about cricket, red wine and jazz, although not necessarily in that order!
After studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Bob worked as a musician and teacher, returning to Guildhall to teach in the Junior Department from its inception and becoming Head of Wind Brass and Percussion in 1985 — a position he still holds today. As a performer he plays regularly with the London Mozart Players and has worked with every major professional orchestra in London.
In the early 1980s Bob founded the Brandenburg Sinfonia, the first of a group of orchestras under his artistic direction, which now also includes the Brandenburg Brass and Brandenburg Baroque Soloists. Playing regularly both in this country and abroad, one residency, at St Martin-in-the-Fields, gave him the idea for a Choral Festival based around some of the most beautiful churches in London. Starting in 2009 with six concerts at St Martins, the Brandenburg Choral Festival is now one of the largest and most significant Choral Festivals in the country. This year the Festival boasts over 120 choirs and concerts, covering the standard masterpieces of the choral repertoire along with jazz, barbershop and gospel, also making it one of the most varied and inclusive choral festivals.
In 1991 Bob was made a Freeman of the City of London for services to music — an honour which allows him to drive a flock of sheep over London Bridge... something he fully intends to do one of these days. In his spare time he is passionate about cricket, red wine and jazz, although not necessarily in that order!
Joanna Tomlinson
2016: Duruflé Requiem
Joanna Tomlinson is the Music Director of London-based Constanza Chorus and Assistant Director of Farnham youth Choirs. With Constanza Chorus she has recently conducted Brahms Requiem with the London Mozart Players and Mendelssohn Elijah at Cadagon Hall and mass at St Peter's Basilica in Rome. She also directs the Constanza Chamber Choir.
Joanna will be taking up the position of Musical Director of Farnham Youth Choirs in July 2016. The senior choir is an award-winning upper voice choir, who won two gold medals in the 2015 European Choir Games in Magdeburg.
She is former Music Director of the Reading University Choirs and has worked with some of the UK's top choirs including Manchester Chamber Choir, London Symphony Chorus, Joyful Company of Singers, Royal College of Music Chorus, East London Chorus, Excelsis Chamber choir, The Whitehall Choir, Trinity Laban Junior College Choirs, and Wimbledon Choral Society.
She has studied conducting with Neil Ferris and Peter Hanke, and at Sherborne Summer School under George Hurst. She has participated in masterclasses with Paul Brough, Patrick Russell, Peter Broadbent, Michael Reif and John Dickson.
Joanna is also a professional singer and studied at the Royal College of Music, where she gained the post-graduate diploma in singing with Distinction. Joanna has appeared as soprano soloist in all the core oratorio repertoire. As a choral singer, Joanna works with BBC Singers, Philharmonia Voices, Britten Sinfonia voices, Gabrieli Consort, Le Consort D'Astrée and Sonoro.
Joanna has taught singing dor over ten years and has also worked as a choral vocal coach. She has taught at Bedales School, Trinity Laban Junior Department and Royal College of Music Junior Department and worked as vocal coach to the Polish National Youth choir.
Joanna will be taking up the position of Musical Director of Farnham Youth Choirs in July 2016. The senior choir is an award-winning upper voice choir, who won two gold medals in the 2015 European Choir Games in Magdeburg.
She is former Music Director of the Reading University Choirs and has worked with some of the UK's top choirs including Manchester Chamber Choir, London Symphony Chorus, Joyful Company of Singers, Royal College of Music Chorus, East London Chorus, Excelsis Chamber choir, The Whitehall Choir, Trinity Laban Junior College Choirs, and Wimbledon Choral Society.
She has studied conducting with Neil Ferris and Peter Hanke, and at Sherborne Summer School under George Hurst. She has participated in masterclasses with Paul Brough, Patrick Russell, Peter Broadbent, Michael Reif and John Dickson.
Joanna is also a professional singer and studied at the Royal College of Music, where she gained the post-graduate diploma in singing with Distinction. Joanna has appeared as soprano soloist in all the core oratorio repertoire. As a choral singer, Joanna works with BBC Singers, Philharmonia Voices, Britten Sinfonia voices, Gabrieli Consort, Le Consort D'Astrée and Sonoro.
Joanna has taught singing dor over ten years and has also worked as a choral vocal coach. She has taught at Bedales School, Trinity Laban Junior Department and Royal College of Music Junior Department and worked as vocal coach to the Polish National Youth choir.
Accompanists |
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Michael Higgins
2022: McDowall Da Vinci Requiem
2018: Verdi Requiem
2016: Mozart Requiem
2018: Verdi Requiem
2016: Mozart Requiem
Michael Higgins is a pianist, accompanist, composer and arranger. With a special interest in choral accompaniment, Michael is in demand with some of the leading choirs in the country and works with the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain, London Voices, Wimbledon Choral and he is Co-Artistic Director of Sonoro with Neil Ferris. In 2012 Michael spent six months travelling across the USA filming a series for American television with popular choir master Gareth Malone, and also appeared on the Queen’s Christmas Message accompanying the Military Wives Choir at Buckingham Palace.
Michael has performed throughout the UK at venues including the Royal Festival Hall, London, Symphony Hall, Birmingham and Usher Hall, Edinburgh, as well as across Europe and further afield in Australia and New Zealand. As a rehearsal pianist, he has worked with conductors Daniel Barenboim, Gustavo Dudamel, Jiří Bělohlávek, and Sakari Oramo.
As a composer and arranger he has written for Farnham Youth Choir, the National Children’s Choir of Great Britain, corporate films and television commercials including the 2014 Waitrose Christmas advert, arrangements for the albums Voices and A Great British Christmas released on the Decca label, as well as the Classic BRIT awards, BBC Children in Need, the Royal Variety Performance and a season of It Takes a Choir for American television. Many of his works, including his arrangement of Fauré’s Requiem for string quintet and organ, are published by the Royal School of Church Music, Novello and Oxford University Press.
Michael studied piano with Margaret Newman at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and at the Royal Academy of Music, London, with Iain Ledingham and Julius Drake. He was awarded the Joseph Weingarten Memorial Trust Scholarship and continued his studies with Kálmán Dráfi at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest.
Michael has performed throughout the UK at venues including the Royal Festival Hall, London, Symphony Hall, Birmingham and Usher Hall, Edinburgh, as well as across Europe and further afield in Australia and New Zealand. As a rehearsal pianist, he has worked with conductors Daniel Barenboim, Gustavo Dudamel, Jiří Bělohlávek, and Sakari Oramo.
As a composer and arranger he has written for Farnham Youth Choir, the National Children’s Choir of Great Britain, corporate films and television commercials including the 2014 Waitrose Christmas advert, arrangements for the albums Voices and A Great British Christmas released on the Decca label, as well as the Classic BRIT awards, BBC Children in Need, the Royal Variety Performance and a season of It Takes a Choir for American television. Many of his works, including his arrangement of Fauré’s Requiem for string quintet and organ, are published by the Royal School of Church Music, Novello and Oxford University Press.
Michael studied piano with Margaret Newman at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and at the Royal Academy of Music, London, with Iain Ledingham and Julius Drake. He was awarded the Joseph Weingarten Memorial Trust Scholarship and continued his studies with Kálmán Dráfi at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest.
Nicola Rose
2022: Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem
2016: Chilcott Requiem
2016: Chilcott Requiem
Nicola Rose gained a BMus (Hons) degree in piano accompaniment from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. She continued working at the college as a Junior Fellow in Accompaniment on the MA Opera Performance course for two years. In 2012 Nicola completed her studies as a trainee at the National Opera Studio in London.
Nicola has a passion for education, outreach and community work and has worked as a pianist for the Welsh National Youth Opera and more recently for the Royal Opera House, Garsington and Opera Holland Park youth and community departments.
Now based primarily in Cardiff, Nicola works as a freelance pianist, repetiteur and teacher.
Nicola has a passion for education, outreach and community work and has worked as a pianist for the Welsh National Youth Opera and more recently for the Royal Opera House, Garsington and Opera Holland Park youth and community departments.
Now based primarily in Cardiff, Nicola works as a freelance pianist, repetiteur and teacher.
David Doidge
2022: Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem
Like Nicki Rose, David Doidge is a graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
Today, he is a principal répétiteur at the Welsh National Opera.
Today, he is a principal répétiteur at the Welsh National Opera.
Simon Gregory
2022: Mozart Requiem & Faure Requiem
2016: Duruflé Requiem
2016: Duruflé Requiem
Simon Gregory studied music at Christ Church, Oxford under Simon Preston and Francis Grier and organ with Richard Popplewell, Nicholas Danby and Anne Marsden-Thomas.
He retired from teaching in July 2020 at Emanuel School, Wandsworth, where he had been Head of Music and Head of Lower School during his 36-year career there. He is an administrator and accompanist for the Association of British Choral Directors Advanced and Intermediate Choral Conducting courses. Simon has acted as tutor and accompanist on Sherborne Choral Conducting courses in addition to accompanying Sherborne Choral Courses with Jeremy Jackman. As well as giving organ recitals throughout the UK, he has accompanied various choirs in concerts, workshops and at services in many English Cathedrals. He is also a past council member of ABCD and has held posts as Musical Director with several choral societies.
He retired from teaching in July 2020 at Emanuel School, Wandsworth, where he had been Head of Music and Head of Lower School during his 36-year career there. He is an administrator and accompanist for the Association of British Choral Directors Advanced and Intermediate Choral Conducting courses. Simon has acted as tutor and accompanist on Sherborne Choral Conducting courses in addition to accompanying Sherborne Choral Courses with Jeremy Jackman. As well as giving organ recitals throughout the UK, he has accompanied various choirs in concerts, workshops and at services in many English Cathedrals. He is also a past council member of ABCD and has held posts as Musical Director with several choral societies.
Alastair Penman
2022 - Anthem (Premiere)
Saxophonist Alastair Penman is a dynamic and versatile performer and composer, presenting contemporary music in new and exciting ways. Having earned masters’ degrees in both Information and Computer Engineering (University of Cambridge) and Saxophone Performance (Royal Northern College of Music), Alastair has a strong interest in the fusion of live saxophone performance with electronic effects, backings, and enhancements to create often previously undiscovered sound-worlds.
As an educator, Alastair has been a Professor of Saxophone at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama since 2020 (previously Visiting Professor of Saxophone and Electronics, 2018-20) and has taught classes at the Royal Northern College of Music, Trinity Laban Conservatoire and Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama as well as internationally at UCLA and Cal State Fullerton (USA). Alastair is a regular tutor for Benslow Music, has been a guest tutor for the National Youth Wind Orchestra of Great Britain and has taught students for University of Cambridge and University of Liverpool.
As an educator, Alastair has been a Professor of Saxophone at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama since 2020 (previously Visiting Professor of Saxophone and Electronics, 2018-20) and has taught classes at the Royal Northern College of Music, Trinity Laban Conservatoire and Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama as well as internationally at UCLA and Cal State Fullerton (USA). Alastair is a regular tutor for Benslow Music, has been a guest tutor for the National Youth Wind Orchestra of Great Britain and has taught students for University of Cambridge and University of Liverpool.
Charles Curtin
2022 - Anthem
Charlie Curtin is a student at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, playing both saxophone and clarinet.
He is also a keen singer so may well be seen joining in with some of the requiems.
He is also a keen singer so may well be seen joining in with some of the requiems.
Ben Lewis-Smith
2018: Ives Requiem
Benedict Lewis-Smith was organ scholar at The Queen’s College, Oxford (2007–2010), and prior to this was awarded a place as a specialist musician and organ scholar at Wells Cathedral School, Somerset. He is now Director of Music at St Columba’s Church, Knightsbridge and combines this role with a substantial freelance career in London including vocal coaching, accompanying and conducting. He currently conducts the office choirs of BNY Mellon, Fidelity International and News Corp.
He has broadcast on BBC radio 3, and recently recorded on the digital label Resonus Classics and Regent Records. Recent performances include recitals in the Victoria International Arts Festival, Gozo, and a concert tour of Buenos Aires, where he delivered classes in English song to the students at the Departamento de Artes Musicales y Sonoras.
Previously Director of Music at St. George’s School, Windsor Castle he now works with choirs at Westminster School and Hill House International Preparatory School in London. He also performs alongside Julian Collings as the Oxbridge Organ Duo, with recent performances in Kristiansand Cathedral (Norway) and St George’s Basilica (Gozo). They are soon to release a CD with Regent Records “Firebird: virtuosic works for organ duet” www.oxbridgeorganduo.com
He has broadcast on BBC radio 3, and recently recorded on the digital label Resonus Classics and Regent Records. Recent performances include recitals in the Victoria International Arts Festival, Gozo, and a concert tour of Buenos Aires, where he delivered classes in English song to the students at the Departamento de Artes Musicales y Sonoras.
Previously Director of Music at St. George’s School, Windsor Castle he now works with choirs at Westminster School and Hill House International Preparatory School in London. He also performs alongside Julian Collings as the Oxbridge Organ Duo, with recent performances in Kristiansand Cathedral (Norway) and St George’s Basilica (Gozo). They are soon to release a CD with Regent Records “Firebird: virtuosic works for organ duet” www.oxbridgeorganduo.com
Max Barley
2018: Rutter Requiem
Max Barley was a chorister at King’s College, Cambridge, and later organ scholar of St John’s College, Oxford, where he read Modern Languages. He has studied conducting in London and at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater, Munich, where his teachers have included Neil Ferris, Michael Gläser, Denise Ham, Ralph Allwood and Martin Neary.
He is Director of Music at St Mary’s Wimbledon, Principal Conductor of Guildford Chamber Choir, Music Director of Choir of the 21st Century, Eltham Choral Society and Wimbledon Youth Choir. He was formerly Assistant Director of Tiffin Boys’ Choir and Trinity Laban Chapel Choir. Recent and forthcoming highlights include St Matthew Passion with Nicholas Mulroy and members of the OAE, and Verdi Requiem in Southwark Cathedral. He has worked on choral courses in UK and China, including Eton Choral Courses, National Children’s Choir and National Youth Choir of Wales.
He is Director of Music at St Mary’s Wimbledon, Principal Conductor of Guildford Chamber Choir, Music Director of Choir of the 21st Century, Eltham Choral Society and Wimbledon Youth Choir. He was formerly Assistant Director of Tiffin Boys’ Choir and Trinity Laban Chapel Choir. Recent and forthcoming highlights include St Matthew Passion with Nicholas Mulroy and members of the OAE, and Verdi Requiem in Southwark Cathedral. He has worked on choral courses in UK and China, including Eton Choral Courses, National Children’s Choir and National Youth Choir of Wales.
Tristan Fry
2018: Will Todd Anthem
Tristan Frederick Allan Fry is a British drummer and percussionist. Fry began his career by joining the London Philharmonic Orchestra as a timpanist at the age of 17. He was a founder member of a number of ensembles, including the Nash, Fires of London and the London Sinfonietta. He also worked as a session musician with various pop and rock artists such as The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Olivia Newton-John, John Martyn, Elton John, Nick Drake, and David Essex, among others. Fry was percussionist on the Beatles' "A Day In The Life", contributing timpani to the song's two orchestral climaxes.[1] He also played in various other recordings including TV and movie soundtracks, and as Tristan was the timpanist with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Orchestra he has performed on many of their recorded works and concerts.
From 1979 - 1995 he was the drummer with the progressive rock group Sky[2] with John Williams, Kevin Peek, Francis Monkman, Herbie Flowers and later Steve Gray when Monkman left to pursue other projects. It was during this period that he attained a reputation as a live drummer, with a revolving double 'Premier' Kit, long drum solos in tracks such as "Hotta" (from the album Sky 2), "Meheeco" (from the album Sky 3) and "Son of Hotta" (from the later Cadmium album).
Fry was seen playing timpani at the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011.
From 1979 - 1995 he was the drummer with the progressive rock group Sky[2] with John Williams, Kevin Peek, Francis Monkman, Herbie Flowers and later Steve Gray when Monkman left to pursue other projects. It was during this period that he attained a reputation as a live drummer, with a revolving double 'Premier' Kit, long drum solos in tracks such as "Hotta" (from the album Sky 2), "Meheeco" (from the album Sky 3) and "Son of Hotta" (from the later Cadmium album).
Fry was seen playing timpani at the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011.
Composers |
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Janet Wheeler
2022: Anthem
Throughout her career Janet Wheeler has worn various musical hats: teacher, music producer for BBC Schools Radio, and MD of choirs from choral societies to small ensembles. Though continually writing and arranging music in all these roles, it is only over the last ten years that she has reached a wider audience. Her music has been performed at the Wigmore Hall by I Fagiolini, at Saffron Hall, in cathedrals and college chapels across the UK and abroad, at the Three Choirs Festival, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
She has written music for a wide variety of musicians and groups. Whether targeted at beginners, experienced amateurs or professional performers, she always aims to provide satisfying and distinctive material for all the participants. She enjoys the process of expressing the nuances of poetic meaning musically, and recently she has also begun writing her own texts for some of her choral works – particularly in recent works inspired by personal or contemporary situations, or newly discovered science for example.
Her ongoing interest in music education saw her running a young composers’ carol competition for over twenty years and she has recently mentored young composers for ORA Chamber Choir’s composing competition.
Janet’s music draws upon a variety of different musical styles and soundworlds as exemplified by some of her larger choral and orchestral works. For example Sea Tongue (2004) to a text of Kevin Crossley-Holland, has a strongly dramatic, even operatic intensity; On the Breath of the Sky (2007) is jazz-influenced; and Magnificat cum Angelis (2012) is inspired by the energy and modality of middle eastern dance music. By contrast, The Ceaseless Round of Circling Planets, premièred at the Thaxted Festival in 2016, has a distinctive and unusual waterphone solo, and makes use both of aleatoric choral textures and of a large-scale variation form around Gibbons’ hymn tune and Holst’s martial rhythms.
The mainstay of Janet’s output is small-scale often a cappella choral music. Her Beati Quorum Via, Homage to Stanford (2019), commissioned for SONORO in their first series of ‘Choral Inspirations’, has been widely performed by numerous choirs and recorded and broadcast by the BBC Symphony Chorus, conducted by Neil Ferris.
In 2021 Janet’s brass quintet Film Noir for Onyx Brass won her the John Armitage Memorial Trust’s inaugural president’s commission, which resulted in her second piece for Onyx, Up in the Morning Early. Other recent commissions include In Every Corner Sing, commissioned by the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music to celebrate the 400th anniversary of St Pancras Church, and The Measure of a Tree, a 40-minute cantata exploring the crucial significance of trees, both to humans and to the ecosystems they support. Janet is currently working on a set of canticles for Ely Cathedral and a collaboration with poet Kevin Crossley-Holland.
She has written music for a wide variety of musicians and groups. Whether targeted at beginners, experienced amateurs or professional performers, she always aims to provide satisfying and distinctive material for all the participants. She enjoys the process of expressing the nuances of poetic meaning musically, and recently she has also begun writing her own texts for some of her choral works – particularly in recent works inspired by personal or contemporary situations, or newly discovered science for example.
Her ongoing interest in music education saw her running a young composers’ carol competition for over twenty years and she has recently mentored young composers for ORA Chamber Choir’s composing competition.
Janet’s music draws upon a variety of different musical styles and soundworlds as exemplified by some of her larger choral and orchestral works. For example Sea Tongue (2004) to a text of Kevin Crossley-Holland, has a strongly dramatic, even operatic intensity; On the Breath of the Sky (2007) is jazz-influenced; and Magnificat cum Angelis (2012) is inspired by the energy and modality of middle eastern dance music. By contrast, The Ceaseless Round of Circling Planets, premièred at the Thaxted Festival in 2016, has a distinctive and unusual waterphone solo, and makes use both of aleatoric choral textures and of a large-scale variation form around Gibbons’ hymn tune and Holst’s martial rhythms.
The mainstay of Janet’s output is small-scale often a cappella choral music. Her Beati Quorum Via, Homage to Stanford (2019), commissioned for SONORO in their first series of ‘Choral Inspirations’, has been widely performed by numerous choirs and recorded and broadcast by the BBC Symphony Chorus, conducted by Neil Ferris.
In 2021 Janet’s brass quintet Film Noir for Onyx Brass won her the John Armitage Memorial Trust’s inaugural president’s commission, which resulted in her second piece for Onyx, Up in the Morning Early. Other recent commissions include In Every Corner Sing, commissioned by the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music to celebrate the 400th anniversary of St Pancras Church, and The Measure of a Tree, a 40-minute cantata exploring the crucial significance of trees, both to humans and to the ecosystems they support. Janet is currently working on a set of canticles for Ely Cathedral and a collaboration with poet Kevin Crossley-Holland.
Will Todd
2018: Anthem
Will Todd’s music is sung and loved all over the world. A composer of great fluency, his work encompasses choral works large and small, opera, musical theatre and orchestral pieces, as well as jazz compositions and chamber works. His 2003 mass setting Mass in Blue has been performed extensively worldwide; many times with the Will Todd Trio and Will at the piano. He has collaborated with award winning choirs The Sixteen and Tenebrae, as well as with the BBC Singers, BBC Concert Orchestra, The Halle Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, Opera Holland Park, Welsh National Opera, The Bach Choir and The Genesis Foundation. His discography includes best selling choral discs Lux Et Veritas and The Call of Wisdom (Tenebrae; Nigel Short), Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Opera Holland Park) and Mass in Blue, all on the Signum Classic label. His music is regularly broadcast on Classic FM, as well as on BBC Radio 3. Will Todd’s music is valued for its melodic intensity and harmonic skill, often incorporating jazz colours, and his choral music is much in demand from amateur as well as professional performers. He has worked extensively with community choirs, children’s choirs, youth choirs and church choirs, writing a large body of approachable liturgical music and directing regular workshops in the UK and internationally. Notable works include the operas The Blackened Man (2001), Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (2013), Sweetness and Badness (2006), the oratorios Saint Cuthbert (1995), Ode To a Nightingale (2011), Rage Against the Dying of the Light (2014), The City Garden (2013), The Burning Road (1996), the musical The Screams of Kitty Genovese (2010), choral works Mass in Blue (2003), Requiem (2009), Te Deum (2008), Jazz Missa Brevis (2015), My Lord Has Come (2012), The Call of Wisdom (2012), and orchestral pieces Concerto For Emma (clarinet concerto 2015), Suite from Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1994) and Violin Concerto (1996). In 2016 he collaborated with the former children’s laureate Michael Rosen to create Lights, Stories, Noise, Dreams, Love and Noodles, a work commissioned by The Bach Choir for youth singers, choir and band. Will Todd grew up in the city of Durham in North East England, where his grandfather worked as a coal miner. He now lives in the South East of England with his family.
