Alumni

Matthew Fletcher has a varied career as an accompanist and répétiteur. His performances have been broadcast live on BBC radio and television, Sky Arts and Classic FM, and have taken him to major UK venues and festivals, including Wigmore Hall, Snape Maltings, Oxford Lieder, Cheltenham Festival and the BBC Proms. He has collaborated with artists such as Danielle De Niese, Dame Kiri te Kanawa, Sir Thomas Allen, Brindley Sherratt, Sally Matthews and Allan Clayton. He has performed as a pianist and harpsichordist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and his competition successes include the accompanist prizes at Das Lied 2019 and the 2014 Kathleen Ferrier Awards.

Fletcher has been on the music staff at Glyndebourne since 2012, and in this capacity, he has worked on a huge variety of repertoire, from Handel and Mozart to Strauss, Janáček and several world premieres. He has also worked as an assistant conductor at the Linbury Theatre (Royal Opera House). He is in demand as a repertoire coach, working with established operatic stars such as Jonas Kauffman and John Tomlinson as well as the Jerwood Young Artists at Glyndebourne and the Jette Parker Young Artists at the Royal Opera House. He is on the teaching staff at the Royal Academy of Music working with singers and répétiteurs.

He read music at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he was organ scholar. He then studied piano accompaniment with Michael Dussek and Pascal Nemirovsky at the Royal Academy of Music. In 2016 he was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.

Fletcher writes of his time at the Academy:

'My time at the Royal Academy was eye-opening and inspiring. The variety of music-making I undertook was incredibly enriching, and helped develop the versatility that is needed for a career like mine. Memorable projects include song circle recitals at the Wigmore Hall and King's Place, a complete performance of Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch, opera scenes, contemporary chamber music with the Manson Ensemble and Baroque chamber music on the harpsichord. As well as the superb individual tuition I received, the variety of teaching staff that I encountered playing for singing lessons and other instrumental lessons must also count as one of my highlights of being at the Academy. As a collaborative pianist, the thoughts of an experienced singer or instrumentalist on your playing and the repertoire you are studying are invaluable. The Academy was crucial in terms of establishing my career - many of my first steps into the industry came through recommendations and introductions from Academy staff, or from being heard at one of the many concerts the Academy put on in London's top concert venues. The Academy continues to serve as an artistic inspiration for me, through my students!'

Conductor Steven Fox has been called ‘visionary’ by BBC Music Magazine and named ‘a conductor to follow’ by Seen and Heard International. Of a recent performance with The Clarion Choir, The New York Times praised his ‘deft guidance’, commenting: ‘Mr Fox revealed the drama of the score with vivid dynamic shadings … Intonation and pacing were exemplary throughout the performance.’ For his recording Kastalsky: Memory Eternal with The Clarion Choir, he was nominated in the category of Best Choral Performance at the 61st Grammy Awards.

Fox is Artistic Director of New York’s renowned The Clarion Orchestra and The Clarion Choir. Over his tenure, the group has expanded its repertoire from Salamone Rossi to Aaron Copland. He has led the group in highly acclaimed performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, White Light Festival at Lincoln Center, Miller Theatre at Columbia University and Carnegie Hall. He continues to lead them in concert appearances throughout the New York metropolitan area and recently conducted a new production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte for Opéra de Québec.

Winner of the 2018 Critics’ Circle Emerging Talent (Voice) Award, Jennifer France has established an outstanding reputation as a singer of remarkable versatility. She has been particularly praised for her work in contemporary music, whether singing the title role in Gerald Barry’s Alice in Wonderland for the Royal Opera House, Ophelia in Brett Dean’s Hamlet for Glyndebourne on Tour, Pascal Dusapin’s Medeamaterial at the Salzburg Festival or the Princess in Philip Glass’ Orphée for English National Opera. However, France has also been much acclaimed for the title role in Semele for the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro for Garsington Opera at Wormsley and Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos for the Nederlandse Reisopera (for which she was nominated for the 2016 Schaunard Award).

France graduated from the opera course at the Royal Academy of Music, where she won many prizes, including the prestigious Patron’s Award, and was awarded the Principal’s Prize at graduation for exceptional all-round studentship, which led to her debut at Wigmore Hall.

She was an Emerging Artist at Scottish Opera, singing Dalinda in Ariodante and Despina in Così fan tutte, and returning as the Controller in Jonathan Dove’s Flight, Ice in the premiere of Stuart MacRae’s Anthropocene, Giulia in La scala di seta and Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos. Other companies with whom she has worked include Classical Opera, Dorset Opera Festival, Opera Holland Park, Opera North, Dutch National Opera and Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden.

In concert, she has appeared with the Academy of Ancient Music, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, The Hallé, London Mozart Players, London Sinfonietta, Philharmonia Orchestra at Three Choirs Festival, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and The Israel Camerata Jerusalem.

France’s recordings include Lessons in Love and Violence for Opus Arte, Debussy Songs Volumes 3 and 4 with Malcolm Martineau for Hyperion and Une voix dans le désert for Hallé.

Photo by Nick James

Austrian soprano Christina Gansch is the winner of the 2014 Kathleen Ferrier Award and a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and Mozarteum University Salzburg.

Recent highlights have included her debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper as Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel and Marzelline in Fidelio for the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. In concert, she performed Mahler’s Symphony No 4 at the BBC Proms and Edinburgh International Festival with the BBC Symphony Orchestra; Zerlina in concert performances of Don Giovanni in Vienna and Lucerne with Musica Aeterna; Gretchen in Schumann’s Szenen aus Goethes Faust with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra; and Beethoven’s Egmont with the Camerata Salzburg. Other recent successes include her debut as Dorinda in Orlando for the San Francisco Opera; Gretchen for Staatsoper Hamburg; Najade in Ariadne auf Naxos for Teatro alla Scala; and Dew Fairy in Hänsel und Gretel for Royal Opera House. Gansch has also appeared at the Salzburg Festival, Glyndebourne Festival, Deutsche Staatsoper, Opéra national de Paris and Opéra national de Montpellier.

In concert, she has appeared at Musikverein Wien with the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Wiener Konzerthaus as part of Resonanzen International Cultural Festival, Verbier Festival, Internationale Händel-Festspiele Göttingen, Wigmore Hall, the Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Highlights include Zerlina in Don Giovanni in St Peterburg and Dortmund with Musica Aeterna; Ilia in Idomeneo at the Ingolstadt Festival; Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem with Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg; Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore and Coronation Mass in C major at Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik; Mozart’s Requiem with the Göteborgs Symfoniker; and Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor with Mozarteumorchester Salzburg.

Gansch’s recordings include Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Music Aeterna and Teodor Currentzis (Sony), Wolf’s Lieder with Malcolm Martineau (Vivat) and Schubert’s Der Hochzeitsbraten with Matthew Rose, Robert Murray and Malcolm Martineau (Stone Records).

Photo by Kartal Karagedik

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

Sir Clive Gillinson was born in India in 1946 and began studying the cello at the age of 11, playing with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music, where he won the top cello prize, and then went on to become a member of the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Gillinson joined the London Symphony Orchestra in 1970 and in 1984 was asked by the Board to become Managing Director, a position he held until becoming the Executive and Artistic Director of Carnegie Hall in 2005. Under Gillinson’s leadership, the London Symphony Orchestra initiated some of the city’s most successful artistic festivals, established an annual residency in New York from 1997 and was a founding partner in the Pacific Music Festival in Japan. Gillinson also developed the LSO Discovery music education programme and created LSO St. Luke’s, its music education centre, and LSO Live, the orchestra's award-winning international recording label.

Gillinson served as Chairman of the Association of British Orchestras; was one of the founding Trustees of the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts; and was founding Chairman of the Management Committee of the Clore Leadership Programme.

Among his many awards, Gillinson received an Honorary Doctor of Music degree from the City of London University and is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music. He has been a Visiting Fellow at St Catherine’s College Oxford and is an Honorary Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. He was awarded the CBE in the 1999 New Year Honours List and received the 2004 Making Music Sir Charles Grove Prize for his outstanding contribution to British music. He is the only orchestra manager ever to be honored with a knighthood, in 2005.

In 2016, Gillinson co-authored a book, Better to Speak of It, published by Arch Street Press, offering first-hand experiences of how creativity can be applied with substantial results.

Ben Glassberg is the Music Director of Opéra de Rouen-Normandie, where upcoming plans include a new production of Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito and performances of Stravinsky’s Firebird. Since 2019, he has been Principal Conductor of the Glyndebourne Tour, opening his tenure with a production of Donizetti’s L’Elisir D’Amore. