Alumni

Christopher Ventris has performed on the world’s most important stages, enjoyed enduring collaborations with many esteemed conductors and is considered internationally to be one of today’s finest tenors.

Ventris made a long-anticipated role debut in 2019 as Tristan in Wagner’s epic Tristan und Isolde under Alain Altinoglu at La Monnaie, with Operatraveller.com writing: ‘In the love duet, he sang with honeyed warmth, blending handsomely with Merbeth [Isolde] and the orchestra below.’ The same year brought further Tristan performances, this time at the Royal Danish Opera conducted by Lothar Koenigs, and 2020 saw a return to The Metropolitan Opera in a role debut as Tambourmajor in Wozzeck conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. In addition to concert performances of Die Walküre with the Dresdner Philharmonie under Marek Janowski, he joined Robert Carsen’s production at Teatro Real under Pablo Heras-Casado.

Ventris appeared as Peter Grimes at Opernhaus Zürich and Deutsche Oper Berlin, Florestan in Fidelio at Washington National Opera, Sergei in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk in Geneva, Madrid, London and Brussels, and Jimmy Mahoney in Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at both Staatsoper Berlin and Wiener Staatsoper. He has performed in Jenůfa for The Metropolitan Opera and Opernhaus Zürich, Der Freischütz at Teatro alla Scala and Palestrina at Bayerische Staatsoper. His role debut as Prince Andrey Khovansky in Khovanshchina at Wiener Staatsoper, conducted by Semyon Bychkov, was subsequently seen at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the 2017 BBC Proms.

An acclaimed debut at Bayreuther Festspiele as Parsifal led to a number of other appearances in the role, including at Wiener Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper, Royal Opera House, Opéra national de Paris, San Francisco Opera and Opernhaus Zürich. Ventris has appeared as Siegmund in Die Walküre numerous times, including a live CD recording from Wiener Staatsoper with Christian Thielemann. He joined Philippe Jordan at Salzburger Festspiele in the title role of the lesser-performed Rienzi, made his role debut as Tannhäuser under Sir Mark Elder at Opéra national de Paris, and appeared as Lohengrin at Grand Théâtre de Genève, Teatro Real and The Dallas Opera.

Colin Currie is as solo and chamber artist at the peak of his powers. Championing new music at the highest level, he is hailed as being "at the summit of percussion performance today" (Gramophone). Currie is the soloist of choice for many of today’s foremost composers and he performs regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors.

A dynamic and adventurous soloist, Currie's commitment to commissioning and creating new music was recognised in 2015 by the Royal Philharmonic Society who awarded him the Instrumentalist Award. From his earliest years Currie forged a pioneering path in creating new music for percussion, winning the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award in 2000 and receiving a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in 2005. Currie has premiered works by composers such as Steve Reich, Elliott Carter, Louis Andriessen, HK Gruber, Mark-Anthony Turnage, James MacMillan, Brett Dean, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Helen Grime, Jennifer Higdon, Kalevi Aho, Rolf Wallin, Kurt Schwertsik, Andrew Norman, Julia Wolfe and Nico Muhly.

Currie's orchestral engagements also include appearances with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, MDR Leipzig, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Swedish Chamber and Scottish Chamber Orchestras, Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz and Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria. Currie also collaborates with various chamber partners, including Nicolas Hodges, Antoine Tamestit, the JACK Quartet and his own Colin Currie Quartet, for performances at Vienna Konzerthaus, de Doelen, Wigmore Hall, LSO St Luke’s, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, King's Place and the Southbank Centre.

Currie's dynamic ensemble the Colin Currie Group was formed in 2006 to celebrate the music of Steve Reich and made its five-star debut at the BBC Proms. Since then, with Reich’s personal endorsement Currie and his ensemble have taken on the role of ambassadors of Drumming, which they have performed at many venues and festivals internationally. The Colin Currie Group return to the Southbank Centre in December 2019 for four sold-out performances of Drumming at the Hayward Gallery, where the work received its world premiere nearly 50 years ago.

Currie is Artist in Association at London's Southbank Centre, where he was the focus of a major percussion festival Metal Wood Skin in 2014 and continues to perform there every season.

Photo by Linda Nylund

Dame Evelyn Glennie is the first person in history to successfully create and sustain a full-time career as a solo percussionist, performing worldwide with the greatest orchestras, conductors and artists. She paved the way for orchestras globally to feature percussion concerti when she played the first percussion concerto in the history of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in 1992. Glennie has commissioned over 200 new pieces for solo percussion from many of the world’s most eminent composers to vastly expand the percussion repertoire. She regularly provides masterclasses and consultations to inspire the next generation of musicians. The film Touch the Sound and her enlightening TED speech remain key testimonies to her innovative approach to sound-creation.

Leading 1000 drummers, she had the honour of a prominent role in the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Glennie was awarded an OBE in 1993 and now has over 100 international awards, including the Polar Music Prize and the Companion of Honour. She was recently appointed the first female President of Help Musicians, only the third person to hold the title since Sir Edward Elgar and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.

Glennie is currently creating The Evelyn Glennie Collection with a vision to open a centre that embodies her mission to Teach the World to Listen. She aims to ‘improve communication and social cohesion by encouraging everyone to discover new ways of listening as proven in her book Listen World!. We want to inspire, to create, to engage and to empower’.

Photo by Philipp Rathmer

Daniel Cohen is the General Music Director of the Staatstheater Darmstadt, where current plans include productions of Fidelio, Die Zauberflöte and Lohengrin, a ballet production of Le sacre du printemps and a series of symphonic concerts. Recent and upcoming highlights include debuts with the Vienna Symphony conducting Don Quichotte at the Bregenz Festival and with the Norwegian Opera conducting Le Nozze di Figaro; and returns to the Teatro Massimo di Palermo with Idomeneo, the Israeli Opera with Così fan tutte and the Deutsche Oper Berlin for Don Giovanni. In addition, Cohen is scheduled to conduct symphony concerts with the Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester, Orchestra del Teatro Massimo di Palermo and Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa, among others.

Following his successful debut at the Staatsoper Berlin conducting Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, Cohen was invited back to conduct performances of Die Zauberflöte, Il barbiere di Siviglia and Turn of the Screw. Cohen was also Kapellmeister at the Deutsche Oper Berlin from 2015 to 2017, where he conducted a number of productions from La traviata to Georg Friedrich Haas’s new opera, Morgen und Abend.

Other operatic highlights include an acclaimed debut with the Canadian Opera Company with La clemenza di Tito and a new production of Die Zauberflöte at the Macerata Opera Festival. Cohen also works frequently with the Israeli Opera.

Cohen’s symphonic work has brought him to orchestras worldwide including the Staatskapelle Berlin, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, West Australian Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino among others.

Contemporary repertoire is of keen interest to Cohen, who was an assistant of Pierre Boulez at the Lucerne Festival Academy. He pursues this passion as Artistic Director of The Gropius Ensemble and has also collaborated with members of the London Symphony Orchestra as part of their LSO Soundhub programme for young composers.

While still a student at the Royal Academy of Music in London, Cohen was appointed Music Director of the Jersey Chamber Orchestra, where he was Chief Conductor for 10 seasons. Cohen has also been a Dudamel Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and a Conducting Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Festival.

Photo by Kaupo Kikkas

Daniel Cook is Master of the Choristers and Organist of Durham Cathedral and is recognised internationally as a liturgical and concert organist of the highest order. In addition, he is Artistic Director of Mousai Singers and maintains a busy schedule of recitals, concerts and recordings, as well as being in demand as a conductor and teacher.

Prior to this, Cook was Sub-Organist of Westminster Abbey, where he accompanied the Abbey Choir for major services, concerts, tours in Europe and the USA, as well as appearing in their famous series of recordings. Before this, Daniel was Organist and Master of the Choristers of St Davids Cathedral and Artistic Director of the St Davids Cathedral Festival. From 2005 to 2011, Cook was Assistant Director of Music of Salisbury Cathedral, where he was Principal Organist. He has worked widely as a choral conductor and has been Music Director of the Dyfed Choir, The Farrant Singers, St Davids Cathedral Festival Chorus, Durham University Choral Society and the Grange Choral Society and Orchestra.

Cook studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Nicolas Kynaston, James O'Donnell and Patrick Russill. He has twice been a finalist in the St Albans International Organ Competition. As a recitalist, he has played across the UK, Europe and Australia with performances in most of the cathedrals in Britain, plus the Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall.

In demand as an ensemble performer, recent engagements have included concerts with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Onyx Brass and London Mozart Players. His work as an accompanist has taken him all over the world and he regularly works with many of the distinguished vocal ensembles both as a conductor and organist.

He has made several solo organ recordings for Priory Records and is one of their most recorded organists. Other projects have included a performance of the complete organ works of Oliver Messiaen and CD recordings of the complete organ music of Walter Alcock, Herbert Brewer, George Dyson, Renatus Harris, Charles Villiers Stanford and Herbert Sumsion. A solo DVD, The Grand Organ of Westminster Abbey, was released in 2018.

Photo by Ash Mills

Hailed by the New York Times as a ‘talent of extraordinary dimension’ and praised by Segovia for his ‘musicality and guitaristic technique’, David Russell is now firmly established in the elite group of classical guitarists regularly appearing in the most prestigious venues around the world.

Born in Glasgow, he spent his childhood on the Spanish island of Menorca. After learning the guitar initially with his father, he moved to London to continue his musical studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Hector Quine. In 1974 he was awarded a grant to study with José Tomas in Santiago de Compostela. First prizes in numerous international competitions soon followed, including the Andrés Segovia Competition in Palma de Mallorca and the Francisco Tárrega Competition in Benicasim.

Since 1995 he has had an exclusive contract with Telarc International, with whom he has produced a series of acclaimed recordings, notably of Spanish and Baroque composers, culminating in Aire Latino, which in 2005 won a Grammy award in the category of best instrumental soloist in classical music. Composers, such as Carlo Domeniconi, Guido Santorsola and, more recently, Sergio Assad and Stephen Goss, have all dedicated pieces to him and several of his own transcriptions have been published.

In the town in Menorca where he grew up, a street has been named after him – as has a new auditorium in the music conservatory of Vigo in northwest Spain, where he now lives. Russell is greatly in demand at major international festivals not only as a performer, but also as a teacher in masterclasses, where his work with younger players has been highly influential. In 1997 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and in 2010 was appointed as Visiting Professor.

In 2009 David was named honorary member of "Amigos de la Guitarra", the oldest guitar society in Spain.

Likened to a ‘miraculous single guitarist blessed with an impossibly wonderful technique and an exceptionally delicate touch’ by The Observer, the Eden Stell Guitar Duo have performed at venues and music festivals around the world, including Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Romania, Turkey, USA, Canada, Mexico, South and Central America and Australia, as well as numerous radio and TV appearances on ITV, BBC, and European and North American networks.

Mark Eden and Chris Stell have performed concertos with the Prague Chamber Orchestra, International Philharmonic and Philharmonic Baden-Baden. In 2019 they were invited to give a special performance of Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto Madrigal in the Stadttheater Aschaffenburg in the presence of Cecilia Rodrigo.

Their international recitals include an appearance at the Guitar Foundation of America Omni Foundation Concert Series in San Francisco and the Alla Grande Festival in Canada. They have also performed at prestigious venues such as the Beethovenhalle in Bonn, Stuttgart Liederhalle, The Sage in Gateshead, Uppsala Kongress Hall in Sweden, 92nd Street Y in New York and, in London's Purcell Rooms, Wigmore Hall and Kings Place.

The duo were the first guitarists since Julian Bream to be Editor’s Choice in Gramophone magazine with their ‘landmark recording’ of works by Stephen Dodgson. They have recorded 7 CDs to date, the most recent was released in 2017 featuring the first complete recording on two guitars of Cançons i Danses by Federico Mompou arranged by Mark Eden.

The duo have always championed new commissions and are dedicatees of new works by internationally acclaimed composers including Adam Gorb, Dusan Bogdanovic, Gary Ryan and Johannes Moller. A Concerto for two guitars was written by Stephen Dodgson in the duo’s honour.

They are founder members of the VIDA Guitar Quartet who have rapidly become one of the world’s most celebrated classical guitar ensembles with 4 CDs to date and concerts throughout Europe USA and China.

The duo are D’Addario strings endorsed artists.

Born in 1974, Edward Gardner was educated at Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music. He went on to become Assistant Conductor of The Hallé and Music Director of Glyndebourne on Tour. His many accolades include the Royal Philharmonic Society Conductor Award, Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera and an OBE for services to music.

Chief Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra since October 2015, Gardner has led the orchestra on multiple international tours and at the BBC Proms and Edinburgh International Festival. Gardner was recently appointed Principal Conductor Designate of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, his tenure commencing in September 2021.

In demand as a guest conductor, Gardner has worked with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker and at the Royal Opera House in a new production of Káťa Kabanová (praised as a ‘magnificent interpretation’ by the Guardian).

Upcoming plans include a revival of Benoît Jacquot’s 2004 production of Werther at the Royal Opera House and La damnation de Faust for The Metropolitan Opera; four concerts for the London Philharmonic Orchestra; and bringing the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra’s acclaimed Peter Grimes to the Royal Festival Hall.

Gardner also continues his longstanding collaborations with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, where he was Principal Guest Conductor from 2010-16, and BBC Symphony Orchestra, which he has conducted at both the First and Last Night of the BBC Proms. Music Director of English National Opera for 10 years (2006-15), Gardner also has an ongoing relationship with New York’s Metropolitan Opera.

A passionate supporter of young talent, Gardner founded the Hallé Youth Orchestra in 2002 and regularly conducts the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. He has a close relationship with the Juilliard School and the Royal Academy of Music, which appointed him their inaugural Sir Charles Mackerras Conducting Chair in 2014.

Photo by Benjamin Ealovega

Elena Langer’s colourful, dramatic music has become increasingly familiar to audiences through her pieces operatic, vocal and orchestral. Her 2016 hit for Welsh National Opera, Figaro gets a Divorce, was described in The Telegraph as ‘that rare thing: a modern opera that exerts an immediate emotional impact’. Her Welsh National Opera follow-up, the 2018 vaudeville Rhondda Rips It Up!, was wildly popular with audiences across the UK, The Times calling it ‘bursting with irreverent joy’.

Langer studied piano and composition at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory and in 1999 moved to London, continuing her studies at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music. She began writing operas while Composer-in-Residence at the Almeida Theatre and her works have been performed at Opernhaus Zürich, Carnegie Hall, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Opera National du Rhin, Welsh National Opera, Shakespeare’s Globe, The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre. She has released a CD of vocal and chamber pieces, Landscape with Three People.

Figaro gets a Divorce, with a libretto by David Pountney, premiered at Welsh National Opera in February 2016 and subsequently toured around the UK. In 2017, it was performed at the Teatr Wielki in Poznań and at the Grand Théâtre de Genève.

In March 2019, Boston Symphony Chamber Players performed Langer’s orchestral piece Five Reflections on Water. The Seattle Symphony performed a new orchestral suite from Figaro gets a Divorce in January 2020 and the suite received its UK première in Glasgow in February 2020, performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Elena’s song cycle It’s Not You, It’s Me, based on the poems of Glyn Maxwell, was performed at Wigmore Hall in October 2019.

Langer is currently working on an opera based on Nikolai Erdman’s play, The Suicide, to be performed at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre in 2022.

Photo by Anastasia Tikhonova

Elizabeth Kenny is one of Europe’s leading lute players. In 15 years of touring, she has played with many of the world’s best period instrument groups and experienced many different approaches to music making. She is a Principal Player and initiator of 17th-century projects with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Her solo CD, Flying Horse: The ML LuteBook, was released by Hyperion Records in 2009.

She has played with viol consort Concordia since its founding and has built chamber music and recital partnerships with a number of distinguished artists. She retains a strong international connection with William Christie’s Les Arts Florissants. Her research interests have led to critically acclaimed recordings of William Lawes, Henry Purcell and John Dowland, and to develop ideas such as The Masque of Moments, which she took to festivals in England and Germany during 2007 and 2008. With her group Theatre of the Ayre, she created a concert version of John Blow’s Venus and Adonis, which was released on the Wigmore Live label.

Kenny taught for two years at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin and is a Lecturer in Performance at Southampton University. She was one of the artistic advisory team for the York Early Music Festival from 2011 to 2013. In 2011, she was delighted to be awarded a Fellow of the Academy and was one of three shortlisted nominees for the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards in the Best Instrumentalist category.

A former winner of the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Award, soprano Emma Bell has in recent seasons developed her repertoire, moving from the Mozart heroines, with which she established her career, to the key jugendlich-dramatischer roles of Wagner and Beethoven. Recent highlights include her house debut at Bayerische Staatsoper as Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg; Freia in Das Rheingold with The Hallé; Madame Lidoine in Dialogues des Carmélites at Staatsoper Hamburg; and Leonore in Fidelio at Oper Köln.

A regular presence on the stage of the Royal Opera House, Bell's most recent appearances there have included Eva, Madame Lidoine and her highly acclaimed Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, about which The Times wrote ‘her timbre has always been unique but now Bell shows so much more: perfect intonation, tenderness, subtle variation, compelling acting’. She returned to the role of Elisabeth last season at both the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Bayerische Staatsoper.

A wide and varied early career has taken Bell to Teatro alla Scala as Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress, Elettra in Idomeneo and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni; to Teatro Real as the Governess in The Turn of the Screw and Elettra; to The Metropolitan Opera as Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro and Donna Elvira; and to Glyndebourne Festival Opera as Miss Jessel in The Turn of the Screw. In more recent seasons, Bell has appeared as Elsa in Lohengrin for Staatsoper Hamburg; the title role in Arabella at Oper Köln; as Eva for Opernhaus Zürich; and as the Governess for Staatsoper Berlin.

An engaging concert performer, Emma Bell has enjoyed a close collaboration with Sir Antonio Pappano on works such as Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Britten’s War Requiem with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, and both Rossini’s Stabat Mater and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. She has recently added soprano I in Mahler’s mighty Symphony No 8 to her repertoire in performance with the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra under Lan Shui.

Photo by Paul Foster-Williams

Within a year of graduating from the Royal Academy of Music, Erika Öhman joined the Hallé Orchestra as assistant timpanist and percussionist. She enjoys a varied freelance career with numerous orchestras in the UK and her native Sweden, including Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom she featured as soloist in Messiaen's Des Canyons aux Étoiles.

Amongst other chamber projects, Öhman often performs together with her sister Karolina in the award-winning cello/percussion duo UmeDuo. Awards include first prize in the prestigious Swedish competition Ung & Lovande, resulting in two tours of Sweden. Other performances include festivals and collaborations throughout Europe, Russia and Iran. UmeDuo released their first CD Scrapes and Soundscapes in 2019.

In 2013, she was honoured to be made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.

Photo by Bill Lam

Fabio Zanon came to international prominence in 1996, when he was the first prize winner of two of the most prestigious international guitar competitions — the 30th Francisco Tarrega Prize in Spain and the 14th Guitar Foundation of America (GFA) Guitar Competition in the USA — in a space of a few weeks. These were followed by a successful tour of 56 concerts in the USA and Canada and by the launching of his first three CDs, which established his reputation as one the most all-embracing talents in the international guitar scene. His debut with a major orchestra was in March 1998, when he stepped in at short notice for a performance of Piazzolla’s Guitar Concerto with the London Philharmonic.

He was born in Brazil where he had his formal music training, first with his father and later with Antonio Guedes and Henrique Pinto. He gave his first concert at the age of 16, and his debut as an orchestral soloist two years later in Sao Paulo. By the age of 20 Zanon had been a top prize winner at many international competitions but, dissatisfied with his playing, he decided to carry on with studies with Michael Lewin at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He returned to the stage in 1995 with a successful concert at Wigmore Hall in London.

His vast repertoire includes all the major pieces written for the guitar and more than 20 concertos. He is also an inspirational teacher and gives masterclasses at many prestigious universities, conservatories and festivals in North America, Europe and Brazil.

Over recent years a busy schedule has involved him in solo and ensemble recordings, tours of the USA and Canada, a return to the Wigmore Hall, and performances in South America, the Middle East and throughout Europe, particularly in 2009–10 to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of his compatriot Villa-Lobos, as well as the release of a CD of Sonatas by Scarlatti.

Award-winning conductor Felix Yeung currently combines his office as Director of Music at St John’s Cathedral and Provincial Music Director of Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui. He is also Music Director of Die Konzertisten, one of Hong Kong’s foremost chamber choirs. Yeung was given the Award for Young Artist (Music) in 2015 by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council and has been appointed Director of Music for the Lambeth Conference 2021.

Yeung has conducted Die Konzertisten in performances of JS Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Dietrich Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri, Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem, Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and Anton Bruckner’s Mass No 2 in E minor, among others. In 2014, Yeung led the choir to perform with the world-renowned countertenor, Iestyn Davies. He has also prepared the choir for internationally acclaimed conductors such as Stephen Layton, Jonathan Cohen, John Butt and Chen Yun-Hung.

As Chorus Master of the Hong Kong Arts Festival Chorus and Die Konzertisten, Yeung has prepared these choirs for performances of Hector Berlioz’s Lélio with Les Siècles, Zhou Long’s Madame White Snake, Richard Wagner’s Das Liebesmahl der Apostel with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and Male Choir, Claude Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, Bright Sheng’s Dream of the Red Chamber and Christophe Willibald Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride with Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch.

Yeung is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music, where he obtained an MMus with distinction under the tutelage of Patrick Russill and Paul Brough. He was awarded the Academy’s coveted DipRAM for outstanding performance in his final recital and has obtained the LRAM diploma in Choral Conducting. Upon finishing his graduate studies, Yeung became the first Pettman Organ Scholar at the London Oratory. Yeung read music at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he was also Music Director of the Hong Kong Youth Choir.

Photo by Yat Ho Tsang

British-Italian tenor Freddie De Tommaso shot to prominence when he won the First Prize, the Placido Domingo Tenor Prize and the Verdi Prize at the 2018 Viñas International Singing Competition in Barcelona.

A member of the studio of Bayerische Staatsoper for the 18/19 season, De Tommaso appeared in productions including Norma, La Fanciulla del West, La bohème and the programme’s production of Mavra and Iolanta double bill. Prior to this, he was a member of the Young Singer Academy at the Salzburg Festival for the 2018 season. Following the Viñas competition, De Tommaso was invited to appear in concert at Teatro Real, Madrid and in recital in Vilagarcia, Spain. Other performances included concerts with the Georg Solti Accademia in Tuscany and a gala concert at the Victoria Hall, Geneva. His solo credits also include Mendelssohn Elijah, Puccini Messa di Gloria and Verdi Requiem.