Cecilia McDowall
2016: Anthem
Cecilia McDowall was born in London in 1951, educated at Edinburgh and London Universities and was a prize-winning student at Trinity College of Music. She has a distinctive style which speaks directly to listeners, instrumentalists and singers alike. Her most characteristic works fuse fluent melodic lines with occasional dissonant harmonies and rhythmic exuberance.
Her music has been commissioned and performed by leading choirs, including the BBC Singers, ensembles, and at festivals worldwide. She has won many awards and has been short-listed four times for the British Composer Awards.
Her 2011 work The Shipping Forecast (commissioned by the Portsmouth Festival Choir), gained national media attention. Cecilia says "There's something rather beguiling and mysterious about the Shipping Forecast which sounds so poetic, but at the same time is very crucial to people at sea". The work reflects the mystery and force of the sea, drawing together the poetry of Sean Street, the psalm 'They that go down in the sea in ships', and the words of the shipping forecast itself.
Recent projects include Some Corner of a Foreign Field, scored for choir and orchestra to mark the centenary of WW1, setting texts from WW1 poets plus references to poems by Dulwich College alumni Sir Ernest Shackleton. Night Flight, scored for SSATB and solo cello marks the centenary of Harriet Quimby's pioneering journey across the English Channel. She sets text by Sheila Bryer relating to the mysterious power of the sea, earth and air. Cecilia was awarded the 2014 British Composer Award (Choral category) for Night Flight.
Choral works published by OUP in the New Horizons series include three Latin motets: Ave Regina, Ave Maria and Regina Caeli, the exuberant Christmas cantata Christus Natus Est, the sumptuous peace motet Ave maris stella and the Magnificat.
McDowall's works are regularly broadcast on BBC Radio and readily available on CD. A new choral disc, featuring the City of Canterbury Chamber Choir and soprano Rachel Nicholls, was released on the Dutton Epoch label last year. Three Latin motets have been recorded by the renowned American Choir, Phoenix Chorale, (Chandos); this recording, Spotless Rose (Hymns to the Virgin Mary), won a Grammy award in 2010 for 'Best small ensemble performance' and was nominated for 'Best Classical Album'. Cecilia has recently been signed by Oxford University Press and is currently Composer-in-Residence at Dulwich College.
Photo Credit: Christie Dickason
Her music has been commissioned and performed by leading choirs, including the BBC Singers, ensembles, and at festivals worldwide. She has won many awards and has been short-listed four times for the British Composer Awards.
Her 2011 work The Shipping Forecast (commissioned by the Portsmouth Festival Choir), gained national media attention. Cecilia says "There's something rather beguiling and mysterious about the Shipping Forecast which sounds so poetic, but at the same time is very crucial to people at sea". The work reflects the mystery and force of the sea, drawing together the poetry of Sean Street, the psalm 'They that go down in the sea in ships', and the words of the shipping forecast itself.
Recent projects include Some Corner of a Foreign Field, scored for choir and orchestra to mark the centenary of WW1, setting texts from WW1 poets plus references to poems by Dulwich College alumni Sir Ernest Shackleton. Night Flight, scored for SSATB and solo cello marks the centenary of Harriet Quimby's pioneering journey across the English Channel. She sets text by Sheila Bryer relating to the mysterious power of the sea, earth and air. Cecilia was awarded the 2014 British Composer Award (Choral category) for Night Flight.
Choral works published by OUP in the New Horizons series include three Latin motets: Ave Regina, Ave Maria and Regina Caeli, the exuberant Christmas cantata Christus Natus Est, the sumptuous peace motet Ave maris stella and the Magnificat.
McDowall's works are regularly broadcast on BBC Radio and readily available on CD. A new choral disc, featuring the City of Canterbury Chamber Choir and soprano Rachel Nicholls, was released on the Dutton Epoch label last year. Three Latin motets have been recorded by the renowned American Choir, Phoenix Chorale, (Chandos); this recording, Spotless Rose (Hymns to the Virgin Mary), won a Grammy award in 2010 for 'Best small ensemble performance' and was nominated for 'Best Classical Album'. Cecilia has recently been signed by Oxford University Press and is currently Composer-in-Residence at Dulwich College.
Photo Credit: Christie Dickason
Soloists |
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Clare Robertson-Hughes
2022 - Brahms
Clare Robertson-Hughes has been singing all her life!
As a soprano soloist, she has been engaged by choral societies all over the country for performances that include Handel’s Messiah, Poulenc’s Gloria, Vivaldi’s Gloria , Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, Cecilia McDowall’s Magnificat and the celebrated Allegri’s ‘Miserere’ with its remarkable top C. For several years she was invited to sing the soprano solos at the Sherborne Summer School of Music in Dorset in performances of Haydn’s Nelson Mass and ‘Maria Theresa’ Mass, and Purcell’s The Fairy Queen .
As well as being asked to record songs for productions at the Little Theatre in Leicester , Clare has recorded the soprano solo in Bernard Rose’s Feast Song for St Cecilia with the Cecilian Singers of Leicester and performed it with them in Notre Dame, Paris under the direction of Jeremy Jackman.
Clare currently sings with Mosaic, an East Midlands a cappella group of eight solo singers and its sister group of upper voices, Tesserae.
By day, Clare is a senior lecturer at De Montfort University in Leicester.
As a soprano soloist, she has been engaged by choral societies all over the country for performances that include Handel’s Messiah, Poulenc’s Gloria, Vivaldi’s Gloria , Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, Cecilia McDowall’s Magnificat and the celebrated Allegri’s ‘Miserere’ with its remarkable top C. For several years she was invited to sing the soprano solos at the Sherborne Summer School of Music in Dorset in performances of Haydn’s Nelson Mass and ‘Maria Theresa’ Mass, and Purcell’s The Fairy Queen .
As well as being asked to record songs for productions at the Little Theatre in Leicester , Clare has recorded the soprano solo in Bernard Rose’s Feast Song for St Cecilia with the Cecilian Singers of Leicester and performed it with them in Notre Dame, Paris under the direction of Jeremy Jackman.
Clare currently sings with Mosaic, an East Midlands a cappella group of eight solo singers and its sister group of upper voices, Tesserae.
By day, Clare is a senior lecturer at De Montfort University in Leicester.
