International Opera Awards

Filipino-Australian soprano Sarah Ampil recently relocated to the UK from Sydney. A former recipient of the Joan Sutherland Memorial Award and the Opera Australia Opportunity Award, her operatic credits include Ginevra (Ariodante, Apollo Opera Collective); Sandrina (La Finta Giardiniera, Operantics); and Micaëla (Carmen, Central Coast Opera). Sarah has been engaged as a soloist by several illustrious ensembles, including the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Royal Melbourne Philharmonic, Omega Ensemble and Hawkes Bay Orchestra, with whom she made her New Zealand debut in 2019 as soloist for Britten’s Les Illuminations.  

Sarah is an alumna of the Pacific Opera Young Artist Program and the Lisa Gasteen National Opera School. She received her Bachelor of Music from the University of New South Wales and her Master of Music Studies (Performance) and Graduate Diploma in Music (Opera Performance) from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Sarah recently completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Performance at the Royal Northern College of Music, under the guidance of Professor Eiddwen Harrhy. During her time at RNCM, she appeared as Governess in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and Lisette in La Rondine (opera scenes), undertook two Artist Residencies with Opera North as a Leverhulme Arts Scholar, appeared as a finalist in both the 2022 Frederic Cox Award and Concerto Competition, and performed in masterclasses led by Susan Bullock CBE and David Owen Norris. 

Website: www.sarahampil.com  

Instagram: @sarah.ampil 

Born in Wellington, London-based mezzo-soprano Bianca Andrew completed her undergraduate studies at the New Zealand School of Music, after which she went on to join New Zealand Opera as an Emerging Artist from 2012 to 2013. Bianca is a graduate of the Opera Studies programme at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where she is an Artist Fellow for 2017/18.

Bianca’s recent operatic performances include: Un musico Manon Lescaut for Auckland Philharmonia; Radamisto Radamisto, Flycap The Tale of Januarie, Philomène Alexandre Bis, Neighbour Mavra, Laura Iolanta for Guildhall Opera; Meg Page Falstaff for Cambridge Philharmonic; and Romeo I Capuleti e i Montecchi for Days Bay Opera NZ.

Bianca is known for her engaging and creative performances both in operatic and recital repertoire, and was the winner of the Song Prize in the 2016 Kathleen Ferrier Awards with her duo partner, pianist Dylan Perez. In 2017, Bianca was a finalist in the Guildhall School’s prestigious Gold Medal competition, and a finalist in the NEUE STIMMEN International Singing Competition.

On the concert platform, Bianca has given performances with all the major orchestras in New Zealand in repertoire from Messiah to Mahler’s 2nd Symphony. She has appeared with the London Symphony Orchestra, recording Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri with Sir Simon Rattle for LSO Live, and as a soloist in Tippett’s A Child of Our Time. 

Bianca is a Samling Artist, a Kiwi Music Scholar and recipient of the Gwen Catley Scholarship from the Amar-Franses Foster-Jenkins Trust. She continues to receive generous mentorship and support from Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation.

Victoria Armillotta is a British-Italian soprano currently based in London where she recently graduated from the Royal Academy of Music (MA Distinction) with Nuccia Focile. She is also a First-Class graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music (BMus Hons).​

Since graduating, Victoria has been cast in major roles nationally and internationally, performing Giorgetta in Puccini’s “Il tabarro” with Opera Cameratina, Female Chorus (narrator) in Britten’s “The rape of Lucretia” with British Youth Opera, covering Tatyana in Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” with Hampstead Garden Opera and Mimì in Puccini’s “La bohème” with Cosmopolis Festival in Kavála, Greece.

In 2025 she is delighted to debut Liù in Puccini’s “Turandot” with Instant Opera and cover Mimì with Devon Opera.

Past operatic highlights include performing the roles of Mimì, Suzel, Giulietta and Donna Elvira in the RAM opera scenes and singing in the chorus of “Roméo et Juliette” and “Die Zauberflöte” with Savonlinna Opera Festival in Olavinlinna Castle, Finland.

Victoria is incredibly grateful to the International Opera Awards for making it possible for her to continue her vocal development as a young artist in early-career stages.

“I was delighted and so grateful to be awarded an International Opera Awards bursary in 2024. A year or so after graduating from the Royal Academy of Music, this financial support allowed me to continue studying privately with trusted teachers and coaches in preparation for major roles such as Cio-Cio-San in “Madama Butterfly” which I have since performed with acclaim. These roles are now part of my core repertoire and I hope to perform them for many more years to come nationally and internationally. The work this organisation does is truly special and I’m honoured to have been selected as one of the awardees: thank you.”

Margo Arsane is a French mezzo-soprano. After studying the violin for 14 years, she trained as a soprano at the CNSMD Lyon, the Hochschule für Musik Munich and the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she recently graduated. After leaving she re-trained as a mezzo-soprano. She now continues to study privately with Gary Coward.

She has won several prizes at international competitions, among which: First prize at the Mozarteum Sommerakademie Wettbewerb 2013, Special Prize at the International Voice Competition 2014 in Marmande and “Young Hope” Prize at the Concours International de Chant de Clermont-Ferrand 2013.

Recent roles include Susanna Le Nozze di Figaro for Clonter Opera, Nannetta Falstaff with the Cambridge Philharmonic, Bettina Don Procopio Bizet with Opera South, Polissena in Handel’s Radamisto at GSMD, and covered the role of Mélisande Pelléas et Mélisande for Garsington Opera.

She also made her debut under the baton of renowned French baroque conductor Hervé Niquet (Le Concert Spirituel) in the role of Climène Les Amants Magnifiques by Molière/Lully, touring at the Opéra d’Avignon, Opéra de Rennes, Opéra de Massy… In the past, Margo has also performed Mélisande Pelléas et Mélisande Debussy, Frau Fluth Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor Nicolai, Alice Le Comte Ory Rossini, Bettina Don Procopio Bizet, Parasha Mavra Stravinsky, Brigitta Iolanta Stravinsky.

Margo is proud to be one of the 2017 Opera Awards Foundation bursary recipients. She has also been a Young Artist for the Peace and Prosperity Trust since 2016, a charity which works towards building bridges between the Middle East and the West through music.

Laura Attridge is a writer and director who is fast establishing herself as a dynamic new voice in opera. Her passion for the relationship between words and music has led to many fruitful collaborations with composers. Her recent song, Kind Regards, written with composer Lillie Harris, was premiered online by the Royal Opera House in March 2021 and has received over 1.5 million views thus far. A new choral song cycle also written with Lillie, and co-commissioned by Glyndebourne, will premiere later this year.  

Laura’s other recent writing projects include an oratorio – Our Future In Your Hands – for Buxton International Festival written with composer Kate Whitley, and a new community opera for Lammermuir Festival written with composer Lliam Paterson entitled Catriona and the Dragon. As a poet, she has had work published in prestigious magazines and zines such as The Rialto and Mslexia, and featured in anthologies Introduction X: The Poetry Business Book of New Poets and Not About Now. Her song cycles have premiered at Glyndebourne, the Royal College of Music (RCM), the National Gallery and Bard College (New York).   

Her ongoing creative partnership with composer Lewis Murphy has produced numerous works for the stage: A Different Story (2019, Royal Opera House); Then to the elements (2018, Scottish Opera); Belongings (2017, Glyndebourne); First Date (2017, Sound Festival); Damsel/Wife/Witch (2015, And So Forth); and Now (2014, RCM and Tête-à-Tête Festival). Their latest commissions are a one-act youth opera for Leeds Youth Opera entitled ARC23, and a children’s opera for English Touring Opera called Paper and Tin; both pieces premiered in 2022.   

Website: www.lauraattridge.com 

Twitter: @lch_attridge https://twitter.com/lch_attridge 

Instagram: @lch_attridge

In 2019 Mark makes his debut at Royal Opera House Linbury Theatre conducting Aurora Orchestra in two performances of ‘The Monstrous Child’ by Gavin Higgins and Francesca Simon. He appears in recital at the Luxembourg Philharmonie and works as assistant conductor at Garsington Opera and with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris.

Recent highlights include ‘Le nozze di Figaro’ (Dartington International Festival), ‘Goyescas’ (Grange Festival), ‘Tosca’ (Musique Cordiale International Festival) and a two-concert Brahms residency with Guy Johnston and Faust Chamber Orchestra at Hatfield House. Mark was assistant conductor for the world première production of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s ‘Coraline’ (Royal Opera). He works regularly with figures including Vasily Petrenko, Sian Edwards, Marin Alsop, David Parry, David Hill, Steuart Bedford, and the late Sir Colin Davis, and has conducted orchestras including Britten Sinfonia, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of St John’s and the Hangzhou Philharmonic, China. Mark was awarded a Bayreuth Festival Young Artist Bursary and recorded the world première of Alex Woolf’s ‘NHS Symphony’ for BBC Radio 3, which won a Prix Europa. He studies with Sian Edwards and was awarded an International Opera Awards Bursary in 2017.

An accomplished pianist, Mark has performed at venues including Wigmore Hall, Kings Place, St John’s Smith Square, Holywell Music Room, Opera Bastille (Paris) and the Shanghai Oriental Arts Centre. He is musical assistant to The Bach Choir and regularly conducts the choir in concert and the recording studio.

Born in London, Mark had lessons in violin and piano from an early age. He played in the National Youth Orchestra, and studied at Cambridge University and Royal Academy of Music, where he received numerous prizes and was appointed a Junior Fellow. Mark contributed a chapter on Wagner, Beethoven and Faust to the recently published ‘Music in Goethe’s Faust’.

Website: mark-austin.net

February 2026

I was appointed Assistant Head of Vocal and Opera at Royal College of Music in 2025.

Megan Baker is a British mezzo soprano studying at the Alexander Gibson Opera Studio at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She completed her undergraduate study in 2021 as a Douglas and Hilda Simmonds Scholar at the Royal College of Music in London. Scenes with the RCM included Proserpina, L’Orfeo in 2020, Miss Todd, Old Maid and the Thief and Alma March, Little Women in 2021.  

Megan was a Young Artist with Nevill Holt Opera for their 2021 Summer Season taking part in the chorus of Verdi’s La Traviata.  Her first year at the RCS included a workshop with director Keith Warner on the works of Stephen Sondheim, where she performed in scenes of A Little Night Music as Desirée Armfeldt. She has also participated in masterclasses led by Ann Murray DBE, Susan Bullock CBE and Dame Josephine Barstow. Scenes at the RCS saw Megan perform the roles of Eduige, Rodelinda, Hänsel, Hänsel und Gretel, Rosina, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Cherubino Le Nozze di Figaro, Romeo, I Capuleti e i Montecchi and Charmant, Cendrillon.   

Megan made her role debut as Nancy in Britten’s Albert Herring in the summer of 2022 with St Paul’s Opera, and looks forward to play the lead role of Marilyn Monroe in Gavin Bryars’ Marilyn Forever with RCS Opera. Upcoming roles in 2023 include Aloès in Chabrier’s L’étoile, Mary in Cui’s A Feast in a Time of Plague and Olga in Langer’s Four Sisters.   

Website: www.meganbakermezzo.com 

Instagram: @mezzo.meg 

Born in London, Ed read History at Cambridge University before training at the Royal Academy of Music and with Royal Academy Opera. Winner of the Marjorie Thomas Art Song Prize and the Elena Gerhardt Lieder Prize, he was a Maidment Scholar, a Sybil Tutton Award holder and an International Opera Awards Foundation bursary recipient. Ed made his professional stage debut creating the title role in the world premiere of Luke Styles Macbeth for the Jerwood Young Artist Scheme at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, with performances at Glyndebourne and the Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House. He has since appeared in the title role in the baritone version of Werther, Ernest Shackleton in Russell Hepplewhite’s Shackleton’s Cat, cover Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro and Marco in Gianni Schicchi for English Touring Opera, Pandolfe in Cendrillon for Theater Freiburg and cover Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress for Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. His other roles include Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia (Royal Academy Opera), Truffaldino in Jonathan Dove’s The Little Green Swallow and cover Chao Lin in Judith Weir’s A Night at the Chinese Opera (British Youth Opera), Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Edinburgh Fringe) and Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas (Dartington). Future plans include Algernon Montcrief in Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest for Opera de Fribourg, with performances in Fribourg and Paris, house debuts in Germany and concerts with the London Handel Festival.

www.edballard.co.uk

Tenor, Alex Banfield, is originally from Northumberland and has made debuts in recent seasons as Tamino Die Zauberflöte, Rinuccio Gianni Schicchi and Ernesto Don Pasquale for Theater Basel, and as Sam Kaplan in Weill’s Street Scene for Opera North. In the 23/24 season he will record Aminta in Cimarosa’s L’Olimpiade with Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques, with performances following at Opéra Royal de Versailles and Theater an der Wien. He has debuted with the Vienna Tonkünstler Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Opera North. For Opera North his repertoire also includes Jonathan Dale in the UK premiere of Kevin Puts’ Silent Night, Raoul de St Brioche The Merry Widow, Nikolio in Martinů’s The Greek Passion, Spoletta Tosca and Scaramuccio Ariadne auf Naxos. He performed Lysander A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Royal Northern College of Music, Peter Quint The Turn of the Screw with the Manchester Opera Ensemble and the title role Albert Herring for Samling Academy. 

The Opera Awards Foundation bursary made it possible for me to prepare for a prestigious CD recording and perform the same work with a renowned orchestra, opportunities I could not have accessed without this support. It enabled me to  reach an excellent level of preparation via work with specialist coaches and teachers, which directly led to meetings with agents who attended the performances. The bursary also funded my participation in a high-level summer program, where I received world-class training and built relationships with important figures in the opera industry.

An award winning accompanist, Laïla Barnat has been increasingly in demand as a répétiteur, vocal coach and French coach, invited by the Royal Opera House in London, the Glyndebourne Festival, the Bayerische Staatsoper and Zurich Opera House amongst other places, working alongside the maestri Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Richard Bonynge, Alberto Zedda and Fabio Luisi.

She was trained in London at the National Opera Studio and Royal College of Music and at the Plácido Domingo Opera Studio in Valencia. She is a scholar of the Britten Pears Young Artists Programme, the Academy of the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Solti Academy and ENOA. She has acquired experience on stage in recitals in Europe, North America and Asia.

Filipino tenor Mark Christian Bautista was a prize winner for several classical vocal competitions, including 1st prize at the Festival Singing Competition – Dean and Chadlington Summer Music Festival 2019, “Dvořák Society for Czech and Slovak Music Prize” at the Emmy Destinn Young Singers Award 2019 and the 2nd prize at the Pendine International Voice of the Future competition at the 72nd Llangollen International Musical Eistedfodd 2018 in Wales, UK, a Finalist at the XX Certamen Nuevas Voces 2024 by the ASAÓ in Seville, Spain, and a Semi-Finalist at the Renata Tebaldi International Voice Competition 2024.

In Manila, he was a tenor soloist for the Manila Symphony Orchestra and performed in several classical concerts and recitals on Philippine stages such as the Ayala Museum, Meralco Theatre, Benilde SDA Theatre, Theatre of Solaire, Aliw Theatre, Philamlife Auditorium and Cultural Centre of the Philippines. He is an alumnus of the Viva Voce Voice Labs, a Filipino young artist opera studio under its Artistic Directors Camille Lopez-Molina and Pablo Molina.

His stage and operatic experiences in the UK includes Alfredo La Traviata (Oxford Opera Company), Rodolfo La boheme (North Wales Opera Studio), Father Grenville, Howard Boucher, Motorcycle Cop Dead Man Walking, Tiberge Le Portrait de Manon, Harlequin Fête galante, Raimondo I due timidi, Der Gehilfe Der Zar lässt sich photographieren, Le Comte Barigoule (cover) Cendrillon, Nerone L’incoronazione di poppea and scenes from La Rondine, Roméo et Juliette, L’elisir d’amore, L’heure espagnole, Die tote Stadt, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Il barbiere di Siviglia (Guildhall School), Chorus Don Giovanni, L’elisir d’amore, Semele, Rake’s Progress, Carmen, Die Zauberflöte, Merry Widow, Tristan und Isolde (Glyndebourne) , Chorus Porgy and Bess (Grange Park Opera), Tom Rakewell (cover)/Chorus Rake’s Progress (British Youth Opera).

Some of his notable solo tenor debut in Europe includes a performance with the Sinfonisches Orchester Arbon and conductor Leo Gschwend in Arbon, Switzerland as part of the SchlosoffKonzerte Arbon 2022 : VERDI. Lastly, he performed his tenor solo debut with conductor Aidan Oliver, Glyndebourne Chorus and Glyndebourne Sinfonia at the annual Glyndebourne Christmas Concert 2023.

He is a co-founder of The Virtual Opera Studio, a group dedicated to support virtual performances, and offers virtual opportunities for singers around the world.

He is an alumnus of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Opera Course under the tutelage of Professor Susan Waters in London, UK.

He was a recipient of numerous scholarships and grants including The Herbert & Theresie Lowit Memorial Scholarship, The Sally Cohen Opera Scholarship, The Dow Clewer Foundation Scholarship, The Elizabeth Sweeting Award, Senior Choral Scholarship of the St. Leonard’s Church, Help Musicians UK, The Guildhall School Trust, Ann Driver Trust Scholarship and The Kathleen Trust.

The International Opera Awards played a pivotal role in my recovery and artistic renewal following my brain tumour surgery last year. I had only just begun my professional journey—fresh from conservatoire and taking my first steps into the operatic world—then this life altering event struck. At a moment when my future felt uncertain, the Award became an unexpected source of hope, reminding me not to give up and giving me the means to focus fully on healing.

Their generous support allowed me to invest in my vocal, physical, and emotional rehabilitation, helping me recover more swiftly and regain the strength and confidence I needed to return to my craft.  This assistance not only restored my voice and wellbeing but also reaffirmed my place in the profession at a time when my career could easily have been derailed before it had truly begun.  I am deeply grateful to share that I have now returned to the stage, singing with renewed passion, purpose, and resilience. The International Opera Awards have had a profound impact on my early career, and their belief in me continues to shape my development as an artist.

February 2026

Thrilled to share that I will be performing at the Glyndebourne Festival 2026 this Summer.

I’ll be singing in the Chorus for Tosca, Il Turco in Italia, and Billy Budd — and I’m also covering Spoletta (Tosca) and Brighella (Ariadne auf Naxos).

Hannah Bennett is a mezzo soprano from Luton, Bedfordshire, currently studying at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland on the Alexander Gibson Opera School course.  

Operatic engagements include Marcellina, Le nozze di Figaro (Opera Holland Park: 2021 Young Artists Scheme), Flora, The Enchanted Pig (Hampstead Garden Opera), Sesto, Giulio Cesare (King’s Opera), and Tisbe, La Cenerentola (London Young Sinfonia). Hannah sang as part of the Bridesmaids’ Chorus in Weber’s Der Freischütz with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, conducted by Sir Mark Elder, at the Southbank Centre and created the role of Variable 3 in Bofan Ma’s This is no opera. In 2021, Hannah worked with Nevill Holt Opera as a Young Artist, returning in 2022 as an Associate Artist in the chorus for La bohème.  

In concert, Hannah has performed at the Oxford Lieder Festival, the Amersham Music Festival and was a 2019 Leeds Lieder Festival Young Artist. She has sung at the Holywell Music Room, St John’s Smith Square and was a Semi-Finalist for the 2022 Kathleen Ferrier Awards Singing Competition at Wigmore Hall.   

Hannah is an Alumna of the Royal Academy of Music, where she was a member of the prestigious Song Circle, performing in recitals at the Italian Cultural Institute, Leeds Lieder and Wigmore Hall. She was also a Bach Cantata Scholar, featuring as a soloist and regular chorus member for the RAM / Kohn Foundation Bach Cantata Series.   

In Autumn 2022, Hannah portrays Marilyn Monroe in Gavin Bryars’ chamber opera Marilyn Forever with RCS Opera, conducted by William Cole and directed by Caroline Clegg. 

Website: www.hannahbennettmezzo.com 

Instagram: @hannahbennettmezzo 

Emilia Bertolini is an Australian soprano of Irish and Italian heritage currently undertaking a Master of Arts (Vocal) at the Royal Academy of Music, where she is the recipient of the Julien Scholarship, and studies with Nuccia Focile and James Baillieu.  

Emilia is supported by the Josephine Baker Trust, and is a proud member of both the Academy’s Song Circle and Bach series. In 2022, Emilia made her debut at Wigmore Hall where she performed the world premiere of Alexander Goehr’s Combat of Joseph della Reina and the Devil with the Nash Ensemble. Other highlights in 2022 include performing as the soprano soloist in Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Creation, taking part in several of the Academy’s Bach concerts, performing the role of Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel in the Royal Academy of Music’s Opera Scenes concert, the premiere of Duncan Fraser’s Be Loved: A Passion at St James’s Piccadilly, and the role of Corydon in the Ryedale Festival production of Acis and Galatea.  

Before relocating to the UK from Melbourne, Emilia was a Melba Opera Trust young artist, and completed undergraduate studies at the University of Melbourne, obtaining a Bachelor of Music with first-class Honours, and Diplomas in both French and Italian.  

Website: www.emiliasoprano.com 

Instagram: @EmiliaSoprano 

Coming soon.

Born in Jersey, mezzo-soprano Georgia Mae Bishop initially studied at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and continues her studies on the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with Marcus van den Akker. She is the winner of the Chartered Surveyors’ Competition, was awarded Second Prize at the Wagner Society Singing Competition and was a finalist in Fulham Opera’s Robert Presley Memorial Verdi Prize.

Opera credits include the title role in Carmen, (Dartington Festival Orchestra), Vera Boronel in The Consul (Guildhall Opera), Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas, (Opera Lyrica), Witch in Hansel und Gretel (Pimlott Foundation) and in a concert performance with the Guernsey Symphony Orchestra, and Chorus in Don Carlos, La Boheme and Samson et Dalila, (Grange Park Opera) and Paul Bunyan, (British Youth Opera).

Georgia made her Barbican Hall debut with the LSO as Alto Soloist in Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe’s Faust, and her Royal Festival Hall debut as the contralto soloist in a performance of Ustvolskaya Symphony no.4 with the LPO. Other concert performances include Alto semi-chorus soloist in Elijah, (St John’s Smith Square), Berio Folk Songs, (South Bank Centre), Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, Handel’s Messiah and Elgar’s Sea Pictures and The Apostles (Ely Cathedral).

Georgia’s studies are generously supported by The Worshipful Company of Weavers, The Steel Charitable Trust and the Opera Awards Foundation. Upcoming performances include Madame de Croissy in Poulenc’s Dialogue des Carmélites for Guildhall Opera, and mezzo soloist in Elgar’s The Music Makers.

Born in Jersey, dramatic mezzo-soprano Georgia Mae Bishop is a recent winner of the inaugural Mastersingers Wagner Competition, an Opera Prelude Young Artist, and an emerging artist at Dolora Zajick’s Institute of Young Dramatic Voices.  

In the 2021/22 season she sang Rossweisse, Die Walküre and Flosshilde, Götterdämmerung in concert performances with GAFA Arts Collective, covered Forester’s Wife/Owl, Cunning Little Vixen at English National Opera, sang Alto Shepherd, Orfeo at Garsington Opera and gave the premiere “Opera in Development” performances of Estèr in TIDE at the Aldeburgh Festival.   

Highlights from previous seasons include Flosshilde in Birmingham Opera Company’s production of RhineGold at Birmingham Symphony Hall, performances as an Alvarez Young Artist with Garsington Opera for the 2021 and 2018 seasons, and covering Annina in Der Rosenkavalier and Mistress Quickly in Falstaff respectively. She was a Young Artist at Opera Holland Park for the 2019 season, performing the role of Madame Arvidson in Young Artist performances of Un ballo in maschera.  

Georgia made her Barbican Hall debut with the LSO as Alto Soloist in Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe’s Faust, and her Royal Festival Hall debut as the soloist in a performance of Ustvolskaya Symphony no.4 with the LPO.  

During lockdown Georgia started learning the native Jersey language of Jèrriais and has since commissioned the first ever Art Song cycle composed using Jèrriais poetry and text. She will be giving the premiere performance of the cycle in the 2022 season alongside a series of educational workshops in local primary schools in collaboration with ArtHouse Jersey.  

Website: www.georgiamaebishop.com 

Twitter: @GeorgiaMaeBish 

An alumna of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme, Russian soprano Vlada Borovko became a member of the programme at the start of the 2015/16 season, immediately upon her graduation from the Kazan State Conservatory.

Shortly after her joining the program, she made an impressive debut as Violetta Valery on the main stage of Royal Opera House, when she was called at the last moment to step in for an ailing colleague. The event marked not only her debut in the role but also her stage debut in a leading role. Since then she has appeared in productions of Norma, L’elisir d’amore and Boris Godunov, as well as taking on the role of Aspasia in the Royal Opera House’s acclaimed production of Mitridate, Re di Ponto.

Current highlights include a return to the Royal Opera House as a guest artist to debut the role of Musetta La bohème, company debuts at Oper Köln and Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe as Violetta La traviata, a role and house debut as Adalgisa Norma at Teatro Municipal de Santiago de Chile as well as her first Mimi La bohème in Stuttgart.

Further role assignments whilst on the Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House included Frasquita Carmen, Xenia in a new production of Boris Godunov which was also presented at the BBC Proms, Anna Nabucco, Clotilde Norma, Ermione Oreste, Mlle Jouvenot Adriana Lecouvreur, and Giannetta L’elisir d’amore.

On the concert platform she performed Verdi’s Requiem at the Grange Festival as part of their inaugural season and was a finalist in Placido Domingo’s prestigious 2017 Operalia competition.

Borovko initially studied foreign languages at the Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod. Upon her graduation she enrolled at the Kazan State Conservatory where she studied under the guidance of Galina Lastovka. While still a student, she was invited to take part in the world premieres of two contemporary works and sang Stephano Roméo et Juliette in Kazan. She made her professional opera debut as Mércèdes Carmen at Tatar State Opera and Ballet Theatre and sang Annie and Strawberry Woman Porgy and Bess with Marco Boemi at the International Shalyapin Opera Festival.

www.vladaborovko.com

Bursary supported by Julia Smithies.

British baritone Peter Brathwaite trained at the Royal College of Music International Opera School
and Flanders Opera Studio, Ghent. His roles with English Touring Opera include Elviro Xerxes,
Silvano La Calisto, Kaidama Il furioso all’isola di San Domingo, L’incognito L’assedio di Calais
and Schaunard La bohème. Elsewhere he has sung Yamadori Madama Butterfly, Luis Katibu di
Shon, Marcello La bohème (Nederlandse Reisopera), Billy Bone Captain Blood’s Revenge
(Glyndebourne on Tour), Sid La fanciulla del West (Opera Holland Park), Mimoun Zatopek!
(RLPO), Nelson Porgy & Bess (Opéra de Lyon/ Edinburgh Festival), Baritone What You Will
(Shakespeare’s Globe). Recent concerts include performances with the Estonian National
Symphony under Tõnu Kaljuste, and recitals for London Song Festival. Future plans include his
role début with La Monnaie, Brussels.

(Image: Minjas Zugik)

British soprano Grace Carter studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Trinity Laban Conservatoire London and the Dutch National Opera Academy. She is a recipient of awards from the Opera Awards Foundation, Help Musicians UK and the Oxford Lieder Festival. She was a member of the Dutch National Opera Young Talent programme 2015/2016 and is currently a Concordia Foundation Artist

Recent engagements include Ginevra/Ariodante– Handel (cover) and Therese/ Les Mamelles de Tirésias– Poulenc (cover) for Dutch National Opera, Susanna/ Le Nozze di Figaro– Mozart with Jonathan Cohen and the Residentie Orkest Den Haag,  and a recording project with Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Music France.

On the concert platform performance venues include London’s St-Martin-in-the-Field, St James’s Piccadilly and St John’s Smith Square, and the Oxford Lieder Festival.

Website: www.gracecarter.co.uk

Joe Chalmers is a London-based Bass-Baritone from Winchester, Hampshire. Joe’s passion for
singing began whilst at the Winchester Cathedral choir school, The Pilgrims’ School. He continued
to sing in a choral setting throughout his teenage years as part of the National Youth Choir of
Great Britain, before beginning his studies at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Joe was a
Voces8 Scholar and since then has supported the Voces8 foundation both as a performer and as an
educator within their outreach programmes.

Joe is currently studying on the prestigious Opera course at the Guildhall School of Music and
Drama under the tutelage of John Evans. Masterclass highlights include work with Sarah Walker
CBE, John Tomlinson, Jonathan Dove, Janis Kelly and Jonathan Lemalu. He is the recipient of
The Elizabeth Sweeting Award, the Sybil Tutton Opera Award, The Dow Clewer Foundation
Scholarship, and the Drake Calleja Trust Scholarship.

As a freelance singer, Joe enjoys a busy performance career. In Autumn 2021 Joe made his
Colosseum debut for the English National Opera; notably stepping in for the final performance in
the role of Captain Corcoran in HMS Pinafore. Other recent operatic performances include
Nettuno (la liberazione di ruggiero dall’isola d’alcina, Longborough Festival Opera), Narratore (I
Due Timidi, Guildhall School Opera), Death (Savitri, Guildhall Opera), Martino (L’occasione fa il
Ladro, British Youth Opera), Bass Shepherd and cover Plutone and Caronte (L’Orfeo, Garsington
Opera), Chorus and Waiter (Der Rosenkavalier, Garsington Opera), Count Almaviva (Le Nozze di
Figaro, Guildhall), Nick Shadow (A Rake’s Progress, Guildhall Scenes), La Roche (Capriccio,
Guildhall Scenes), Talbot (Maria Stuarda, GUildhall Scenes), Lorenzo (I Capuleti e Montecchi,
Guildhall Scenes), Belcore (L’elisir d’amore, Guildhall Scenes), Sid (Albert Herring, Guildhall
Scenes) and Escamillo (Carmen, Guildhall Scenes).

Winner of the 2nd Prize at the 2022 Arles Opera Competition and of 3rd and Audience Prizes at the 2022 Hurn Court Opera Competition, French soprano Marie Cayeux was a member of the Alexander Gibson Opera School in Glasgow for the seasons 2021-2023 as well as a recipient of the Sybil Tutton Opera Award and the Hamilton Duval Music Foundation Scholarship. 2023 saw three critically acclaimed role debuts for her, as Louisa (Cui), The Maid (Langer) and Princess Laoula (Chabrier) with RCS Opera. Marie joined the chorus of the prestigious Bayreuth Festival over the summer 2023. For the season 2023-2024, Marie will be the Dew Fairy in Hänsel und Gretel for HGO as well as debuting at Opéra de Monte-Carlo in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges as the Nightingale as well as covering the roles of the Fire and the Princess.
Marie gained considerable operatic experience working with conductors such as Adam Hickox, Peter Robinson, Alex Ingram, William Cole, Philippe Forget, Lada Valesova and stage directors like Stephen Lawless, John Ramster, Max Hoehn, PJ Harris, Caroline Clegg and Keith Warner. Marie thrives performing classic lyric coloratura and soubrette roles as: Norina, Blondchen, Adele, Morgana, Cunégonde, Lakmé, Le Feu.
A committed performer of contemporary music, Marie performed the roles of Madame Donnadieu (Martin Squelette – Aboulker), First Apple (The Little Green Swallow – Dove), Mrs P. (The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat – Nyman) and The Maid (Four Sisters – Langer). She received the Tracey Chadwell Memorial Award for the Best Performance of a New Work for Voice during the 2021 Wigmore Voiceworks.
Passionate about art songs repertoire, Marie learnt from renowned pianists such as Iain Burnside, Dalton Baldwin, Sholto Kynoch, Julius Drake, Eugene Asti and Malcolm Martineau. In 2021, Marie was a Leeds Lieder Festival Young Artist and a semi-finalist of the Helmut Deutsch International Lied Competition. In 2022, she performed during Graham Johnson’s concert Poulenc: His Life and Songs. Most recently, Marie sang Ravel’s Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé under the baton of Cameron Burns and “Wir genießen die himmlischen Freuden” as soprano solo in Mahler’s 4th Symphony with the Glasgow International Symphony Orchestra conducted by Magnus Plejdrup.
Marie is an alumna of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she obtained her Masters in Vocal Performance with Distinction under the tutelage of Professor Rudolf Piernay. She was a Young Artist at the 2019 International Festival Lyrique-en-Mer and a scholar of both the 2020 Lotte Lehman Akademie and the 2022 Oxenfoord Summer School. She holds a Bachelor in Law from Paris Descartes University (Parcours d’excellence).
Marie is honoured to be the recipient of a bursary from the International Opera Awards Foundation.

Canadian conductor Vanessa Chartrand-Rodrigue graduated with honours from McGill University in voice. Thereafter, she attended a Master’s degree in viola da Gamba at the Université de Montréal before moving to Germany to pursue her operatic studies with Ks. Jeanne Piland. Vanessa was recently awarded a scholarship from the Royal Philharmonic Society of London for their contemporary music conducting masterclass with Jessica Cottis, who she counts among her mentors, along with Vladimir Jurowski, with whom she has worked on repertoire with the Berlin Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra.

Vanessa has collaborated as a conductor and singer with renowned ensembles including Ensemble UnitedBerlin, Zafrann Ensemble, Mosaik Ensemble, Chroma Ensemble, Michaelis Consort, and performed at major contemporary music festivals such as MärzMusik, MIKROMUSIK Festival for Experimental music and sound art, ULTRASCHALL Festival, Documenta 14 and Duisburger Akzente. She has worked as musical director and performer with the theatre ensemble kainkollektiv (winner of the Georg Tabori development prize in 2015), Beggar’s Opera Berlin and baroque ensemble The Dansant, which she directs from the viola da gamba. She was assistant conductor for Don Giovanni (Alltagsoper Berlin), Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Opera On Tap Berlin), assistant to Peter Leonard in the Berlin Opera Academy’s production of Carmen, and second principal conductor with Lyric Opera Berlin’s L’elisir d’amore. She recently conducted the world premiere of New York composer Lisa Bielawa’s Mauer Broadcast for double choruses, ensemble and soloist for the Berlin wall celebration.

As a singer, Vanessa counts among her operatic roles Dorabella, Hänsel, Medoro, Niklaus, Ciesca, Carmen, Lucienne and Hermia. She has performed Cherubino (Barcelona Opera Studio) and the title role of Handel’s Giulio Cesare at the Zezere Arts Festival (Portugal). As a concert soloist she has sung Mendelssohn’s Sommernachtstraum (Deutsche Oper am Rhein), Handel’s Messiah, Monteverdi’s Beatus Vir, Mahler’s Das Himmlische Leben (Tonhalle Düsseldorf), Saint-Saens’ Christmas Oratorio, and Mozart’s Requiem.