A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, roles here included Don Jose in La Tragedie de Carmen and Rodolfo in La bohème. De Tommaso was generously supported by the Josephine Baker and Countess of Munster trusts. He is a Joseph Karaviotis scholar, a recipient of a Gregory-Carr scholarship and the Richard Lewis scholarship. He currently studies with Professor Mark Wildman and has worked in masterclasses with Christa Ludwig, Placido Domingo, Gwyn Hughes Jones, Barbara Frittoli, Massimo Giordano, Richard Bonynge and Sir Antonio Pappano.

Photo by Julian Baumann

One of today’s most successful pianists, Freddy Kempf performs to sell-out audiences all over the world. Exceptionally gifted with an unusually broad repertoire, he has built a unique reputation as an explosive and physical performer who is not afraid to take risks as well as a serious, sensitive, and profoundly musical artist.

Kempf has collaborated with conductors such as Petrenko, Davis, Sinaisky, Chailly, Tortelier, Sawallisch, Buribayev and Simonov, and has worked with some of the world’s most prestigious orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, La Scala Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, NHK Symphony Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Dresden Philharmonic.

Most recent career highlights include his debut at the BBC Proms, an extensive Asian tour including Seoul Arts Centre and PyeongChang Chamber Music Festival in South Korea; Esplanade Concert Hall in Singapore; and concerto appearances with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan National Symphony, RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra and Bergen Philharmonic. A favourite touring artist, his recent tours include a play/direct tour across New Zealand with New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and an extensive twelve-date tour with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra across the UK for which he received critical acclaim.

A committed recitalist, Kempf has appeared in many of the world’s most important concert halls including the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire, Berlin Konzerthaus, Milan Conservatory, Sala Verdi, London’s Cadogan and Royal Festival Hall, Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, Sydney’s City Hall and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. This season’s recital highlights include appearances at the Birmingham International Piano Series, Moscow’s House of Music, and the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory.

Born in London in 1977, he made his concerto debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 8 and further came to national prominence in 1992 when he won the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition. In 1998, his award of third, rather than first, prize in the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow provoked protests from the audience and an outcry in the Russian press, which proclaimed him ‘the hero of the competition’.

Gabriela Montero’s visionary interpretations and unique compositional gifts have garnered her critical acclaim and a devoted following on the world stage. Anthony Tommasini remarked in the New York Times that ‘Montero’s playing had everything: crackling rhythmic brio, subtle shadings, steely power … soulful lyricism … and, best of all, unsentimental expressivity’.

Recipient of the prestigious 2018 Heidelberger Frühling Music Prize, Montero’s recent highlights include debuts with the New World Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas; Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra with Aziz Shokhakimov; Orquesta de Valencia with Pablo Heras-Casado; and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra with Carlos Miguel Prieto, the latter of which saw her feature as Artist-in-Residence for the 2019/20 season. Montero also recently performed her own Latin Concerto with the Orchestra of the Americas at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and Edinburgh International Festival, as well as at the New World Center with Carnegie Hall’s NYO2.

Additional highlights include a second tour with the cutting-edge Scottish Ensemble, this time with Montero’s latest composition, Babel, as the centrepiece of the programme; her long-awaited return to Warsaw in 2018 for the Chopin in Europe Festival, marking 23 years since her prize win at the International Chopin Piano Competition; and return invitations to work with Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Jaime Martin and the Orquestra de Cadaqués, and Alexander Shelley and the National Arts Centre Orchestra.

Celebrated for her exceptional musicality and ability to improvise, Montero has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras to date, from the Dresdner Philharmonie and Vienna Symphony Orchestra to the Australian Chamber Orchestra and The Cleveland Orchestra. A graduate and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, Montero is also a frequent recitalist and chamber musician, having given concerts at distinguished venues across the world, from Wigmore Hall to Vienna Konzerthaus and Sydney Opera House. She has appeared at many international festivals, including Edinburgh Festival, Salzburg and Lucerne, among others.

Photo by Shelley Mosman

Gwilym is one of the most gifted pianists and imaginative composers on the British scene. Able to move effortlessly between jazz and classical music, he can, at times, inhabit both worlds and has been described as stylistically reminiscent of Keith Jarrett, complete with ‘harmonic sophistication and subtle dovetailing of musical traditions’ as well as being a pianist of ‘exceptional’, ‘brilliant’ and ‘dazzling’ ability. His music has been widely acclaimed as ‘engaging, exciting, often unexpected, melodically enthralling, complex and wonderfully optimistic’.