Laurence Williams
2022 - Brahms
Acclaimed for his eloquent singing and lush tone, Laurence Williams is an international Bass-Baritone soloist, specialising in oratorio singing. He was runner up in the 2019 Patricia Routledge National English Song Competition.
Recent highlights include:
- Bach’s Mass in B Minor with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra
- World premiere of Stephen McNeff’s The Waking Shadows with Canticum Choir at St Martin-in-the-Fields
- Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Stephen Layton and the Auckland Philharmonia, broadcast live on Radio NZ
- Haydn’s Nelson Mass with John Butt and the OAE.
He trained at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama and graduated with distinction and a Concert Recital Diploma in 2017. He is widely praised for his lyrical tone and engaging communication of narrative. He was a finalist in the 2018 London Song Festival Masterclass. Recent operatic roles have included Colline in Puccini’s La Bohème (Hampstead Garden Opera), Mr Gedge in Britten’s Albert Herring (Hampstead Garden Opera), Smirnov in Walton’s The Bear (Cambridge Opera Society & Leeds Chamber Ensemble), and Opera Scenes Various (The Guildhall School of Music and Drama).
Laurence is a sought after musician in the United Kingdom, active with choirs such as Polyphony, The Gabrieli Consort and ORA. He is passionate about introducing young voices to choral music and has extensive experience directing children’s and youth choirs.
Photo credit: Bertie Watson Photography
www.laurencewilliams.org
Recent highlights include:
- Bach’s Mass in B Minor with the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra
- World premiere of Stephen McNeff’s The Waking Shadows with Canticum Choir at St Martin-in-the-Fields
- Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Stephen Layton and the Auckland Philharmonia, broadcast live on Radio NZ
- Haydn’s Nelson Mass with John Butt and the OAE.
He trained at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama and graduated with distinction and a Concert Recital Diploma in 2017. He is widely praised for his lyrical tone and engaging communication of narrative. He was a finalist in the 2018 London Song Festival Masterclass. Recent operatic roles have included Colline in Puccini’s La Bohème (Hampstead Garden Opera), Mr Gedge in Britten’s Albert Herring (Hampstead Garden Opera), Smirnov in Walton’s The Bear (Cambridge Opera Society & Leeds Chamber Ensemble), and Opera Scenes Various (The Guildhall School of Music and Drama).
Laurence is a sought after musician in the United Kingdom, active with choirs such as Polyphony, The Gabrieli Consort and ORA. He is passionate about introducing young voices to choral music and has extensive experience directing children’s and youth choirs.
Photo credit: Bertie Watson Photography
www.laurencewilliams.org
Katy Thomson
2022 - McDowall & Mozart
Scottish Soprano Katy Thomson is a graduate of Durham University, the Royal College of Music (RCM) and was a Britten Pears Young Artist (2021-2022). The uniquely warm tone of her voice and her captivating stage presence are increasingly in demand on operatic stages and recital platforms across the UK.
Katy returned to Garsington Opera as an Alvarez Young Artist for the 2022 season. In 2021, she stepped in to make her debut as the Marschallin in Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier (“a graceful, wise and moving Marschallin” – Neil Fisher) and won the Helen Clarke Award.
Katy was awarded the Worshipful Company of Musicians Silver Medal upon graduating from the Royal College of Music (RCM) Opera Studio in September 2020, for her outstanding talent and contribution to life at the RCM. She recently featured as a Young Artist for the Bitesize Proms and at the Oxford Lieder Festival (2020 & 2021).
Passionate about contemporary music, Katy is known for her exceptional musicianship and creative curiosity. Recent world premiere performances include: Omri Kochavi’s Nahar Amok at the 2022 Aldeburgh Festival; Oliver Tarney’s St. Mark Passion at the 2019 St. Endellion Easter Festival and Welsh National Opera soprano soloist for Rebecca Dale’s Materna Requiem at the 2018 North Wales International Music Festival.
Katy is also a singing teacher for the John Lewis Partnership Music Society and regularly facilitates workshops for choirs and choral societies across the UK including Hertford Choral Society, The New Gloriana Choir and the Lowry Girls. She also teaches regularly for Sing for Pleasure, including featuring on their webinar series.
Photo credit: Eugene Dillon-Hooper
www.katythomson.co.uk
Katy returned to Garsington Opera as an Alvarez Young Artist for the 2022 season. In 2021, she stepped in to make her debut as the Marschallin in Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier (“a graceful, wise and moving Marschallin” – Neil Fisher) and won the Helen Clarke Award.
Katy was awarded the Worshipful Company of Musicians Silver Medal upon graduating from the Royal College of Music (RCM) Opera Studio in September 2020, for her outstanding talent and contribution to life at the RCM. She recently featured as a Young Artist for the Bitesize Proms and at the Oxford Lieder Festival (2020 & 2021).
Passionate about contemporary music, Katy is known for her exceptional musicianship and creative curiosity. Recent world premiere performances include: Omri Kochavi’s Nahar Amok at the 2022 Aldeburgh Festival; Oliver Tarney’s St. Mark Passion at the 2019 St. Endellion Easter Festival and Welsh National Opera soprano soloist for Rebecca Dale’s Materna Requiem at the 2018 North Wales International Music Festival.
Katy is also a singing teacher for the John Lewis Partnership Music Society and regularly facilitates workshops for choirs and choral societies across the UK including Hertford Choral Society, The New Gloriana Choir and the Lowry Girls. She also teaches regularly for Sing for Pleasure, including featuring on their webinar series.
Photo credit: Eugene Dillon-Hooper
www.katythomson.co.uk
Katey Rylands
2022 - Mozart
Katey Rylands is an English Mezzo-Soprano currently studying a Masters degree at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music under the guidance of Giles Underwood, Alex Ashworth and Chad Vindin.
Katey’s time at Wells Cathedral School as a specialist musician had a massive impact on her vocal development, including working with tutors such as Isobel Buchanan. She was encouraged to sing solo repertoire in concerts and lunchtime recitals, leading to experiences like singing operatic repertoire to the British Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine. She is a participant in the student scheme of the Philharmonia Chorus, and has worked with established conductors Edward Gardiner and Stephen Cleobury and in a masterclass led by the renowned Irish mezzo-soprano Dame Ann Murray, an event that has strengthened her love for Baroque opera.
Since November 2021 she has been a member of the Josephine Baker Trust, allowing Katey to be acknowledged as an employable Oratorio artist for choral societies around the UK. Of her performance in the title role of Dido in a London-based production of Purcell’s masterpiece Dido & Aeneas, Opera Today said "Katey Rylands was excellent, allying crystal-clear diction with really affecting phrasing and ornament. This is a voice that really pleases and coaxes the ear."
In September, Katey will be starting her last year of her Master’s degree at RAM and is excited to see what great opportunities will come her way in the coming few months.
Photo credit: Daniel Stroud Photography
www.facebook.com/bigcurlsmezzo
Katey’s time at Wells Cathedral School as a specialist musician had a massive impact on her vocal development, including working with tutors such as Isobel Buchanan. She was encouraged to sing solo repertoire in concerts and lunchtime recitals, leading to experiences like singing operatic repertoire to the British Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine. She is a participant in the student scheme of the Philharmonia Chorus, and has worked with established conductors Edward Gardiner and Stephen Cleobury and in a masterclass led by the renowned Irish mezzo-soprano Dame Ann Murray, an event that has strengthened her love for Baroque opera.