February 2026

I will be conducting the Berliner Symphoniker at the Berlin Philharmonie. ( I think I will be  the first woman conductor with them) must check.

I also have created a classical music platform that supports the representation of women composers.

This include the AI assistant tool OpusXX Generator

And a Label and Artist Management:

Acclaimed for his “strikingly individual timbre” and his “moving, rich baritone” (Philadelphia Magazine), 23-year-old Dennis Chmelensky’s 2018/19 season features his wide-ranging passion for German lieder, opera and contemporary music.

Chmelensky will continue touring Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch alongside pianist Mikael Eliasen, and perform the title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni under the baton of Karina Canellakis. His recent highlights include concerts dedicated to Leonard Bernstein’s centennial and performances of Bernstein’s A Quiet Place as Junior. He will reappear as Paul in Rene Orth and Pulitzer Prize-winning librettist Mark Campbell’s opera Empty the House, which he gave a world-premiere of in 2016, and perform Ned Rorem’s Aftermath later this season.

A Berlin-native, he made his debut with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and Staatskapelle Berlin as a boy soprano, and performed with many ensembles, including Rundfunkchor Berlin, Sing-Akademie Berlin, Lautten Compagney, and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra. Chmelensky was awarded scholarships from various foundations including the Bürgerstiftung Siegen (2018), Gerda Lissner Liederkranz Foundation (2016), and the Richard Wagner Society in Berlin (2013). Chmelensky’s notable roles include Junior (A Quiet Place), Golaud (Impressions of Pelléas), Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Junius (Rape of Lucretia), and Schaunard (La Bohème).

His debut album, DENNIS, was released in 2009 by Sony Music. He previously attended the Universität der Künste Berlin for voice and conducting, and currently studies at the Curtis Institute of Music under the tutelage of Mikael Eliasen and Marlena Malas. He enjoys watching films, running, and has also acted in movies.

www.dennischmelensky.com

February 2026

Some major milestones in the past few years include graduating from the Cafritz Young Artist Program at Washington National Opera and becoming a semifinalist in the 2022 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. That same year, I debuted at the Verbier Festival as Tom in Un ballo in maschera and Peter in Hänsel und Gretel. In 2023, I made my debut at Tiroler Festspiele Erl as Le Marquis de Corcy in Le Postillon de Lonjumeau, and in 2024, I debuted at Opera Frankfurt as Don Polidoro in Cimarosa’s L’Italiana in Londra. I also returned to the Tiroler Festspiele Erl in 2024 to portray Orlik in Tchaikovsky’s Mazeppa in a production by Matthew Wild. Most recently, in 2025, I worked with the Metropolitan Opera for the first time, singing the Rescue Planner as part of a workshop for the new opera The Mothers of Kherson. Beyond the stage, I have joined the faculties at the Music Conservatory of Westchester and Hoff-Barthelson in New York, mentored a student at the Hanns Eisler in Berlin, and taught a masterclass at the Cleveland Institute of Music a few weeks ago for the first time. 

A young tenor, Nenad Čiča has recently made his German debut as Enrico di Guisa in the revival of Caterina di Guisa by Carlo Coccia, in the production of I Virtuosi Ambulanti. In January, made his Italian debut as Fenton at Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova. He has been an honorary member of National Theatre in Belgrade since 2012, making his debut as a Messagero (Aida), quickly followed by number of other roles: Steuermann (Der Fliegende Holländer); Narraboth (Salome), Cassio (Otello), Ismaele (Nabucco); Lensky (Eugene Onegin); Alfredo Germont (La Traviata), Duca di Mantova (Rigoletto), Luigi (Il Tabarro), Rinuccio (Gianni Scchicchi).

He has also performed at the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad and „Madlenianum Opera & Theatre“ (Belgrade), with National Symphony Orchestra and Choir of National Broadcasting Corporation.

Born in Split, Croatia. After receiving Master’s degree at Faculty of Sport and Physical education, he has begun vocal studies and received Bachelor and Master’s degree at Faculty of Music Arts in Belgrade, Serbia, in the class of Višnja Pavlović – Drakulić. During the studies, he was a member of Opera Studio at „Madlenianum Opera & Theatre“ leaded by KS Biserka Cvejić. He won several singing competitions: National competition; „Lazar Jovanovic“;„Petar Konjovic“. He received scholarship from IVAI (International Vocal Arts Institute) in New York guided by Joan Donermann and Paul Nadler.

He has worked with numerous distinguished teachers: Ruggiero Raimondi, Craig Rutenberg, Laura Brooks Rice, Ruth Falcon, Joan Dornemann, Stojan Stojanov Gančev, Marijana Mijanovic, Doreen Defeis and James Hopper; Snežana Brzaković, Djordje Nesic and conductors: Andrea Battistoni, Paul Nadler, Ivan Kozuharov, Kriss Russman, Larry Newland, Stephen Schreiber, Peter Leonard, Eraldo Salmieri, Bojan Sudjic, Dejan Savic, and also with stage directors: Marina Bianchi, Dejan Miladinovic, Nebojsa Bradic, Paolo Baiocco, Ognjan Draganov, Martin Lloyd Evans.

” Being supported by IOA Foundation occurred in pivotal moment of my career, helping me to successfully overbridge a period when I transitioned my career into international level”

February 2026

My most recent and future performances (season 2025/26) include:

– Title role in Peter Grimes (Theater Bielefeld)

– Paolo Malatesta in Francesca da Rimini by S. Rachmaninoff (Musiktheater im Revier, Gelsenkirchen)

– Boris in K. Kabanová  by L. Janáček  (Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Düsseldorf)

– Manrico in Il Trovatore by G. Verdi (Theater Bielefeld)

Arianna Congedi is an Italian pianist and répétiteur living in Zurich, Switzerland. Having earned a Master’s degree in opera studies and piano pedagogy, she is currently pursuing postgraduate studies in orchestral conducting with Christof Brunner.

She is a 2024 Répétiteur Fellow of the Georg Solti Accademia, where she worked with Jonathan Papp, Anthony Legge, and Richard Bonynge. Arianna is a scholarship holder of the Hirschmann foundation Switzerland for outstanding academic achievements and social engagement.
‍
Upcoming engagements see her as conductor for productions of Don Giovanni with Hastings Philharmonic Orchestra and Teseo with Ensemble Orquesta Baroque, both mentored by Marcio da Silva. As a student of the renowned International Conducting Academy 2025, she will be tutored by Colin Metters in repertoire ranging from Beethoven’s Symphonies to Rachmaninov’s Symphonic dances, performed by Ensemble Cambrica and NEW Sinfonia in Cardiff, London, and Manchester.

Arianna has been invited to work as rehearsal pianist, coaching assistant, and continuo for various productions, including Alcina (Saluzzo Opera Academy), Larmes du Couteau/Alexandre bis (Theater Gessnerallee), Le Nozze di Figaro, Carmen, and Dido and Aeneas (Zurich University of the Arts). Under the general direction of Damon Nestor Ploumis, she has worked at Lyric Opera Studio Weimar as audition pianist, coaching assistant and répétiteur for their production of Die Fledermaus.
Arianna studied with Beatrice Benzi, Umberto Finazzi and James Vaughan in Masterclasses at Accademia Teatro alla Scala Milano. At the Italian Opera Workshop Conducting Masterclass in Florence, she was coached by Antonello Allemandi on a semi-staged production of Il Trovatore.

‍For her musical theatre “Nonna starb an einem Freitag”, which intertwined opera scenes by Ligeti and Eötvös with her play script, she was awarded the ZHdK Förderpreis in 2021. In 2023, alongside Jonas Füllemann as sound/visual programmer, Arianna staged and performed K. Stockhausens Klavierstück XIII: Luzifers Traum using machine learning to augment the perception of the piece.

As a young conductor and répétiteur, participation in a wide range of opera productions is central to my artistic and professional development. With the generous support of the Opera Awards Foundation, I was able to devote several weeks to the detailed study and musical preparation of various productions in Europe, as well as to make my conducting debut in London with Don Giovanni by Mozart and Teseo by Handel. The Opera Awards Foundation generously supported the tuition of my postgraduate degree in orchestral conducting at the Zurich University of the Arts, thereby helping me bridge the gap between postgraduate studies and the professional world.

Knowing that such a distinguished institution believes in my artistic contribution to the world of opera inspires me to pursue my professional goals with even greater dedication and commitment.

I remain profoundly grateful for the generous support of the Opera Awards Foundation.

February 2026

Since September I‘m a repetiteur on the Opera Course of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

In November 2025 I was repetiteur for “Der Wald” by E. Smyth, and the UK Premiere of “Lucrezia“ by O. Respighi at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama

June 2026 I will be assistant conductor for „Opera Makers”. It features new works written by composers and librettists on Guildhall‘s MA in Opera Making/Writing in association with Royal Ballet and Opera.

July 2026 I will be a repetiteur at British Youth Opera for “The Rake’s Progress” by I. Stravinsky, performances will take place end of August at Battersea Arts Centre.

I will also be Young Artist Répétiteur at the National Opera Studio for the 26/27 season.

Neal Cooper was born in South London and studied German literature at Durham University and singing at the Paris Conservatoire. After several years working in France he returned to Britain to train as a dramatic tenor, studying at the National Opera Studio. He is the nephew of the boxing heavyweight champion Sir Henry Cooper.

Learn more: Athole Still

I was a late developer. My first professional opera job was with the Opera Holland park chorus back in 2007 when I was already no Spring chicken. I had a lot of catching up to do. In 2009, the National Opera Studio very graciously supported me with a few hours of coaching each week. By 2011 I had got an audition at the athen Royal Opera House and was offered the Luigi cover in Il Tabarro. Maestro Pappano took an interest and encouraged me to sing the Wagner rep. I accepted the challenge and took steps towards learning the big Heldentenor roles. He then recommended me to Anthony Negus. I set my sights on the role of Tristan which is not only one of the most demanding roles to sing but also to learn. This is where the Opera Awards Bursary comes in. It would take a lot of time and hard work to learn the role of Tristan. I applied for a bursary to help me with the coaching costs involved, audition related expenses and the opportunity cost which was in itself onerous. The bursary played a key role in supporting my development as a singer. I went on to sing Tristan at Longborough and in Germany. I made my debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Melot and Tristan cover in 2016. Singers need support to develop and the Opera Awards bursary was a much needed and appreciated aid in the early stages of my career.

Fearghal is a tenor from Dublin. He has recently graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, London. Opera credits include Orpheus/Mercury in Orpheus in the Underworld, Quint/Prologue in The Turn of the Screw, Pygmalion in Pygmalion, Prunier in La Rondine and Ruiz in Il trovatore. Most recently Fearghal has been part of Opera Theatre Company’s touring production of La bohème and looks forward to working on their incoming production of Don Giovanni, with a new translation by Roddy Doyle. Upcoming events also include Acis in Acis and Galatea and Marco in The Gondoliers.

Canadian/British soprano Eve Daniell was born and raised in British Columbia, Canada.  She moved to London, UK, in 2014 to pursue post-graduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music where she receivied a Sainsbury Award, the Catherine Osborne Opera Award, and in 2015 won the prestigious Pavarotti Prize.  She has performed the roles of Fiordiligi, Contessa, Konstanze, Tatyana, and Nerone (L’incoronazione di Poppea) among others.  On the concert platform she has performed with the Victoria Symphony, Royal Academy of Music/Kohn Foundation Bach Cantata Series, Victoria Bach Ensemble, she sang the title role in Handel’s Athalia at St John’s, Smith Square, conducted by Paul Spicer, and most recently was a soloist in Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music for the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms, conducted by Saraki Oramo.

Originally from France, Benoît Déchelotte is currently studying as a baritone towards a master’s degree at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Samantha Malk and Stephan Loges. At GSMD he has had the opportunity to study with Iain Burnside, Graham Johnson, Adrian Thompson, Bretton Brown, and Jonathan Lemalu, and participated in masterclasses with Julia Bullock, Richard Hetherington, and Craig Terry.   

Previously, he studied at the Conservatories of Rouen, and Lyon with Marcin Habela. He has also worked with vocal coach Graham Lilly. He received the 2nd Young Artist prize at the International  Jeunes talents en Normandie competition in 2022 and 3rd prize in 2020. He was also a finalist in the Vivonne Competition in 2021.  

On stage he has appeared as Belcore in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore with Longhope Opera, Chairman Walsingham in Cesar Cui’s A Feast in Time of Plague with Oxford Opera Society, Le Cicérone in Jean Françaix’s Paris, à nous deux! with the Guildhall brass department, Germont  in a French version of La Traviata with the Vibrato(s) charity, Ben in Menotti’s The Telephone, Guglielmo in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte and Valentin in Hervé’s Petit Faust. His work in Guildhall’s Opera Scenes allowed him to tackle the roles of Alfio in Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Don Inigo in Ravel’s L’heure espagnole. 

Website: www.benoitdechelottebaritone.com 

Instagram: @bdbaritone 

February 2026

I have returned to France now since my bursary, where I am involved in a tour of La vie Parisienne by Offenbach as Gardefeu with the company Opera Côté Choeur : several dates in March, May, August and October.

https://www.opera-cote-choeur.fr/

I was recently busy with Oxford Song International festival last autumn https://oxfordsong.org and I am devoted a lot to building a new opera company in the north west of France called La Fabrique Opéra Normandie (logo enclosed). We plan on giving Cendrillon by Pauline Viardot and Monsieur Choufleuri by Offenbach.

I recorded a song project about the Orient Express with the swiss radio which is under finalisation and should be out in the spring.

Finally I am developping a recital duo with the pianist Valentin Barray, called Duo Epicure, dedicated to curating events around gastronomy, wine and music. Recording are currently undergoing for an official annoucement early April.

Marieke de Koker is a South African Zwischenfach studying at the Mannes School of Music in New York City. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Vocal Performance at DePaul University. She was a 2021 Emerging Artist at the Windybrow Arts Center in South Africa where she was interviewed on the ETV morning show about her work. She made her radio debut with RSG radio, Brooklyn Theatre TV and Gauteng Philharmonic Orchestra.

Marieke has performed in concert with Johannesburg Opera, Really Spicy Opera, Windy City Performing Arts, the Art Song Preservation Society of New York, the International Contemporary Ensemble’s Ensemble Evolution, the Mosaic Composer’s Collective and the Academy of Fortepiano Performance.  Recent roles include Béatrice in Béatrice et Benedict (Shakespeare Opera Theater), Speaker in the AGAMEMNON workshop (Theatre for a New Audience), Cloud in the world premiere of Iceland (Overtone Industries), Liza Elliott in Lady in the Dark (Bronx Opera Outreach) and Giunone in La Calisto (Mannes Opera).

Upcoming performances include Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors (Music On Site Inc), Polyxo in Here Be Sirens (Mannes Opera), Blessed Be Our Martyrs (world premiere) in recital with Kamilla Arku, All We Have Is Our Voice (world premiere) in recital with Maggie Hinchcliffe, and the orchestral premiere of Marieke’s original song cycle Never Again with DePaul University.

Marieke has won the Nightingale Opera Theatre Competition, DePaul Concerto Competition and Charleston International Music Competition. She placed second in the Hal Leonard Vocal Competition and has received prizes from Casa Italia Chicago and the Amazwi Omzansi Competition.  Marieke is a founding board member of Canadian queer opera company Opéra Queens. As Publishing Team Lead at the Àkójọpọ̀ Music Foundation she is leading the development of a new ecommerce publishing platform for Pan-African composers.

Danish soprano Katrine Deleuran is a graduate of the Royal College of Music, currently studying with Professor Rosa Mannion and pianist and coach Caroline Dowdle. She is a Leeds Lieder Festival Young Artist together with her duo partner Aleksandra Myslek, a Young Artist at the Atelier Lyrique opera programme at Verbier Festival, and a festival singer at Berlin Opera Academy in 2022. She debuted as Nedda, Pagliacci, at Denmark’s Soeholm Opera in 2021. During summer 2022, she will sing the role of Gertrude, Hänsel und Gretel at both Verbier Festival and in Berlin.  

Katrine has worked with prominent opera coaches and singers including German dramatic soprano Manuela Uhl, American baritone Thomas Hampson, coach and pianist Elisabeth Rowe from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Manhattan School of Music’s Cynthia Hoffman, soprano Edith Wiens, soprano and vocal professor Chantel Mathias at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, Swedish mezzo soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, and Italian soprano Barbara Frittoli. 

Operatic and concert highlights include the role of Lady Mary Grantham in the world premiere of Mathias Vestergård’s new opera Titanic, masterclasses and concerts as a young artist at the Soeholm Opera Festival from 2017-2021, and singing excerpts of Adele, Die Fledermaus in The Operetta Boat around the Copenhagen canals as part of Copenhagen Opera Festival. 

Website: www.katrinedeleuran.com 

Instagram: @Deleurandeluxe 

I received an email in 2022 informing me that I had been awarded a bursary, and I was overjoyed! At that time, I was a young artist at the Verbier Festival, just about to enter the professional opera world as a freelancer. The award enabled me to move from London to Munich, launch my website with new photos, and cover travel expenses during my first audition season in Germany. This support was invaluable and provided crucial confirmation that I was on the right track at this pivotal point in my career. I am deeply grateful to be among such talented recipients and feel truly honoured to celebrate our beautiful artform as an artist every day.

Website: www.nicodevilliers.com

British mezzo soprano Sophie Dicks is a recent alumni of the Royal Northern College of Music where she trained to Masters level. She now studies in London with mezzo soprano, Anne Mason.

Sophie Dicks completed five years at the RNCM, undergraduate and postgraduate, under the tuition of Ann Taylor. Whilst there, Sophie was a regular member of the College’s opera choruses, having performed in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito, Offenbach’s La Belle Helene, Bizet’s Carmen, and Samuel Barber’s Vanessa. She has also sung the roles of Hansel, Lucretia,Cenerentola, Tisbe and Hermia in scenes. The first full role Sophie studied was the role of Varochka in Shostakovich’s Moscow, Cheryomushki and in her final year she sang the title role in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. Awards include the Freckleton and Doherty cup for singing in 2011,  the Annie Ridyard Scholarship for Mezzo-Sopranos and she was an International Opera Awards bursary recipient in 2013.  Sophie has been fortunate enough to participate in masterclasses with Rosalind Plowright OBE, Sarah Connolly CBE, Dame Felicity Palmer, Dame Ann Murray and Rebecca Evans.

Professionally, Sophie has worked with Buxton Festival Opera covering and in the chorus and Opera Holland Park where she was one of the 2015 Christine Collins Young Artists singing the role of Mallika in Delibes’ Lakmé.

Recent engagements include a return to Opera Holland Park to cover the role of Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus.

Website: www.sophiedicks.com

Website: www.finnegandowniedear.com

Leo Doulton is a writer and director working in opera, theatre, and interactive forms.  

As a director, Leo was a 2022 JMK Award Finalist, and was longlisted for the 2019 Offie Award for Best Opera. Recent work includes Macbeth (York Shakespeare Project, 2021), Come Bargain With Uncanny Things (Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival 2021), We Sing/I Sang (Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival 2020), Antony and Cleopatra (York Shakespeare Project, 2019), Der Zar lässt sich Photographieren (Bloomsbury Theatre, 2019), Don Jo! (Grimeborn Festival, 2019) and The Perfect Opera (Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2019). 

As a writer, Leo’s work includes the interactive immersive operas Come Bargain With Uncanny Things and We Sing/I Sang, the libretti for The Perfect Opera and Opera Dots: Pagliacci (Royal Opera House, 2019), and the musical Man & God (Bloomsbury Studio, 2019). Translations include The Tsar Wants His Photograph Taken (Scottish Opera, 2021) and Don Giovanni. In 2022, Leo was invited to attend a Britten Pears Foundation Creative Retreat to develop Come Bargain With Uncanny Things ahead of its return in October 2022. 

Writing prizes include Count, Kindred, Kine, Citizen (shortlisted for the Alpine Fellowship 2020), Four Apocalypses (longlisted for the Bear Creek Gazette Prize 2022) and the game Beckett’s Tavern (winner of the 2020 Saga Forge Adventures Competition). Leo’s interactive fiction regularly appears in Voidspace Magazine. 

Leo has presented academic papers on practice-based research at University College London, the University of York, the British Shakespeare Association, the Wiener Library, and Oxford Brookes. 

Website: www.leodoulton.com 

Twitter: @LeoDoulton 

British-Pakistani soprano Mimi Doulton is fast developing a reputation as an acclaimed interpreter of contemporary opera and song. She won 2nd prize at the 2021 John Cage Interpretation Award in Halberstadt and was a finalist in the vocal section of the 2022 Royal Overseas League Annual Music Competition.    

Recent engagements include her German debut in Knussen’s Where the Wild Things Are (Bamberger Symphoniker/Shadwell Opera), and debuts at Wigmore Hall, the Aldeburgh Festival and Café OTO. This autumn she will make her debut at the Royal Opera House Linbury Theatre in the world premiere of Oliver Leith’s Last Days.  

Mimi made her professional debut in the world premiere of Giorgio Battistelli’s Wake with Birmingham Opera Company in 2018, directed by the late Sir Graham Vick. She has developed and premiered work with composers including Rakhi Singh, Philip Venables, Samantha Fernando, and Errollyn Wallen for companies such as Snape Maltings, Tête a Tête, the Royal Opera and Graeae.  

Mimi graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with distinction in 2018, having previously read Music and Languages at King’s College London. She continues her studies with Gary Coward.   

Website: www.mimidoulton.com 
Twitter: @mimidoulton https://twitter.com/mimidoulton
Instagram: @mimidoulton 

Receiving an Opera Awards Bursary in 2022 played a vital part in establishing my freelance career in Germany. The cost of applying for opportunities, travelling to auditions, and preparing repertoire is a huge burden on any singer – and I was feeling that especially having recently moved to a new country where I had few professional contacts or sources of income. Thank you for supporting me to take artistic risks, and take the next steps with my career.

February 2026

I have just spent a few months in London playing DHL Driver in the revival of Oliver Leith’s Last Days at RBO Linbury. Next up, I’m in Munich at the Bayerische Staatsoper, first for a children’s opera called WYLD, and then as a cover on the new Brett Dean opera Of One Blood. It’ll be my first time working at this house, and I’m really looking forward to getting started! 

Magid El-Bushra was born in Khartoum, Sudan and studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, the Royal College of Music in London, and at the Flanders Opera Studio in Ghent. His various prizes include a Royal Philharmonic Society Susan Chilcott Award, and first prize at the Concorso Musica Sacra in Rome.

Recent engagements include Nicholas Lens’ Shell Shock with Orchestre de Radio France at the Philharmonie in Paris, Hamor in Handel’s Jephtha (Wiener Festwochen, Potsdamer Winteroper, Hamburger Theater Festival; Konrad Junghänel), Orontes in Telemann’s Der misslungene Brautwechsel (conducted by Michael Hofstetter), Bach’s St John Passion with Concerto Köln, and the Cheshire Cat in Will Todd’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland at the Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House.

Other notable operatic engagements have included the Sorceress in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (Amsterdam Concertgebouw/Théâtre des Champs Elysées; David Stern), David in Handel’s Saul (Oldenburgisches Staatstheater; Andreas Spering), Nutrice in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea (Glyndebourne Tour; Jonathan Cohen), and Primo Uomo in Le Convenienze ed Inconvenienze Teatrali (Opéra de Rouen). He has worked with conductors such as William Christie, Hervé Niquet, and Laurence Cummings.

On the concert platform, Magid has performed Handel’s Chapel Royal Anthems (Basel Kammerorchester; Paul Goodwin), Buxtehude’s Das Jüngste Gericht with Masaaki Suzuki in Japan, and Bach’s Mass in G and Mass in A with Raphaël Pichon. He has given recitals at the Aldeburgh and Montréal Bach festivals, at the Bijloke in Ghent, Konzerttheater Bern, and Casa da Musica, Porto. He recorded the Pie Jesu in Duruflé’s Requiem for Harmonia Mundi.

www.magidelbushra.com

Lauren Fagan has distinguished herself as a young soprano to watch, after a series of acclaimed debuts following her recent graduation from Covent Garden’s prestigious Jette Parker Young Artist Programme. In the current season, she joins Sir Antonio Pappano in Rome with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia as Roxana in concert performances of Szymanowski’s Krol Roger, the NHK Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Järvi as Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), and returns to Opera Holland Park as Verdi’s heroine Violetta (La traviata), marking her first performance of the role.

At the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Lauren Fagan has appeared in a number of diverse productions on the main stage, ROH2, and the Linbury Theatre. These included Oscar (Un ballo in maschera), Suor Genovieffa (Suor Angelica), Giannetta (L’elisir d’amore) and Lila (The Firework-Maker’s Daughter) and returns for the first time as a guest artist in 2018/19 as Woglinde in Wagner’s epic Ring Cycle under Music Director Sir Antonio Pappano. Most recent highlights include her tour de force debut as Musetta (La bohème) with Welsh National Opera across the UK and on tour to Dubai, and her “pristine-voiced” (The Financial Times) Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) for Opera Holland Park and at the 2016 Verbier Festival.

Concert highlights have included joining Sakari Oramo for Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music as part of the Last Night of the BBC Proms, Mozart’s Requiem with the BBC Singers under David Hill, and Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras with the Philharmonia Orchestra. This season’s concert appearances include Peer Gynt with Orchestre national de Lyon under Leonard Slatkin, and Agnés in concert performances of George Benjamin’s Written on Skin, with the Melos Sinfonia conducted by Oliver Zeffman, in London at LSO St Luke’s and also in St. Petersburg at the Mariinsky Theatre.

February 2026

Tatyana, Eugene Onegin at Opera Australia (March 2026)

Title role in Vanessa at Spoleto Festival Italy (June 2026)

English soprano Susanna Fairbairn is a dynamic, award-winning young opera singer and soloist. She is a former Park Lane Group Young Artist, Handel Singing Competition finalist and winner of the Dvořák Prize at the Emmy Destinn Young Singer Awards.

Originally a first-study flautist, Susanna won an Instrumental Scholarship whilst at Magdalen College, Oxford. Subsequently, she studied voice at Trinity College of Music (winning the English Song Competition, Wilfred Greenhouse Allt Prize and Paul Simm Opera Prize) and the Wales International Academy of Voice.

Operatic highlights include Donna Anna Don Giovanni, Belinda Dido and Aeneas, Eleonora Il furioso all’isola di San Domingo, Juno La Calisto and Bice Pia de’ Tolomei for English Touring Opera; cover Donna Anna Don Giovanni for Opera North; Galatea Acis and Galatea for Opera Theatre Company (Ireland); Countess Le nozze di Figaro for Longborough Festival Opera; Count Gontran Une Éducation Manquée for Pop-Up Opera; and Margery The Dragon of Wantley for London Handel Festival.

Solo appearances have included Tavener’s The Veil of the Temple in Canterbury Cathedral in the composer’s presence; Messiah at Wales Millennium Centre; Brahms Requiem in St. David’s Hall, Cardiff; and St. John Passion in Birmingham Symphony Hall and as a semi-staged piece with English Touring Opera. A keen recitalist, Susanna has performed at Wigmore Hall, Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, and St. James’s Church Piccadilly. Her début solo CD is available on Naxos: Songs of Geoffrey Bush and Joseph Horovitz, about which Gramophone Magazine said ‘Susanna Fairbairn is in delectably fresh voice throughout, and she forges a splendidly stylish and communicative alliance with her accompanist Matthew Schellhorn.’

Website: www.susannafairbairn.com

Mezzo-soprano Adriana Festeu is winner of the Song Prize at the Emmy Destinn Competition and a recipient of an Opera Awards Foundation Bursary.

Her operatic roles include Cenerentola, Calbo Maometto secondo, Megacle L’Olimpiade, Rustena La verita in cimento (all Garsington Opera, cover); Marianna Signor Bruschino, Lucilla Scala di Seta (British Youth Opera); Isolier Le comte Ory (Opera South); Endimione La Calisto, Komponist Ariadne auf Naxos (Royal Academy Opera); Fidalma Il matrimonio segretto, Marcellina Le nozze di Figaro, Madame Nolan The Medium (Romanian National Opera); Candida Emilia di Liverpool (European Opera Centre), Priestess King Arthur and Juno The Judgement of Paris (New London Consort) and most recently Xerxes (cover), Giovanna Rigoletto (Longborough Opera), and Orphée Orphée et Euridice (Opera Prelude).

Adriana has performed in Masterclasses with Ileana Cotrubas, Ann Murray, Barbara Bonney, Jose Cura, and is an alumna of the Georg Solti Academy, working with Frederica von Stade and Kiri Te Kanawa.

A recent graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, she studied in the Opera Course with Lillian Watson and has also completed a PhD: Exploring Zwischenfach: understanding vocal classification and its professional significance. Adriana is grateful to the Opera Awards Foundation, Opera Prelude, and the AHRC for supporting her studies.

Website: www.adrianafesteu.com

2015 Opera Awards Bursary Recipient Nazan Fikret, trained at the GSMD and there, was winner of the English Song Prize and Susan Longfield Award. She is a 2015-17 Making Music Young Concert Artist, a Britten-Pears Scholar and Concordia Foundation Artist. Career highlights include Flora The Turn of the Screw for ENO, Teatro Real, Aix en Provence and Nationale Reisopera, Diane Disney The Perfect American for ENO/Teatro Real, Girl/Polar Bear How the Whale Became for the ROH Linbury, cover Wendy Peter Pan and Queen of the Night for WNO, and Fiordiligi Cosi Fan Tutte for the RPLO/European Opera Centre.

Highlights of the 2015-16 season included contemporary opera scenes for Aldeburgh Music Jerwood Opera Writing Scheme, becoming a Britten Pears Scholar (Bach with Mark Padmore and Brahms with Professor Thomas Quasthoff), a return to WNO covering Angelika Figaro Gets a Divorce and Karolka in Jenufa for Longborough Festival Opera. She is also proud to have performed as a soloist alongside fellow bursary recipients for the Opera Awards Gala in May, and a soloist for HM Queen’s Official 90th Birthday aboard HMS Havengore on the River Pageant.

Nazan will finish the season with a solo recital at St Martin in the Fields in conjunction with Making Music.

She begins the 2016-17 season with a recital for Asia House (with Talent Unlimited Charity), continues her series of recitals and oratorios as a Making Music YCA and performs as Königin der Nacht, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte for Lisbon’s Rota Das Artes Festival.

Website: www.nazanfikret.com

Juliane Gallant is accomplished in both operatic and song repertoire, working as musical director, repetiteur, accompanist, coach and conductor. She studied Piano accompaniment with Pamela Lidiard at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She also holds degrees from the Université de Moncton, the University of Ottawa, and the Conservatoire de musique et d’art dramatique de Montréal. In September 2018, Juliane was one of only 12 conductors selected for the Women Conductors Course: Conducting for Opera, run by the Royal Opera House, the National Opera Studio and the Royal Philharmonic Society.

Juliane has worked as musical director for Opera on Location (Don Giovanni, Carmen), St Paul’s Opera (Così fan tutte, Orphée aux enfers), Opera Up Close (Carmen, Music oft hath such a charm, Ulla’s Odyssey), Opera Mio (A Fantastic Bohemian: The Tales of Hoffmann revisited), and the Clapham Opera Festival (La Boheme). She has also served as repetiteur for Magnetic Opera (The Medium), Rossini Young Artists (Il barbiere di Siviglia) and the Lyric Opera Studio Weimar (Die Zauberflöte). She will be the musical director for the Kings Head Theatre’s new production of Carmen in early 2019.

As a song recitalist, Juliane has been heard at Wigmore Hall, the Barbican, the Purcell Room and on West End stages. A firm believer of the healing power of music, she regularly tours with Lost Chord, bringing song to people living with dementia. She also plays in a variety of workshops and events with Opera Holland Park Inspire, sharing opera with people of all age groups and walks of life.

www.julianegallant.com

February 2026

Since I received my bursary pre-Covid to cover my first conducting lessons, I have moved into conducting full-time. I am in my third season as Resident Conductor at the Calgary Philharmonic, and I’ve made my Boston Pops debut in December 2025.

Andrii Ganchuk is a Ukrainian baritone currently on the Fabbrica Young Artist Programme at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. In 2017 he completed his Masters in Opera Performance at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (RWCMD) with distinction, where he studied with renowned Scottish baritone Donald Maxwell and acclaimed accompanist Michael Pollock.

As a member of the Fabbrica Young Artist Programme Andrii successfully performed the title role in Verdi’s Rigoletto in a reduced version, and in December 2018 he will cover the role for the opening of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. In the 2018/2019 season he will be involved in 5 opera productions, including the role of Masetto in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Graham Vick directing and Jérémie Rhorer conducting.

Andrii made his operatic debut in 2016 as Ford in the RWCMD production of Verdi’s Falstaff, under the baton of Maestro Carlo Rizzi. Since then he has sung the role of Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen, Smirnov in Walton’s The Bear and Frank Maurrant in Weill’s Street Scene. He also took part in an Opera Gala accompanied by the Welsh National Opera orchestra.

During his studies Andrii has been generously supported by the Leverhulme Trust and the Friends Connect Fund. He is a recipient of the Philippa and David Seligman Award for Excellence and Eileen Price McWilliam Award in memory of her sons, Alastair and David. Despite the fact Andrii has a PhD in Economics and an MBA, eventually his passion for singing convinced him to become an opera singer.

Polish countertenor Damian Ganclarski studied at the Academy of Music in Lodz, under the guidance of Professor Urszula Kryger. In July 2015 Damian graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he had been under the tutelage of world-renowned countertenor Michael Chance and coaches Ian Partridge and James Baillieu. He was selected as a winner of a bursary from the Opera Awards Foundation. As a result of a competitive audition Damian was also selected to participate in the Josephine Baker Trust scheme. He was also kindly supported by Nicholas Berwin Charitable Trust. He has been honoured to take masterclasses with professors such as Teresa Berganza, Ingrid Kremling, Maciej Pikulski, Ewa Podleś, Udo Reinemann and Teresa Żylis-Gara.

In 2009 Damian came first in the Polish Songs Competition in Warsaw. After winning the Warsaw Competition the young countertenor started to perform regularly in many prestigious concerts and festivals in Poland, such as Wrocław’s Academy of Music, Association of Polish Music Artists, Łódź Association of Old Music, International Bach Festival and Festival Carousel of Culture. He has performed on renowned stages with Polish orchestras. Furthermore, he had the honour to perform in Turkey with the Presidential Symphony Orchestra in Ankara (Handel and Mozart’s arias and Orff’s Carmina Burana) and the Antalya Symphony Orchestra (Handel and Mozart arias). He took part in Polish premiere of Handel Orlando, singing the part of Medoro during the Festival of Baroque Operas in Warsaw.

In 2009 Damian made his debut in the Grand Theatre in Łódź in Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto under the guidance of Paul Esswood. The young vocalist gained acclaim from audiences and critics. He is especially interested in oratorio and opera from the Baroque to the contemporary period and songs from the Romantic era to 21^st century.

Sergiu Garabajii is a doctoral student at the “Sigismund Toduță” Doctoral School of the Gheorghe Dima National Academy of Music in Cluj-Napoca, under the guidance of Professor Ecaterina Banciu. He completed his bachelor’s and master’s studies under the mentorship of Professors Florin Estefan, Geani Brad, and Iulia Suciu, as well as one year of master’s studies through the Erasmus program at The Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna, under Professors Michail Lanskoi and Greta Benini.

He is the recipient of the “Maria Bieșu – Voice of the Year” award, offered by the Union of Musicians of the Republic of Moldova, and has participated in competitions and events in various countries, including the Republic of Moldova, Romania, Austria, Czech Republic, Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, USA, Italy, France, and Germany.

Sergiu has attended masterclasses with Renato Bruson, Leo Nucci, Ramón Vargas, Daniela Barcelona, Eleonora Pacetti, Nelly Miricioiu, Ruxandra Donose, Leontina Văduva, Mariana Nicolesco, and others.

He has collaborated with conductors such as Toby Purser, David Aronson, Alessandro Alonzi, David Crescenzi, Davide Bottarelli, Gabriel Bebeșelea, Koichiro Kanno, Cristian Sandu, Horia Andreescu, Gheorghe Mustea, Mihail Agafița, Gianmaria Fantato Pontini, and Andrei Zapșa.

His operatic repertoire includes roles such as Marullo (Rigoletto by G. Verdi), Marco/Betto di Signa (Gianni Schicchi by G. Puccini), Alexandru (Ștefan cel Mare by G. Mustea), Count Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro by W. A. Mozart), Belcore (L’elisir d’amore by G. Donizetti), Sam (Trouble in Tahiti by L. Bernstein), Eugene Onegin (Eugene Onegin by P. I. Tchaikovsky), Giorgio Germont (La Traviata by G. Verdi), and, from the vocal-symphonic repertoire, Symphony No. 9 by L. van Beethoven, Symphony No. 5 by B. Yuankai, Ein deutsches Requiem by J. Brahms, Requiem by Gabriel Fauré, and Messa di Gloria by G. Puccini.

Being awarded an Opera Awards Bursary marked an important milestone in my artistic and academic journey. This support came as a recognition of my professional direction and as a meaningful encouragement to continue developing my career on an international level.

The bursary provided the framework to further deepen my studies, doctoral research, and artistic refinement, allowing me to focus on strengthening my interpretative identity and expanding my repertoire. It also facilitated my participation in academic and artistic programs, international auditions and competitions, as well as professional training and coaching with distinguished mentors.

In parallel, this support contributed to the development of my activity as a soloist in concerts and recitals and to my involvement in projects of cultural diplomacy and musical education—experiences that had a direct impact on my artistic maturity and professional visibility.

Beyond its material value, the bursary represented trust, validation, and the opening of new artistic and academic perspectives at a defining stage of my career. I am deeply grateful to the Opera Awards Foundation for its continued commitment to supporting emerging artists and for the meaningful role it plays in encouraging artistic excellence.

February 2026

During this period, my activity includes both stage appearances and academic projects. On 18 February 2026, I will perform at an event organized by the Royal Foundation Margareta of Romania in Chișinău, presenting a programme of art songs by Moldovan composers.

On 1 March 2026, I will take part in the premiere production of the musical Maria Mirabela – The Story Continues by Eugen Doga, on verses by Grigore Vieru, together with the Orchestra of the Public Broadcaster “Teleradio-Moldova”, conducted by Gheorghe Mustea. The performance will take place at the National Palace in Chișinău, opening the International “Mărțișor” Festival.

In March, I will participate as a guest and speaker at the Pan-European Voice Conference (PEVOC) in Istanbul, where I will present my research dedicated to the art of singing of Renato Bruson.

For this summer, I have been selected for the Sherrill Milnes VOICE Studio opera program in the United States, an important opportunity for my professional development. However, the travel and accommodation costs exceed my current financial possibilities, and I would like to respectfully ask whether the Opera Awards Foundation might be able to offer additional support or guide me toward possible funding opportunities to help me take part in this program.

Alongside my performance activity, I continue my doctoral studies and develop cultural and educational initiatives for young artists through the Ethos Cultural platform.

Baritone Robert Garland currently holds the position of Associate Artist within the Royal Academy of Music Opera School under the tutelage of Mark Wildman and Jonathan Papp. Previous studies include a Masters of Performance with Distinction from the Royal Academy and a Bachelor of Music from the Royal Welsh College of Music.

During his time at the Academy Robert has performed John Styx (Offenbach’s Orphée aux enfers), Herr Peachum (Weill’s Die Dreigroschenoper), Masetto (Mozart’s Don Giovanni) and Steward (Dove’s Flight). In addition to his roles with the Royal Academy, Robert has also performed Figaro (Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia), Guglielmo (Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte) and Belcore (Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore).

Robert has worked with numerous opera companies in the chorus, in various small sung roles and major covers. Recent companies include The Grange Festival, Opera Holland Park, Grange Park Opera, Northern Ireland Opera and Nevill Holt Opera.

In addition to operatic work Robert frequently gives oratorio and recital performances. Oratorio performances include Brahms’ Requiem, Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs and Handel’s Messiah. Robert has also recently given recitals at the Guards Chapel, where he holds the position of Lay Clerk, and at the Corn Exchange in Newbury as part of the International Newbury Spring Festival.

www.robertgarland.co.uk

Toby Girling’s current and future engagements include NICOMEDES Der König Kandaules and PALLANTE Agrippina De Vlaamse Opera, BELCORE L’elisir d’amore Scottish Opera, MORALES Carmen The Grange Festival, ANGELO Das Liebesverbot Chelsea Opera Group at Cadogan Hall, and SAM Trouble in Tahiti with Oper Leipzig on tour in Bolzano, a role which he also sang with the Wexford Festival.

Recent engagements include EVANGELIST/WATCHFUL/FIRST SHEPHERD Pilgrim’s Progress English National Opera, MASETTO Don Giovanni, RUGGERO La Juive (Peter Konwitschny), Mozart’s Mass in C minor, a staged version of Winterreise and JUNKMAN/HERMANN AUGUSTUS Candide Vlaamse Opera Antwerp, TOP in Copeland’s The Tenderland Opéra de Lyon, GUGLIELMO Così fan tutte English Touring Opera, and IL CHIRURGO/ALCADE La Forza del Destino Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg.

As a member of the Frankfurt Opera Studio Toby’s appearances included roles in Don Carlos, Tristan und Isolde, La Vida Breve and Daphne, as well as Young Artists concerts. Other previous engagements have included GUGLIELMO Così fan tutte and the SORCERESS Dido and Aeneas Verbier Festival, CEPRANO Rigoletto Iford Festival, and the NARRATOR in Conor Mitchell’s The Musician Belfast Festival. Toby has taken part in recitals on BBC Radio 3 and in venues throughout the UK.

Learn more: Athole Still

Anna Gomà, born in Barcelona, holds a diploma in drama from the Col.legi de Teatre de Barcelona and is a certified teacher of the Edgar Willems music teaching system.

She made her debut as a soloist in productions organized by the education department of the Gran Teatre Liceu, including Regals and Lisistrata. Anna has worked with international conductors such as Luis Fernando Malheiro, Adam Szmidt, Hans-Friedrich Härle, Andrés Juncos, Pablo Assante, Manuel Valdivieso, Borja Quintas and Ricardo Estrada, in theatres and in concert halls including Malfitana Hall in Verona, Zaragoza Auditorium, Alfredo Kraus Auditorium, Tenerife Auditorium, National Auditorium of Madrid, Manuel de Falla Auditorium, Teatro Amazonas in Manaus, Jovellanos Theatre in Gijón, Clasac Theatre in Dublin and Badlands in Canada.

Other highlights include performances with Constança National Theatre Orchestra, Rhein-Main Philarmonie, Orquestra Filarmónica Marchegiana and Orquesta del Reino de Aragón.

She has performed Siebel at the Teatro Amazonas, Carmen and Lola with Harmonía Symphony Orchestra,
Mozart’s Requiem, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Jenkins’ Requiem, Apollo in Apollo et Hyacintus, Mozart’s
Coronation Mass, Suor Angelica, Flora (La traviata), Handel’s Joshua, Giannetta (L’elisir d’amore), El Barberillo de Lavapiés and Serpina (La serva padrona), along with concerts in Verona, Germany, Spain, Italy and Bulgaria.

Recent competition wins include the First Prize in the Concorso Elsa Respighi in Verona (2015), Jury Prize in
the Concours de chant Canari (2017), Saô Pablo Prize in the Concurso Auditorio de Tenerife, Best Zarzuela singer
(2016) in the Concurso Ciudad de Logroño and finalist in the Concurso Alfredo Kraus (2017).

In 2019 Anna will appear as Mercedes in Carmen at the Teatro Campoamor in Oviedo.

www.annagoma.com

Matthew Goodheart is a lyric tenor from Binghamton, NY. Recent engagements include appearing as an apprentice artist at the Santa Fe Opera and covering Count Almaviva  in Lyric Opera of Kansas City’s Il barbiere di Siviglia production. Matthew holds a bachelor’s degree from the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music and spent 2 years as a Resident Artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts. While at AVA, Matthew performed notable roles such as Percy in Anna Bolena, Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia, and Alfredo in La traviata. Additionally, he showcased scenes from L’elisir d’amore in conjunction with Opera Philadelphia’s festival O23. Other role credits include Tamino in Die Zauberflöte and Count Belfiore in La finta giardiniera. Looking ahead, he is scheduled to join the vocal residency at the Festival d’Aix en Provence this summer, and appear with the Dallas Opera in the fall of 2025.

Alex started his musical education in Hull University reading Music and Drama. During his three years, He performed, composed and conducted many shows and operas at the Gulbenkian Theatre.

During his education, he has studied with Sarah Leonard, Christopher Wilson and Henry Herford. He has sung at master classes from Robert Tear, Sarah Conolley, Simon Keenlyside and Dame Felicity Lott in their respective specialities. He graduated from Trinity Laban conservatoire with a Masters in Vocal performance. During his time at Trinity, Alex has performed as a soloist with the BBC Symphony Chorus at the Royal Albert Hall, worked with ENO in a workshop production of Two Boys by Nico Muhly and performed in staged Operatic productions of Rinaldo (Handel), Albert Herring (Britten), Gianni Schicci (Puccini) and Marriage of Figaro scenes (Mozart). Alex went on to study with ENO’s ‘Opera Works’ course for young and emerging artists, leading him on to working with Grange Park Opera chorus for 2 seasons.

Following this that Alex was asked to join the a cappella quintet Apollo5. Created by the charity that founded VOCES8, Apollo5 is a world renowned performance ensemble as well as maintaining a far reaching education programme. Apollo5 works with over 20,000 students annually, as well as performing in world class venues in the UK, Europe and the USA. During his time with Apollo5, Alex has become a known and admired vocal workshop leader, overseeing projects in Nottingham, Henley on Thames, Hackney and Surrey.

Alex also sings with the Philharmonia Chorus on their professionals scheme, with Barber-shop-o-gram and is a Lecturer with Opera Prelude. He is also a beneficiary of The Opera Awards Foundation Bursary.

Website: www.alexhaigh.co.uk

The Opera Awards foundation bursary provided a huge boost for me not only in financial terms but also confidence and determination; there is something very meaningful when an organisation provides that sort of support to an individual; it creates a bond and a desire to do them, and yourself, proud. I used my bursary to create a small album of audition ready material, and it also funded a tour to germany with several auditions over that trip. I did spend some of my professional life in the Berlin Opera Academy, but fast forward 10 years and I am now working full time in the chorus at the Royal Opera House. This has always been an ambition of mine and whilst it’s not (perhaps) the fairy-tale solo career, it is still a wonderful and enjoyable career for which I am incredibly grateful for. I have worked with world renowned artists and have even been able to cover and perform Comprimario roles at Covent Garden, specifically Remendado in Carmen, Gastone in La Traviata and Spoletta in Tosca to name a few. I am forever grateful to The Opera Awards for believing in me and providing such valuable support.

Phoebe Haines’ vocal qualities have been variously hailed as ‘extraordinary’ (The Times), ‘silvery’ (The Evening Standard), ‘impressive’ (The Los Angeles Times), and ‘opulent’ (Sunday Times Culture). Phoebe studied at the University of Cambridge and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

In the 2018 season alone, Phoebe has performed as a concert artist at the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Hall, the Suzhou Grand Theatre, the Royal Palace of Bucharest, and Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts.

Phoebe made her Salzburg Festival debut in 2014, singing Zweite adelige Waise in Der Rosenkavalier conducted by Franz Welser-Möst at the Großes Festspielhaus. She also appeared as Tisbe in La Cenerentola für Kinder, a co-production with Teatro Alla Scala.

Phoebe has performed and apprenticed with companies including Aldeburgh Music, English National Opera, Opéra de Baugé, Center for Contemporary Opera, Hawai’i Performing Arts Festival, Clonter Opera, Songfest Los Angeles, and has appeared as a soloist with such wide-ranging orchestras as the Camerata Salzburg, the China Film Orchestra, and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.

International solo recital venues include Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild (France), Giardini La Mortella (Italy), Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland), Topping Rose House (New York’s Hamptons), and the British Embassies in Rome and Budapest. Phoebe has concertized as far afield as Agra, India, and made her Chinese debut in 2016, when she was selected as the UK Representative at iSING! International Artists Festival. Phoebe returned to iSING! Festival in Summer 2018, touring with the Suzhou Symphony Orchestra under Dane Lam. Later in the season, Phoebe made her Hong Kong recital debut, and appeared as a featured artist in a number of musical programmes on Jiangsu TV.

Having trained at ENO in 2015, Phoebe continues to work with the company as a Vocal Mentor to the Youth Programme. Phoebe appeared onstage at the London Coliseum for ENO’s 50 year anniversary gala, ‘Opera for All’ in October 2018. A sought-after public speaker, Phoebe has given talks on subjects from Mozart to Britten for organisations including the International Women’s Forum, the Cadogan Hall, and the London Festival of Song. She is passionate about her work with Streetwise Opera.

www.phoebehaines.com

(Photo: Allan Jenkins)

Having the support of the Opera Awards Foundation meant a great deal to me in the early stages of my career as a singer. Between 2013 and 2015, I was still pursuing my Master’s degree, whilst also being fortunate enough to join the Salzburg Festival’s Young Singers Project, English National Opera’s Opera Works programme, the Britten–Pears Young Artist Programme, and several other festivals and YAPs. The Foundation’s financial support played a crucial role in helping me achieve my goals as a young singer. Yet beyond this, the companionship, encouragement, and emotional support they offered were truly paramount. I felt (and still feel) part of a large, supportive family.

The Foundation provided countless opportunities for masterclasses, auditions, individual mentoring, paid performance work, and meaningful industry exposure. In a highly competitive profession, young singers vitally need sustained support and advocacy from experienced professionals and industry-adjacent partners. The Opera Awards Foundation is a world-class (and in many ways unique) example of such an organisation.

My sincere thanks to the Opera Awards Foundation for the pioneering work you have undertaken in the classical music industry over the past nearly fifteen years: for celebrating young singers, for championing unheard voices, and for building a powerful network of support and solidarity.

Roxana Haines is a theatre and opera director working throughout Europe, and from January 2019 she will be the resident Staff Director for Scottish Opera.

Roxana trained at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama where she gained an MA in Advanced Theatre Practice following undergraduate studies in English and Drama at Goldsmiths, University of London. Roxana’s practice encompasses a wide range of contexts and disciplines. Passionate about collaboration and interdisciplinary work, she has experience and training in puppetry, circus and physical theatre.

In the 2018/2019 season she has directed shows at Scottish Opera (Edgar), Clonter (Children’s show), Huddersfield (Sweeney Todd), and has revived work in Luxembourg, Madrid and Lisbon (La Petite Flute Enchantee). As an assistant director this season she has worked at Aix-en-Provence (Dir. Katie Mitchell) and Scottish Opera/Opera Holland Park (Dir. Antony McDonald).

She has led and facilitated learning and participation sessions for The Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Opera Holland Park and An Album of Memories, her concert series for people who live with dementia, has appeared at the Bloomsbury Festival and at Memory Cafes across London. She also co-leads workshops in child development for organisations across the UK.

www.roxanahaines.co.uk

British conductor James Ham enjoys a growing reputation across the orchestral, opera, and ballet repertoire for his versatility, wealth of ideas, and genuine music making. 

Performances in the 2021-22 season include a 20-performance tour of The Nutcracker with Scottish Ballet, Oscar Straus’s operetta rarity The Chocolate Soldier with Opera della Luna, The Great Gatsby with Northern Ballet, and a third visit to the Gibraltar Philharmonic. Recent performances include concerts with the Magdeburg Philharmonie, Neubrandenburg Philharmonie, Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Ensemble Modern Akademie, and education concerts with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. He is currently conductor of the London Orchestra Project, which he co-founded along with the leader of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. 

In the theatre, James has conducted Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Puccini’s Il Tabarro and Tosca. In 2020, he was Studienleiter and Assistant Conductor to Wayne Marshall on Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess at the Theater an der Wien, and on Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Gärtnerplatztheater. As a former Conducting Fellow with Birmingham Royal Ballet, he conducted several performances of The Nutcracker, Coppélia and The Grand Tour both in Birmingham and on tour. 

James has assisted Vladimir Jurowski and Edward Gardner with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Karel Mark Chichon with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie on several occasions. Other conductors he has assisted include Sir Mark Elder and Martin André. During his studies, he participated in international masterclasses with Alan Gilbert, Susanna Mälkki, and Sir Colin Davis, conducting orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. 

Website: www.jamesham.net 

Australian mezzo soprano Chloe Harris is a graduate of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and the Royal Academy of Music. She received a DipRAM for an outstanding performance in her final Master’s recital and is now in her second year at Royal Academy Opera, studying with Susan Waters and Jonathan Papp. She is supported by the Anson Charitable Trust, Australian Music Foundation, Tait Memorial Trust and Ian Potter Cultural Trust. Chloe has received a Sybil Tutton Opera Award from Help Musicians for her final year of study.

Opera roles include Baba the Turk (The Rake’s Progress), Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro), Clarina (La cambiale di matrimonio), Nancy (Albert Herring), Public Opinion (Orphée aux enfers), and Second Fairy in the world premiere of The Selfish Giant with Victorian Opera. Other roles in operas and scenes include Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Idamante (Idomeneo), Olga (Eugene Onegin), Charlotte (Werther) and Hermia (A Midsummer Night’s Dream).

Chloe is an Associate Artist with Melbourne Opera and was a Melba Opera Trust Artist for 2020-2021. She is an approved singer for the Josephine Baker Trust and a member of the prestigious Academy Song Circle. Most recently, Chloe is the recipient of the Opera Foundation for young Australians Lady Galleghan London Award.

Praised for her “stylish” singing (Opera Magazine) and the “emotional force” (The Times) of her performances, Joanna enjoys a varied career in opera, concert and recital.

She recently finished as a Young Artist at the National Opera Studio in London, where she performed with the orchestras of English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Opera North and Scottish Opera.

Last season she made her debut with Opera Rara and the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican as mezzo soloist for Paul Rissmann’s Through the Looking Glass suite. Her other opera roles last season included Medoro Orlando Buxton International Festival, Lucinda La forza dell’amor paterno The Barber Opera, Contessa Ceprano Rigoletto Opera Holland Park, Deborah Robinson Crusoe West Green House Opera and Tweedle-Dee Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland IF Opera. On the concert platform she was the mezzo soloist for the Mozart Requiem with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Cadogan Hall, performed a lunchtime recital at the Royal Opera House, and was an Opera Prelude Young Artist giving a series of recitals in London and beyond.

Joanna is also co-founder of SongPath with fellow singer Jess Dandy, bringing together music, nature and mental health in unique outdoor events. This year they returned to the Oxford International Song Festival and Leeds Lieder.

The Opera Awards Bursary helped me record my debut album Letters from Scandinavia, which was a big step for me as an artist. I’m really proud of it, and couldn’t have done it without the support of the award. It’s had some lovely review quotes since its release and, after a launch concert at Oxford International Song Festival, we have more live performances lined up for later this year. The experience also made me more aware and confident going into other recordings – I’ve since recorded a role with Opera Rara and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and my second album of song with pianist Jong Sun Woo.

Review quotes:

“Vivid storytelling…It is meticulously researched and brilliantly executed.”
– BBC Radio 3 “Record Review”

“This is an unusual and enchanting thing – not just an album but an embracing narrative experience…”
– Gramophone

“…Harries knows how to project with an intimate expressiveness, while Kynoch emphasizes the richness of harmonic colour.”
– Sonograma

February 2026

Joanna’s 2025/26 season began with the release of her debut song album Letters from Scandinavia with pianist Sholto Kynoch, which they also performed as the opening concert of the Oxford International Song Festival. She also recorded  the roles of Suzy/Lolette/Roro in Puccini’s 1921 Paris version of La Rondine with Opera Rara and the BBC Symphony Orchestra – culminating in a performance at the Barbican. Upcoming opera roles include Hänsel in Humperdinck’s Hänsel & Gretel for Longborough Festival Opera and Alice Bragg in new opera Rosalind about the discovery of DNA with the London Mozart Players & Helix Music.

21 & 22 April 2026
PETER HUGH WHITE Rosalind (Alice Bragg)
Kings College Chapel – London
with London Mozart Players & Helix Music
New opera about Rosalind Franklin and the discovery of DNA
https://www.londonmozartplayers.com/whatson-event/helix-music-rosalind-2/#Tickets_in

30 July, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 August 2026
HUMPERDINCK Hänsel & Gretel (Hänsel)
Longborough Festival Opera
https://lfo.org.uk/opera/hansel-and-gretel

Armenian soprano Hasmik Harutyunyan is a graduate of the Alexander Gibson Opera School at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland where she studied under the tutelage of Clare Shearer. She further enriched her studies at the Wales Academy of Voice and Dramatic Arts (WAVDA) under Dennis O’Neill and Ryland Davies. Hasmik started her musical journey as a violinist at the age of 6 followed by vocal studies at the Tchaikovsky Specialist Music School and at the Yerevan State Conservatory. Her recent engagements have included Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia, Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro, Sister Lillianne in the UK stage premiere of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking at the Alexander Gibson Opera School, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus and Mimi in La bohème (WAVDA). 

Her operatic roles include Madame Lidoine in Dialogues des Carmélites , Mimi in La bohème, Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, Xenia in Boris Godunov and Micaela in Carmen. Awards include 2nd Prize at The Gyumry Renaissance International Competition, 3rd Prize at the Tatevik Sazandaryan & Pavel Lisitsian SInging Competition, and the Young Singer’s Prize at the Delphic Games International Competition, Armenia.  

Hasmik previously held the Barekamutyun Scholarship for Excellence at the Yerevan State Conservatory and was one of the first recipients of the Opera Europa Eva Kleinitz Scholarship in 2022. In September 2022 she joins the National Opera Studio. 

Winner of the Toonkunst Oratorio Prize and Audience Prize at the IVCs’ Hertogenbosch 2017 and the London Bach Society Bach Singers Prize 2015, Sheffield-born mezzo soprano Anna Harvey studied at the University of Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music. Further accolades include a Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Scholarship, the Alumni Development Graduation Award and Russian and English Song Prizes from the Royal Academy of Music, and a Leonard Ingrams Award from Garsington Opera.

Anna has performed at the Verbier, Beaune, Gstaad, and Aldeburgh Festivals, as well as the BBC Proms, singing at the Last Night of the Proms in 2016. She has sung with ensembles including The English Concert, Gabrieli, La Nuova Musica and Arcangelo, and at venues including the Royal Festival Hall and Royal Albert Hall, London, Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon and the Lincoln Center, New York.

Anna has worked with conductors such as Masaaki Suzuki, Sakari Oramo and Esa-Pekka Salonen, and performed with opera companies across Europe, including Welsh National Opera (where she was Associate
Artist in 2017), Dutch National Opera, Theater Chemnitz, Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar, Birmingham Opera Company, Longborough Festival Opera and Garsington Opera. In August 2018 Anna joined the ensemble of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and roles this season include Hänsel, Flosshilde and Suzuki.

Other highlights this season include Handel’s Messiah with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra at the Palau de la Música Catalana, Barcelona and Second Witch in Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Roger Norrington.

www.annaharveymezzo.com

Receiving an Opera Awards Bursary has been really significant in shaping my career. My bursary was for coachings on the repertoire of a particular composer, but through the coachings it became clear that that actually wasn’t the right repertoire for my voice, and I was able to use the coachings with conductors and experts in the field to find which composers and repertoire fitted me best. It was a real turning point for me and set me in the right direction to singing repertoire where my voice really feels at home (and one of the conductors then gave me a role in this new repertoire!). I am so grateful to the Opera Awards for their support and for giving me this opportunity.

Feb 2026

This season mezzo-soprano Anna Harvey makes a number of significant debuts, including Hänsel at Ópera de Oviedo, Sister Helen Prejean (Dead Man Walking) at the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern, Erda in the Singapore premiere of Siegfried, and Carmen, Giulio Cesare and Fricka (Die Walküre) at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, where she is a member of the solo ensemble.

http://helioscollective.org/

The versatile Dutch mezzo-soprano Roza Herwig sings, acts, presents, plays the violin and writes theatre
texts. After obtaining her bachelor’s degree Classical Voice with great success at the Conservatory of
Amsterdam, Roza finished her vocal studies ‘with distinction’ in the Artist Masters at the Guildhall School
of Music & Drama in London in 2023. She continued her studies at Guildhall in the Artist Diploma.
Roza likes to take on creative challenges and gives colorful, innovative performances, combining different
art disciplines. She developed herself as an actress in several acting classes and, next to her classical singing,
Roza has followed a Minor in Jazz singing.  This talented young performer has not gone unnoticed.
Roza won prizes in the National Finals of the Princess Christina Competition, at the Britten Violin Competition
and was nominated for the Talent Prize Overijssel.   Recently she won the Charters Surveyers Competition and
in October 2023 she will sing in the Semifinals of the International Vocal Competition in Den Bosch.
In addition to singing as a soloist with, among others, the North Netherlands Symphonic Orchestra, the East
Netherlands Symphonic Orchestra, the Bauhaus Band and the Nederlands Kamerorkest, with whom she made her debut in the Concertgebouw, Roza often appears in concerts, recitals and performances. She has performed in the Muziekgebouw aan het IJ, the Barbican Centre, Vortex Jazz Club and at several festivals, such as the Tête a Tête Festival, Schiermonnikoog festival, O Festival and the Grachtenfestival. Roza sang multiple times
on Dutch radio ‘NPO Radio4’ and in the TV program ‘Podium Klassiek’. In January 2021 Roza sang
and played the leading role in an opera production of Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire in München
(DE) and in 2022 Roza portrayed the role of Cherubino in a production of Le Nozze di Figaro by
Mozart at the NLC in London, which was received with great enthusiast. In summer 2024 she will
have a role in an opera production in The Netherlands. (to be announced)
In masterclasses and workshops, Roza has had the opportunity to learn from world-famous
singers, pianists, conductors and directors, such as Margreet Honig, Emma Kirkby, Ann Murray,
Susanna Eken, Claron Mcfadden, Ed Spanjaard, Mark Padmore, Linda Watson, Julia Bullock,
Xenia Meijer, Charlotte Margiono and Gavriel Lipkind.
“My greatest passion is to combine music and theater. I do this in different ways and with
various types of music, from classical to cabaret. I love to play with the text and to take on the
character of the song or aria. My goal is to communicate both the music and the story to the
audience. I want to take them to another world and let them fully understand what the music is
about, even though I may sing in French, Swedish or any other language.”

February 2026

• Just did a tour through the Netherlands in the leading role of Famke in the new Dutch Opera: ‘Over Time’ with Salix Chamber Opera company.
• Prizewinner in the Finals of the International Vocal Competition Den Bosch ‘Theatre in Song’ with my performance ‘Crazy He Calls Me’.
• Soon portraying the leading role ‘Q’ in a new opera by Camiel Jansen called: The Turist. We will tour March-December ‘26
• With my own ‘Opera Rebels Collective’ we are touring 12 main halls in The Netherlands with our opera production of Hänsel & Gretel on the run! from October onwards. This is my first big opera production as a producer. I will also portray the role of Hänsel.
• Furthermore I will be performing as a soloist with orchestra’s and internationally with my lied-duo.

Max Hoehn was the first recipient of the Independent Opera at Sadler’s Wells Director Fellowship, a prize-winner at the 9^th Europäischer Opernregie-Preis and a nominee for Best Young Director at the 2016 International Opera Awards.

His productions as director include Biedermann and the Arsonists (Independent Opera at Sadler’s Wells), Stephen Oliver’s The Waiter’s Revenge (Birmingham Opera Company), Il Matrimonio Segreto (Pop-Up Opera UK Tour), Erik Satie: Memoirs of a Pear-Shaped Life (Cheltenham Music Festival). In summer 2017 he helped launch Opera Lab Europe with performances in Lisbon and London of three a cappella operas: Judith Weir’s King Harald’s Saga, Zad Moultaka’s Hummus and Stephen Oliver’s The Waiter’s Revenge.

He wrote Khovanskygate: A National Enquiry, a new English translation of Musorgsky’s Khovanshchina for Graham Vick’s award-winning 2014 production for Birmingham Opera Company. He took part as librettist and director in Aldeburgh’s 2014/15 Jerwood Opera Writing Programme.

He has assisted directors including Graham Vick, David Pountney, Johannes Erath and Jonathan Kent at Glyndebourne, Oper Frankfurt, Welsh National Opera, Opernhaus Zürich, Grange Park and with the Mariinsky Theatre on tour.

He helped programme Festival Música na Fábrica in Lisbon’s LX Factory in 2017 with the support of the British Council.

In 2017/18 he revives Le Nozze di Figaro (Grand Théâtre de Genève), directs a concert staging of The Fiery Angel (Scottish Opera), the National Opera Studio’s Residency at Scottish Opera and Rodelinda (Cambridge Handel Opera Company). He has just completed Violetta’s Ghosts, a short film based on La Traviata.

February 2026

Please list the upcoming productions I am directing this year:

• Wagner’s Tannhæuser for Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon

Premiere: 23rd April 2026

• Rossini’s L’equivoco stravagante for Wexford Festival

Premiere: 16th October 2026

The New York Times praised Maeve Höglund as “a striking soprano,” and one who “stands out among singers.” In the 2018-19 season, Ms. Höglund sings Leïla in The Pearl Fishers with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor and Konstanze in concert with Maryland Lyric Opera, and Gretel in Hansel and Gretel with the Oregon Symphony.

Ms. Höglund made her Opera Philadelphia debut in the 2017-18 season as Lola in the world premiere of David Hertzberg’s award-winning opera The Wake World. She also made her Michigan Opera Theatre debut as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, and was soloist in Messiah with Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. She returned to the role of Susanna later in the season with Opera Maine, and joined the Maryland Lyric Opera Studio in the summer of 2018.

In the 2016-17 season, Ms. Höglund was Musetta in La bohème with Charleston Opera, Margaret Hughes in Carlisle Floyd’s Prince of Players with Little Opera Theatre of New York, and Arminda in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera with On Site Opera’s co-production with Atlanta Opera. In the 2015-16 season, Maeve debuted with PORTOpera as Frasquita in Carmen, and with Long Beach Opera in Ter Veldhuis’ The News. She also sang Giunia in Mozart’s Lucio Silla for her Chicago Opera Theater debut, and was a soloist in Carmina Burana with Tucson Symphony Orchestra.

Other notable engagements include starring roles in Gotham Chamber Opera’s production, “Baden-Baden 1927”, featuring works by Weill, Hindemith, Toch, and Milhaud; as well as Atilia in Cavalli’s Eliogabalo; Dafne in Apollo e Dafne with Pocket Opera; Rose in The Clever Mistress, and Lucrezia in My Last Duchess, both with Cutting Edge Opera. She was soprano soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with the American Classical Orchestra and toured London with Wynton Marsalis, performing his Mass with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Recordings include: Stefan Weisman’s opera, Darkling, released by Albany Records, as well as the recording of the complete vocal works of Victor Herbert, released by New World Records.

www.maevehoglund.com

Baritone Jack Holton grew up in North Kent and trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

In 2019, Jack’s opera roles have included Don Giovanni (Rogue Opera), Mr. Jedermann (cover) (Scoring a Century – British Youth Opera), Sky Masterson (Guys & Dolls – West Green House Opera), Count Anckarström (Un ballo in Maschera – Opera Holland Park Young Artist), and Eugene Onegin (The People’s Opera). This spring he will perform as the title role in Don Giovanni (The Merry Opera Company), and in the summer he will perform as La Poigne (Margot le Rouge – Opera Holland Park).

Jack was a chorus member for Wexford Festival Opera’s 2019 productions of The Veiled Prophet, La Cucina / Adina, and Don Quichotte, performing the role of 3rd Bandit in Don Quichotte. Jack was a chorus section leader in the ROH’s The Return of Ulysses at Camden’s Roundhouse, and he sang in the Princes des Ténèbres semi-chorus in Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust with the LSO under Sir Simon Rattle, having previously sung as an Older Brother in Maxwell Davies’ The Hogboon with the same orchestra and conductor. Jack has co-led series of workshops for Longborough Festival Opera on Wagner’s Der fliegender Holländer and Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte.

Jack has also sung the baritone and bass solos in numerous oratorios, including Mendelsohn’s Elijah, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, Puccini’s Messa di Gloria, Mozart’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, and the Duruflé and Fauré Requiems at the Aldeburgh Festival, Bach’s St. John Passion with the Chipping Campden Festival Chorus, Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols, and a new composition written for Jack’s voice at the Wigmore Hall.

Twitter: @jackholton92
Instagram: @holton.jack

New Zealand soprano Madison Horman has recently completed her studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, where she attained her Masters of Music with Distinction as well as a Postgraduate Diploma: Advanced Studies in Performance.  

She recently made her Bridgewater Hall debut performing as part of the ensemble in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly with the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Sir Mark Elder, and in August performed with the Philharmonia Voices in a performance of Beethoven’s Fidelio conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles at the Edinburgh International Festival.  

During her time at the RNCM, Madison made her operatic role debut as Mrs Gobineau in the RNCM production of Menotti’s The Medium, and sang the role of Ellen Orford in Britten’s Peter Grimes in an extensive two-day RNCM conducting masterclass with full orchestra, as well as excerpts of Mimì from Puccini’s La Bohème. She has been heard in partial roles including the title role of Strauss’ Arabella, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Elettra in Idomeneo, and Magda in a scene of Puccini’s La Rondine.  

In 2022 Madison won the Royal Over-Seas League Award at their overseas final and the Bessie Cronshaw/Frost Brownson Song Cycle Prize at the RNCM for her performance of Korngolds Drei Lieder. In both 2020 and 2021, she was a finalist in the Frederic Cox Award competition at the RNCM, and was a finalist in the 2021 Sir David Madison Opera Prize in Liverpool. Madison has been a winner in the New Zealand Aria Competition, the International Trinity College Exhibition Prize, and was nominated for the New Zealand’s National Young Performer Awards in 2016 and 2018. 

Website: www.madisonhormansoprano.com 

Twitter: @MHorman_Soprano https://twitter.com/mhorman_soprano 

Being a recipient of an International Opera Awards Bursary was such a privilege. This bursary came at such a crucial time during my final years of study and helped to support my living costs while studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

As an international student it was imperative for me to attain as much funding as possible during my studies after already studied abroad for three years. Many foundations find it too easy to overlook young singers needs if they already have a scholarship to study, however the living costs in major cities can be just as expensive and can make a tight situation even more stressful.

Having my bursary helped immensely in coving some living costs to ensure I could continue my studies. It allowed me to finish my education and set off into the opera world feeling I had focused fully on my craft and gained valuable experience from being a part of Royal Academy Opera.

I am grateful to have received such a prestigious award and acknowledge all the support the IOAF gives to young performers -that we so desperately need to pursue a career in this field.

Susanna Hurrell made a critically acclaimed debut as Lauretta in Richard Jones’ Il Trittico at the Royal Opera House in 2016 and has established herself as one of the UK’s most versatile singers of her generation. Praised for her warm stage presence and clear tone, she has performed leading roles in the UK and abroad and has worked with conductors such as Sakari Oramo, Christian Curnyn, Jakub Hruša,Marta Gardolinska, Klaus Mäkelä and Ed Gardner.

Highlights of her operatic career include Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), Micaela (Carmen) and Erisbe (L’Ormindo) at the Royal Opera House, Mélisande (Pelléas et Mélisande) for Norwegian National Opera and Glyndebourne Opera (cover), Gretel (Hansel and Gretel) and First Lady (The Magic Flute) for English National Opera, Aldimira (L’Erismena) Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Grete (Der Traumgörge – Zemlinsky), Miss Jessel (The turn of the Screw) and First Lady (Die Zauberflöte) for Opera National de Lorraine, Governess (The Turn of the Screw) Northern Ireland Opera and Moscow Novaya Theatre, Isabel (Lessons in Love and Violence – Benjamin) Mariinsky Theatre, Norina (Don Pasquale) Longborough Festival Opera, and Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare) for English Touring Opera.

She also created the roles of Suzy in the award-winning opera ‘4.48 Psychosis’ by Philip Venables, ‘Sukanya’ (title role) by Ravi Shankar, and Jessica in the radio opera ‘Exzess’ by Tobias Purfürst and Noam Brusilovsky.

On the concert platform Susanna regularly sings the oratorios of Bach, Handel and Mozart, and has also performed a wide variety of romantic repertoire, including Mahler’s Symphony no.4 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Tippet’s A child of our Time for Southwell Music Festival, Britten’s Les Illuminations with English Chamber Orchestra, Bruckner’s Te Deum and Elgar’s The Light of Life with Hereford Choral Society.

She has recorded Handel’s Messiah with the BBC Singers and Norwegian Wind Ensemble with David Hill conducting, and Ethel Smythe’s Mass in D with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sakari Oramo.

London-based Ukrainian soprano Inna Husieva is a Scottish Opera Emerging Artist for the 2023-24 season and an alumna of the National Opera Studio (2021-22), during which she performed on the stages of English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera, Opera North, and Cadogan Hall.

In 2022, Inna was invited by Glyndebourne to perform in the Concert for Ukraine with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Robin Ticciati. Since then, she has appeared on prominent UK stages, including Wigmore Hall, LSO St Luke’s, King’s Place, Queen Elizabeth Hall, St Alban’s Abbey, and Buxton Opera House.

A prize-winner of the DEBUT Singing Competition in Weikersheim (2022) and the Elizabeth Connell Prize in London (2023), Inna made her Austrian debut at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl as the Seraph in Beethoven’s Christ on the Mount of Olives under Erik Nielsen.

Inna has collaborated with Opera Rara, Opera North, Tangram Ensemble, Two Moors Festival, Sansara Choir, Il Gusto Barocco Orchestra, and the Würzburg Orchestra in Germany. She has recorded Roxanna Panufnik’s fundraising single, ‘Sleep, Jesus, Sleep’, for Signum Records and performed at the annual Christmas Carol Service at the Royal Military Chapel (Guards’ Chapel) in 2023.

Her operatic repertoire includes roles such as Pamina (The Magic Flute), Galatea (Acis and Galatea), Euridice/Cupid (Orfeo ed Euridice), Frasquita (Carmen), Silvana (A Flourish of Green(2013) by Missy Mazzoli), Dido (Dido and Aeneas), and Iolanta (Iolanta). At Scottish Opera, Inna has performed as Berta (The Barber of Seville), a Second Maid (Daphne), The Dew Fairy/The Sandman (Hansel & Gretel), and Violetta Valéry in Sir David McVicar’s acclaimed production of La Traviata for Access Performances in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Originally from Ukraine, Inna began her vocal training at the Donetsk College of Music and then completed her musical education at the National Music Academy of Ukraine in Kyiv under Prof. Evdokia Kolesnik.

Recent highlights include stepping into the title role of Alcina for Bampton Classical Opera. Future engagements include covering Helena in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Festen at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in early 2025.

March 2026

At the start of 2025, I covered the role of Helena in the new opera “FESTEN”

Following that, I made my debut as Gilda in Rigoletto with IfOpera. Later in the summer, I travelled to Ambleside in the Lake District for the inaugural Grasmere Song Course, where I further explored English song repertoire surrounded by the stunning nature of Poets Walk.

That September, I stepped in for the concert Spectacular Classics at Bridgewater Hall with SONYGubbey (Raymond Gubbay Ltd / RG Live), conducted by John Andrews.

During the winter, I travelled to the US to audition for the Metropolitan Opera in New York. I then performed in a benefit concert at the Faith Lutheran Church in Bismarck, North Dakota, supporting Ukraine.

While in Bismarck, I was invited by photographer Shane Balkowitsch to his studio, Nostalgic Glass Wet Plate Studio, to take part in a unique wet plate collodion photoshoot — a rare and fascinating artistic experience using a historic 19th-century photographic technique. I’ve attached one image from this photoshoot, which captures the hands-on process of this historic method.

On returning to London, I covered the role of Xenia in Boris Godunov by Modest Mussorgsky, in a production by Richard Jones, at the Royal Opera House.

With Easter approaching, I will perform at the St Pancras Music Festival, singing a solo in Mozart’s Mass No. 15 in C “Coronation Mass” K.317, and Laudate Dominum from the Solemn Vespers K.329 at St Pancras Church.

I look forward to giving a recital at the Royal Scots Club in Edinburgh in April, together with the Finnish pianist Julia Wallin, presenting music by Boris Lyatoshinsky, Jean Sibelius, and Benjamin Britten, alongside a selection of English and Scottish songs.

I am sincerely thankful to the Opera Awards Foundation for their support, giving me the opportunity to explore new roles, take on exciting projects, and continue advancing in my career.

Simone is an East Anglian/Jamaican mezzo-soprano and theatre-maker passionate about sharing unheard stories, and diversity and inclusion in the arts. She is studying with Marcus van den Akker for a Guildhall Artist Masters, made possible by kind support from the Guildhall School Trust and Help Musicians UK.

In 2018/19, Simone is thrilled to be joining the chorus for Porgy and Bess at English National Opera and Dutch National Opera, the ENO chorus for Britten’s War Requiem, and the ensemble for Dido, after Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, for ENO and the Unicorn Theatre. She will also be joining the ensemble for the London Festival of American Music’s production of Imoinda by Odaline de la Martinez, and singing Little Green Lizard for Pegasus Opera in The Nightingale and the Rose by Richard Hagemann. Recent highlights as a performer include Esther in Mamzer by Na’ama Zisser (in workshop, Royal Opera); mezzo in remnants by Lara Agar (Wigmore Hall); and chorus in The Abduction from the Seraglio and Candide (Grange Festival).

As a theatre-maker, Simone runs HERA with Linda Hirst and Toria Banks, an opera company specialising in touring untold stories by underrepresented artists, and co-directs music theatre collective VOX. She has assisted award-winning opera directors Thomas Guthrie on Burying the Dead and Toria Banks on Generations, both touring 2019. She is looking forward to directing Miss Havisham’s Wedding Night featuring soprano Katherine McIndoe in 2019, and Le Nozze di Figaro for Teatre Principal de Maó in Menorca in 2020.

simoneibbettbrown.wordpress.com

Sky Ingram is an Australian soprano based in London, where she trained at the National Opera Studio (sponsored by Opera North), Opera Course at GSMD, WAAPA, and the Elder Conservatorium.

Sky performed the role of Lea in the world premiere of Glare for her debut at the Royal Opera House in 2014 to huge critical acclaim and 2015 marked her American debut as Avis in The Wreckers for the Bard SummerScape in New York, USA.  Returning to the Royal Opera House, Sky sang the role of Venus in Rossi’s Orpheus at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and in 2016 she sang the title role of Rusalka in Valladolid, Spain, and La Contessa Le Nozze di Figaro in Norway.

Sky has performed oratorio, concert and recital repertoire around Australia, in New York, Norway, and the UK, and has sung on ABC and BBC radio. She has performed, in concert, in various venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Sydney Opera House, Paris Auditorium St Germain, Rouen Opera House, St John’s Smiths Square, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Barbican Concert Hall, Australia House UK, Wigmore Hall, Symphony Hall Birmingham and the SUNY Purchase Performing Arts Centre in New York.

Since the age of 11 with a school music scholarship Sky has won several music awards, scholarships and competitions in both Australia and the UK including; Opera Awards Foundation Bursary, 5MBS Young Performer of the Year, Harold Rosenthal Prize, Simon Fletcher Charitable Trust Bursary, Australian Music Foundation Scholarship, Wingate Scholarship, SA Young Achiever of the Year (Arts section), George Boland Scholarship, and the 2011 ROSL Overseas Trophy for the most outstanding musician from overseas.

Other roles include: Katya/Katya Kabanova (Opera North cover), La Contessa/Le nozze di Figaro (Nevill Holt Opera), Helena/A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Opera North, ENOcover), Musetta/La Bohème  (Opera North, ETO), Micaëla/Carmen (Alexander Productons), Dido/Dido and Aeneas (ETO), Clorinda/La Cenerentola (Opera North), Female Chorus/The Rape of Lucretia (BYO), Frau Fluth/Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Madame Lidoine/Dialogues des Carmelites, Phyllis/Iolanthe, Pamina/The Magic Flute, Abigail Williams/The Crucible.

Future engagements include recitals at St Martin-in-the-Fields, A Night at the Opera for the Ripon International Festival, Foreign Princess/Rusalka, and Donna Elvira/Don Giovanni for Garsington Opera.

Website: www.skyingram.com

Being one of the first Opera Awards Foundation Bursary winners was the most encouraging support I needed at that time in my training. I was able to further my knowledge of the German language & culture and attend 8 performances at A-Houses in Berlin. It was such an inspiring study venture and it helped launched me into the next phase of my career as my voice developed and grew. I will be forever grateful for this encouragement and cultural immersion into this incredible art form.

March 2026

Sky Ingram is an Australian soprano of English, Scottish and Norwegian ancestry, who trained at the Elder Conservatorium, WA Academy of Performing Arts, Guildhall School Opera Course, and the National Opera Studio in London. Sky has performed oratorio, concert and recital repertoire around Australia, the UK, New York, Norway, France, and Germany, and has sung on ABC and BBC radio. Music awards & scholarships include; Opera Awards Foundation Bursary, 5MBS Young Performer of the Year, SA Young Achiever of the Year, Royal Overseas League Trophy, Scholarships to GSMD & NOS, and is a George Boland, Australian Music Foundation, Tait Memorial, and Wingate Scholar.

Sky made her debut at The Royal Opera House as Lea in the world premiere of Glare to huge critical acclaim, returning twice more to sing the goddess Venus in Rossi’s Orpheus and Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia. Other career highlights to date include Sky’s American debut as Avis/The Wreckers for Bard SummerScape in New York, the title role in Fedora for If Opera, La Contessa/Le nozze di Figaro in Kristiansand Norway, Donna Elvira/Don Giovanni and Foreign Princess/Rusalka with Garsington Opera, Fiordiligi/Così fan tutte for State Opera South Australia, Helena/A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Musetta/La Bohème for Opera North, and the title role in Salome for Salon Opera. Upcoming engagements include Marschallin/Der Rosenkavalier, Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder, and Sieglinde/Die Walküre for Opera Forge.

Countertenor JungKwon Jang was born in Buyeo, South Korea and studied at Yonsei University in Seoul. He later graduated MA Voice and Konzertexamen from the University of Music and Performing Arts, Hamburg under the tutelage of Professor Mark Tucker, with whom he still studies.

JungKwon has already had notable operatic engagements both in Germany and the UK, including Lepidus Octavia (Keiser) for the Innsbruck Alte Music Festival and Ruggiero Alcina for the Staatsoper Hamburg (Opera Stabile). He has been a soloist with orchestras including the Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg (under GMD Marcus Bosch), Philharmonisches Orchester Würzburg (under Enrico Calesso), and London Handel Festival Orchestera (under Laurence Cummings) and will this summer perform at the Halle Handel-Festspiele.

He has been won numerous awards, including First Prize at the Korea-Germany Brahms Association Concours, the Berenberg Stiftung Kulturpreis 2017, 5th Prize with 3 Special prizes at the 2018 55th International Francisco Viñas Singing Competition, 4th Prize at the 2018 Wilhelm Stenhammar International Music Competition in Sweden, 3rd Prize at the 8th European Singing Competition DEBUT in Germany, 1st Prize at the 26th Competition of Elise Meyer Foundation in Germany, 3rd prize with Special Prize at
the 16th Maritim Musikpreis in Germany and the Audience Prize at the 2017 London Handel Singing Competition, as well as successes in the 2016 “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg “ International Singing Competition, 2016 Osaka International Singing Competition and the Special Prize 2016 International KS Ljuba Welitsch Singing Competition, Marcello Giordani International Singing Competition. He has recently broadcast as a Young Artist for NDR Kultur.

Jungkwon Jang is a member of the 2018/19 National Opera Studio Young Artists Programme.

Welsh born mezzo soprano Anna Jeffers began her studies at the Birmingham Conservatoire where she played many operatic roles and was a major prize winner. Anna continued her studies on the prestigious ENO Opera Works course 13/14 and was chosen as one of eighteen Opera Awards Foundation bursary winners which supported her studies at ENO. Anna is currently learning with Louise Crane and Janet Haney.

Since graduating Anna has played many operatic roles and chorus in various productions working with Welsh National Opera, Opera North, Scottish Opera, Wexford Festival Opera, Buxton Festival Opera, Opera Holland Park and Opera Project at Longborough Festival Opera. Highlights have included covering the roles of Eduige in Rodelinda and Second Witch/Lady in Waiting in Macbeth for Scottish Opera, playing Claire Morgan in the community opera Nine Stories High with Welsh National Opera and singing the roles of Hansel in Hansel and Gretel and Third Spirit in The Magic Flute for Wexford Festival Opera.

Highlights of 2016 include joining the extra chorus at Opera North and Welsh National Opera and returning to Buxton Festival Opera to cover the role of Andronico in Handel’s Tamerlano.

Website: www.annajeffers.com

www.askonasholt.co.uk/artists/oliver-johnston/

Originally from Aberdare, Emyr Wyn Jones studied at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, gaining a BMus in Vocal Studies (First Class with Honours) and an MA in Opera Performance (Distinction) under the tutelage of Eric Roberts and Michael Pollock. Roles include Collatinus The Rape of Lucretia, Minskman Flight, Papageno The Magic Flute, Don Alfonso Così fan tutte, Sid Albert Herring, Forester Cunning Little Vixen, Figaro Le nozze di Figaro and the title role in Verdi’s Falstaff conducted by Carlo Rizzi (all for RWCMD). Other roles include Contractor/Ensemble Gair ar Gnawd[Word on Flesh] (Welsh National Opera/S4C), cover Nana/Starkey Peter Pan (Welsh National Opera), Benoit/Alcindoro La bohème, Schelkalov/Boyar Khruschov Boris Godunov, Henry Cuffe Gloriana (St Endellion Festival), Farmer/Ensemble Simplicius Simplicissimus (Independent Opera) and Cadmus Semele (Mid Wales Opera).

Most recently Emyr performed the role of 1^st Priest/Cover Papageno The Magic Flute (Longborough Festival Opera) and Mr Flint Billy Budd (St Endellion Festival). Emyr has appeared in concert performances of Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music with CBSO, and in a Commemoration of the Somme concert with the Hallé Orchestra. He has also appeared on Welsh radio, television, and, most notably, on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune.

Awards have included the 2017 Douglas Rees Memorial Young Opera Singer of the Year, 2016 RWCMD Ian Stoutzker Prize, the Worshipful Company of Musicians Silver Medal, RWCMD’s HRH Prince of Wales Scholarship, the Dame Shirley Bassey Vocal Award, the David and Philippa Seligman Award, the Bruce Millar Gulliver Opera Award 2015, MOCSA Young Welsh Singer of the Year 2015 and the 2013 Ffresh Film Award Best Young Actor.

In 2017/18 Emyr will be a Young Artist at the National Opera Studio. He is supported by The Opera Awards Foundation, The Banham Foundation, The Carne Trust, Help Musicians UK Sybil Tutton Award, The Welsh Livery Guild, and Mr Chris Ball.

Eliran Kadussi, a rising countertenor, recently achieved distinction in his postgraduate studies at the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. Worldwide in scope, he collaborated with Hampstead Garden Opera, the London International Festival of Early Music, Cambridge Handel Opera Company, London Handel Festival, Abu Gosh Festival, and Barock Vokal Akademie. On the opera stage, he performed diverse roles, from the enchanting Oberon in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream to the eccentric Baba the Turk in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress. His portrayal of Handel’s and Monteverdi’s complex characters have received great reviews. Beyond opera, Eliran seamlessly transitions to the concert stage, where he skillfully revives early music and introduces avant-garde contemporary compositions. He is honoured to receive generous support from respected organisations including the AICF, Dr Winkler, Help Musicians UK, Israel Vocal Arts Institute, Opera Prelude, Josephine Baker Trust and Ronen Foundation.

Receiving an Opera Awards Bursary was a turning point at the beginning of my career. The support enabled me to access world-class training, invest in my artistic development, and cover the costs of obtaining the prestigious UK Global Talent Visa. This made it possible for me to establish myself professionally and begin building an international career from the UK.

March 2026

This summer I will be joining Grange Park Opera for the World Premiere of John Tavener’s Krishna. I will be singing the role of Krishna as an adolescent.

https://grangeparkopera.co.uk/whats-on/krishna/

Clover is a British mezzo-soprano, studying with Kate Paterson and Jonathan Papp at the Royal Academy Opera Studio. This autumn, she will play the title role in Handel’s Ariodante and in spring 2024, she will play Florence Pike in Albert Herring.

Clover attained her Master’s with distinction from the Royal Academy of Music. During this time, she was recipient of the Hannah Horowitz Award; competed in the finals of the prestigious Richard Lewis Award and was awarded the Charles Norman Prize for outstanding studentship two years running. She is a member of the Academy Song Circle, is a Josephine Baker Trust Artist and also had the privilege of performing in masterclasses with Ailish Tynan and Mary Bevan.

Born in London to a family of non-musicians and raised near Bristol, Clover’s formal musical training began when, at 16-years-old, she gained a place on the Royal College of Music Junior Department Programme, where she was thereafter awarded the Concordia Foundation Prize for Singing. Subsequently, she completed her undergraduate degree at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under the tutelage of Marcus van den Akker, graduating with First Class Honours.

Clover has been an Emerging Artist at Nevill Holt Opera and a member of the inaugural If Opera ensemble. Recent operatic roles include: Fox in The Cunning Little Vixen (RAM); Mystery / First Attendant in The Fairy Queen with Laurence Cummings (RAM); Anna in Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins (National Youth Ballet); Hansel, Hansel and Gretel (East Anglia Opera); Cherubino, Le Nozze di Figaro (Cardiff Opera); The Sorceress, Dido and Aeneas (Guildhall); Arnalta / Fortuna, L’incoronazione di Poppea (Guildhall); Abbie, Sane and Sound (Grimeborn).

She has performed in opera scenes as Annio in La Clemenza di Tito (RAO); Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier (RAM); Charlotte in Werther (RAM); Rinaldo in Rinaldo (RAM); Bradamante, Alcina (Guildhall); Didone, L’Egisto (Guildhall).

Her concert successes have been performing Říkadla for London Symphony Orchestra as part of their Janáček Discovery Day at LSO St Luke’s; Mahler’s Rückert Lieder with the Freude Orchestra; the world premiere of song cycle Etched onto Me for Barbican’s ‘Singing for Our Lives’; Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music under the baton of Vassily Sinaisky.

A keen recitalist, Clover has performed in a growing number of locations across England, such as at St George’s Bristol, Iford Manor, St Lawrence Jewry, the University of Cambridge and at the Wiltshire Music Centre.

Alongside this, Clover has made a name for herself in performing and reciting poetry. Her recitations have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s Poetry Please programme.

Charlotte Kelso is an Australian soprano and recent graduate of the Royal College of Music, where she completed a Master of Performance as an RCM Scholar. Her studies were kindly supported by the Friends of State Opera South Australia. During her time at the RCM, Charlotte created the role of Ingrid in Richie Johnsen’s opera Three Penelopes (RCM/Tête à Tête), and performed scenes from Les Pecheurs des Perles (Leïla), and L’amico Fritz (Suzel). She was also a finalist in the 2021 Lies Askonas Competition. 

Over summer 2021, Charlotte participated in the Institute for Young Dramatic Voices in Nevada, studying on the American Wagner Project under Dolora Zajick and Luana DeVol.  She was due to cover and perform Contessa Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro at the International Belcanto Academy, however this was unfortunately cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

As a mezzo, Charlotte was a 2018 Emerging Artist with State Opera South Australia, appearing as Peep-Bo in The Mikado, Clarrie in Wesley-Smiths’ Boojum!, and the title role in Edwards’ Christina’s World,  the latter earning her a 2019 Adelaide Critics Circle nomination for Emerging Artist of the Year. 

In the 2020 Adelaide Festival, Charlotte covered Dodo in Scottish Opera’s Breaking the Waves (Mazzoli), and performed in Lembit Beecher’s I Have No Stories to Tell You as part of Marshall McGuire’s curated concert series at UKARIA Cultural Centre. Concert performances have included Bach’s Actus Tragicus with Adelaide Baroque at Coriole Music Festival, Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream Suite with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, and the Australian premiere of Arnesen’s Magnificat for the Australian Intervarsity Choir Festival. She was a finalist in the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Aria Competition in both 2018 and 2019, and won the Conductor’s Award in 2019. 

hannahkendall.co.uk

Tenor Thomas Kinch is a 2022 Associate Artist for the Welsh National Opera. A recent graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, in 2021 he participated in Dolora Zajick’s Institute for Young Dramatic Voices as an Emerging Artist, and will return to the Institute this year.  

Thomas has recently toured the UK with Opera Up Close as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly. Other recent engagements have included Turiddu with Edinburgh Grand Opera, Alfredo in La Traviata and Nadir in Les Pêcheurs de Perles with Opera Bohemia, and Cavaradossi in Tosca and Turiddu with North Wales Opera.  

Thomas was a 2021 New Generation Artist with Iford Arts, and performed Canio in their double bill of Cavalleria Rusticana/I Pagliacci, jumping in at short notice as Turiddu alongside Susan Bullock as Santuzza and Paul Carey Jones as Alfio. In 2022, Thomas reprises Turiddu in a new translation of Cavalleria Rusticana (A Paisley Kiss) for Paisley Opera, and returns to Opera Bohemia to sing Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly. 

During his time at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Opera School, Thomas studied under full scholarship and performed Father Grenville (Dead Man Walking), Gerrardo (Gianni Schicchi), Sam Kaplan (Street Scene) and Satyavan (Savitri). Oratorio and concert appearances have included singing the role of Walter Widdup in Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music, and performing the Verdi Requiem ‘Ingemisco’ for the International Holocaust Memorial Service.  

British mezzo soprano Hanna-Liisa Kirchin is a recent alumnus of the National Opera Studio and studies with soprano Nelly Miricioiu. She is a graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music and ENO’s Opera Works.

The 2016 season includes an international debut as Fidalma Il Matrimonio Segreto – in a coproduction between Dutch National Opera, De Nederlandse Reis Opera and Opera Zuid – , and UK debuts as Wowkle La Fanciulla Del West with Grange Park Opera, and Ruggiero Alcina with Longborough Festival Opera. She will return to De Nederlandse Reis Opera as Alto Soloist in Handel’s Messiah.

2015 included the World Premiere of Nigel Osborne’s “Bosnian Voices” with the critically acclaimed Liverpool Philharmonic 10/10 ensemble, and an appearance at the Oxford Lieder Festival.

Awards have included the Miriam Licette Scholarship (Help Musicians UK), the RNCM Elizabeth Harwood Memorial Prize and an Opera Awards Foundation Bursary. She was a finalist in the Jette Parker Young Artist auditions at Covent Garden in 2014 and 2015, and a 2015 Les Azuriales Young Artist.

Roles at NOS include Cenerentola La Cenerentola, Prince Charmant Cendrillon, Despina Cosi fan Tutte, Rosina Il barbiere di Siviglia, 3rd Lady Die Zauberflöte, Judy Punch and Judy and Fanny Price Mansfield Park. At RNCM roles included Sesto La Clemenza di Tito, Mercedes Carmen, Mrs Herring Albert Herring, Xerxes Xerxes, Penelope Il ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria, and Masha Paradise Moscow. Externally roles include Old Nog Tarka the Otter Buxton Festival Opera, 3rd Wild Goose/Poppet Paul Bunyan British Youth Opera and Ensemble Orfeo Bayerische Staatsoper.

Website: hannaliisakirchin.com

Indonesian tenor Satriya Krisna obtained his Music BA in 2015, and Masters’ in 2017 under the tutelage of Henny Yana Diemer at the Conservatory of Amsterdam after obtaining a degree in Architecture. He then continued his training at the National Opera Studio 2017/2018 Young Artists programme in London. He won Third Prize, the Audience Prize and the Student Jury‘s Prize at the International Student Lied Duo Competition 2017 with duo pianist, Felix Justin.

In the summer of 2017, Satriya won a scholarship to attend the Verbier Festival Academy, where he performed Triquet in Eugene Onegin (cond. Stanislav Kochanovsky) and engaged in the Lied programme. In September 2017, Satriya won the Judges’ Discretionary Prize at Fulham Opera’s Robert Presley Memorial Verdi Prize 2017. In summer 2018, he joined the Georg Solti Accademia 2018 in Castiglione della Pescaia, Italy.

Recently in 2018, he played a role as Le Mari in Poulenc Mamelle de Tirésias as part of Les Azuriales’ Young Artists’ programme 2018/2019 in Nice, France and played a role as Don Jose in Bizet/Brooks La tragedie de Carmen with Pop-Up Opera company. He is a member of the Samling Artist and now he plays as Pinkerton in Puccini Madama Butterfly with Diva Opera.

Satriya is currently part of the English National Opera as BAME fellowship member 19/20 and will also be covering the role of Peasant in their production of Luisa Miller and the role of Gamekeeper in their production of Rusalka.  He is now developing his singing under the tutelage of Richard Berkeley-Steele.

Young British soprano Lucy Knight is winner of the Making Music Award for Young
Concert Artists and an Opera Awards Foundation bursary. Her roles this season
have included Ninfa Monteverdi L’Orfeo (Bayerisches Staatsoper), Barbarina Le nozze di
Figaro (Longborough Festival Opera), and cover Daughter 2 & 3 Philip Glass Akhnaten
(English National Opera).

Lucy’s recent and forthcoming engagements include Bridesmaid Weber Freischütz
(Opéra Comique, Paris & BBC Proms/John Eliot Gardiner); Ensemble Gluck Orphée
(ROH/Gardiner); her début with the Philharmonia Orchestra as the soprano soloist in
Nielsen’s Third Symphony (RFH/Paavo Järvi); Mendelssohn Ein Sommernachtstraum
(LSO/Gardiner); and Karl Jenkins Stabat Mater (RAH/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra)
and The Healer (Carnegie Hall, RFH, Bridgewater Hall, Birmingham Symphony Hall).

Born in London, Lucy studied Music at Cambridge University and began her career as a
member of the Monteverdi Choir, before training at the Guildhall School of Music &
Drama, Franz-Schubert-Institute in Vienna, and English National Opera. She is grateful
for the generous support she has received for her studies.

Website: lucy-knight.co.uk

Website: romanaskudriasovas.com

British soprano Alison Langer is currently playing Young Heidi in Follies at The National Theatre London alongside Dame Josephine Barstow and Imelda Staunton.

She trained at GSMD on the prestigious Opera Course under the tutelage of David Pollard.

Last summer she sang in the 2016 Glyndebourne Festival, singing the role of the Bridesmaid in Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart) after working with them in both the 2015 festival and the tour.

In March this year, Alison played The New Queen in the world premiere of Snow for The Opera Story. This summer she played Musetta for Iford Arts production of La bohème.

Alison made her professional debut in 2012 singing Lisette in Puccini’s La Rondine with Dublin company Opera in the Open.  She played the role of Florence in Iain Burnside’s critically acclaimed ‘A Soldier and a Maker’ at the Barbican Pit Theatre and The Cheltenham Festival.

Since then, operatic roles have included Edith in Opera Holland Park’s performance of The Pirates of Penzance, Delilah Beware the Ides – A Handel Pasticcio Opera in the Cotswolds, Norina I Pazzi per Progetto (Donizetti), Erodiade San Giovanni Battista (Stradella), Duchess The Cunning Peasant, (Dvorak).

On the concert platform, Alison has sung at many prestigious venues, most recently as a soloist in the Mozart Requiem at St Martin in the Fields last November. Solo performances have taken her to the Buxton Opera House, Barbican Centre, Birmingham Symphony Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Albert Hall and The House of Lords and The Savoy Hotel.

British mezzo-soprano Bethan Langford studied at the Guildhall School and the National Opera Studio and is a 2018/19 Emerging Artist for Scottish Opera. Highlights so far include her debut as Dorabella (Così fan tutte) for Bury Court Opera, Second Angel in George Benjamin’s Written on Skin with the Melos Sinfonia at LSO St Lukes and on tour at The Mariinsky Theatre, Third Maid (Elektra) under Esa-Pekka Salonen for the Verbier Festival, Noble Orphan in Richard Jones’ Der Rosenkavalier at the Glyndebourne Festival and the BBC Proms and the title role in The Rape of Lucretia at Grimeborn.

Bethan has performed at many leading concert venues and festivals including the Wigmore Hall, Aldeburgh Festival and Heidelberger Frühling Festival. She is a Samling Artist, a Les Azuriales Young Artist and a Yeoman of the Musicians’ Company. Future engagements include Glasha (Katya Kabanova) and Second Lady in Tom Allen’s Magic Flute, both for Scottish Opera, and a recital at the Wigmore Hall for their Afternoon Series.

Bethan is also excited to be developing a new work at Snape Maltings this year, in collaboration with Gestalt Arts. Indus is based on Bethan’s life as a visually impaired person, with the aim to encourage awareness of all forms of disability and difference in both the arts and society.

www.bethanlangford.com

South Korean Bass Ki Hyun Lee made his role debut as Dulcamara (L’elisir d’amore) at the Daegu Opera House in 2015. Between 2016 and 2018 he performed as Doctor Grenvil (La Traviata) at the Keimyung Art Center, Colline (La Bohème), Second Soldier and Fifth Jew (Salome) at the Daegu Opera House.

Ki Hyun studied under tenor Seok Be Ha at Keimyung University, College of Music & Performing Arts in Daegu. As an undergraduate, he was a BSC scholar for 4 years. Currently, he is studying his masters at the Royal College of Music under the tuition of Patricia Bardon. He is an Emma Rose Scholar supported by the Alice Templeton Scholarship, Daegu Opera House Scholar and Sungjung & Hwangjin Scholar.

South Korean soprano Seonwoo Lee is currently a member of Opernstudio der Bayerische Staatsoper (Munich). Seonwoo received her Artist diploma from Royal College of Music, Masters from The Juilliard School, and her Bachelor degree with high distinction at Seoul National University. Seonwoo made her debut the roles “Le Feu” and “Le Rossignol” from Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges, as well as “La Fata Azzurra” from Respighi’s La Bella dormente nel bosco successfully in London. Her New York debut was in 2021 as “Proserpina” in Rossi’s L’Orfeo with conductor Avi Stein at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Other performance highlights include La Damoiselle élue at Alice Tully Hall with Maestra Barbara Hannigan, Lincoln Center’s “Restart Stages” as part of the Juilliard NOW series, and “Verdi Opera Gala Concert” with Korean National Opera. In the 2023/24 season she sang Blumenmädchen in Parsifal, the High Priestess in Aida and Amanda in Le Grand Macabre at the Bayerische Staatsoper. In 2024/25 she sings Amanda, Giannetta (L’elisir d’amore), Papagena (The Magic Flute), Oscar (Un Ballo in Maschera) and the title role in the new production Matsukaze.

Polly Leech is a mezzo-soprano from Wiltshire, currently training as a 2017/18 a Young Artist at the National Opera Studio.  She graduated last year from the Royal College of Music, having gained a postgraduate Masters in Vocal Performance (Distinction) under vocal professor Amanda Roocroft. She was the Theo Max van der Beugel Scholar and was also supported by the Josephine Baker Trust.  Polly is a Britten-Pears Young Artist.

Recent and current opera engagements include Hänsel Hänsel und Gretel (Pop-Up Opera), Fekluša Kat’à Kabanovà (Opera Holland Park), Pitti-Sing The Mikado and Third Lady/Third Boy The Magic Flute (Charles Court Opera), Olga Eugene Onegin (Whitgift School), Queen/Second Village Woman/Mother Raven Snow (new commission by Murphy/Treacher/Lloyd for The Opera Story), Irene Theodora (RCM Oratorio Society), Tisbe Cinderella (HighTime), Countess of Desmond/Lady Lewson/Miss FitzHenry/Mrs Birch/Lady Jersey/Mrs Worrall/Second Nun English Eccentrics by Malcolm Williamson (British Youth Opera), Wife 76 Days by Kenichi Sekiguchi and Angel BEL and the DRAGON by Alex Paxton (RCM/Tête à Tête), Florence Pike Albert Herring (RCM International Opera School), Dritter Knabe Die Zauberflöte (RCMIOS), and Mrs Herring Albert Herring (Samling Academy Opera).

For the performance of the seven roles she played in Malcolm Williamson’s English Eccentrics, Polly was awarded the Basil A Turner Prize and the Dame Hilda Brackett Award from Sadler’s Wells.  She will return to Aldeburgh as a Britten-Pears Young Artist in March 2018 to study the role of Irene in Handel’s Theodora with Sarah Connolly and Christian Curnyn.

Prior to her musical studies, Polly graduated from Durham University with a BSc (Hons) in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry.

Claire Lees is the winner of the 2019 Wil Keune Mozart Prize at the Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition. She recently sang the role of Adina at Iford Arts in their production of L’elisir d’amore and also made her Opera Holland park debut, singing the role of Oscar in the Young Artist performance of Un ballo in maschera. She is a Samling Artist and is a recipient of an Independent Opera Voice Scholarship and Fellowship.

In 2018, Claire sang her first season in the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus where she covered the role of Yniold in Debussy’s Pelleas et Melisande and sang chorus in the revivals of Handel’s Giulio Cesare and Saul and in a new production of Barber’s Vanessa. On Glyndebourne’s 50th anniversary tour, she covered a Spirit in Massenet’s Cendrillon and sang chorus in Verdi’s La Traviata.

Operatic roles include Yniold (cover), Pelleas et Melisande, Glyndebourne Festival Opera; Lauretta, Gianni Schicchi, Barbican Hall; Soeur Constance, Dialogues des Carmélites, GSMD; Pamina, The Magic Flute, Iford Arts; Foreign Woman, The Consul, GSMD; Papagena, Die Zauberflöte, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire; and Drusilla, L’incoronazione di Poppea, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

Claire has performed at Wigmore Hall, Barbican Hall, St. James’s Piccadilly, St. Martin-in-the-Fields and Peterborough Cathedral. She collaborated with Iain Burnside on Drums and Guns, a joint project between the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, the Juilliard School and Royal Irish Academy of Music, presented in Dublin, London and New York.

Claire graduated from the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 2018. She continues to study with Yvonne Kenny.

Website: Claire Lees
Twitter: @sopranoclaire

Piran Legg graduated as a baritone from the Guildhall Opera School in the summer of 2014. Since then he has continued his studies on the Artist’s Diploma with Kate Paterson. He made his operatic debut at the Wexford Festival singing chorus and small roles and has previously performed at Clonter Opera as Falke in Die Fledermaus and at Garsington as The Guide, Boy on boat and Polish Father in Britten’s Death in Venice in the summer of 2015. Recent highlights include a debut at the Cadogan Hall singing Schaunard in La Boheme as well taking a young artist position at Iford in Monteverdi’s The Return of Ulysses with Christian Curnyn. Recent concert projects include Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast at Canterbury Cathedral and a return to Cadogan Hall singing the role of Danieli in Wagner’s Das Liebesverbot with Chelsea Opera Group. In July 2016 Piran debuted as Giorgio Germont in Verdi’s La Traviata at Clonter Opera. Piran was an Opera Awards Foundation bursary winner 2014 – 2015.

Website: www.piranlegg.com.

Moloko Letsoalo, South African soprano is a 2023/24 National Opera Studio Young Artist under the National Talent Programme. She was a part of Glyndebourne’s 2023 Mentorship Programme. She recently completed a Master of Performance degree at the Royal College of Music in London on scholarship where she was a Maria Björnson Memorial Fund and Pidem Scholar. Moloko has performed a range of repertoire throughout her studies including the role of Fiordiligi in Cosi Fan tutte and excepts of: Mimi in La Boheme, Servilia in La clemenza di Tito, Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Valencienne in the Merry Widow and Manon in Puccini’s Manon. She recently covered the roles of the Mother in the opera Blue by Jeanine Tesori at the English National Opera and Ruth in Pegasus Opera’s production of the opera Ruth by Phillip Hagemann.

South African soprano, Moloko Letsoalo is a 2024/25 National Opera Studio Young Artist. She was a part of the National Opera Studio’s National Talent Programme in 2033/24 and a Glyndebourne Mentee in 2023. She was  offered the opportunities  to  cover  the role of Mother in Jeanine Tesori’s  Blue(English National Opera) and to cover Ruth and sing Orpah in  Phillip Hagemann’s Ruth(Pegasus Opera) in that same year.

Moloko holds a Master of Performance degree from the Royal College of Music where she was a Maria Björnson Memorial Fund and Pidem Scholar. She previously graduated from the University of Cape Town’s(UCT) Opera School where she obtained a Bachelor of Music degree and Postgraduate Diploma in Music.

Performance experience throughout her studies include roles of  Fiordiligi Cosi fan tutte, Zweite Dame Die Zauberflöte and  Tibse La Cenerentola, and scenes including: Mozart’s Servilia  La Clemenza di Tito, Pamina Die Zauberflöte, Contessa Le nozze di Figaro and Donna Anna  Don Giovanni, Puccini’s  Mimi La Boheme and Manon Manon Lescaut, Lehar’s Valencienne Lustige Witwe and Bernstein’s Cunegonde Candide. She also performed the role of Zindzi in Sibusiso Njeza’s 2021 suitcase version of Madiba the Opera in Cape Town.

She was in the Marie Kraja international Singing Competition in 2022 and a Semi-finalist in the SAMRO Overseas Scholarship for Singers (2019) and was awarded 2nd place in the UCT’s  Schock Foundation

Robert studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and is currently a member of the Opéra National de Lyon Studio where last season’s roles include Walther Tannhäuser, Voice from the Temple Hérodiade, Don Curzio Le Nozze di Figaro, Passer-By and cover Kudrjaš Káťa Kabanová and various roles in Candide.

An exciting second season at the studio will see Robert perform Der Bucklige and Die Erscheinung eines Jünglings Die Frau ohne Schatten, Obadiah in a staged Elijah, Nick Fanciulla del West, Benedict Beatrice et Benedict Janek The Makropoulos Affair.

He made his Aix-en-Provence debut this summer as Andres Wozzeck with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle.

Recent projects include his debut with English Touring Opera performing the role of Astrologer in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel and covering Rodolfo La Boheme.  In 2021, Robert was a Jerwood Young Artist with Glyndebourne Festival Opera and he returned for their autumn tour where he covered the role of Jaquino and performed the role of First Prisoner Fidelio.

Sarah-Jane Lewis received her BMus from the Royal College of Music and MA DipRAM from the Royal Academy of Music. She completed her studies in 2014 at the National Opera Studio. As a student, Sarah-Jane won several awards such as 2nd Prize Kathleen Ferrier Awards 2014, 1st Prize Hampshire Singing Competition 2013, and 1st Prize Richard Lewis/ Jean Shanks Award 2012 to name a few. She also performed live on BBC Radio 2 and 3.

In 2017, Sarah-Jane became a Jerwood Young Artist at Glyndebourne and a Link Artist at the Royal
Opera House. Sarah-Jane has performed the role of Giorgetta (Il Tabarro) for ETO and most recently the role
of Serena (Porgy and Bess) for Grange Park Opera. Future engagements include performances abroad (India
and Siberia) and in London with English National Opera.

Website: Sarah-Jane Lewis
Twitter: @LewisSarahJane

German soprano Sofia Livotov is a versatile artist, equally at home performing opera, art song and contemporary music. Based in Leeds, Sofia has appeared at international venues including the Southbank Centre London, Tonhalle Zürich, TivoliVredenburg and the concert stage in Jakarta. Since 2022, Sofia has performed with Opera North, appearing as the Owl in ‘The Cunning Little Vixen’ and in productions such as ‘Masque of Might’, ‘The Pearl Fishers’, ‘La Rondine’, and ‘Parsifal’ as part of the Opera North Chorus.

An established concert singer in both recital and oratorio, Sofia presented an all-female composer programme in Salzburg with pianist Natalia Pegarkova-Barenboim in 2022 and joined the Orchestra of Change’s climate concert series across Germany. Recent engagements include appearances at the Leeds International Concert Series with organist Darius Battiwalla, the University of Leeds International Summer Festival, as well as soprano solo parts in Mendelssohn’s oratorios ‘Elijah’ and ‘St Paul’ with the Halifax Choral Society, the Bradford Festival Choral Society and the Yorkshire Philharmonic Choir. Together with pianist Prajna Indrawati, Sofia has been part of the Oxford Lieder Residential Mastercourse 2021 and has been awarded the Second Prize in the Chamber Music Category of the London Classical Music Competition 2022.

Besides her appearances in contemporary opera productions at the Tête-à-Tête Festival and the Lucerne Theatre, her operatic roles include Musetta (La Bohème), Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Anna (Nabucco), Pamina (The Magic Flute), Yvette (La Rondine) and Micaela (Carmen). A graduate of Hochschule Musik Lucerne and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam under Valérie Guillorit, Sofia has participated in masterclasses with Joan Rodgers, Ann Murray, Margreet Honig, Malcolm Martineau, Sholto Kynoch, Julius Drake, Ed Spaanjard and Pierre Audi. She is a Help Musicians supported artist and is currently coached by Nelly Miricioiu.

“Being a recipient of the International Opera Awards Bursary gave me a vital opportunity to pursue my artistic goals and continue my development at a point when I was re-establishing myself as a freelance singer. The support was crucial in enabling me to attend auditions in the UK and abroad – something that would not have been possible without this financial assistance. It also enabled me to strengthen my professional online presence, which has become essential in today’s industry. I felt truly honoured to be one of the singers supported by the International Opera Awards Bursary scheme, and I cannot emphasise enough how important this support is, particularly for freelance artists.”

February 2026

I am currently appearing in Opera North`s production of Peter Grimes as part of the Opera North Chorus and will be going on tour next week with it.
https://www.operanorth.co.uk/whats-on/peter-grimes/

A graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Royal College of Music and National Opera Studio, now currently a Harewood artist with English National Opera, exciting Welsh soprano Rhian Lois has performed to great acclaim on the English National Opera stage in roles such as Frasquita Carmen, Papagena The Magic Flute and Yvette The Passenger, Adele Die Fledermaus, Nerine in Charpentier’s Medea and Atalanta Xerxes.

Recent engagements include her debut as Papagena at the Royal Opera House, Barbarina and Susanna at Welsh National Opera in Le nozze di Figaro and the world premiere of the sequel Figaro gets a Divorce and her US debut as Zerlina Don Giovanni at Santa Fe Opera. Concert appearances include a performance of Mendelssohn’s Incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Edward Gardner and CBSO recorded by Chandos.

On demand on the concert platform, she has performed Mozart Requiem with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Simon Halsey, CBSO’s Stravinsky retrospective ‘Igor Fest’, Brahms Requiem at Milton Court, Barbican, Handel’s Messiah in Cambridge and Carmina Burana at the Brangwyn Hall.

Next season Rhian will return to WNO to sing Adele Die Fledermaus and reprise her role as Angelica Figaro gets Divorce at the Grand Théâtre de Genève.

Learn more: Intermusica

Irish mezzo-soprano Sarah Luttrell is a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where she achieved First Class Honours under the tutelage of Wilma MacDougall and was awarded the prestigious RCS Trust Postgraduate Scholarship.

Most recently, Sarah performed the role of Countess Ceprano in Irish National Opera’s production of Verdi’s Rigoletto, while also serving as a member of the company chorus. During the 2022–2023 season, she participated in the Wexford Factory Young Artist
Programme, where she brought life to roles such as Zibaldona in Alma Deutscher’s Cinderella, Zita and La Ciesca in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, and Zulma in Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri. In 2024, Sarah made her international debut as the Second Witch in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with Opera Collective Ireland at Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg, Germany.

A passionate recitalist and oratorio soloist, Sarah has performed with leading ensembles such as the Irish Baroque Orchestra, Orquesta Barroca de Sevilla, and the Academy of Ancient Music. Her repertoire includes celebrated works like Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, and Haydn’s Nelson Mass. These performances have brought her to distinguished venues across Ireland, the UK, and Europe.

Outside of opera, Sarah is an accomplished professional choral singer. From 2021 to 2022, she was a scholar with the Grammy-nominated British vocal group Voces8. Following this, she joined Chamber Choir Ireland, the country’s flagship professional choral ensemble, for the 2022–2023 season. During this time, she performed as a soloist in the world premiere of Eoghan Desmond’s cantata Amra Choluim Chille with the Irish Chamber Orchestra and in Handel’s Messiah with the Irish Baroque Orchestra.

Winner of the prestigious 2023 Elizabeth Greenfield Award honouring him as one of the most outstanding Black opera singers in the early stages of his professional career in the world today, South African dramatic baritone Theo Magongoma is rapidly making a name for himself as an outstanding professional operatic and concert performer maintaining an extensive repertoire in opera, oratorio and art song / lieder.  Described by the Wigmore Hall in London as “South Africa’s Star”, Theo has performed in leading operatic roles with numerous orchestras, featuring in productions in the USA, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, The Netherlands, Singapore, and Japan under the baton of conductors such as Vittorio Parisi, Stefano Giaroli, Stefano Torboli, Cornelia von Kerssenbrock, Eugeniy Chevkenov and Kevin Class, amongst others.

Winner of the 2024 Stignani Competition in Imola, Italy (where he also won the Audience Prize), Theo has been a First Prize winner at several other distinguished voice competitions including the 2022 Spazio Musica International Opera Competition in Orvieto, Italy (as well as being awarded the Audience Prize) and winning the Best Men’s Voice Prize at the 2022/2023 Vienna New Year’s International Music Competition from the City of Vienna.

Theo made his acclaimed debut at the Wigmore Hall in London in May 2023 performing with the virtuoso double bassist Leon Bosch and pianist Tessa Uys in the world premiere of the song cycle “The Silence of the Day” by Grant MacLachlan. Theo has several concert engagements to be held this season in Europe, South Africa and the United Kingdom. His most recent operatic engagements have seen him perform at the Vienna Summer Music Festival and in the roles of Renato from Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Maschera” at the Teatro Mancinelli in Orvieto, Italy and Amonasro from Verdi’s “Aida” at the Immling Festival in Halfing, Germany. On the recording front, Theo has been chosen by the British independent classical recording label, SOMM Recordings, to record the composer David Earl’s “Sangharakshita Songs” with the award-winning conductor Ben Gernon and the Royal National Scottish Orchestra during 2025.

Theo is a graduate of the South African College of Music at the University of Cape Town and a former member of both the Cape Town Opera Studio for Emerging Young Artists and Dallas Opera’s first Young Artists’ Studio. He works with the renowned South African vocal coach Ean Smit.

As an artist from South Africa, my journey to the international operatic stage has been both geographically and financially challenging. The Opera Awards Foundation Bursary has therefore been indispensable to my career. This generous support has been the defining catalyst in my professional development, enabling my transition from an aspiring dramatic baritone to a contracted lead artist on major European stages.

The bursary first enabled me to travel to Germany to audition for the renowned operatic agent Kalle Kanttila, who subsequently signed me to his agency. He immediately arranged an audition at Theater Osnabrück for the title role in Verdi’s Macbeth. Thanks to the bursary, I was able to travel to the audition. I was successful in securing the contract and am currently performing the role to excellent reviews.

The bursary also enabled me to participate in a showcase audition in Dortmund hosted by Kanttila Management.  Nationaltheater Mannheim heard me there and invited me to audition on the mainstage at their theatre, resulting in a contract to perform the title role in Verdi’s Nabucco this season.

Further bursary support enabled me to travel to Helsinki for another showcase audition, leading to an invitation to audition at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen. It also enabled me to travel back to Regensburg for two important auditions: I successfully auditioned for La Monnaie in Brussels and have since been contracted to perform Tonio in the 2027 production of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci.  The other audition was with the highly regarded opera consultant Eva-Maria Wieser which led her to ask me to an audition in Salzburg with Michael Heaston of the Metropolitan Opera.

Without the Opera Awards Bursary, these opportunities above would have remained out of my reach. The bursary has therefore done far more for me than provide essential travel and accommodation funding; it has given me, as a South African dramatic baritone, a seat at the table of global opera. I will always be immensely grateful to the Trustees for their belief in me and for awarding me the bursary that has made all these opportunities possible. Thank you from my heart for helping me follow my dreams.

Smelo Mahlangu, South African baritone studied at the University of Cape Town (South African College of Music) where he won the 1st and audience prize at the Schock Foundation Singing Competition 2021 and did the role of Georges Cuvier from Sarah Baartman opera and was nominated as the best opera performer for the very same opera in 2022 at the Fleur du Cap awards in South Africa.

Smelo is also a National Opera Studio alumnus 2022/23 and 23/24 seasons where he had a masterclass with Gerald Finely OBE and did opera scenes around the United Kingdom.  He then did the role of Marchese d’Obogny from the film of La Traviata with the Opera Glass Works conducted by Richard Hetherington. In 2024, he did the role of Don Basilio from the Barber of Seville with the Waterperry Opera Festival and also did the bass solo from the Petite Messe Solonele by Rossini at the Edinburgh International Festival.

Smelo is currently with the Volksoper Wien in the Opernstudio and this season will be doing the roles of Bertram from Iolanta, Perichaud from La Rondine, Mars from Orpheus in der Unterwelt and The Pig from the Enchanted Pig by Jonathan Dove.

Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), bass Blaise Malaba graduated from the MA in Advanced Opera Performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (RWCMD), studying with Donald Maxwell and Michael Pollock. He is a PhD student in international economic relations at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (Ukraine).

Blaise’s studies at the RWCMD have been supported by The Leverhulme Trust scholarship, The Waterloo foundation, The Rajeswari Schorlaship, The Alan Rogers Scholarship and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation. He is a recipient of an Independent Opera Voice Fellowship 2018.

Blaise started his vocal training with the Ukrainian baritone Orest Sydyr, in 2012, and then in 2015, continued his training with Professor Bogdan Bazylykut at Ivan Franco National University of Lviv (Ukraine).

His repertoire includes Sarastro (Magic Flute), Don Magnifico (La Cenerentola), Don Basilio (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Sparafucile and Monterone (Rigoletto), Luka (The Bear), Gremin (Eugene Onegin), The Death (Der Kaiser von Atlantis) and Simone (Gianni Schicchi with WNO Orchestra, under the baton of Carlo Rizzi).

In concert platform and oratorios, Verdi’s Requiem and Puccini’s Messa di Gloria.

Conductors and director he has worked with include Carlo Rizzi, Gareth Jones, Wyn Davies, David Jones, Martin Constantine and William Kentridge in his new piece The Head and the Load. He has also taken part in master classes with John Fisher, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Grace Bumbry.

In 2015, Blaise was finalist in the BBC Cardiff Singer of World competition and won First Prize in the Impreza International Vocal Competition (Ukraine).

Recent engagements include covering Frazier and part of the ensemble in the production of Porgy and Bess from August 2018 to January 2019 with the English National Opera (ENO), co-production with the Dutch National Opera (DNO).

“As a newly graduated student, receiving financial support from the Opera Awards made a huge difference, enabling me to continue my singing lessons and vocal coaching, as well as to cover the costs of attending various auditions.

In the very challenging and competitive world of opera, receiving strong support in the early stages of one’s career is vital in shaping artistic development. This support was crucial to me, and I sincerely hope it will continue for future opera talents. I am truly grateful”.

Ella Marchment – artistic director of Helios Collective and Constella OperaBallet – has worked on over 80 opera and theatre productions throughout Europe and produced over 100 events that span opera, ballet, musicals, concerts, theatre, comedy, workshops, club nights, art instillations, and development programmes. Her many directing credits include Alexander Goehr’s Tryptich at Mariinsky II, an opera–ballet production of Stravinsky’s Renard, an acclaimed international tour of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s Eight Songs For A Mad King, Verdi’s Macbeth and A Masked Ball, Puccini’s Il Tabarro at LSO St Luke’s, Hathaway, Verdi’s Otello and Charpentier’s Louise at Buxton Festival, and a sell-out West End production of An Evening with Lucian Freud starring Cressida Bonas. Ella is also co-founder of Theatre N16, which promotes new plays and opera adaptations.

Ella has been employed by companies including the Royal Opera House, International Opera, Buxton Festival, Melos Sinfonia, and Opera Integra. She is committed to solving problems regarding opera’s accessibility and creating professional development opportunities for young artists. Ella especially enjoys presenting opera with a twist: in 2015 she wrote and directed a play–opera adaptation of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger, a rock opera interpretation of Puccini’s Tosca, and set up a series of Opera Club Nights in Peckham. Ella became the first director to receive an Opera Awards Foundation Bursary in 2015. Her work is currently supported by Arts Council England and The British Council Artists International Development grant with Den Jyske Opera (Danish National Opera).

Upcoming directing engagements include Hathaway at Copenhagen Opera Festival, Helios Formations Masterclasses 2016, Dido & Aeneas as part of the Arts and Humanities Festival at King’s College London, Mad King Sweeney at Bury Court Opera, Canary Boys with Constella OperaBallet, and Operatic Mass Actions in the streets of Aarhus as part of the International Living Theatre Festival and City of Culture 2017.

Website: www.ellamarchment.co.uk

I was one of the first recipients of an International Opera Awards bursary and the first director worldwide to receive this support. The award arrived at a pivotal moment in my career, when I was actively fundraising to support the development of others while lacking equivalent support for my own professional growth. The bursary alleviated significant financial pressure and enabled me to move from freelance graft towards a more sustainable career as a director.

The International Opera Awards provided not only financial assistance, but also professional visibility and institutional trust. The year following the award, Kasper Holten recommended me to Harry Hyman as the director of the International Opera Awards ceremonies. On the strength of that endorsement, I went on to direct four ceremonies: two at the London Coliseum, one at Sadler’s Wells, and the first international ceremony at the Teatro Real in Madrid.

These experiences were instrumental in developing my capacity to lead high-profile, large-scale events and remain among the most exhilarating moments of my professional career. I would not be in my current position as a freelance director and Assistant Director of the Artist Diploma in Opera Studies without the support and opportunities provided by the International Opera Awards.

After stepping away from directing the Awards ceremonies, it was both unexpected and deeply meaningful to have productions I had directed nominated in the 2023 and 2024 ceremonies. To see work of my own recognised by an organisation that celebrates the highest levels of operatic achievement was a true full-circle moment. The International Opera Awards have played a formative role in shaping me both as an artist and as a person, and I remain profoundly grateful for the enduring place the organisation has held in my professional life.

Ruth Mariner is a Director, Facilitator and Librettist working across opera, contemporary opera and learning and participation. Her focus is to bring the artistic integrity and transformative power of opera towards a socially-conscious practice with a focus on developing new audiences.

Ruth studied music at Goldsmiths & Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. In 2014 she became the first writer to enter Guildhall School of Music and Drama, completing an MA in Opera Making course on a joint scholarship from the Leverhulme Foundation and the Ewen Balfour Award. In 2015 Ruth became a fellow and gained a place on Guildhall’s ideas incubator, The Creative Entrepreneurship Scheme, to launch her own opera company.

Ruth is Artistic Director of Gestalt Arts, a company using opera to explore, unite and celebrate unique places and peoples. Gestalt ’s work is visually focused, bridging opera with physical theatre, street theatre and carnival. Gestalt Arts won the Amati Global Investors Entrepreneurship Prize 2017 for their innovation, The Stephen Oliver Award, and coming ahead of Glyndebourne and Opera Holland to win ‘Best Opera at the Youth Audiences Music Award’ in 2018.

Ruth has directed, assisted, directed revivals written libretti and lead education projects for companies including The Royal Opera House, English Touring Opera, Opera North, English National Opera, Clyde Opera, Garsington, Opera 24 and Mahoganny Opera Group. Ruth is also founder and director of The Librettist Network, a movement and education initiative helping opera tell new stories, hosted by Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Partners have included The Royal Opera House and The National Opera Studio.

South African aspiring tenor Luvo Maranti, grew up in a musical family, singing in the choir at the Old Apostolic Church, under the baton of his father, a conductor and composer of gospel music, just like his grandfather. Luvo first obtained a degree in Human Resources from the University of Fort Hare and, while doing his internship, took part in an operatic masterclass organised by the late baritone and UCT Opera School acting-director, George Stevens. Inspired by Stevens’ work and encouragement, Luvo subsequently enrolled for an Opera Diploma at the South African College of Music of the University of Cape Town, which he completed in 2023, under the guidance of his voice teacher Ms Violina Anguelov-Hobbs, and Prof. Jeremy Silver, the director of Opera UCT.

Since the start of his studies at UCT, Luvo has appeared in several of the Opera School’s co-productions with Cape Town Opera, including the chorus in Bellini’s I Capuleti e I Montecchi, As Hendrik Cesars in Hendrik Hofmeyr’s Sara Baartman. In 2020 during Lockdown, Luvo participated in the Voices of South Africa International Competition which was done virtually, and he won first prize and later won the Special Talent award in the grand Finale of the competition. In the same year his performance as Gherardo in Operatunity’s production of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi which was captured in film for streaming, and he was also seen on stage as Chief Melingqili in Sibusiso Njeza’s Madiba the African Opera, in Cape Town. In 2021, Luvo won the 3rd prize of the Schock Competition at the South African College of Music. In 2022 Luvo attended the prestigious International Lyric Academy in Vicenza, Italy, there he was selected to perform the role of Rinuccio in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. In 2023, Luvo was invited to perform the role of Hoffmann in Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann with the International Lyric Academy in North Carolina, USA and in Italy Vicenza, as well as Mozart Marathon. In November 2023 Luvo was selected to participate in the Internationally acclaimed Opera competition Operalia which was hosted in South Africa Cape Town.

Following the competition, he was invited to sing in the Verdi Requiem with the Libertas Choir in Stellenbosch. After Luvo’s graduation in March 2024, Luvo was named as one of University of Cape town’s inspirational students for his outstanding achievements in the field.

Working with his mentor Tim Hedges managing Director of Abagold Ltd, the company he worked for after his HR degree, Luvo and Tim managed to launch an Arts scholarship, because of the difficulty of acquiring funds in SA to study the Arts. The Luvo Maranti Arts Scholarship was launched 2022 December and has awarded R100 000 to the chosen talented young man Ronaldo Bantom. In 2023 Luvo was selected to be part of the 30th Operalia competition by Maestro Placido Domingo. Later in the year Luvo also did his long life dream of performing the Verdi Requiem with an amazing cast and with the Libertas Choir. In essence, Luvo is a hard-working individual who love making new connections and honors his commitments to the finishing line and does so with quality.

Luvo Maranti is a Young Artist at the National Opera Studio in the UK for the 2024/25 season. In addition, Luvo Maranti has been awarded the Drake Calleja Scholarship by t he Drake Calleja Trust and will feature in upcoming conwhich is morecerts.

Xolane Marman’s operatic career began in chorus parts in 2012 in the opera Les Contes d’Hoffmann. In 2013 he was a member of the “Viva Verdi Celebration” at the Baxter Theatre, and a chorus member in the opera Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the ArtsCape Theatre.  In 2014 he was a chorus member in the opera Il Viaggio a Reims, by Rossini, Wagner’s Der Fliegender Holländer, and sang his first solo role in the opera The Dialogues of the Carmelites as the Commissioner. He appeared at Cape Town Opera in collaboration with the South African College of Music (UCT) in 2015, as Giuseppe in La Traviata”, Don Curzio in the SACM Opera Kaleidoscope Le Nozze di Figaro and as Monostatos in Die Zauberflöte.

As a stage director, he was an Assistant Director in the University of Cape Town’s Le Nozze di Figaro and the “Four:30” South African Operas (Blood of Mine and Bessie – The Blue-Eyed Xhosa). In 2017 he directed UCT Opera Kaleidoscope’s Servants of Love, which included Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito extracts and a full-scale performance of Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona. He completed his Opera Directing internship at the Nationaltheater Mannheim, Germany. He directed Il Matrimonio Segreto for the UCT Opera school in early May 2018. In July 2018 was he Assistant Director to Ms. Claudia Blersch from Zürich Opernhaus, in Cape Town Opera House and UCT´s Don Pasquale production.

In late 2018, Xolane joined the Opernhaus Zürich as trainee director in their production of Handel’s Semele, starring Cecilia Bartoli. In 2019, he directed Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte for the Darling Opera Company and co-directed Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro for the Berlin Opera Academy.

To receive the Opera Awards Bursary is to be given more than just financial aid. It is to be given a seat at the table. As a past recipient of this bursary, it has been the cornerstone of my professional development, providing the vital bridge between my aspirations and the global stage.

​Through this support, I was able to navigate the rigorous demands of opera training in Europe, honing my craft in environments that once felt out of reach. Perhaps more importantly, this scheme has empowered me to give back. It has been instrumental in shaping SA Operatunity, my project dedicated to cultivating operatic talent in South Africa.

​For emerging artists, especially those of us from disadvantaged backgrounds with little to no domestic financial support, the Opera Awards Bursary is a lifeline. It proves that talent, when met with opportunity, knows no borders. I am forever thankful for the investment in my opera craft and the contribution to the future of opera in South African.

​In Closing

​”Opera is where a force of nature meets the force of nurture.” – Unknown

February 2026

HOPE in Khayelitsha: Bringing the World’s Stages to the Heart of the Township

​Our recent production, HOPE, transformed a township in Cape Town into a vibrant “opera kaleidoscope.” This annual initiative is more than a performance; it is a bridge between world-class excellence and local talent.

​This year’s collaboration featured:

• ​Ms. Claudia Blersch: Renowned Stage Director from Opernhaus Zürich.
• ​International Guest Soloists: Artists with credits from the Vienna Staatsoper, Cape Town Opera, and the Berlin Opera Academy.

​Closing the Gap

In South Africa, many emerging artists from disadvantaged backgrounds struggle to access elite training and resources. The HOPE project aims to close this gap by providing professional-grade education and instilling confidence in the next generation of performers.

​Our Gratitude

This mission would not be possible without the International Opera Awards. Their commitment to providing bursaries for young opera artists ensures that talent, not circumstances, defines an artist’s future. Together, we are keeping the music alive where it is needed most.

Anna Marmion, soprano, is currently studying with Wilma MacDougall at the Alexander Gibson Opera School at the RCS in Glasgow. She graduated with a MMus (Distinction) from Trinity Laban, studying with Sarah Pring. Prior to this she read Italian, German and French at Durham University. She is a 2023 British Youth Opera Serena Fenwick Artist, was selected for the Royal Opera House Young Artist Programme’s mentoring scheme for 2021-2022, and took part in the Oxford Lieder Young Artist mastercourse in 2022.

Anna specialises in high coloratura repertoire and her recent roles include Queen of the Night (Magic Flute), Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos), Miss Wordsworth (Albert Herring), Susanna (Marriage of Figaro), Gilda (Rigoletto – BYO role study), and Lucy (The Telephone). Anna also loves performing contemporary music and collaborating with composers. She recently originated the roles of Emily Brontë (Lisa Logan’s Brontë) at the Grimeborn Festival (Arcola Theatre), and Alice (Josh Kaye’s Outlier) at the Tête-à-Tête Festival. She also sang Lena in the UK premiere of Ana Sokolović’s Svadba.

On the concert stage, Anna has sung with the London Mozart Players, conducted by Howard Shelley. As part of Barbara Hannigan’s Momentum: Our Future Now she sang alongside Nicky Spence and Dylan Perez at the Two Moors Festival, and in December, she sang Strauss’ Brentano Lieder op.68 with the Cambridge University Graduate Orchestra. Contemporary music wise, Anna performed in the world premiere of Frank Denyer’s The Fish That Became The Sun at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, as well as premiering several chamber music pieces, such as Morgan Burroughs’ Myrrhina’s Monologue for soprano and chamber ensemble, performed at Blackheath Halls. She was recently awarded third prize at the inaugural UK SongSlam, a competition for new music. Anna is a regular recitalist with recent London concerts in St. James’s Piccadilly, St. Alfege Greenwich, St. Mark’s Hamilton Terrace, as well as in Cambridge and in Oxford, most recently a performance of Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch with pianist Aleksandra Myslek, alongside duo Jared Michaud/Christina Koti.

Anna Marmion, soprano, is currently a member of the Alexander Gibson Opera Studio at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, studying with Wilma MacDougall. She graduated with a MMus (Distinction) from Trinity Laban Conservatoire, where she studied with Sarah Pring. Prior to this she read Italian, German and French at Durham University. She is a 2023 British Youth Opera Serena Fenwick Artist, was selected for the Royal Opera House Young Artist Programme’s mentoring scheme for 2021-2022, and took part in the Oxford Lieder Young Artist mastercourse in 2022. She is supported by the International Opera Awards bursary, The RCS Trust, and is a recipient of the Help Musicians Sybil Tutton Opera Award.

Anna specialises in high coloratura repertoire and her recent roles include Queen of the Night (Magic Flute), Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos), Fairy Godmother (Cendrillon, Massenet), Miss Wordsworth (Albert Herring), Susanna (Marriage of Figaro), Gilda (Rigoletto – BYO role study), and Musetta (La Bohème). Anna also loves performing contemporary music and collaborating with composers. She recently originated the roles of Emily Brontë (Lisa Logan’s Brontë) at the Grimeborn Festival (Arcola Theatre), and Alice (Josh Kaye’s Outlier) at the Tête-à-Tête Festival. She also sang Lena in the UK premiere of Ana Sokolović’s Svadba.