Simcock’s influences include jazz legends Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea and John Taylor and classical composers Maurice Ravel, Igor Stravinsky and Mark-Anthony Turnage. Although principally a jazz artist, he is breaking new ground between genres and often uses classical reference points in his composed work.

Aside from his renowned solo piano work, he has worked extensively throughout Europe with the cream of British and international jazz artists including Dave Holland, Kenny Wheeler, Lee Konitz, Bill Bruford’s Earthworks, Bob Mintzer and Bobby McFerrin. His own groups as leader range from trio to big band. His debut album Perception featured his sextet with Stan Sulzmann (saxophones), John Parricelli (guitar), Phil Donkin (bass), Martin France (drums) and Ben Bryant (percussion) was nominated for Best Album in the BBC Jazz Awards 2008 and has been critically acclaimed at home and abroad. His most recent release Blues Vignette features both solo piano and work with his new trio with Yuri Goloubev (bass) and James Maddren (drums). The album has been universally praised as ‘sublime’, ‘flawless’, ‘impressive’ and ‘a marker that few others are likely to equal’.

Winner of the Perrier Award, BBC Jazz Awards 2005 and British Jazz Awards 2005, Simcock was the first BBC Radio 3 New Generation jazz artist. He was voted Jazz Musician of the Year at the 2007 Parliamentary Jazz Awards nominated for the 2008 BBC Jazz Awards as Best Instrumentalist. His impressive formal education includes Trinity College of Music (London), Chetham’s School of Music (Manchester), where he studied classical piano, French horn and composition and the Royal Academy of Music, where he graduated from the jazz course with first class honours and won the coveted Principal‘s Prize for outstanding achievement.

Described by critics as ‘the most exciting voice since Joan Sutherland’, Australian born Helena Dix has secured her name on operatic stages all around the world. In competitions, she notably represented Australia in the 2005 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World and made her USA debut as a finalist in the Seattle International Wagner Opera competition to great critical acclaim. She was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2015 for her significant contribution to the music profession.

Dix’s operatic appearances include the title role in Feroni’s Cristina, regina di Svezia for Wexford Festival Opera, Oldenburg Staatstheater and Chelsea Opera Group, Elettra in Mozart’s Idomeneo and Odabella in Verdi’s Attila for Staatstheater Nürnberg and Lubeck opera, Flower maiden in Wagner’s Parsifal for English National Opera, Elvira (cover) in Verdi’s Ernani for The Metropolitan Opera, Isabella in Wagner’s Das Liebesverbot for Chelsea Opera, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus and Hanna Glawari in Lehár’s The Merry Widow for Scottish Opera. She has also covered the title role in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos for Garsington Opera. In 2019 she made her Metropolitan Opera stage debut as Alice Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff.

Engagements elsewhere in recent seasons have included covering Sondra Radvanovsky in Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux at the San Francisco Opera and a return to the Royal Albert Hall to sing Verdi’s Requiem with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Dix’s commercial recording debut of Howells’ Missa Sabrenesis with the BBC Concert orchestra and the Bach choir was released on Hyperion records in May 2020.

Henry Clay is currently Principal Cor Anglais with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. He graduated with a postgraduate degree from the Royal Academy of Music in 2016, where he studied with Christopher Cowie, Sue Böhling and Melanie Ragge. Prior to this, he attended the Royal Northern College of Music and the University of Manchester on the Joint Course under the tutelage of Jennifer Galloway and Hugh McKenna.

While still a student at the Academy, Clay began freelancing with various orchestras including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales. He then moved to Glasgow in 2019 to join the Royal Scottish National Opera.

A passionate chamber musician, Clay is also a member of the Cavendish Winds quintet with fellow Academy alumni. They were finalists in the 2016 Royal Over-Seas League Annual Music Competition and were Open Academy/Wigmore Hall Learning Fellows in 2016/2017. The group have also been a part of The Tunnell Trust for Young Musicians and Making Music programmes, and have performed recitals across the country in venues such as Wigmore Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields and Kings Place.

Huw Morgan is Principal Trumpet of the Sinfonieorchester Basel in Switzerland, a founder member of the acclaimed brass ensemble Septura and Assistant Lecturer at the Musikhochschule Luzern. He has won a number of international trumpet competitions including the Prague Spring, Ellsworth Smith, Girolamo Fantini, Only Brass and Lieksa.

Recent solo highlights include concerto appearances with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, Hamburg Camerata, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, Helsinki Philharmonic, and Irish Chamber Orchestra. He has also featured at numerous international festivals including Cheltenham, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Ticino, International Trumpet Guild and Kaposvár. A passionate exponent of contemporary music, Morgan has premiered works by Leif Segerstam, Paul Max Edlin, Karl Jenkins and Jonathan Harvey.