Since November 2021 she has been a member of the Josephine Baker Trust, allowing Katey to be acknowledged as an employable Oratorio artist for choral societies around the UK. Of her performance in the title role of Dido in a London-based production of Purcell’s masterpiece Dido & Aeneas, Opera Today said "Katey Rylands was excellent, allying crystal-clear diction with really affecting phrasing and ornament. This is a voice that really pleases and coaxes the ear."
In September, Katey will be starting her last year of her Master’s degree at RAM and is excited to see what great opportunities will come her way in the coming few months.
Photo credit: Daniel Stroud Photography
www.facebook.com/bigcurlsmezzo
Chris Why
2022 - Mozart
Chris is a freelance tenor based in West Yorkshire. He began his musical training as a chorister at Lincoln Cathedral and has served as a Lay Clerk at both Wakefield and Manchester Cathedrals. He has a First-class degree in music from the University of Sheffield. Subsequently, he was awarded the Mrs Stewart Blake recital prize and the Young Singer’s Bursary with professional ensemble Stile Antico.
He currently performs on the opera, oratorio and recital stages. Recent highlights include Bach Johannes-Passion (St Mary Redcliffe), Verdi Requiem (Bath Bach Choir and Exeter Festival Chorus), Britten Saint Nicolas (East Riding County Choir), Handel Messiah (Salford Choral Society), and is seen performing regularly for Leeds Rhinos Rugby Club.
Alongside this, Chris teaches singing privately and at Gateways Independent School in Harewood, Leeds. In 2020, Chris was a finalist in the Concorso Musica Sacra international singing competition in Rome, where he performed live on Italian radio and television.
www.chris-why.co.uk
He currently performs on the opera, oratorio and recital stages. Recent highlights include Bach Johannes-Passion (St Mary Redcliffe), Verdi Requiem (Bath Bach Choir and Exeter Festival Chorus), Britten Saint Nicolas (East Riding County Choir), Handel Messiah (Salford Choral Society), and is seen performing regularly for Leeds Rhinos Rugby Club.
Alongside this, Chris teaches singing privately and at Gateways Independent School in Harewood, Leeds. In 2020, Chris was a finalist in the Concorso Musica Sacra international singing competition in Rome, where he performed live on Italian radio and television.
www.chris-why.co.uk
Frazer Scott
2022 - McDowall & Mozart
Scottish Bass-Baritone, Frazer Scott studied on the Guildhall School of Music & Drama's Opera Course where he had also studied as a Postgraduate singer. As an undergraduate, he was awarded a First Class Honours BMus Degree from (the now Royal) Birmingham Conservatoire.
Notable operatic roles include Caronte in Monteverdi's Orfeo (Garsington Opera), Geronimo, The Secret Marriage (British Youth Opera), Pantalone The Adventures of Pinocchio (Guildhall), Jupiter [cover] Orpheus in the Underworld (Scottish Opera), Leporello Don Giovanni (European Chamber Opera, Spain), Papageno Die Zauberflöte (Crescent Theatre, Birmingham). As part of GSMD Opera Course Scenes performances, roles include Leporello Don Giovanni, Don Alfonso & Gugliemo Così fan Tutte, Inigo L’Heure Espagnol, Benoit La Bohème and Truffaldino The Little Green Swallow. For his professional and personal contributions and musical skill during Garsington's season, Frazer was awarded the 2022 Helen Clarke Award.
Concert appearances include Locke's The Tempest (The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Sam Wannamaker Playhouse/Shakespere's Globe), Mozart’s Requiem (for Orchestra of St John, St John’s Smith Square and CBSO, Symphony Hall), Haydn’s The Creation (as part of a BBC Birth of British Music documentary with the BBC Concert Orchestra), Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs (for Iain McLarty and Hutcheson’s Choarle, Glasgow), Les Noces (Rouen Opera House and Auditorium St. Germain) and as part of Iain Burnside’s A Soldier and a Maker (initially 'Unknown Doors' - Barbican [London] & Cheltenham Festival).
Frazer appears as a soloist on the Orchestra of St John’s recording of Mozart’s Requiem. He was the voice of Kettle Chips adverts across the USA and was previously a featured voice, singing jingles for BBC Radio. Frazer made his BBC Radio 3 debut alongside Richard Goulding, Jemma Redgrave and Stephanie Cole in Summer 2014, appearing as 'Wilf' in Iain Burnside’s radio-play version of 'A Soldier and a Maker'.
www.frazerbscott.co.uk
Notable operatic roles include Caronte in Monteverdi's Orfeo (Garsington Opera), Geronimo, The Secret Marriage (British Youth Opera), Pantalone The Adventures of Pinocchio (Guildhall), Jupiter [cover] Orpheus in the Underworld (Scottish Opera), Leporello Don Giovanni (European Chamber Opera, Spain), Papageno Die Zauberflöte (Crescent Theatre, Birmingham). As part of GSMD Opera Course Scenes performances, roles include Leporello Don Giovanni, Don Alfonso & Gugliemo Così fan Tutte, Inigo L’Heure Espagnol, Benoit La Bohème and Truffaldino The Little Green Swallow. For his professional and personal contributions and musical skill during Garsington's season, Frazer was awarded the 2022 Helen Clarke Award.
Concert appearances include Locke's The Tempest (The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Sam Wannamaker Playhouse/Shakespere's Globe), Mozart’s Requiem (for Orchestra of St John, St John’s Smith Square and CBSO, Symphony Hall), Haydn’s The Creation (as part of a BBC Birth of British Music documentary with the BBC Concert Orchestra), Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs (for Iain McLarty and Hutcheson’s Choarle, Glasgow), Les Noces (Rouen Opera House and Auditorium St. Germain) and as part of Iain Burnside’s A Soldier and a Maker (initially 'Unknown Doors' - Barbican [London] & Cheltenham Festival).
Frazer appears as a soloist on the Orchestra of St John’s recording of Mozart’s Requiem. He was the voice of Kettle Chips adverts across the USA and was previously a featured voice, singing jingles for BBC Radio. Frazer made his BBC Radio 3 debut alongside Richard Goulding, Jemma Redgrave and Stephanie Cole in Summer 2014, appearing as 'Wilf' in Iain Burnside’s radio-play version of 'A Soldier and a Maker'.
www.frazerbscott.co.uk
Andrew Henley
2018 Verdi
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 studies with Gary Coward, supported by the WNO Sir John Moores Award.
Roles at RWCMD included Fenton Falstaff, Albert Albert Herring and Schoolmaster The Cunning Little Vixen. Operatic engagements have included Novice Billy Budd with the St. Endellion Festival, Lechmere Owen Wingrave with British Youth Opera, Major (cover) Patience with English Touring Opera, Kekikako Bataclan with West Green House and Christoph in Maxwell Davies Kommilitonen! with Welsh National Youth Opera. Chorus work has included Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Wexford Festival Opera. Future engagements include Tybalt Romeo and Juliet with the studio of Opéra de Lyon.
Equally comfortable on the concert platform, Andrew has featured as a soloist in works including Handel Messiah, Bach Easter Oratorio, CPE Bach Magnificat, Mozart Requiem, Mendelssohn Elijah, Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle, Verdi Requiem, Puccini Messa di Gloria and Britten Saint Nicholas. Engagements have included an Opera Highlights concert with the WNO Orchestra, conducted by Carlo Rizzi, at BBC Hoddinot Hall, Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at Birmingham Symphony Hall, broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, and highlights from Purcell The Fairy Queen, conducted by Nicholas McGegan, also with the CBSO.
Roles at RWCMD included Fenton Falstaff, Albert Albert Herring and Schoolmaster The Cunning Little Vixen. Operatic engagements have included Novice Billy Budd with the St. Endellion Festival, Lechmere Owen Wingrave with British Youth Opera, Major (cover) Patience with English Touring Opera, Kekikako Bataclan with West Green House and Christoph in Maxwell Davies Kommilitonen! with Welsh National Youth Opera. Chorus work has included Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Wexford Festival Opera. Future engagements include Tybalt Romeo and Juliet with the studio of Opéra de Lyon.
Equally comfortable on the concert platform, Andrew has featured as a soloist in works including Handel Messiah, Bach Easter Oratorio, CPE Bach Magnificat, Mozart Requiem, Mendelssohn Elijah, Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle, Verdi Requiem, Puccini Messa di Gloria and Britten Saint Nicholas. Engagements have included an Opera Highlights concert with the WNO Orchestra, conducted by Carlo Rizzi, at BBC Hoddinot Hall, Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at Birmingham Symphony Hall, broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, and highlights from Purcell The Fairy Queen, conducted by Nicholas McGegan, also with the CBSO.
Ed Danon
2018 Verdi
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.
Edmund was a member of the Glyndebourne Chorus in 2016 and 2017, covering Masetto Don Giovanni for the 2016 tour and playing Lakai Ariadne auf Naxos in the 2017 festival. Operatic work for other companies has included Mozart’s Figaro, Don Alfonso Cosi fan Tutte, Dandini La Cenerentola, and most recently Eddy in Turnage's Greek.
On the concert platform, engagements have included Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Bach’s St John and Matthew Passions, Bairstow’s Five Poems of the Spirit, Finzi’s In Terra Pax, Stanford's Songs of the Fleet and Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs.
He currently lives in Suffolk and studies with Dinah Harris.
Edmund was a member of the Glyndebourne Chorus in 2016 and 2017, covering Masetto Don Giovanni for the 2016 tour and playing Lakai Ariadne auf Naxos in the 2017 festival. Operatic work for other companies has included Mozart’s Figaro, Don Alfonso Cosi fan Tutte, Dandini La Cenerentola, and most recently Eddy in Turnage's Greek.
On the concert platform, engagements have included Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Bach’s St John and Matthew Passions, Bairstow’s Five Poems of the Spirit, Finzi’s In Terra Pax, Stanford's Songs of the Fleet and Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs.
He currently lives in Suffolk and studies with Dinah Harris.
Laura Wolk-Lewanowicz
2018 Verdi
British/Australian soprano Laura Wolk-Lewanowicz grew up in Australia, with initial studies at the Canberra School of Music, followed by the Australian Opera Studio, and then ENO's Opera Works in London. Recent highlights include performing the Soprano Solo in Verdi's Requiem at Dartington Hall in August 2018, as well as being part of the Merry Opera Company's 12-singer staged version in 2017. Operatic roles include Lady Macbeth, Macbeth; Tosca; Aida; Amelia, Un ballo in maschera; Santuzza, Cavalleria Rusticana; Donna Anna, Don Giovanni; Madama Butterfly; Miss Jessel (The Turn of the Screw).
Beth Moxon
2018 Verdi
2016 Mozart, Duruflé
2016 Mozart, Duruflé
Originally from Leeds, Beth studies with Dinah Harris and is currently a Young Artist at the National Opera studio as well as being a 2018/19 young artist at Opera Nationale de Lyon where she will perform the role of Penelope in Monteverdi's Il Ritorno d'Ulysse on Patria. Beth has recently graduated from the International Opera Course at the Royal College of Music.
Roles include: Dorabella (Mozart's Cosi Fan tutte), Ella (Huw Watkin's in the locked room), Dido (Purcell's Dido and Aeneas), Hermia (Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream), Lapak/Wood[pecker/Grasshopper (Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen), Rosimonda (Handel's Faramondo), Maurya (Vaughan Williams' Riders to the sea), Nancy (Britten's Albert Herring), La zia Principessa (Puccini's Suor Angelica) and stewardess (Dove's Flight).
Oratorio experience includes Verdi's Requiem, Mozart's Requiem, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Elgar's The Music Makers, Rossini's Petite Messe Solonnelle, Handel's Messiah and Pergolesi's Stabat Mater.
Beth is generously supported by Commander & the late Mrs Vigrass.
Roles include: Dorabella (Mozart's Cosi Fan tutte), Ella (Huw Watkin's in the locked room), Dido (Purcell's Dido and Aeneas), Hermia (Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream), Lapak/Wood[pecker/Grasshopper (Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen), Rosimonda (Handel's Faramondo), Maurya (Vaughan Williams' Riders to the sea), Nancy (Britten's Albert Herring), La zia Principessa (Puccini's Suor Angelica) and stewardess (Dove's Flight).
Oratorio experience includes Verdi's Requiem, Mozart's Requiem, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Elgar's The Music Makers, Rossini's Petite Messe Solonnelle, Handel's Messiah and Pergolesi's Stabat Mater.
Beth is generously supported by Commander & the late Mrs Vigrass.
Ed Goble
2018 - Grayston Ives
Edward learned singing at Winchester College and later at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was a choral and academic scholar under Bill Ives. As a singer performs regularly with the Oxford Clerks close harmony group, as well as the Blenheim Singers and Holst Singers. He particularly enjoys the English song and German lieder repertoires. He works in finance in London and has recently become a father.
Emily Wenman
2018 - Rutter
Emily Rose Wenman is an operatic and concert soprano, studying under acclaimed soprano Nuccia Focile. Recent concert highlights include performances of Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor, Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Mozart's Requiem and Haydn's Nelson Mass with The Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Verdi's Requiem, Mozart's Requiem and Bach's Magnificat at Gloucester Cathedral, Mozart's Requiem, Fauré's Requiem and Poulenc's Gloria at Llandaff Cathedral, Handel’s Messiah and Haydn's Mass in Time of War with Gwent Bach Society, and Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Monmouth Choral Society. Emily has performed as a soloist on BBC Radio 3, including the première of Mark Bowden's We Have Found a Better Land. Opera roles include the title role in Cendrillon, Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Cathleen (Riders to the Sea), Anne Trulove (The Rake's Progress), First Lady (The Magic Flute), and Anna in scenes from Mark-Anthony Turnage's Anna Nicole with Music Theatre Wales. Emily’s passion for choral music was nurtured through scholarships with the Chapel Choir of King’s College London and the BBC National Chorus of Wales - with whom she has performed in engagements including the Dr Who Symphonic Spectular arena tour, and as the soprano soloist in the première of Welsh composer Mark Bowden’s We Have Found a Better Land, broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Emily was the inaugural Soprano 1 Fellow at St Martin-in-the-Fields, where she now sings regularly as a member of St Martin’s Voices, and she is also a Principal Soprano with Blossom Street and the quartet at St Pancras Parish Church, home to the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music. Upcoming engagements include her debut as Carolina in Cimarosa'sThe Secret Marriage with Hampstead Garden Opera.