On the concert stage, Anna has sung with the London Mozart Players, conducted by Howard Shelley. As part of Barbara Hannigan’s “Momentum: Our Future Now” she sang alongside Nicky Spence and Dylan Perez at the Two Moors Festival. Another recent highlight for Anna was singing Strauss’ Brentano Lieder op.68 with the Cambridge University Graduate Orchestra. Contemporary music wise, Anna performed in the world premiere of Frank Denyer’s The Fish That Became The Sun at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, as well as premiering several chamber music pieces, such as Morgan Burroughs’ Myrrhina’s Monologue for soprano and chamber ensemble, performed at Blackheath Halls in London.

Luvuyo Mbundu, baritone, aged 27, grew up in Khayelitsha and started singing at school. He then started performing as an ad hoc singer for Cape Town Opera. He studied at UCT Opera School under Prof Sidwill Hartman and now works with with Sarita Stern.

Luvuyo was 3^rd place winner in the Amazwi Omzantsi vocal competition in 2015 and participated in UCT productions of Il Viaggio a Reims and La Traviata before participating in Les Azuriales International Opera Program in Nice, France in September 2017, where he was awarded 3^rd prize in the vocal competition.

He sang the role of Publio in the UCT Opera School’s Kaleidoscope production of La Clemenza Di Tito in June 2017 and then sang the role of Papageno in the CTO/UCT opera school production of Die Zauberflöte in Nov/Dec 2017. He was also 1^st Prize/audience winner of the Schock singing competition 2017. He gave an An Die Musik concert at Baxter Theatre with Dr Lisa Engelbrecht in March 2018 and presented the same concert in Durban and Mauritius later that year.

Other recent performances include Angelo Gobbato’s Passion of Opera concert and the role of Maletesta in the CTO/UCT opera school production of Don Pasquale.

In 2019 Luvuyo was a semi-finalist to Domingo’s Operalia World Singing Competition and joined the Duesseldorf Oper Am Rhein studio.  In December 2019 he will be perform in a Beethoven Year concert with Gabriela Benackova and the Thuringia Philharmonic Orchestra Gotha in Germany and the New Year’s Concert with Thuringen Philharmonic Gotha.

Instagram: @luvuyombundu_baritone

Luvuyo Mbundu, a South African baritone, joined from 2022/23 season the ensemble at the Staatsoper Hannover, where he sang various roles, including Marcello in La Bohème, Gatekeeper in Rusalka and title role ‘Orfeo’ in Monteverdi’s Orfeo. In Staatsoper, Figaro (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Guglielmo (Cosi fan tutte) and Ping (Turning Turandot). He was a member of the Opera Studio at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Düsseldorf (2019-2021) and participant in Academy at the Festival d’Aix en Provence in July 2021 where he sang the title role of Mendelssohn’s Elias with the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble conducted by Duncan Ward. Luvuyo’s engagements include his debut at the Glyndebourne Festival in 2022 as Schaunard in a new production of La bohéme; he will also make his debut at the Vlaamse Oper as Schaunard and return later in the season as Rabbi Obidiah in the World Premiere of The Convert by Wim Henderickx and he will return to the Deutsche Oper am Rhein as Fiorello Il barbiere di Siviglia and as the Steuermann Tristan und Isolde. Studied roles for debut as Silvio Pagliacci and Papageno Die Zauberflöte at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein; where he also would have appeared as Moralès Carmen; Steuermann Tristan und Isolde; the Messenger Aida and as Gregorio Roméo et Juliette (cancelled due to Covid restrictions). At the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Luvuyo made his house debut as 2nd Philistine Samson et Dalilah; he also sang The Imperial Commissioner Madama Butterfly; Gregorio Roméo et Juliette; 2nd Nazarene Salome and Flemish Deputy Don Carlos. Also in the 2019/20 season, Luvuyo appeared in New Year Concerts with the Thuringia Philharmonic Orchestra, Gotha. Luvuyo was awarded the 1st Prize at the Gabriela Benackova’s International Vocal Competition in the Czech Republic in 2018; he was a participant of the Les Azuriales Festival Young Artist Programme in 2017, and was awarded the 3rd Prize in their Annual International Competition. His upcoming engagements for the 2024/25 season with the Staatsoper Hannover, will include the role of Demetrius in Midsummer Night’s Dream, Marcello in La Boheme, Ringer in Israel in Munich and Hajný in Rusalka.

Anastasia was born in 1991 and graduated from Mussorgsky Ural State Conservatory, Russia.  She studied under the tutorship of Professor Svetlana Zaliznyak and completed her Master of Music (Honours) in 2016. Anastasia was the Laureate in The Mussorgsky International Competition (Ekaterinburg, 2014) and was granted the coveted M. Magomaev Cultural and Music Heritage Foundation Scholarship. In 2015 Anastasia was selected as one of 10 young opera singers from Russia to participate in the “Academy Young opera singers from Russia in the Opera of Monte Carlo”.

In recent achievements, Anastasia was the finalist of the 2016 international Competition-Listening Cengio in Lirica (Italy) and was invited to perform as Fenena in the opera Nabucco by Verdi with Opera Classica Europa (Germany). In September 2016, Anastasia debuted as Rosina in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Cadogan Hall in London (UK) in the Rossini Young Artists’ Festival. Anastasia was also a finalist in prestigious auditions such as Young Program of the Paris National opera, YAP Bolshoi Theatre (Moscow) and Contests of Voice Competitions Winners (Saratov, Russia).

More recently in July 2017 Anastasia debuted as Angelina (Cinderella) in Rossini’s La Cenerentola produced by Gabriele Ribis at the Piccolo Festival Friuli Venezia Giulia and directed by Eva Buchmann of the Punto Arte Foundation (Amsterdam). Anastasia is now shortlisted for young programs of Met Opera (NY), Merola Opera Program (San Francisco) and Junges Ensemble of Theatre an der Wien (Vienna) among others.

Eva Meitner is a German conductor of French-German origin. Since January 2015 she is chief conductor of the Sinfonisches Orchester Hoyerswerda and since 2018 chief conductor of the Freies Orchester Leipzig. Since 2018 she’s also conductor of projects with the Konzertchor Leipzig and conducting teacher at Erfurt University since season 15/16. She’s also pianist at the Trio CornoVoce and Duo TastoCorno. Since 2017/18 she has also been a mentor at the Mentoring arts programme of the Leipzig Musikhochschule.

In March 2015 she participated in a conducting workshop with Kristjan Järvi and the Baltic Sea Youth Philharmonic in Luslawice, Poland. In September 2015 she participated in a conducting masterclass with Kurt Masur at Gewandhaus Leipzig and a conducting masterclass with Hamburger Symphoniker with Prof. Ulrich Windfuhr and Prof. David de Villiers in Hamburg.

During the season 13/14 she was artistic and musical director of the Werkstattorchester Dresden. In 2014 she obtained a bursary from the Richard Wagner Scholarship Foundation and conducted Mozart’s “Entführung aus dem Serail” at Pforzheim theatre. Furthermore she was one of the Opera Awards Foundation bursary recipients 2014.

Previously she was a masters student in conducting at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar and assisted Anthony Bramall in many productions at Leipzig Opera.

Website: www.eva-meitner.de

Indian Soprano Anusha Merrin is a native of Kerala and grew up in the Kingdom of Bahrain. She is currently a GREAT Indian Scholar at the Royal Northern College of Music, pursuing a Postgraduate Diploma: Advanced Studies in Vocal Studies and Opera under the tutelage of Elizabeth Ritchie.

Her studies are also generously supported by the Dame Eva Turner Award, Opera Awards Foundation Bursary, Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation Take-Off Grant and RNCM entrance

scholarship. Prior to this, The Peter Heath Award, the Maurice and Jean and the Dame Eva Turner Award supported her Master of Music in Vocal Performance at the RNCM, where she received the degree with distinction.

Anusha also holds a BA (Hons) in Music from Middlesex University, London and a Diploma in Music Performance from KM Music Conservatory, Chennai.  Throughout her studies, Anusha further honed her craft by participating in masterclasses with great artists and renowned tutors like Jennifer Larmore, David Owen Norris, Jennifer Hamilton, Benjamin Appl and Patricia Rozario.  Some achievements include Leeds Lieder Young Artist 2024, Finalist of the

Ashburnham English Song Awards

2024, Frederic Cox Award for singing

2023, a member of the RNCM Songsters

2022-23, Second Prize at the Joyce and Michael Kennedy Award for the Singing of Strauss 2022, Best Overall Performer in Art Song Festival 2021 with Trinity Laban and KM Music Conservatory, Chorus in Madama Butterfly conducted by Sir Mark Elder with the Hallé orchestra and in La Fedelta Premiata conducted by Natalie Murray Beale at the Royal Opera House, Mumbai. Her opera roles include Mary Crawford in Dove’s Mansfield Park, Geraldine in Barber’s A Hand of Bridge and Ida in J.Strauss’ Die Fledermaus. This summer, she looks forward to joining the Buxton International Festival as a Young Artist. Outside of music, Anusha is a keen baker and also enjoys cooking and travelling.

I received the bursary at the beginning of my Postgraduate Diploma in Vocal Studies and Opera at the Royal Northern College of Music. I had chosen to undertake this additional year of study following my Master’s degree, having lost valuable training time during my first year due to illness. The Postgraduate Diploma felt essential in allowing me to rebuild consistency in my vocal development and to prepare properly before stepping out into the profession.

At that point, however, I was uncertain whether I could afford to continue the course and was seriously considering withdrawing. The support from Opera Awards came at exactly the right moment, making it possible for me to remain on the programme and fully commit to my training. Without this financial assistance, continuing the course would not have been possible.

That year proved to be a pivotal one for my development. I was able to access valuable training, coaching, and performance opportunities that played an important role in my artistic growth and professional confidence. The opportunities gained during that year have continued to support my ability to build my career in the UK, including supporting my application for a Global Talent visa. I was also honoured to be given the opportunity to perform at one of the Opera Awards Galas, which remains a particularly meaningful highlight.

I am extremely grateful to Opera Awards for their timely and generous support, and for their continued commitment to enabling young artists to pursue their training at decisive moments in their careers.

Lidor Ram Mesika, a versatile Counter-Baritone (Countertenor and Baritone), was born in 2000 in Netanya, Israel. He is currently pursuing a Master’s degree at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague under the guidance of Ms. Noa Frenkel, having completed a Bachelor’s degree with distinction in Vocal Performance and Composition at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance under the mentorship of Ms. Anat Efraty and Dr. Zvi Semel. Lidor’s musical foundation was established at the Netanya Conservatory, where he trained with his first teacher, Vita Gurevich. His early potential was further nurtured through the prestigious program for outstanding young singers at the Jerusalem Music Center.

Throughout his artistic journey, Lidor has garnered numerous awards and recognitions. In 2024, he was honored with the Opera Awards Bursary and the ‘Young Artist Prize’ at the Grandi Voci Competition in Salzburg. His accolades also include the Holland Scholarship (2023–2025), First Prize at the Paul Ben-Haim Competition (2022), and multiple grant awards (summa cum laude) from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation since 2018.

Lidor’s operatic repertoire reflects his exceptional versatility, spanning roles such as the Sorceress in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Polyphemus in Handel’s Acis and Galatea, Arcane in Handel’s Teseo, Count Almaviva in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Papageno and Sprecher in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, and Martino in Rossini’s L’occasione fa il Ladro.

He has performed with leading organizations, including the Israeli Opera, the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra, and Barrocade Orchestra, and appeared as a soloist at prestigious venues such as the Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam. His international experience includes participation as a guest artist with the Berlin Opera Academy, as well as performances in the Tel Aviv International Summer Opera Program and the Graz International Summer Early Music Course under Dame Emma Kirkby’s direction.

Beyond his classical achievements, Lidor embraces musical diversity as a member of the folk music duo Duo Dos Almasand as the soloist of Mariachi Jerusalem. His ability to traverse genres underscores his passion for connecting with audiences worldwide through the universal language of music.

Biography coming soon.

South African tenor Thando Mjandana is a graduate of the Royal Opera House Jette Parker Young Artists Programme, a former Jette Parker Link Artist, and a graduate of the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, and the University of Cape Town Opera School.  

Recent and upcoming engagements include singing Caliban in the world premiere of Sycorax at Bühnen Bern, Policeman 1 in Blue at Dutch National Opera and Tenor Soloist in Welsh National Opera’s Messiah, before returning in Spring 2023 to sing Tamino in The Magic Flute. Thando is a semi-finalist in the Voices of Black Opera Vocal Competition.    

In the Royal Opera House 2021/22 season, Thando sang Messenger in a new production of Theodora, Philistine Messenger in a new production of Samson et Dalila, a Noble of Brabant in Lohengrin and Gastone in La traviata. He also appeared as Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni with Oxford Sinfonia.  

Other recent engagements include Nemorino, L’elisir d’amore (Waterperry Opera Festival); Odoardo, Ariodante (Royal Opera House); Nelson and Crab Man, Porgy and Bess (Dutch National Opera/English National Opera) and a variety of roles at Cape Town Opera including Tamino in The Magic Flute, Botshelo in Sibusiso Njeza’s Blood of Mine and Chief in Angelique Mouysis’s The Blue-Eyed Xhosa. His repertoire also includes Count Almaviva (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Tom Rakewell (The Rake’s Progress), and Des Grieux (Manon).  

Concert appearances include the Johannesburg Philharmonic and KwaZulu Natal Philharmonic Orchestra, while competition successes include reaching the final of Guildhall’s Gold Medal in May 2021, and 1st and 3rd prizes at the Amawzwi Omzansi International Opera Competition. 

Caroline is a South African Soprano who has recently completed training with the National Opera Studio. She did her Postgraduate studies at the Birmingham Conservatoire, taking voice lessons with Helen Field. She also completed a three year opera course for young artists with the Black Tie Ensemble opera company in South Africa and was accepted to their studio.

While with the Black Tie Ensemble, she performed the roles of Despina in Cosi fan Tutte, Violetta in La Traviata, Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi. Caroline then joined the Cape Town Opera Studio in 2013. While with the Cape Town Opera company she performed the roles of Donna Anna in Don Giovanni conducted by Professor Kamal Khan and directed by Matthew Wild; Clara and Strawberry Woman in Porgy and Bess which she performed in Barcelona and Bordeaux in 2014; and Susanna (cover) in Le nozze di Figaro.

She won the first prize at the ATKV Musiqanto national competition and she was awarded second prize at the Voices of the Nation competition held in South Africa annually. In 2015 she was a finalist in the Belvedere International Competition held in Amsterdam. Caroline was awarded a Royal Overseas League (South African) Prize in March 2016.

With the National Opera Studio, Caroline performed in opera scenes with Opera North in Leeds, Scottish Opera in Glasgow and Welsh National Opera in Wales in collaboration with NOS. She has performed the role of Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Headfirst Productions, during Autumn 2017. Most recently, she covered the role of Clara in Porgy and Bess production with English National Opera and Dutch National Opera in Winter 2018/2019 and played the role of Lucy in Treemonisha with Spectra Ensemble.

Caroline is currently preparing the role of Queen of Sheba for the upcoming opera Solomon and the Queen of Sheba at Peckham Theatre.

Website: Caroline Modiba
Twitter: @ModibaCaroline
Instagram: @motlhago

Eddie Mofokeng is a baritone born in Kroonstad, South Africa. Eddie first discovered music as a member of a brass band where he became familiar with trumpet, trombone, French hour and English horn. He went on to study singing with Professor Santisa Viljoen at North-West University in Potchefstroom, South Africa and received his diploma in Music in 2011. He went on to receive a BA in Music & Society in 2013 and graduated with an Honours degree in Musicology in 2014. While studying at North-West University he made his debut as Gugllielmo in Cosi Fan Tutte. In 2016 Eddie was awarded the Mozart Festival Scholarship to study with Professor Josef Protschka at Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln (The Cologne University of Music and Dance) and remained at the university to complete a Master’s Degree in 2020 under the tutelage of Professor Raimund Nolte.

Eddie has also worked with numerous opera directors and performers including a La Boheme workshop with Peter Konwitschny and master classes with Peter Berne and Lucio Gallo. In 2018, he was invited to participate in the Neue Stimmen Masterclass during which he worked with Brigette Fassbaender and Wolfgang Brendel.
Eddie performed the role of Betto in Gianni Schicci during the 2017 iSing Young Artist Festival in Suzhou, China. In 2018 he worked with stage director Lotte de Beer on a project called “The Magic Flute Rewritten” playing the role of Papageno. He also worked with William Kentridge for a production of “The Head & The Load”. Eddie traveled to Israel in summer 2018 to perform the role of Eisenstein from Die Fledermaus in Israel under the direction of Maestro Barak Tal. He joined Theater Aachen for productions of Bernstein’s “Troubles in Tahiti” and “A Quiet Place” and took on the role of Aeneas in “Dido & Aeneas”. He also performed the role of Enrico in Haydn’s L’isola Disabitata as part of the Easter Festival held in association with Kammeroper
Schloss Rheinsberg.

In 2020 Eddie joined the ensemble of Theater für Niedersachsen Hildesheim. Since then he has sang roles including Dr Falke in Die Fledermaus, Bertrando in Briganti by Mercadante, Schubert’s Winterreise staged with scenes, Baron Duphol from Traviata (in German), ‘Groß Wessir & Zauberer’ in Aladin und die Wunderlampe by Nino Rota, Dancaïro & Morales in Carmen (in German) and many more. During the 22/23 season, Eddie played the roles such as Valdemaro in the world premier of Ambleto by Gasparini – rearranged by Fredrik Schwenk, Dr Falke in Die Fledermaus (revival), ‘Zwiddeldum & Schlafmaus’ in Alice im Wunderland by Valtinoni, Dancaïro & Morales in Carmen (revival) among many. One of the highlights of his time in Hildesheim is participating in recording an operetta entitled “The Belle of New York” by Gustav Kerker set to be released in late 2023.  Eddie has also participated in numerous singing competitions throughout his career. He was among the quarter finalists of the 2017 Neue Stimmen International Singing competition and a Semi-finalist in the 2017 International Otto Edelmann Singing Competition held in Vienna. In 2019, he was among the semi-finalists of Competizione dell ‘Opera in Sochi, Russia. Eddie was amongst 25 semi-finalists of the 2022 Eva Marton Singing Competition in Budapest and was also a quarter finalist for voice in the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2023. Season 23/24 includes roles such as” Der Leibarzt, Kanzler & Der König” in Wenn Ich König wär by Adolphe Adam, Schaunard in La Bohème, Der König in Dornröschen by Humperdinck.

I am very grateful to have received the Opera Award Foundation Bursary twice already. A lot of what happens in a singer’s life involves patiently learning about their instrument, how to use it safely, and how to use it effectively. First, you need video recordings to audition for jobs or competitions. These recordings are costly to produce, and working with a coach for preparation adds to the expense. Being a classical singer is very costly because it requires ongoing consultation with coaches, teachers, and pianists, exposure to the right people through competitions, workshops, and summer programs, and funds for sheet music, travel, and accommodation. Being nominated for this bursary allowed me to afford auditions, consult the right coaches and teachers, and take part in competitions I otherwise couldn’t afford—necessary steps that helped me build a network. This, in turn, advanced my career by helping me become a better musician, connect with industry leaders, select the right repertoire to showcase my talent, and use my instrument safely while exploring composers and genres such as oratorio, opera, and operetta. Unfortunately, at a certain point in a singer’s journey, it’s not just about voice or technique; it’s about taste (since music is subjective). When all participants are skilled singers, taste is the only factor that can set one apart—along with charisma and luck. Financial support is essential at the beginning of a young singer’s journey to build a career in this highly competitive field.

Eddie Mofokeng begun his season 2020/21 at Theatre für Niedersachsen Hildesheim as a house soloist, this happened after his completion of masters in singing. His roles included Bertrando in iBriganti by Mercandante, Baron Duphol in La traviata among many, during this season Eddie sang a staged production of Winterreise by Schubert. Before being an ensemble at TfN Hildesheim, Eddie appeared in Aachen theater as Aeneas in Dido & Aeneas, baritone in jazz-trio in the opera “Troubles in Tahiti”, baritone in “A Quiet Place” by Bernstein, this was under the baton of Christopher Ward.

In 2017 Eddie was part of the iSing Young Artist Program that was held in Suzhuo, this included his debut as Betto in Gianni Schicci. TfN Hildesheim season 2021/22 included roles such as Morales & Dancaïro in Carmen, Dr Falke in Der Fledermaus, il Mago Maghrebino & il Gran Ministro in Aladin und die Wunderlampe by Nino Rota. Eddie has worked with directors such as Peter Konwitschny, Amy Stebbings, Juana Ines Cano Restrepo, Nina Russi, Lotte de Beer, Matthias von Stegmann among many others. Summer 2018 had Eddie as one of the singers to appear at Tel Aviv concert performance of Die Fledermaus as Eisenstein, later that year Eddie was part of the production called “the Head and the Load”, working under the directorship of an internationally acclaimed director William Kentridge. Eddie appeared as Enrico in Haydn’s L’isola Disabitata in Easter festival at Rheinsberg Schloss theatre conducted by Wolfgang Katschner. Season 2023/24 includes long awaited role of Schaunard in La Boheme, ‘Vogt & König des Rosenlandes’ in Humperdinck’s Dornröschen (sleeping Beauty) and the role of Kanzler & Leibarzt in “Si J’etais Roi (Wenn Ich Konig wär) by Adolphe Adam, season before included roles such as Valdemaro in a world premiere of
Ambleto by F. Schwenk & F. Gasparini and roles of ‘Zwiddeldum & Schlafmaus’ in “Alice im Wunderland” by P. Valtinoni. Eddie was part of the semi-finalists of Eva Marton Singing competition in 2022. Regarding masterclasses Eddie had the opportunity to work with teachers like Marcel Boone, Lucio Gallo, Wolfgang Brendel, Brigitte Fassbänder, John Norris, Aris Argiris among many others.

Eddie earned his Diploma in Music at Northwest University Potchefstroom South Africa, followed by Bachelor of Arts in Music & Society and Honors in Musicology. Eddie was awarded Mozart scholarship to study in Cologne under Prof Josef Protschka as an Erasmus student, eventually allowing him to study Masters in Singing (cum laude) at HfMT Aachen under Prof Raimund Nolte. TfN Hildesheim season 2021/22 started with Eddie Mofokeng as a soloist in a philharmonic concert singing Sea Pictures by Edward Elgar. Eddie’s love of text and musicality has allowed him to venture in concert music which includes Bach passions, Brahms Requiem, Messiah, Petite Messe Solennelle, Die Geisterbraut (Svatební Košile) by Dvorak among many others, this has allowed him to work with conductors such as Maestro Raimund Rilling, Rolf Beck, Florian Ziemen, Kaspars Putnis, Achim Falkenhausen. Eddie was awarded the International Opera Awards Foundation Bursary in 2023 and was part of the quarter-finalists of Queen Elisabeth Singing Competition held in Belgium 2023. Season 24/25 started with Eddie singing the role of Radipelo in Don Chischotte by Manuel Garcia, role of 1st priest/Sprecher/ 2nd Garnisher in Magic flute by Mozart and currently preparing for a role of Kapellmeister/ Filmstar in ‘Hochzeit in Hollywood’ by Oscar Strauss. Eddie was among the main price winners of Giacomo Puccini Opera competition 2025 held in Duisburg under Susanne Foundation and Erato academy (10th
January 2025).

I am very grateful to have received the Opera Award Foundation Bursary twice already. A lot of what happens in a singer’s life involves patiently learning about their instrument, how to use it safely, and how to use it effectively. First, you need video recordings to audition for jobs or competitions. These recordings are costly to produce, and working with a coach for preparation adds to the expense. Being a classical singer is very costly because it requires ongoing consultation with coaches, teachers, and pianists, exposure to the right people through competitions, workshops, and summer programs, and funds for sheet music, travel, and accommodation. Being nominated for this bursary allowed me to afford auditions, consult the right coaches and teachers, and take part in competitions I otherwise couldn’t afford—necessary steps that helped me build a network. This, in turn, advanced my career by helping me become a better musician, connect with industry leaders, select the right repertoire to showcase my talent, and use my instrument safely while exploring composers and genres such as oratorio, opera, and operetta. Unfortunately, at a certain point in a singer’s journey, it’s not just about voice or technique; it’s about taste (since music is subjective). When all participants are skilled singers, taste is the only factor that can set one apart—along with charisma and luck. Financial support is essential at the beginning of a young singer’s journey to build a career in this highly competitive field.

British mezzo-soprano Alexandria Moon is a member of the opera studio at the Royal College of Music in London and is the Lotti Masterson and H and F Music Award holder, studying with Dinah Harris. Her studies are generously supported by the Drake Calleja and Josephine Baker Trusts.

On the operatic stage, Alexandria recently made her role debut as Lucretia in a new production at the Brunel Museum in Rotherhithe mentored by Dame Sarah Connolly (The Rape of Lucretia, British Youth Opera). Other role highlights include Concepción (L’heure espagnole, RCM), Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro, Westminster Opera), L’enfant (L’enfant et les sortileges, RCM), Mistress Ford (Sir John in Love, Opera Holland Park and British Youth Opera) and the Older Woman (Flight, RCM).

As a soloist, Alexandria enjoys a busy concert schedule and recently debuted at the Wigmore Hall in their first ever concert in collaboration with the RCM’s vocal department where she performed the world premiere of a long-lost scena by RCM alumni Samuel Coleridge-Taylor titled “Nourmahal’s Song”. Other highlights include Lili Boulanger’s “Du fond de l’abime” with the RCM Symphony Orchestra conducted by the late Sir Andrew Davis (Royal College of Music), Bach’s B Minor Mass (Great St. Bartholomew’s, City Music Society), Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle (Guildford Choral) and Duruflé’s Requiem (Holy Trinity Sloane Square, Islington Choral Society).

Competition highlights include taking 1st prize in the Maureen Lehane 2023 Vocal Awards at the Wigmore Hall, 3rd in the 2024 Concerto Competition at the RCM with Ravel’s Shéhérazade and 1st prize in the Lies Askonas 2023 competition at the RCM.

Upcoming engagements include debuting Marcellina at the RCM and joining Garsington this summer as an Alvarez Emerging Artist.

Mosaic Opera Collective is Ruth Chan, Omar El-Khairy, Jennifer Farmer, Sevan K. Greene, David Austin Grey, Moji Kareem, Sayan Kent, Abigail Kelly, Sam Malik, Jonathan Man, Eska Mtungwazi, Zoë Palmer, a group of BAME artists and practitioners from a wide range of disciplines making inroads into the artform of opera.  Comprised of singer-songwriters, directors, librettists, composers, playwrights, live art performers, musicians and producers, Mosaic Opera Collective creates urgent, dynamic and engaging works which centre our multi-faceted experiences as BAME artists and in doing so, adds fresh and vibrant narratives to the operatic canon.  By bringing their experience of other musical traditions and an interest in cross-culturally integrating instruments to opera, Mosaic explores and challenges the conventions of the form as they interrogate and push against the external and internal barriers in the opera world that currently exist for BAME artists.

Members’ work has been seen, heard and experienced on BBC Television, BBC Radios 3 and 4, ITV, National Geographic, Discovery Channel and at Carnegie Hall, Royal Opera House, Battersea Arts Centre, New York Theatre Workshop, Albany Theatre, Ovalhouse, Young Vic, Bath International Festival, Spitalfields Music, Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, West Yorkshire Playhouse, York Theatre Royal, Contact Theatre Manchester, Joseph Papp’s Public Theater, Dubai International Film Festival, Birmingham Rep, Arcola Theatre, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Riverside Studios, English Touring Opera, Opera South Africa, Belgrade Theatre, Unicorn Theatre and Bush Theatre.

Noah Mosley is a conductor, composer and accompanist. His recent opera composition, Mad King Suibhne, premiered at Bury Court in March to critical acclaim (‘Mosley has a gift for melody’ Opera Magazine, ‘exquisite vocal writing… divine upper string writing… like a modern Purcell’ Opera Now) and is being performed in an updated version at ENO’s Lilian Baylis House and Messums, Wiltshire. Since 2014 he has been music director of Helios Collective, which received an Opera Awards Foundation Bursary for 2016 and with whom he has toured shows to Copenhagen and Buxton Opera Festivals, Glasgow and many London venues including the Arcola, the Bussey Building and Leicester Square Arts Theatre.

Noah has been a conducting fellow at the Dartington International Summer school, conducting the Dartington Festival Orchestra, a praktikant at Karlsruhe Opera House, assisting Justin Brown on Gurrelieder, and founded King’s College London Opera Company conducting the Magic Flute, Le Nozze di Figaro, The Fairy Queen and I.

Noah has won numerous awards, including the Cameron Mackintosh Award for music at the National Student Drama Festival – conducting a production of Shaffer’s Amadeus – and the Outstanding Arrangement Award in the world-wide and highly competitive 2012 Varsity Vocals International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella in the New York City Town Hall, America.

Recent and future engagements include accompanying Bryan Hymel at the Opera Awards Foundation Gala dinner, creating a new opera-ballet in Tuoro sul Trasimeno and an upcoming opera and choral commission.

February 2026

My children’s opera The Wishgatherer was the won the YAM awards best opera for young audiences 2023

The Firebird, which I wrote with Michael Rosen, was nominated for the YAM award for best online production.

South African soprano Noluvuyiso Mpofu was a member of the Accademia Rossinana, at the Rossini Opera Festival 2017, where she sang the role of Madama Cortese Il viaggio a Reims.

Looking ahead to the 2018/19 season, Noluvuyiso will appear at the Glyndebourne Festival;
Bergen National Opera and the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich.

Noluvuyiso was awarded the 3rd Prize at Placido Domingo’s OPERALIA competition in 2015 and the 2nd and Audience Prizes at the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition in 2016.

A graduate of the University of Cape Town and a former member of the Cape Town Opera Studio, she has appeared with Cape Town Opera as Gilda Rigoletto; Violetta La Traviata; the title role of Maria Stuarda; Rosina Il barbiere di Siviglia; Micaela Carmen and Pamina Die Zauberflöte.

In 2016, Noluvuyiso made her debut as Clara Porgy and Bess for Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires.

Belfast-born Bass-Baritone Timothy Murphy completed his Masters and AdvDip in Vocal Performance and Opera at the Royal Academy of Music. He was a Royal Academy of Music/Kohn Foundation Bach Scholar, the winner of the 2014 Michael Head Prize for English Song and a 2014 winner of an International Opera Awards Foundation Bursary.

Operatic highlights include the roles of Bartolo in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, the Headman in May Night by Rimsky-Korsakov and Seneca in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea with Royal Academy Opera, making his German operatic debut in Weimar, performing Sarastro in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, and covering four roles as ‘Ensemble 3’ in Shostakovich’s The Nose at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.  In 2017 he toured with Glyndebourne singing within the solo semi-chorus on Brett Dean’s Hamlet.  For the 2017/19 seasons he is a member of the studio at Opéra National de Lyon.  He made his debut with in Lyon in the premiere of Raskatov’s GerMANIA and returns in 2019 in Blacher’s Romeo and Juliet.

Timothy also performs with The Monteverdi Choir and as soloist in oratorios around the UK and Europe.  Highlights include ten solo performances of Handel’s Messiah in a production staged by Le Ballet de l’Opéra National de Bordeaux in Bordeaux Opera House and several concerts of Bach’s Ascension Oratorio with the Norwegian Wind Ensemble at Easter.

Timothy’s passion for music is accompanied by a great enthusiasm for tennis and bookbinding.

Website: tjwmurphy.com

Aleksandra is a Polish collaborative pianist and a répétiteur. She graduated from the Royal Academy of Music where she studied piano with Prof. Christopher Elton and Prof. Hamish Milne, while her chamber music studies were supervised by Prof. Michael Dussek and Ian Brown. 

Aleksandra is a prizewinner of both solo competitions and chamber music contests such as the III International Chopin Competition in Budapest, Wilfrid Parry Brahms Prize, Brenda Webb Accompanist Prize, Tunnell Trust award, Edith Poulsen Accompanist Prize and many others. 

Aleksandra gained the majority of her professional experience in opera at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance where she was a Junior Fellow in Piano Accompaniment 2019-2021. Since then, she has worked as a répétiteur with Gidon Saks on his role of Hagen for a Deutsche Oper production, Opera Loki on Carmen and Tosca, Longhope Opera on L’elisir d’amore, Gap Festival on Così fan tutte, Opera on Location on Cavalleria rusticana / Pagliacci, new operas such as Syllable by Ed Jessen and Outlier by Josh Kaye and many others. 

Apart from her Academy mentors, Aleksandra is particularly grateful for artistic advice from Audrey Hyland, Prof. Richard Stokes, Graham Johnson, Christoph Prégardien, Ferenc Rados, Maxim Vengerov, Michel Beroff, Rodney Friend and Sarah Pring. In 2022 she was both the Leeds Lieder and Solti Accademia Young Artist and in autumn 2022, she will begin her formal répétiteur studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. 

Website: www.aleksandramyslek.com 

Twitter: @aleksmyslek https://twitter.com/aleksmyslek 

Receiving the Opera Awards Bursary was a privilege that completely changed my situation, as it made it possible for me to attend the Guildhall Opera School as a repetiteur. I simply wouldn’t have been able to do so without it; I would have given up. Now, I regularly work at the Royal Ballet and Opera, and I’m a very happy member of the operatic community. I must emphasize that this is thanks to both the skills I acquired at the Opera School and the network and people I met. None of this would have happened without the support of the Opera Awards Bursary.

February 2026

Highlights:

Working at the RBO on Carmen and Tosca 2025, Boris Godunov 2026,  and upcoming La Bohème 2026

CD release of German Lieder with Florian Störtz for Delphian Records

Hungarian baritone Gyula Nagy is an alumnus of the National Opera Studio, where he was supported by the Royal Opera House and the Opera Awards Foundation. Previously, he studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. Gyula is also an alumnus of Opera Theatre Company’s Young Associate Artists’ Programme in Dublin.

In 2016, Gyula was a WNO Associate Artist, where his engagements included the role of Silvio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and the covers of Count Almaviva in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and in Elena Langer’s Figaro Gets a Divorce. Previously, he worked with Scottish Opera, covering Escamillo in Carmen (2015). His operatic roles also include Mozart’s Don Giovanni (National Opera Studio, 2015) and Tarquinius in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia (Irish Youth Opera, 2014).