Morgan has been featured on over thirty commercially available recordings (EMI, Decca, Chandos) and can be heard as the solo trumpeter on the soundtrack to the BAFTA-nominated film, Me and Orson Welles. The first album in his ground-breaking series for Naxos Records, The Art of the Modern Trumpet, has garnered international acclaim since its release in 2019, described variously as a “sensational debut”, “exquisitely interpreted”, and “played with great elegance”. The second and third volumes will be released in 2021.

Alongside his solo activities, Morgan appears regularly as guest principal with many leading ensembles, including the London Symphony Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields and Nash Ensemble. A frequent guest professor at the Hochschule für Musik in Basel, he has presented masterclasses throughout Europe, North America, and Asia.

Born in South Wales, Morgan studied at Chetham’s School of Music, the Royal Academy of Music and the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste. His principal teachers included John Dickinson, Murray Greig, James Watson, Mark David, Robert Farley, and Frits Damrow.

Huw Morgan is a Yamaha Artist.

In 2017, Iestyn Davies was awarded an MBE for his services to music. A former Cambridge choral scholar, he went on to study singing at the Royal Academy of Music. An esteemed Handelian, he has astounded audiences globally with his vocal agility in roles such as Orlando, Rinaldo, Giulio Cesare, Ottone in Agrippina and David in Saul. His intelligent and considered interpretations have led to fruitful collaborations with Thomas Adès, George Benjamin and Nico Muhly. Davies recently made his Broadway debut in a revival of his West End theatre project, Farinelli and the King, with Mark Rylance, for which he received an Olivier Award nomination. A celebrated recitalist, with repertoire ranging from John Dowland to Eric Clapton, he has twice been awarded the Gramophone Recital Award and, in 2017, won the Gramophone Baroque Vocal Award.

Photo by Chris Sorensen

Born into a family of acclaimed Russian classical accordionists, Iosif Purits is renowned for his effortless mastery of the instrument. He boasts a truly international career with appearances at concert venues including Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Wiener Konzerthaus, George Weston Recital Hall and the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.

Purits came to prominence as recipient of the coveted Royal Academy of Music Patrons Award offering a Wigmore Hall debut to the most outstanding student across all instrumental departments, and prizewinner of The Arts Club Sir Karl Jenkins Music Award. He was the first-ever BBC Music Introducing classical artist, which led to showcase performances on BBC Radio 3, the Cheltenham Music Festival, Latitude Festival and Southbank Centre.

Purits’s extensive repertoire ranges from JS Bach’s Goldberg Variations and Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition to Bent Sørensen’s Looking on Darkness and Magnus Lindberg’s Metal Work. Distinguished not only as a solo performer but also as an enthusiastic chamber music collaborator, he has established duo partnerships with cellist Cecilia Bignall, guitarist Andrey Lebedev and clarinetist Mikhail Mering.

Purits was the first-ever Russian child to win the under-12 category at one of the most prestigious accordion competitions in the world, in Klingenthal, Germany, where, 13 years later, his repeat success in the main category at the 50th anniversary competition was described as ‘ensuring his place in history’. Since then, his numerous awards have included 17 first prizes at international contests such as Italy’s Competition of Accordionists, Arrasate Hiria and Trophée Mondial.

Purits was awarded a full scholarship for postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music, where he graduated with Regency Award in 2017. Prior to that, he was a student of Friedrich Lips at the Gnesins Russian Academy of Music.

Photo by Aiga Photography

It is not often one encounters an imagination with the depth and prolificacy of Jacob Collier’s. Born in 1994, the London-based singer and multi-instrumentalist is dubbed by many as one of the most innovative musicians of his generation. In 2012, Collier’s self-made YouTube videos achieved legendary status in the music world, attracting the praise of such luminaries as Herbie Hancock, David Crosby, Steve Vai and Quincy Jones, who manages Collier to this day. His debut album, In My Room, crafted entirely in his room at home, went on to win two Grammys. His success has led to musical collaborators and fans including the likes of Coldplay, Ty Dolla $ign, Tori Kelly, Daniel Caesar, H.E.R., Charlie Puth, Kehlani, Jessie Reyez and Finneas, among others.

In January 2018, Collier began designing and creating a recording project on an unprecedented scale: a quadruple album called Djesse comprising 50 songs divided between four volumes, with each operating within a separate musical universe of sound, style and genre. Scattered across the four volumes are 30-plus collaborators from across every facet of the music world. Djesse Volumes 1 and 2 both have earned him a Grammy each, meaning that Collier has never lost a Grammy in a category he’s been nominated in.