Jocelyn Somerville
2016 - Mozart
Currently studying with Elizabeth Ritchie at the Royal Academy of Music, Jocelyn completed a Masters in Advanced Musical Studies (Performance) at Royal Holloway. Previously having won the Sir Geraint Evans award, she completed a choral scholarship with St Martin-in-the-Fields and sung as part of the London Symphony Chorus at The Barbican. She has sung with the English Baroque Choir under the direction of Jeremy Jackman, briefly with the Bach Choir under David Hill, and has enjoyed singing with Howard Williams after an introduction by Dame Emma Kirkby, who continues to take an interest in Jocelyn's musical progress. As a member of the Vasari Singers under Jeremy Backhouse, she has performed solos in Canterbury Cathedral, St Paul's Knightsbridge, and Douai Abbey in Berkshire, as well as in the soprano soloist role on their recording of Gabriel Jackson's Requiem which reached No. 5 in the Specialist Classical Charts. She featured on their 2014 disc, singing the well-known solo line in Allegri's Miserere, and recently took part in an unusual project featuring renaissance choral music with reggae backing tracks. More recently Jocelyn embarked on a three week American tour, singing in Charleston, York, and Savannah, with a programme including Renaissance French repertoire and English Song. She regularly travels around the country performing with choirs and orchestras.
As well as possessing a pure tone and ringing flexibility, Jocelyn has an engaging and memorable platform presence which makes her enjoyable to watch as well as to listen to.
As well as possessing a pure tone and ringing flexibility, Jocelyn has an engaging and memorable platform presence which makes her enjoyable to watch as well as to listen to.
Kieran Seymour
2016 - Mozart, Duruflé
Kieran Seymour, originally from Suffolk, began his singing career at the age of 6 when he became a chorister at both the civic church in Ipswich and also at Ipswich School. He studied with Soprano Jane Bagnall from this age up until his voice broke, and eventually studied with Tenor Richard Edgar Wilson until he left Suffolk to attend Canterbury Christ Church University. Whilst in Canterbury, he studied with both Philip Eve and Jonathan Veira for both his Bachelors and Masters degrees respectively. As his voice progressed, he enjoyed solos opportunities as they arose, firstly at Snape Maltings concert hall where he sang as the Tenor soloist for Handel's Messiah at the age of 15. Since then as his voice both matured and lowered, he regularly appears as a Bass soloist for Handel's Messiah, along with other alumni each December. His repertoire expands across the eras, including Bach's St John Passion as Jesus, Mozart's, Brahms, Faure's and Durufle's Requiems, many of Haydn and Mozart's Masses, Puccini's Messa Di Gloria and Mendelssohn's Elijah. As his voices continues to progress, he aims to utilise it as much as possible with regular work, both building his repertoire, contacts and vocal maturity.
Tom Smith
2016 - Mozart, Chilcott, Duruflé
Tom is a Tenor from Hartlepool in the North-East of England, currently in his penultimate year at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama studying with Adrian Thompson and Ingrid Surgenor on the MA Opera course.
During his studies Tom has taken part in masterclasses with Susan Bullock, Simon Keenlyside, John Fisher, Kathryn Harries, Michael Pollock and Simon Lepper.
This summer Tom made his debut at Glyndebourne Festival opera as one of the Lehrbuben in Sir David McVicars award winning production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
Operatic roles at RWCMD include The Mayor and Albert* (Albert Herring) as well as 1st Priest and Armed Man* (The Magic Flute), Schoolmaster (Cunning Little Vixen), Fenton (Falstaff conducted by Carlo Rizzi.
In Opera scenes Tom has performed Lionel (Martha), Idomeneo (Idomeneo), Jaquino (Fidelio) and Nemorino (L'elisir d'amore). External operatic engagements include Ruiz (Il Trovatore), Flavio (Norma) and Spärlich (Die lustigen weiber von windsor).
A keen recitalist Tom is proud to be an Artist on the Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now scheme. Tom is generously supported by The Arts Council of Wales, Leverhulme Trust, Tillet Trust and a Jenkin-Philips Scholarship.
During his studies Tom has taken part in masterclasses with Susan Bullock, Simon Keenlyside, John Fisher, Kathryn Harries, Michael Pollock and Simon Lepper.
This summer Tom made his debut at Glyndebourne Festival opera as one of the Lehrbuben in Sir David McVicars award winning production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
Operatic roles at RWCMD include The Mayor and Albert* (Albert Herring) as well as 1st Priest and Armed Man* (The Magic Flute), Schoolmaster (Cunning Little Vixen), Fenton (Falstaff conducted by Carlo Rizzi.
In Opera scenes Tom has performed Lionel (Martha), Idomeneo (Idomeneo), Jaquino (Fidelio) and Nemorino (L'elisir d'amore). External operatic engagements include Ruiz (Il Trovatore), Flavio (Norma) and Spärlich (Die lustigen weiber von windsor).
A keen recitalist Tom is proud to be an Artist on the Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now scheme. Tom is generously supported by The Arts Council of Wales, Leverhulme Trust, Tillet Trust and a Jenkin-Philips Scholarship.
Eleanor Dann
2016 Chilcott, Duruflé
Born in London, soprano Eleanor Dann is currently studying with Benjamin Williamson and Susan young. Eleanor gained a BA (Hons) degree in Music from the University of York. After graduating in 2014, she spent a year on the prestigious Genesis Sixteen programme run by Harry Christophers and Eamonn Dougan. Eleanor featured on I Fagiolini's 2016 disc Amuse-Bouche, singing Daniel-Lesur's "Le cantique de cantiques". She has recently completed a year singing as a Choral Scholar with Sloane Square Choral Society and All Saints Church, Fulham respectively. In October she will begin a year as a Choral Scholar of St Martin-in-the-Fields.
Eleanor has performed a broad range of concert repertoire such as Mozart's 'Requiem in D Minor', Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and the world premiere of Nativity by Peter Foggitt. Over the past 5 years, Eleanor has built-up a varied operatic repertoire having sung roles such as Countess Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro) and Galatea (Acis and Galatea). This year she has sung the roles of Miss Wordsworth (Albert Herring) and La Grande-Prêtresse de Diane (Hippolyte et Aricie). In autumn 2016 she is looking forward to singing Chorus in The Magic Flute with Hampstead Garden Opera.
This summer Eleanor has enjoyed singing on a choir tour of Ireland and also at the St Endellion Summer Festival in Cornwall. She recently returned from the Charles Wood Summer Festival of Music & Summer School in Armagh, Northern Ireland where she led the soprano section of the Charles Wood Singers. Eleanor is looking to continue her vocal studies at postgraduate level and will later this year be auditioning for conservatoires in London.
Eleanor has performed a broad range of concert repertoire such as Mozart's 'Requiem in D Minor', Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and the world premiere of Nativity by Peter Foggitt. Over the past 5 years, Eleanor has built-up a varied operatic repertoire having sung roles such as Countess Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro) and Galatea (Acis and Galatea). This year she has sung the roles of Miss Wordsworth (Albert Herring) and La Grande-Prêtresse de Diane (Hippolyte et Aricie). In autumn 2016 she is looking forward to singing Chorus in The Magic Flute with Hampstead Garden Opera.
This summer Eleanor has enjoyed singing on a choir tour of Ireland and also at the St Endellion Summer Festival in Cornwall. She recently returned from the Charles Wood Summer Festival of Music & Summer School in Armagh, Northern Ireland where she led the soprano section of the Charles Wood Singers. Eleanor is looking to continue her vocal studies at postgraduate level and will later this year be auditioning for conservatoires in London.