From September 2016, Gyula will be joining the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where his roles will include Fiorello in Rossini’s Barber of Seville, Filotete in Handel’s Oreste, Paul in Philip Glass’s Les Enfants terribles, Nachtigall in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, the Imperial Commissioner in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Flemish Deputy in Verdi’s Don Carlos and Baron Douphol in Verdi’s La Traviata. He will be also covering Belcore in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore and Sharpless in Madama Butterfly.

Gyula is grateful for the support provided by Chris Ball (2016), Tudás a Jövőnkért Foundation (2014), Hungary, the Opera Awards Foundation, London (2013, 2014), the John McCormack Society, Dublin (2013), and the Gaiety Bursary, Dublin (2011).

Watch: Gyula Nagy on what the support of the Opera Awards Foundation has meant to him.

Rachel Nicholls is now widely recognised as one of the most exciting dramatic sopranos of her generation.

Following her debut at London’s Royal Opera as Third Flowermaiden/ Parsifal, she sang a wide repertoire of baroque, classical and contemporary repertorie in opera and concert throughout the UK and Europe, including the Edinburgh Festival and BBC Proms, and forged a close relationship with Masaaki Suzuki and Bach Collegium Japan, with whom she made several recordings. Other conductors with whom she has worked include Sir Colin Davis, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Mark Elder, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Roger Norrington, Richard Hickox and Valery Gergiev and Daniele Gatti.

She first came to notice as a dramatic soprano with her highly acclaimed performances as Brünnhilde for Longborough Festival Opera, culminating in complete Ring Cycles in 2013, followed by Isolde in 2014. In 2013 she sang Senta for Scottish Opera and in 2014 Leonore in Fidelio for the Bergen National Opera.
Recent and future engagements include Isolde, Tristan und Isolde for the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Oper Stuttgart, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, the Badische Staatstheater Karlsruhe, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra and Grange Park Opera, Fidelio for Lithuanian National Opera, Guinevere Gawain for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Lady Macbeth, Macbeth for the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe and NI Opera, Eva, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe and ENO, Isolde’s Liebestod and Elgar’s Spirit of England with Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé, the Wesendonck Lieder at the 2013 St Endellion Festival, and Verdi Requiem at Cadogan Hall.

Rachel Nicholls was born in Bedford and in 2013 was awarded an Opera Awards Foundation Bursary to study with Dame Anne Evans.

Website: www.rachelnicholls.com

Biography coming soon.

Grace is a British soprano of both Ugandan and Zimbabwean heritage. Recent operatic roles include: Bridget/Emelda ‘Migrations’ for Welsh National Opera, Girlfriend 1/Nurse (Cover) ‘Blue’ for English National Opera, Musetta ‘La Bohème’ for Kings Head Theatre and Rooster & Jay ‘The Cunning Little Vixen’ for Opera Holland Park. Other notable roles include Aksinya ‘Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk’ for Birmingham Opera Company which won the Royal Philharmonic Society award and the title role of Treemonisha (Spectra Ensemble) at the Grimeborn Festival. Grace is an ardent proponent of new works. This summer she created the role of Anne in ‘Bronte’ (Lisa Logan) which premiered at the Grimeborn festival. Grace also created the role of Grace in ‘Herday’ (Sayan Kent) an opera commissioned for the Coventry City of Culture Festival 2022. Grace is a graduate of Trinity Laban and currently studies with Neil Baker in London.

Harry Ogg is a conductor and pianist based in London. Since graduating from Clare College, Cambridge in 2012, he has conducted operas at Opera Holland Park, British Youth Opera, the Julian Light Operatic Society and at LSO St Luke’s with his orchestra Sinfonia d’Amici. He has also conducted the London Mozart Players, Haydn Chamber Orchestra, Covent Garden Chamber Orchestra and Sinfonia d’Amici in concert, as well as the Hallé in recordings for NMC Recordings. He has recently assisted Lionel Friend at WNO and BYO, Sir Mark Elder with the Hallé, Stuart Stratford and Steuart Bedford at Opera Holland Park, Anthony Negus for David Poutney’s production of Lulu in Bolzano as well as Edward Gardner, Sir Richard Armstrong, Libor Pešek and Martin Yates in concerts in London and Cambridge.

British baritone Alex Otterburn is a 2014 winner of the International Opera Awards bursary and a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music. He has performed with many companies at home and abroad, including Grange Park Opera, Lyric Opera Dublin, The Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and Opera Ireland. Recent highlights include his debut at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw singing Curio Giulio Cesare with Lawrence Zazzo in the title role, Schaunard La bohème at the National Concert Hall Dublin with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, arias of Mozart with the Chamber Orchestra of Geneva at Victoria Hall and Yevgény Onégin under Sian Edwards for Dartington Festival.

Website: aotterburn.wixsite.com/baritone

Joseph Padfield graduated from the Opera Course of the Guildhall School of Music and
Drama in 2014. Operatic highlights since graduating include Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro, Diva Opera), Guglielmo (Così Fan Tutte, Diva Opera), understudy Dog/Death/Smith (Swanhunter Opera North), Lido Boatman/Gondolier (Death in Venice, Garsington Opera), understudy Guglielmo (Così Fan Tutte, Garsington Opera), understudy Zuniga (Carmen, Scottish Opera), understudy Eisenring (Biedermann and the Arsonists, Independent Opera), Barker (The Adventures of Pinocchio, Cambridge Philharmonic).

Upcoming performances include Ibn Hakia (Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta as a guest artist at
Guildhall School of Music and Drama) and bass soloist in Verdi’s Requiem in Southampton.

Born in Aveiro, Portugal, Ricardo has distinguished himself for his interpretation of the florid baritone Bel Canto roles, deemed beguilingly sonorous, a technical tour-de-force and mesmerising by different music publications.

Career highlights have included the London premieres of Saverio Mercadante’s Don Chisciotte at Leighton House Museum and of Federico Ruiz’s Los Martirios de Colón at the Southbank Centre.

Ricardo studied singing in Portugal at the University of Aveiro with António Salgado, and at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, with Laura Sarti, respectively. He also worked with singers such as Della Jones, Monserrat Caballé, Teresa Berganza and Nelly Miricioiu.

He currently studies with Dennis O’Neill at the Wales International Academy of Voice, supported by the Opera Awards Foundation.

His operatic roles include, amongst others, Marcello in La Bohème (Regents Opera, Clapham Opera Festival), Dandini in La Cenerentola (Clapham Opera Festival), Silvio in I Pagliacci (Woodhouse Festival), Count Almaviva in Le Nozze Di Figaro (Britten-Pears Young Artists Programme); Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Opera Brava); Malatesta in Don Pasquale (Clapham Opera Festival); Raimbaud in Le Comte Ory (Opera South); Belcore in L’Elisir d’Amore (Pop-Up Opera).

Ricardo is also a regular lecturer for Opera Prelude.

Future projects include a return to Wexford Festival Opera to perform in the 2016 productions of Donizetti’s Maria di Rudenz and David’s Herculanum.

Website: ricardopanela.com

Anna Patalong studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, winning top prizes at both the Francisco Vinas International Singing Competition at the Liceu, Barcelona and the Monuiszko International Vocal Competition,Warsaw.

Recent highlights include Anna’s debut with the Opera National de Paris, performing the role of Brigitta in a new production of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta by Dmitri Tcherniakov, Mimì La bohème at the Opera de Rouen, a role debut as Liu in Calixto Bieto’s radical interpretation of Turandot with Northern Ireland Opera, a return to the Theater Lubeck and Opera Holland Park for performances of Mimì La bohème together with her debut at the Ruhrtriennale Festival as Woglinde Das Rheingold in a new production by Johan Simons, conducted by Teodor Currentzis.

Anna made her Royal Opera House debut in 2013 as a Blumenmädchen in Stephen Langridge’s critically acclaimed production of Parsifal, conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano. She returned the following season to cover the lead role of Roxana Krol Roger. Anna has recently performed with Opera de Limoges as Ännchen Der Freischütz, whilst in the UK she has won high praise for her interpretations of Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi and the title role of Suor Angelica at Opera Holland Park, Terinka in Dvorak’s The Jakobin and
Serpetta La Finta Giardiniera at Buxton Festival Opera and Pamina The Magic Flute with English Touring Opera. She has sung in concert across Europe as well as many venues at home, such as the Royal Albert Hall,
Wigmore Hall, Crush Room, QEH.

Aphrodite Patoulidou embarked on an international career as a member of the Equilibrium Young Artists Initiative by Barbara Hannigan, and as a Guest of Sasha Waltz. She has appeared in theatres such as Staatsoper Berlin, La Monnaie, Teatro Real Madrid, Greek National Opera; in concert halls such as Gothenburg’s, Snape Maltings, Bruges Concertgebouw and festivals such as the Ojai Music Festival in California, Flanders Festival, La Monnaie Sleepover, and at many festivals in Greece.

Her interpretations of Anne Trulove (The Rake’s Progress), Elle (La Voix Humaine), Belinda (Dido & Aeneas), Sophie Scholl (Weisse Rose) and Claude Vivier’s Lonely Child have been praised by the international press. Apart from opera, she also engages in concert work, lieder programs and body/voice improvisations.

Upcoming engagements bring Aphrodite to the Berliner Philharmonie with Kirill Petrenko and to the Grand Theater Shanghai as well as the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele with Chris Moulds. She has also been invited to sing two world premieres.

Aphrodite can be seen on screen featuring in documentaries such as Taking Risks by Accentus, Rétro by Particia Nedzwiecki and in films such as Twinkle, twinkle little star by Greek Toys, a series for children for which she wrote the music.

She has a passion for composing, taking pictures, teaching and writing (column: “#liveyourdreamρε”). Her first illustrated cycle of poetry was published in Greece in 2011 as a national first prize winner. She also directed her own show of singers and dancers and she conducted the Greek Choir of Brussels.

Aphrodite studied at the University of Macedonia in Greece, the Royal Flemish Conservatorium of Brussels, University of Arts Berlin and spent some quality time in Paris. She has also studied modern and folk singing and plays the piano and guitar. She currently studies with baritone Aris Argiris. She likes snow and comic books. Not necessarily combined.

Twitter: @APatoulidou

American soprano Jacqueline Piccolino has been hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle as having “impeccable technique and stage presence” and as “an artist to watch”. In the 2019-2020 season, Ms. Piccolino will join the roster of the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program singing Erste Dame in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and covering the title role in Dvořák’s Rusalka. In addition, Ms. Piccolino will perform Beethoven’s Christus am Ölberge with the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.

As a recent San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow, she made her San Francisco Opera debut in the summer of 2013 as Stella in Les Contes d’Hoffmann. She returned from 2013-2015 as the First Lady in The Magic Flute, Lady Madeline in La chute de la maison Usher, Laura in Luisa Miller, 2nd maid in the world premiere of Dolores Claiborne, Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Clotilda in Norma, and Mrs. Hayes in Susannah.

As a participant in the 2012 and 2013 Merola Opera Program, Ms. Piccolino appeared as Countess Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro and Arminda in La finta giardiniera. She has performed the Israelitish Woman in Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus, Erste Dame with Seattle Opera in 2017, as well as Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra.

Other career highlights include appearing as a Studio Artist with the Wolf Trap Opera Company, a performer in the Napa Festival del Sole’s Bouchaine Young Artist Concert Series and as a participant in the Houston Grand Opera Young Artist Vocal Academy.

Ms. Piccolino is a first prize winner from The American Prize in Vocal Performance, the Igor Gorin Memorial Award from the Community Foundation of Southern Arizona and the  Rose M. Grundman Award Recipient from the Musicians Club of Women in Chicago. Jacqueline graduated with a Bachelors of Music from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Music in 2013 and received the Kate Neal Kinley Memorial Fellowship from her Alma mater.

Website: Jacqueline Piccolino
Twitter: @jacquesings

Born in Mexico, Alan Pingarrón was a Jette Parker Anniversary Company Artist for The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in the 2021/22 Season and a Link Artist in the 2018/19 Season.   

 In 2010 Alan graduated from the Escuela Nacional de Música, UNAM, and was named Voice of Mexico Bicentenary by the Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, obtaining a FONCA Scholarship; additional awards include Second Prize and the Audience Prize in the Opera Prima Competition, the Artesana Opera de San Miguel Jury Prize and the Francisco Araiza First Prize in the Sonora International Competition. Concert work includes the reopening of Bellas Artes Palace, a tribute concert for Manuel Esperón and events in the Cervantine Festival and the Tamaulipas International Festival. In 2016 he made his debut at the Berlin Konzerthaus in the Young Euro Classic Festival.   

Alan made his debut with The Royal Opera in the 2021/22 Season as First Man in Armour (Die Zauberflöte) and returned to The Royal Opera for First Philistine (Samson et Dalila), Prince Yamadori (Madama Butterfly) and the Jette Parker Young Artists Summer Celebration.   

Jade Phoenix is a 25-year-old lyric soprano from Ireland was a recent studio member with Irish National Opera 22/23. In 2020 she graduated from the Royal Irish Academy of Music under the tutelage of Mary Brennan. In 2021 Jade graduated from Guildhall School of Music and Drama under the tutelage of Yvonne Kenny.
Jade participated in Wexford Festival Opera’s Academy programme in 2020 and 2021. At the Wexford Festival Opera she sang the role of Alice in Verdi’s ‘Falstaff ‘in 2020 and then Giulietta in Bellini’s ‘I Capuleti e i Mochecchi’ in 2021. Jade also participated in the Rossini Opera Festival Academy in Pesaro, Italy. There she sang the role of Modestina in ‘il Viaggio a Reims’ by Rossini.
Jade performed the role of Iris in Handel’s ‘Semele,’ a touring production by Opera Collective Ireland 2022 and with Wexford Festival Opera she sang the world premiere of Ariele in Fromental Halévy’s ‘La Tempesta’ 2022. Jade most recently sang the role of Nora in ‘Old Ghosts,’ a contemporary opera by Evangelia Rigaki with Irish National Opera.
Jade is the winner of multiple prizes including The Feis Ceoil Dramatic Cup bursary 2022, Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition Bursary 2021 and the Danone Ireland Young Outstanding Female Artist Award 2021 and the Flax Trust Music Bursary 2020.
Jade’s next performance will be Rosetta, La Ciocara, Marco Tutino. Wexford Festival Opera, National Opera House, October 2023.

When I applied for the International Opera Awards Bursary back in 2023 I had used the money to prepare a role with the incredible Sorpano Mariella Devia. The money I received meant that I could travel to Rome and study with Mariella for a week without worrying finances. I studied the role of Rosetta in Marco Tutino’s ‘La Ciociara,’ which was performed in Wexford Festival Opera that year and was a huge success. Since the kindness of that bursary, I have returned to study with Mariella to help develop my Bel Canto technique. I have been fortunate enough to sing many roles since then. The highlights being Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus and the Fox in The Cunning Little Vixen both productions by Irish National Opera. I was also one of the singers involved in the World Premiere of Mars, a four woman show by Jennifer Walshe commissioned by Irish National Opera that was nominated for World Premiere at the 2025 International Opera Awards.

February 2026

Currently I’m singing the role of the Fox in the Cunning Little Vixen with Irish National Opera. My next project is singing Galatea in Acis and Galatea by Handel with Blackwater Valley Opera Festival and then I will be singing Frasquita in Carmen with Irish National Opera.

Australian tenor Adam Player completed a Bachelor of Music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music before graduating with a Masters of Music from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Adam has had a busy performance schedule since completing his studies, performing in the UK, Australia and Ireland. He has performed at the Edinburgh Festival, BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, Lake District International Summer Music Festival, Ryedale Festival, Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall and has performed roles with companies including Opera Australia, OzOpera, Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, English Touring Opera, Garsington Opera, Wexford Festival Opera, British Youth Opera, and the Hallé orchestra.

Some performance highlights include singing the role of Ulrich Eisslinger in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Wagner), in a concert performanc, conducted by Sir Mark Elder, and singing in the European premiere of Kevin Puts’ opera, Silent Night, based on the Christmas truce between a group of Scottish, French and German soldiers in WWI.

Adam was awarded the William McLeod Johnstone Prize for male singers from the Royal Northern College of Music and is a 2015 awardee of an Opera Awards Foundation Bursary.

He appears as an Apostle on the Hallé’s Gramophone award-winning recording of The Apostles (Elgar), under the baton of Sir Mark Elder, and as Registrar in Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour’s DVD of Madama Butterfly.

Adam’s recent roles include: Monostatos, The Magic Flute (Mozart), Edmondo, L’assedio di Calais (Donizetti), Ulrich Eisslinger, Der Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Wagner), Benoit, La Boheme (Puccini), Dancaïre, Carmen (Bizet), Sergei, Moscow, Cheryomushki (Shostakovich), Western Union Boy, Paul Bunyan (Britten), Iro, Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (Monteverdi), Francis Flute, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Britten), Vasek, The Bartered Bride (Smetana), Bellecour, Vert Vert (Offenbach) and Hervey, Anna Bolena (Donizetti).

Upcoming engagements for Adam include:

– Iro in Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (Monteverdi) and covering the roles of Mercurio and Pane in La Calisto (Cavalli) for English Touring Opera in Oct-Nov 2016

– Soldato I/ Famigliari II/ Lucano in L’incoronazione di Poppea (Monteverdi) for Pinchgut Opera in Dec 2017.

I was born in Rome, raised between Palermo and Milan.

I graduated in Classics literature at the Catholic University of Milan thinking that I would be a literature professor. Then I started a course of theater and I decided to look for a different relationship with words. Therefore I went to study Theater Direction at the Paolo Grassi Civic School in Milan. Among the most precious meetings for my artistic and professional growth I count Mariano Furlani, Maurizio Schmidt, Carmelo Rifici, Marco Maccieri, Renata Molinari, Davide Carnevali, Giuliana Musso, and Claudio Autelli. From each of them I have stolen and I continue to steal. After my studies I started working as an assistant director at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and at the Teatro Franco Parenti with Andrée Ruth Shammah. These were the years of my apprenticeship, in which I began to understand how a theater stage is made and who its inhabitants are.

I’ve directed prose theater and opera shows. Sometimes I feel the need to write the stories I tell myself, sometimes I work with the words of Others.

In 2018, together with Maddalena Massafra, Clio Sciro Saccà, Marco Sinopoli, we won the Macerata Opera Festival 4.0 competition for the writing and composition of a contemporary opera.  In 2022, I received the 3rd prize of the EOP – European Opera Prize for Directors, together with Alice Benazzi and Giulia Rossena. In 2023, we won the 13th edition of the EOP – European Opera Award for Directors.

The Opera Awards bursary will contribute to the making of Bestiario Notturno, a musical theatre and prose show that interweaves the melodies of Francis Poulenc with an original dramaturgy by Ginevra Salvaggio.

Receiving the grant was a precious moment in my professional career because it allowed me to pursue research outside the confines of standard production. Thanks to the funding, I was able to write a new opera. Initiatives like these are vital for the emergence of new talent and the discovery of new potential for the world of music and theater!

February 2026

Bestiario Notturno, a ballad opera on Poulenc’s chansons is ready to tour in some Italian theaters and non conventional spaces. Meanwhile, I directed Little Bear and the Ice mountain, a newly written opera for children by Giovanni Sollima which deals with the melting of the glaciers. It’s a modern fairytale which through new music addresses contemporary issues. It’s touring around Italy, it will go to Granada in Spain and in 2028, in Avignon, in France.

John is from Donegal, Ireland he completed his Bachelor of Music with Hons in 2008 at the University of Ulster and his Master of Music in 2010. This year John completes his studies on the Opera Course at the Royal Academy of Music under the tutelage of Ryland Davies and Audrey Hyland.  During his time at the Royal Academy of Music he held the Richard Lewis/Jean Shanks Trust Scholarship and the Porter (Selleck) Foundation Award. John is a graduate of the Georg Solti Accademia di Bel Canto and Les Azuriales. He is a member of the Royal Academy Song Circle and is a Countess of Munster Recital Scheme Artist.

Operatic roles include; Basilio LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, Nadir THE PEARL FISHERS, Rinuccio GIANNI SCHICCHI, Rodolfo LA BOHEME, Beppe RITA, Don Jose CARMEN, Spoletta TOSCA and Ulysses ULYSSES A MUSICAL ODYSSEY (created the role of Ulysses in the opera by Laurence Roman) and opera scenes including; Bill FLIGHT, Graf Albert DIE TOTE STADT, Pylade IPHIGENIE EN TAURIDE, Il Duca RIGOLETTO and Alfred DIE FLEDERMAUS.

On the concert platform he has performed works including Bach’s ST. JOHN PASSION, MAGNIFICAT, Beethoven’s CHRISTUS AM ÖLBERGE, MASS IN C,  SYMPHONY NO. 9, Berlioz TE DEUM, Handel’s MESSIAH, Haydn’s THE CREATION, THE SEASONS,  Puccini’s MESA DI GLORIA, Rossini’s PETITE MESSE SOLENNELLE, Saint-Saëns CHRISTMAS ORATORIO and Schumann REQUIEM.

In 2016 John will join the Alvarez Young Artists Programme at Garsington Opera and sings recitals for Stowmarket Concert Society, performing Schubert’s Schwanengesang and at the Great Comp Music Festival.

Sarah Prestwidge is an accomplished Aboriginal Australian soprano, celebrated for her sparkling coloratura and exciting storytelling on stage. This year, she performed the title role in Parrwang Lifts the Sky and Yvette/Lisette in La Rondine with Victorian Opera and later reprised the role of Susanna (The Marriage of Figaro) in London. Her outstanding achievements were recognised with the Emerging Artist Award at the First Nations Arts and Culture Awards and the Brian Boak Supporting Award from the Empire Theatre.

She holds a Bachelor of Music (Education) from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where she earned numerous awards for her excellence, and a Master of Music (Opera) from the Royal Northern College of Music, supported by the prestigious ABRSM Scholarship. Her work has been further recognised with awards such as the Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship from the Australia Council for the Arts, the Tait Memorial Trust Award, and the 2022 Lady Galleghan London Award from The Opera Foundation for Young Australians. Sarah was also part of the National Opera Studio London’s 2023/24 Diverse Voices program.

Sarah has worked with companies such as Opera Holland Park, Woodbridge Opera, Buxton Opera (Young Artist), British Youth Opera, Charles Court Opera, and Victorian Opera. Her extensive operatic repertoire includes roles such as Rosina (The Barber of Seville), Adele (Die Fledermaus), Susanna and Barbarina (The Marriage of Figaro), the Controller (Flight), the Queen of the Night (The Magic Flute), Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos), Madam Herz (Der Schauspieldirektor), and Mrs. Anderssen/Nordstrom (A Little Night Music).

A sought-after soprano soloist, Sarah regularly performs in orchestral concerts, recitals, and high-profile events. She has performed for renowned organisations and events, including Holland America Cruises, Mandarin Oriental Hotels, Grand Hyatt, the High Commission for Australia in London, and the Sydney Opera House Utzon Room Recitals.

In addition to her performing career, Sarah is a passionate educator, a trained classroom music teacher, and an experienced singing instructor. She looks forward to announcing her exciting 2025 commitments soon.

“Receiving an Opera Awards Bursary was a welcome and timely support in my career. As a freelance soprano, the costs of preparing audition materials, including professionally recorded videos, language lessons, and ongoing vocal coaching, are an essential and ongoing part of the work. The bursary helped ease these expenses and allowed me to continue investing in my development.

Having that support last year enabled me to focus more fully on my craft. During this period, I secured a principal role with a national opera company in Australia, which was a significant career milestone and a highlight of my professional work to date.

I am very grateful for the work Opera Awards does in providing practical support to artists at key stages of their careers.”

Welsh Soprano Elin Pritchard is a graduate of the Alexander Gibson Opera School at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where she was awarded a Master of Opera with distinction and a Master of Music, and of London’s National Opera Studio.

Her operatic roles include Violetta for Den Jyske Opera, Kupava / The Snow Maiden and Nedda / I Pagliacci for Opera North, Tosca English Touring Opera, Lucia Lucia di Lammermoor for Buxton Festival Opera, Fiordiligi Così fan tutte for Den Jyske Opera, and Donna Elvira Don Giovanni for Finnish National Opera Micaela in Carmen for Mid Wales Opera, Female Chorus The Rape of Lucretia for British Youth Opera, Musetta La bohème, Miss Jessel The Turn of the Screw, Nella Gianni Schicchi, Giorgetta Il tabarro and Stella I Gioielli della Madonna for Opera Holland Park, For Scottish Opera, she has sung Donna Elvira Don Giovanni, Anne Trulove The Rake’s Progress and Violetta La traviata and First Dryad, Rusalka.

Elin Pritchard sings regularly in concert, her repertoire including Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra,Bruckner Mass in F Minor, Brahms Requiem, Dvorak Te Deum, Fauré Requiem, Gounod Messe Solennelle, Haydn St Nicholas with English Chamber Orchestra, Mahler Symphony No4, Mendelssohn Elijah, Mozart Coronation Mass, Mass in C Minor and Requiem, Poulenc Gloria with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony and Verdi Requiem.

Recent and future engagements include Miss Jessel / The Turn of the Screw for ENO at Regent’s Park Theatre, Adalgisa / Norma in a concert performance for Chelsea Opera Group,  Marie / Daughter of the Regiment at the Buxton Festival for Opera Della Luna, Brahms Requiem with the Ulster Orchestra and at St John’s Smith Square, Opera Gala concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra,  Song recital at Wigmore Hall with the Samling Foundation. Tosca, Mid Wales Opera, Verdi Requiem at Snape Maltings, Sea Symphony in Winchester Cathedral, Alice/ Falstaff The Grange festival and a return to Den Jyske Opera to sing Tatyana in Eugene Onegin.

Website: www.elinpritchard.com

I received an Opera Award Bursary at a crucial point at the start of my career. I had no agent and a small amount of work.  This support and financial assistance helped me to invest in regular coaching especially with my coach and mentor Alex Ingram. I have been working consistently with Alex for over 10 years, he preps and coaches me for all my roles. We prepped Don Carlo this December ready for next summer and I will go again soon to prep Ballo in Maschera as well. I realise now that this relationship and mentorship was only possible due to the consistency I was able to achieve in the first year of my career from generous financial support from the Opera Awards. This was an integral part of my development as an artist and musician and has stood me in good stead for my career to this day.

British soprano Alice Privett graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with the Concert Recital Diploma, and from the opera course at the Royal Academy of Music where she was a Jennifer Vyvyan and Sickle Foundation Scholar.

Operatic experience includes Ginevra Ariodante (RAO), Carolina The Secret Marriage (British Youth Opera), Nerone L’Incoronazione di Poppea at the Aldeburgh Festival, Gretel (West Green Opera), Romilda Xerxes and Echo Ariadne auf Naxos (Longborough Festival Opera), Giulietta I Capuletti e i Montecchi and Michäela La Tragédie de Carmen  (Pop up Opera), Susanna Le Nozze di Figaro (Kilden Theatre, Norway), Mimi (Opera Holland Park as a Christine Collins Young Artist), Simplicius (cover) Simplicissius Simplicissimus (Independent Opera) the title roles in Snow and Goldilocks (The Opera Story), Bianca La Rondine (OHP), and Rodelinda (Cambridge Handel Opera Company).

She has sung as an oratorio soloist extensively around the UK, including performances of Handel’s Israel in Egypt with the Huddersfield Choral Society, Messiah at St Martin-in-the-Fields and Kings Place, and Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time in Bath Abbey and Salisbury Cathedral. Recitals have and continue to encompass a wide range of repertoire, from the Baroque to the Contemporary. Highlights have included a solo performance at King’s Place of Berg and Schoenberg Lieder, a selection of Birtwhistle’s Niedecker Songs that were aired on BBC Radio 3 as part of the BBC proms, Pierrot Lunaire at the Oxford Lieder Festival, and Vier Letzte Lieder at the Amersham Festival; she is also a founding member of Schubert & Co., an ensemble of eight singers and pianist Sholto Kynoch.

She was the winner of the Helen Clarke Award (2013) and the Leonard Ingrams Award (2014) from Garsington Opera, the Leon Fischbach Memorial Prize at the London Handel Competition (2015), and a finalist in the Kathleen Ferrier Awards (2015). She is grateful to Opera Prelude for their continuing support.

www.aliceprivett.com

In 2016 – 17 Gyula joins the Opernstudio of Opernhaus Zurich, where his roles will include Vogelsang in Der Schauspieldirektor, Le petit vieillard and La rainette in L’enfant et les sortilèges, Torquemada in L’heure espagnole, Don Curzio in Le nozze di Figaro, Second Workman in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Second Brabantischer Edler in Lohengrin. Outside of his engagements in Zurich he will sing the Mozart’s Requiem in the Great Amber hall in Liepaja and St.Peter’s Church in Riga, with the Liepaja Symphony Orchestra.

Last season he sang Messiah with the Valencia Symphony Orchestra, Mozart’s Requiem with the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Ken-Ichiro Kobayashi and with the Danubia Symphony, Handel Brockes Passion at the Palace of Arts Budapest, Kodaly’s Psalmus Hungaricus with the Hungarian Radio Symphony, Alidoro in Orontea at the Budapest Spring Festival, the lover in Fairy Queen at the Hungarian State Opera, a highly acclaimed concert version of Adriano in Siria conducted by Leo Duarte at London’s Cadogan Hall and, Carmina Burana in Somerset. He has also attended Edith Wiens Internationale Meistersinger Akademie.

Gyula made his professional operatic debut in October 2014 with Wrocław Opera ISCM World Music Days as Louis in Angels in America by Péter Eötvös. That same year he also sang the role of Tamino in Die Zauberflöte at the Sir Georg Solti Hall in Budapest.

He was a Jerwood Young Artist at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera singing the role of A Christian and understudied Nearco in Poliuto.

He graduated from the Royal College of Music International Opera School under Dinah Harris in 2015 as a Sir Roger & Lady Carr Soirée d’Or Scholar. Gyula is proud to be a recipient of the Independent Opera Postgraduate Voice Fellowship and the International Opera Awards Foundation Bursary. He is also a Samling Artist.

Website: www.gyularab.com

Current and future engagements of Anglo-French baritone Charles Rice include Eugene Onegin (title role) Angers Nantes Opéra, DEMETRIUS A Midsummer Night’s Dream Hyogo Performing Arts Center in Japan, ALBERT La Juive and ARTHUR KOESTLER Benjamin, dernière nuit (world premiere) and PROCOLO Viva la Mamma Opéra de Lyon, MARCELLO La bohème Opera Theatre Company Dublin, HERMANN Les Contes d’Hoffmann Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and SILVIO I Pagliacci Opéra de Toulon.

Recent engagements include ESCAMILLO Carmen Stadttheater Klagenfurt and Vorarlberger Landestheater, MUSIKLEHRER/HARLEKIN Ariadne auf Naxos Opéra de Toulon, SID Albert Herring English Touring Opera, SOLOIST HK Gruber’s Gloria – A Pigtale Mahogany Opera Group tour (Linbury Studio, Bregenz Festival, Norfolk, and Norwich Festival), ALCHEMIST/INQUISITOR/SENOR/SULTAN ACHMET Candide Opéra National de Lorraine, NED KEENE Peter Grimes Aldeburgh Festival, BELLO La Fanciulla del West English National Opera, CONTE ROBINSON Il Matrimonio Segreto Festival de Sédières, MORALES Carmen Royal Albert Hall, and ANGELOTTI Tosca Grange Park Opera.He also sang the CAT in Stravinsky’s Renard Glyndebourne Jerwood Young Artist Programme and JAMES Pirates of Penzance Buxton Festival. Charles appeared in concerts at the Royal Festival Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields, and Cadogan Hall.

He studied at the Royal Academy of Music and the National Opera Studio.

Fraser Robinson is a baritone hailing from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, he is currently in his final year at the Alexander Gibson Opera School at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland under the tutelage of Scott Johnson and Andrew McTaggart. This year at the RCS, Fraser will be performing the roles of Nanni in L’Infedelta Delusa (Haydn) and Papageno in Die Zauberflöte (Mozart), previously this year Fraser performed the role of Masetto in Don Giovanni (Mozart) for Random Opera Company.

Previously Fraser was an Associate at Nevill Holt Opera (now Nevill Holt Festival) where he performed in the chorus of La Cenerentola (Rossini) and performed in their Associate Artist concert. He was also previously a young artist at Waterperry Opera Festival where he was in the chorus for Carmen (Bizet ) and the baritone soloist in their Young Aritst Gala.

Earlier this year Fraser joined the Edinburgh International Festival for their performance of St Matthew Passion (Bach , 1841 Leipzig arr. Mendelssohn ) as a member of the bass chorus as well as Petrus and Pontifex 1. He was also recently Bass soloist and Pilatus in St John Passion (Bach) at Glasgow Cathedral.

While at the RCS Fraser has also came 2nd in the Molly Robb Prize for Young Singers and the Tony and Tania Russian Song Prize.

British conductor Matthew Scott Rogers joined the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House at the start of the 2016/17 Season. Engagements in his first Season included conducting the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in the Young Artists’ Summer Performance, a concert with the Southbank Sinfonia, work as assistant conductor with The Royal Ballet and on the music staff of The Royal Opera. He will additionally work as assistant conductor to Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra in their 2017/18 season.

Conducting engagements include with New York City Ballet Orchestra at the David H. Koch Theater, with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra as a member of the Symphony Services International Conductor Development Program, Samson et Dalila for Chelsea Opera Group, Hänsel und Gretel for Covent Garden Chamber Orchestra, La traviata and Lucia di Lammermoor for Winslow Hall Opera, Così fan tutte for Dubrovnik Summer Festival, the Pärnu Music Festival, a tour to Bucharest with BBC Concert Orchestra and with the Tokyo City Symphony, Osaka Symphony and Dubrovnik Symphony orchestras.

Rogers studied conducting with Neeme and Paavo Järvi, Bernard Haitink and Christopher Seaman. He studied at the Sibelius Academy with Jorma Panula, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the University of Glasgow and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Naomi is a mezzo-soprano from Suffolk, currently studying for her Masters of Music in Performance at the Royal Northern College of Music, having just completed her undergraduate studies there. She studies under the tutelage Louise Winter and is generously supported by the Annie Ridyard Scholarship and the Alice Orrell and A&N Kendall Award.

Naomi’s most recent operatic performances at the RNCM include: Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Peaseblossom); Kurt Weill’s Street Scene (cameo role) and Offenbach’s La Vie Parisienne (Clara).  Her opera scenes also include: Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel (Hänsel), Mozart’s Così fan tutte (Dorabella) and Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (Cherubino).  Naomi is currently working on the role of Maestra della novizie in the winter production of Puccini’s Suor Angelica.

As a regular concert performer, Naomi’s highlights are performing as guest soloist with the Hallé Orchestra at the Bridgewater Hall, which was part of their Set Work’s Educational programme. She has also performed as soloist in the orchestrated arrangement of Manuelle de Falla’s Siete canciones populares españolas with the ArkEnsemble’s in the RNCM concert hall.

www.naomirogers.co.uk

The bursary played a crucial role in supporting my studies at an important stage of my development, allowing me to focus fully on my training and artistic growth. Beyond this, it opened the door to an extraordinary range of performance opportunities in both large-scale and more intimate settings. Through the support of Opera Awards Foundation, I have had the privilege of performing in wonderful venues such as Sadler’s Wells, as well as in chamber performances that encouraged close collaboration and artistic exploration.

Perhaps most importantly, the bursary helped me to build lasting connections within the industry — relationships that have proven invaluable as my career has progressed. The confidence, exposure, and professional network I gained through Opera Awards Foundation continue to shape my work today, and I remain deeply grateful for the support.

Puerto Rican lyric coloratura soprano Valerie Rosa is a promising young opera singer with a great commitment to her solo career in vocal performance. With a classical singing training from the Music Conservatory of Puerto Rico and a BA in Humanities in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Puerto Rico, Valerie has been part of programs such as the “Savannah VOICE Festival” in Georgia, USA,  with  baritone Sherrill Milnes and “The Abingdon Summer School for Solo Singers” in Oxfordshire, UK, where she had the opportunity to work with artists including Dame Felicity Lott.

Valerie is currently a student at the Royal Northern College of Music in her first year of an MMus Performance in the Vocal Studies and Opera School, with Sandra Dugdale as her tutor. Valerie has also been awarded a bursary supported by the Waverley Fund, for her studies in the RNCM. She has sung with choruses including the Opera Workshop of the Music Conservatory of Puerto Rico, Lyrical Chorus of Puerto Rico, Pro Lyrical Art of Puerto Rico and “Opera de Puerto Rico” in opera and zarzuela productions such as Madame Butterfly, Cosi fan Tutte, Dialogues des Carmélites, Los Gavilanes and works like Carmina Burana. She has performed with the Puerto Rico Symphonic Orchestra Foundation in a role at a Puerto Rican opera written by Alberto Guidobaldi. Valerie intends to continue her studies in the United Kingdom while pursuing competitions and auditions for the development of her career.

Bursary supported by Jeremy Scott

Isolde Roxby, soprano, graduated with a distinction in MMUS Vocal Studies from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2015 under the tutelage of Marilyn Rees. She was supported in her studies by the National Opera Studio and The Ruby and Will George Trust.

While studying at GSMD, Isolde performed in a number of concerts both inside and outside the school, including the City of London Festival and Song in the City. She has taken the following roles in opera scenes: Madame Herz in Mozart’s Schauspieldirektor, Clorinda in Rossini’s Cenerentola [2013] Magda in Menotti’s The Consul, Vitellia in Mozart’s Clemenza di Tito, Rosmene in Handel’s Imeneo, The Governess in Britten’s Turn of the Screw [2014], Elizabeth I in Britten’s Gloriana and Frau Fluth in Nikolai’s Merry Wives of Windsor [2015].

In the last two years, she has performed with Clonter Opera, The Helios Collective and Buxton Opera Festival and has been heavily involved with the contemporary opera scene: being the first to sing roles in a number of new operatic works. Last year, she performed one of these roles for Formations Contemporary Opera Masterclasses working with Kasper Holten, Stephen Barlow, David Parry, Stephen Unwin and Robert Saxton. Isolde has upcoming contracts as Belinda in a reconstruction of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas [October 2016] and as Eorran in a new opera [March 2017] being written for her voice.

Isolde has a wide background in the performing arts having been a member of the National Youth Theatre and also a stage director for opera with young adults. She has appeared on TV on a number of occasions for the BBC and Northern Film and Media. Most recently, she was filmed by Channel 4, performing ‘Roxana’s Aria’, for a short opera video to be aired in autumn 2017.

Originally from Newcastle, Isolde performed regularly in her local area. When she moved to London in 2009, she enjoyed singing with various choirs and performing roles alongside her academic studies including Dido in 2009, Mabel in Pirates of Penzance in 2010 and Ida in Princess Ida in 2011. She graduated from King’s College London in 2011, where she was a choral scholar with the KCL Chapel Choir. Isolde was the soprano soloist for their performances of Bach’s St John Passion and Duruflé Requiem.

Isolde’s most recent engagement was with Buxton Opera Festival as chorus and cover for the role of Marzelline in Leonore. She is very proud to be a recipient of a 2016/17 International Opera Awards Bursary.

Katey Rylands is 24 year old English Mezzo-Soprano currently studying at the David Seligman Opera School at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Her current studies are generously supported by the following; Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, International Opera Awards Foundation, Kathleen Trust and the Wiltshire Rural Music Trust.  Katey’s recent successes includes winning the Isabel Jay Memorial Prize at her previous conservatoire, the Royal Academy of Music, after impressing the adjudicator with her operatic repertoire. Whilst at the academy, Katey was involved in many exciting projects such as, performing in the RAO chorus for Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges and Massenet’s Chérubin. Katey’s passion for opera was certainly highlighted when she performed the roles of Cherubino, Nancy, Orfeo, Hermia and Dorabella in Vocal Faculty opera scenes. When Katey isn’t studying she loves to involve herself in different projects and productions. During her MA degree, Katey performed the role of Dido in HGO’s production of Purcell’s masterpiece Dido & Aeneas and has performed as a chorus member in West Green House Opera’s summer production of Donizetti’s opera L’elisir d’amore. However, Katey also has a great passion for the Oratorio repertoire, which has given her many fantastic opportunities throughout her career. In November 2021 when she successfully became a member of the Josephine Baker Trust. This allows Katey to be acknowledged as an employable Oratorio artist for Choral societies around the UK. Recent JBT funded concerts include; Handel’s Dixit Dominus at Chichester Cathedral. Katey now looks forward to partaking in the Autumn Opera Scenes and the WNO Gala this term at RWCMD and she is excited to see what happens next in her career.

London based Australian tenor Samuel Sakker studied Music at the Queensland Conservatorium, and later Commerce at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

Samuel’s 2017/18 season engagements include Erik Der fliegende Holländer (Nederlandse Reisopera); Laertes in the Australian première of Brett Dean’s Hamlet (Adelaide Festival); tenor soloist in Song of the Earth (Royal Ballet and English National Ballet); and opera gala concerts at Symphony Hall, Birmingham, and the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester.

Previous highlights include Erik Der fliegende Holländer (Cape Town Opera); Cavaradossi Tosca (English Touring Opera); Alfredo La traviata (Royal Opera House & New Zealand Opera); James Nolan in the definitive recording of Dr Atomic (BBC Symphony Orchestra), which was also performed in concert at the Barbican under the baton of composer John Adams; the title role in Liszt’s unfinished opera Sardanapalo; Alfredo La traviata and Baroncelli Rienzi (Melbourne Opera); and roles for Opera Australia, West Australian Opera and Opera Queensland.

On the concert platform he has performed as tenor soloist in Mozart’s Requiem alongside Albina Shagimuratova, Joyce DiDonato and Ildebrando D’Arcangelo under the baton of Sir Antonio Pappano in Japan; Beethoven’s 9th Symphony (Barbican Hall/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra); Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with The Royal Ballet; Verdi’s Messa da Requiem at the Anghiari Festival in Italy; Mozart’s Requiem at London’s Cadogan Hall; Bottesini’s Messa da Requiem for the Brisbane Festival; as a soloist in Hyde Park for the Last Night of the BBC Proms; and Nessun Dorma for the British Summer Time Festival in London’s Hyde Park.

2016-17 saw Samuel as a company principal artist at the Royal Opera House and in 2014-16 he was a member of the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme, where his roles included 1st Armed Man Die Zauberflöte, Heinrich der Schreiber Tannhäuser, Gastone La traviata, Malcolm Macbeth (Japan Tour), Abdallo Nabucco, Barbarigo I due Foscari, Patacha L’Etoile, Sandy/Officer 1 in Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ The Lighthouse (Linbury Theatre), and understudied B.F. Pinkerton, Macduff, Ismaele, Lensky, Tamino, and Don Ottavio.

Samuel was the recipient of second place in the inaugural Grange Festival Singing Competition, as well as awards from the Dame Nellie Melba Opera Trust, the Ian Potter Cultural Foundation and the Australian International Opera Awards.

Croatian soprano Nela Šarić graduated from Zagreb Academy of Music (prof. Cynthia Hansell-Bakić) and Wales International Academy of Voice, where she studied under renowned tenor Dennis O’Neill and soprano Nuccia Focile. While at WIAV Nela worked and studied with several distinguished coaches including Mo.Richard Bonynge and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. She was a member of 2015 International Opera Studio in Gijon, Spain.

Nela is the winner of the 1^st and the Tokyo Metropolitan Opera Foundation Special Prizes at the 2017 Riccardo Zandonai International Competition in Italy, of the 1^st and the Audience Prizes at the 2017 Stuart Burrows International Voice Award in Wales, UK, and the 2^nd Prize at the Otto Edelmann Singing Competition in Austria. In addition, Nela was a finalist at the prestigious International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition in Russia and the International Zinka Milanov Singing Competition in Croatia.

Recent highlights include covering the role of Violetta Valery in La traviata at Welsh National Opera, singing Musetta in La bohème at the Sendai Music Hall and Gilda in Rigoletto at the Emerald Hall in Japan, Faure’s Requiem with New York’s West Village Chorale, a gala concert celebrating the 70^th anniversary of the Croatian National Theatre in Zadar, and at the Milka Trnina Award Ceremony. She has performed with all the major Croatian orchestras and ensembles. She has recorded the 19^th century baroque music of composers from Zadar, produced by Edo Mičić and widely toured Croatia performing renaissance music with distinguished lutenist Edin Karamazov.

Renowned industry professionals she has worked with include conductors Riccardo Muti, Lorenzo Tazzieri, Gareth Jones, Michael Conley, Guido Mancusi and directors Sarah Crisp, Ignacio Garcia, Yasuhiro Miura, Sandra Martinović, Krešimir Dolenčić and Dora Ruždjak Podolski. She has also participated in masterclasses held by Raina Kabaivanska, Della Jones, Susan Bullock, Nelly Miricioiu, Ryland Davies, Annemarie Zeller, Larry Allan Smith, Benno Schollum, Mary Logan-Hastings, Helena Lazarska and Judith Kopecky.

Nela was awarded a Coat of Arms by the City of Zadar for exemplary successes and achievements in the field of music.

www.nelasaric.com

Colaratura soprano Hannah Sawle studied at Chethams School of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She has won awards for her English and Contemporary Song, recorded with the BBC Philharmonic and sung live on BBC World Service, Radio 3 and Radio 4.

Current and recent roles include Witness 1, Woman 1 and Singer 1, LESSONS IN LOVE AND VIOLENCE by George Benjamin at the Philharmonie de Paris, and with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in Germany, both conducted by the composer. She also sang these roles in the French and German premiers for Hamburg Staatsoper and Opera de Lyon.

She is a regular cover at the Royal Opera House where covered roles include Morgana ALCINA, Poppea AGRIPPINA, Ismene MITRIDATE RE DI PONTO, the soprano roles in LESSONS IN LOVE AND VIOLENCE and the soprano roles in Britten’s DEATH IN VENICE.

Alongside regularly performing the Queen of the Night, her other roles include the title role LAKME, Elletra IDOMENEO, Adina L’ELISIR D’AMORE, Diana ORPHEUS IN THE UNDERWORLD, Micaela and Frasquita CARMEN, Zerlina DON GIOVANNI, Mademoiselle Silberklang DER SCHAUSPIELDIREKTOR, and Nedda PAGLIACCI.

Canadian-born tenor James Schouten is studying at the Alexander Gibson Opera School at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland under the tutelage of Stephen Robertson. James’ switched from high baritone to tenor in 2019 after graduating from the Royal College of Music. His performed operatic roles include: Don Jose Carmen (Opera in Oborne), Laca Jenufa (Fulham Opera), Isepo La Gioconda (Grange Park Opera), Eisenstein Die Fledermaus (Opera Gold), Parpignol La boheme (Opera UpClose), Starveling A Midsummer Nights’ Dream (RCMIOS), Bartolo Il barbiere di siviglia (PopUp Opera), Silvio I Pagliacci (Hampstead Garden Opera) and Harlekin Ariadne auf Naxos (Queens’ Opera). Recent contemporary projects include Tony West Side Story, Animus/Pianist in Simone Spagnolo’s Even you lights, cannot hear me (Opera in the City Festival), Nebuchadnezzar in Joseph Cabons’ To Himself, Alone, Jawad in Orlando Gough’s Weather The Storm (Garsington Opera/Rosetta Life), Scarpia/Musical Director/Keys Rock Tosca, and Jon/Composer/Musical Director of lockdown micro-opera Threshold for OperaVision’s 2020 competition Opera Harmony. Upcoming performances include Prince Charmant Cendrillon (RCS Opera), Idomeneo Idomeneo (RCS Opera) and Loge Das Rheingold (Regents Opera) James is generously supported by ABRSM, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Trust and The Opera Awards Foundation Bursary

I was a grateful recipient of an Opera Awards bursary during my second year at the Alexander Gibson Opera School at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Moving to Scotland immediately after Covid was a great financial strain, and the bursary was instrumental making this possible. It allowed me to focus much more solidly on making the most out of my studies, meaning that I was able to put every effort into my development as a performer. I was able to develop my singing technique and stagecraft in such a way that when I left RCS, I was equipped to enter the industry and focus wholly on the next steps in my career. This has meant that my performing has gone from strength to strength. Since the course I’ve worked with numerous national companies, and my upcoming engagements include Froh Das Rheingold with Grange Park Opera, and Narraboth Salome and the title role in Parsifal with Regents’ Opera. I was also awarded first prize and the audience prize in the 2024 UK Wagner Mastersingers competition. Without the Opera Awards bursary, I don’t believe I would have been able to continue my studies at RCS, so it truly was instrumental in carving out these opportunities for me, and hopefully many more!

February 2026

I’m due to perform in the following over the coming months:

• Federico – In Five Years’ Time – The Music Troupe – (The Space Theatre, London) – February 2026
• Narraboth – Salome – Regents’ Opera – (York Hall, London) – April 2026
• Froh – Das Rheingold – Grange Park Opera – June/July 2026
• Boris Grigorjevič – Káťa Kabanová – New Palace Opera (St John’s Waterloo, London) – July 2026
• I’m also preparing for the title role in Parsifal for Regents’ Opera’s 2027 production directed by Sir David Pountney.

Michael J. Scott’s current and future engagements include Loge Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Theater an der Wien, Shabby Peasant (c) Lady Macbeth of Mtsenk Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Spoletta Tosca Nederlandse Reisopera, and Monostatos Die Zauberflöte, Marquis The Gambler and Sopel Rimsky- Korsakov’s Sadko Opera Vlaanderen.

Most recent work includes Fatty Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Syphax Der König Kandaules, Scribe Khovanshchina, Tattered Peasant Lady Macbeth of Mtsenk, Erster Geharnischter Die Zauberflöte, Abdallo Nabucco, Knappe Parsifal, Haushofmeister Der Rosenkavalier and roles in Candide Opera Vlaanderen, Policeman/Old Man/Student The Nose Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Titorelli/Flogger/Student Glass’ The Trial Theater Magdeburg, as well as Knappe Parsifal and Haushofmeister DerRosenkavalier Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg. Other international engagements include Erster Jude (cover Narraboth) Salome Teatro Comunale di Bolzano, Teatro Comunale di Modena and Teatro Municipale di Piacenza, Rodolfo La Bohème Nationale Reisopera Resident Artists Programme and Don José Carmen Co-Opera Co’s production in London, continuing through the UK.

Michael has a Bachelor of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music, a Masters from the Royal College of Music, and an Artist Diploma from the RCM International Opera School.

He made his debut in 2005 as Don CurzioLe Nozze di Figaro New Jersey Opera Theater. Other roles include Male Chorus The Rape of Lucretia with the MSM Accompanying Seminar, Rodolfo La Bohème Co-Operative Opera Company in London, the tenor roles in Lost Childhood IVAI-Tel Aviv, Pasek The Cunning Little Vixen, Erster Geharnischter Die Zauberflöte, and Jenik The Bartered Bride RCMIOS.

Being a recipient of an Opera Awards Bursary came at a crucial point in my career: the transition from young artist to full time working professional. The foundation’s support meant I was able to study with my teacher, coach roles, make audition tours without costs being a barrier to development or opportunity. It is this crucial support provided by the foundation that makes such a difference and for which they deserve to be commended.

Praised for her ‘unaffected simplicity’ (Classical Source) and ‘velvety mezzo’ timbres (The Telegraph), British mezzo-soprano, Camilla Seale, made her operatic debut at Buxton International Festival as Prince Charming in Viardot’s Cendrillon before joining the Glyndebourne Festival Opera Chorus the following season. She’s a Young Artist at the National Opera Studio for 2023-24.

She graduated with Distinction from a Masters / Artist Diploma at RNCM, where she studied under Jane Irwin and Michael Harper. Recently, she has been awarded First Prize for the Betty Bannerman Award and the Sir John Maddison Opera Award, Third Prize at the Concours international de chant baroque de Froville and was also was a semi-finalist at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards.

Recent concert highlights include Emily Howard’s Threnos at the Wigmore Hall, Schumann’s Liederkreis Op.39 at the Manchester Song Festival, and a recital tour of French mélodies with duo partner, Craig White. A keen performer of baroque repertoire, she sings regularly with Musica Antica Rotherhithe.

Her other operatic roles include creating Bella in Tom Smail’s Blue Electric (Tête à Tête; Playground Theatre); Cherubino Le nozze di Figaro (RNCM); Mrs. Nolan in Menotti’s The Medium (RNCM); Mary in John Tavener’s Mary of Egypt (King’s College Chapel, Cambridge) and Madam By-Ends and Madam Bubble The Pilgrim’s Progress (BYO).

Camilla came to music at an early age, signing with the cross-over group, Angelis, under Sony BMG. Before training at RNCM, she read English at Girton College, Cambridge and then Social Inequality at LSE.

Praised for her rich and powerful voice, Lydia Shariff is a recent graduate of the prestigious Master’s programme at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Based in London, Lydia has performed across the UK, with recent engagements including performing the roles of Madame Bubble and Madame By-Ends with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and British Youth Opera’s production of The Pilgrim’s Progress, the role of Juno in Hampstead Garden Opera production of Handel’s Agrippina, the role of First Norn (cover) in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung with Longborough Festival Opera, Mozart’s Requiem at St. James’ Piccadilly, Haydn’s Nelson Mass with The Brandenburg Sinfonia, and the role of Mrs Herring in Clonter Opera’s production of Albert Herring. 

Lydia has been fortunate enough to receive significant young operatic training in recent years from companies such as The Glyndebourne Academy and British Youth Opera, with whom she recently worked as a Serena Fenwick programme participant. 

Lydia recently performed the role of Erda in Wagner’s Siegfried with the Edinburgh Players Opera Group, and was awarded a place on the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme. In September 2023, Lydia began studying on the esteemed opera course at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama. 

Lydia is gratefully supported by Help Musicians as a Sybil TUTTON award holder, and The Opera Awards Foundation. 

The winner of the 8^th International WagnerStimmen Wettbewerb in Karlsruhe, New Zealand-born soprano Kirstin Sharpin returned to her ancestral roots in 2001, graduating from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the Cardiff International Academy of Voice, where she studied with Dennis O’Neill as an Independent Opera Postgraduate Fellow and Samling Artist.

Now living in Germany, recent operatic engagements include the title role in Beethoven’s Leonore for the Buxton Festival, Euryanthe, Ada Die Feen and Mariana Das Liebesverbot for Chelsea Opera Group, and a critically acclaimed Elettra in Idomeneo for Blackheath Halls Opera, as well as performances with Garsington Opera, Opera Holland Park, and the St Endellion Festival.

Kirstin has made several appearances with the RSNO, and her concert repertoire ranges from Handel to Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, Verdi, Strauss, Berlioz and Poulenc.

Kirstin has been a semi-finalist in the Elizabeth Connell and Kathleen Ferrier Prizes and the Montserrat Caballé Competition, and is a past recipient of Countess of Munster Trust, Miriam Licette and Sybil Tutton Scholarships, and a Goodall Scholarship from the Wagner Society of Great Britain.

Confirmed plans for 2016/17 include Gerhilde Die Walküre in concert for Saffron Opera Group and a recital series focusing on settings of the ‘Big Five’ Soviet poets.

Website: www.kirstinsharpin.com

The Opera Awards Foundation Bursary program has been hugely helpful as I’ve navigated the transition from lyric to dramatic repertoire, supporting me in accessing the teaching and coaching expertise I have needed to do that successfully, and to prepare new roles.  The Bursaries provide essential financial support across a wide range of areas, without limiting recipients to a specific age range or specialism – an unusual and very valuable commitment in an industry in which the path is rarely linear.

Born in Johannesburg, bass-baritone Simon Shibambu completed his Diploma and Degree in Vocal arts at Tshwane University of Technology under Hans Van Heerden, before moving to London to study for a Masters in Vocal Performance at the Royal College of Music where he studies with Professor Graeme Broadbent. Supported by an ABRSM scholarship.

 Simon won several singing competitions and sang in numerous Opera Productions and concerts. He sang before the First Lady of China on her visit to London and sang for Prince Charles when he visited the RCM. Led him to sing to Her Majesty the Queen to whom he was introduced at the Westminster Abbey on the Commonwealth day service and the Queen’s 90th birthday celebration.

He is in the Young Singers Project for the Salzburg Festival 2016 in Austria and will be featured in the two Opera productions of Manon Lescaut by Giacomo Puccini and Thaïs by Jules Massenet and he will be involved also in the Concerts and master classes as well. Simon is starting with the Jette Parker Young Artist Program at the Royal Opera House in September for two years.

Website: www.simonshibambu.com

Chuma Sijeqa born in Johannesburg, South Africa, is Opera for Peace emerging artist, and Les Azuriales and Jette Parker Artist Programme Alumni who studied in the Vocal Arts Department of Tshwane University of Technology under Pierre du Toit. After completing his Postgrad, he went on to join Gauteng Opera in 2017, appearing in a wide range of productions and events, in roles including Gasparo in Donizetti’s Rita and Schaunard La bohème. Sijeqa in 2018 won Second Prize in the Voices of South Africa International Singing Competition. As part of his prize, he participated in the Les Azuriales Opera Festival in Nice in the same year and won the Joseph Karaviotis Prize in the vocal competition. He also joined the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme as a Link Artist. In 2019 he took part in The New Generation Festival where he did the role of Don Bartolo Le nozze di Figaro. He then went to further his studies at Guildhall School of Music and completed his artist master under the vocal guidance of Gary Coward before singing the Father The Prodigal Son by Debussy and Landlord Passion, Poison and Petrification by Bernard Shaw in Pegasus Opera’s double bill. Next came Harašta The Cunning Little Vixen (Opera Holland Park) He then joined the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme 20th Anniversary Company where he participated in various projects and roles included Angelotti Tosca, Second Philistine Samson et Dalila and Second Nazarine Salome (ROH main stage). Chuma then went on to do the role of Speaker Die Zauberflöte for Welsh National Opera and then went back to ROH to do a children’s Opera in Linbury Theatre doing the roles, Woodcutter and Archivist in The Sapling. He also did another childrens Opera with OperaUpClose doing the role of Mr Bear in Peace at Last.

His recent productions include Opera Glass Works film production of La Traviata doing the role of Doctor, Marx in London with Scottish Opera doing the role of Franz, L’Olimpiade with Irish National Opera doing the role of Clistene, and Acis and Galatea with Opera Holland Park doing the role of Polyphemus.

Ukranian-born Oksana Sliubyk graduated with distinction from The Lviv National Academy of Music and The Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She continues her studies under the guidance of Susan Waters.

In 2011 she made her debut as Adina in L’elisir D’amore (Donizetti) with Lviv National Academy Opera Studio. Since then she has often performed with Lviv Philharmonic Society and the Lviv National Opera Theatre.
In 2013 she became a bursary recipient from The University of Ottawa and was accepted to study at one of the world’s leading schools, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Since then she has been a two-time winner of the Opera Awards Foundation bursary and the Guildhall School of Drama scholarship. In 2016 she made her TV debut in the Made in Chelsea series. Oksana appears in many recitals, master classes and productions of The Guildhall School of Music and Drama and The Opera Awards Foundation.
Oksana is grateful for the generous support of her studies from The Opera Awards Foundation, Serena Fenwick and Talent Unlimited.

Alexander Sprague’s most recent and future engagements include The Fairy Queen Staatstheater Stuttgart, ELECTRICIAN Powder Her Face Royal Danish Opera Copenhagen and Teatro Arriaga Bilbao, DON OTTAVIO Don Giovanni Opera Theatre Company Dublin, SCARAMUCCIO Ariadne auf Naxos Opéra de Nancy, JONATHAN DALE Kevin Put’s Silent Night Atlanta Opera, and GONZALVEZ L’heure espagnole Angers Nantes Opera.

Career highlights have included SHEPHERD/APOLLO L’Orfeo Royal Opera House, Covent Garden at the Roundhouse, YWAIN Birtwistle’s Gawain Salzburger Festspiele, ALBERT HERRING (title role) Opera North, ELECTRICIAN Powder Her Face English National Opera, and appearances at Wexford Festival, Welsh National Opera, Gothenburg Opera, Scottish Opera, Edinburgh Festival and Stadttheater Klagenfurt and with Les Talens Lyriques at the Salle Pleyel, Paris.

Alexander has sung in concert with Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, London Festival Orchestra and London Handel Players in venues such as Wigmore Hall, The Royal Festival Hall, and St Martin in the Fields. He sang recitals for Leeds Lieder Festival, London Handel Festival and Ludlow English Song Festival.

He studied at the National Opera Studio and the Royal Academy of Music and is the winner of the Michael Oliver Prize at the London Handel Singing Competition.

Website: alexandersprague.co.uk

Anna’s artistic highlights include becoming a winner of the International London Handel Competition (where she took the First Prize, the Audience Prize and the York Early Music Prize), a nominee of the Australian Helpmann Awards and one of the principal singers on the Grammy-nominated CD of Handel’s ‘Ottone’ released on Decca Classics. The artist was a member of the creative team of a new opera ‘Penelope. Seven Ways To Wait’ by Kristina Arakelyan, as well as a co-director and the leading role performer at the opera’s world premiere in London in 2022. Anna is the creator of the ‘Music To The Rescue’ project – a series of her solo recitals-fundraisers also featuring an educational aspect on the history of Ukraine. All proceeds are donated to charities supporting Ukrainians affected by the war.

Starushkevych was born in Lviv, Ukraine, where she started her artistic journey as a pianist and then as a singer. After graduating from the Liudkevych State Music College and the Lysenko National Music Academy in Lviv, she moved to the United Kingdom to continue her studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where she studied on the Opera Course and received her Masters of Music and Performance.

Having started her career singing mostly contralto repertoire, Anna later seized the opportunity to deeply explore her voice during the global pandemic and has since moved to a broader spectre of mezzo-soprano operatic roles such as: Angelina in Rossini’s ‘La Cenerentola’, Handel’s Ariodante, Sesto in Handel’s ‘Giulio Cesare’, Dorabella in ‘Cosi fan tutte’ by Mozart, Mignon by Thomas, Ottavia in ‘Il Coronazione di Poppea’ by Monteverdi, Sesto in ‘La Clemenza di Tito’ by Mozart, Stéphano in Gounod’s ‘Roméo et Juliette’.

Anna cherishes every opportunity to take part in creating experimental music, mixing various singing styles, including folk and jazz.

Ukrainian mezzo-soprano Anna Starushkevych graduated from the International Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD) in London. Before her studies in the UK, Anna had completed vocal training courses at the Lviv National Academy of Music and the Lviv State Music College in Ukraine.

The most recent opera productions where Anna performed principal roles include Cherubino in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro for the Celebrate Voice Festival 2019 in Salisbury (U.K.), Dorinda in Handel’s Il Pastor Fido  for the Halle Handel Festival 2019 at the Goethe Theater in Bad Lauchstädt (Germany) and at the Victoria Teatru in Gliwice (Poland).

Other UK performances have included the solo in Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky, performing with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Choral Society at the famous Winchester Cathedral, taking on a part of Phanor in Handel’s Joseph and his Brethren at the London Handel Festival, the role of Ofelia in Salieri’s La grotta di Trofonio as well as the role of Erato in Gluck’s Il parnaso confuso and Orfeo in Bertoni’s Orfeo for the Bampton Classical Opera, and Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus for the Celebrate Voice Festival in Salisbury.

Anna has also toured with Il Pomo d’Oro Orchestra and the cast of the Decca recording of Handel’s Ottone through venues across Europe, which included the Theater and der Wien (Austria) and International Beaune Baroque Festival (France).

In 2015 she was nominated for Best Female Supporting Role in an opera at Australia’s Helpmann Awards for her performance of the role of Rosimonda in Handel’s Faramondo at the Brisbane Baroque Festival.

Anna has recorded the principal role of Matilda in Handel’s Ottone for Decca Classics, as well as the much anticipated Pavel Haas CD Fata Morgana, recorded together with renowned pianist Lada Valešová, which was released on Resonus Classics. The Decca Classics recording of Ottone was later nominated for Grammy Awards 2018 and Fata Morgana was nominated for the BBC Music Magazine Award 2018 and won CD of the Year 2017 from Europadisc.

Anna’s other recordings include the Accent Records CD of Handel’s Faramondo (Rosimonda) live from the Göttingen International Handel Festival 2014, as well as a solo performance on BBC Four’s DVD Maestro or Mephisto – the real Georg Solti.

Twitter: @Astarushkevych

Alexandra is an English soprano of Irish descent, born in Nottinghamshire. She trained at the
Guildhall School of Music and Drama, BMus (Hons) and ENO Opera Works. Alexandra is very
proud to be a recipient of a 2017/18 Opera Awards Foundation bursary.

Alexandra has worked for Opera North, Opera Holland Park, British Youth Opera and Bury Court
Opera. Roles performed include Claretta Zaza, Lauretta Gianni Schicchi, Susanna Le Nozze di Figaro
and Beatrice Béatrice et Benedict. Roles studied include Musetta, Manon and Pamina.

On the concert platform, Alexandra has sung internationally at venues including the
Elbphilharmonie, Palau de la Musica, Barbican Hall, Royal Festival Hall and the Royal Albert Hall.
She recently performed as a soloist at the Rheingau Musik Festival, Germany with the
Philharmonia Chorus.

Upcoming performances include Solo Soprano Chorus and cover Tatyana Eugene Onegin, Opera Up
Close, a Christmas recital at St. James’ Piccadilly and Chorus Giulio Cesare, Bury Court Opera 2018.
Alexandra is grateful to The Opera Awards Foundation, The Kathleen Trust, The Francis
Bernard Caunt Education Trust, The Guildhall School Trust, Talent Unlimited, The Danny Morris
Memorial Trust, The Selston Music Festival, Mansfield District Council, Derek Wileman, William
Morris and the late Serena Fenwick.

Biography coming soon.

Cecilia is a London-based opera director; she has directed for Spectra Ensemble, Helios Collective, XOGA and Opera Holland Park, and assisted at British Youth Opera, University College Opera and Berlin Opera Academy.

Her recent directing credits include Isolde at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, the Young Artists’ La traviata at Opera Holland Park, and The Boatswain’s Mate at the Grimeborn Festival. In 2019, Cecilia will direct the UK premiere of Smetana’s opera, Libuše, with University College Opera at The Bloomsbury Theatre, London and Scott Joplin’s 1911 opera, Treemonisha, with her company, Spectra Ensemble. Challenging preconceptions about what opera sounds like and whose story it tells, Treemonisha is an empowering piece which showcases a number of early-twentieth-century American genres (African American spirituals, ragtime, barbershop and dance music) and makes a case for opera as an inclusive, all-singing, all-dancing genre. Treemonisha will form the basis of a series of curriculum-crossing workshops for secondary school students which Spectra Ensemble will present in tandem with their production in 2019. Alongside her freelance work, Cecilia is reading for an AHRC-funded PhD in History of Art at University College London where she works on avant-garde performance.

www.ceciliastinton.com

Ella Taylor is a soprano with a passion for performing contemporary music and works by women and gender non-conforming artists. They are currently a Young Artist with the National Opera Studio, as well as a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, where they gained Distinction in MA Performance, a DipRAM for an outstanding final recital, and the Charles Norman Prize.

Operatic work includes La Contessa in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (Strand Chamber Orchestra), Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte (Lyric Opera Studio Weimar), and Galatea in Handel’s Acis and Galatea (Royal Academy of Music). They have also created the roles of Susanne Meyer in Jonathan Higgins’s Schutzwall (Tête à Tête) and Father in Alex Mills’ and Gareth Mattey’s A Father is Looking for his Daughter (Rough for Opera/Second Movement), as well as performing in scenes as Agnès in Written on Skin, Governess in The Turn of the Screw and Leonore in Fidelio.

On the concert and oratorio stage, Ella is in demand as a soloist. Notable highlights include Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs at Sheffield Cathedral, Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire at the Royal Academy of Music, and a performance on BBC Radio 3 of Oliver Knussen’s Trumpets at the British Composer Awards. Their repertoire includes many of the major oratorios by Bach, Handel, Haydn and Mozart.

Ella is a keen collaborator and recitalist, making a dedicated effort to work with and perform works by people underrepresented in classical music.  Recent collaborations include the project After Violence with _REMIX; an exploration of violence and masculinity through a queer lens with drag artist Rhys’s Pieces, as well as working with composers and librettists in the creation of new, LGBT+ work. They also have performed at Leeds Lieder as part of the Composer and Poets Forum and with Ensemble 360 at Music in the Round.

Winner of the Lesley Garrett Opera Prize (David Clover Singers Platform), they were also a finalist in the Peter Hulsen Orchestral Song Award with the Southbank Sinfonia, as well as being commended in the Mozart Singing Competition and awarded of BBC Chorister of the Year.

Ella is grateful for the support of Help Musicians UK through their Sybil Tutton Award.

Website: Ella Taylor
Twitter: @etaylorsoprano
Instagram: @etaylorsoprano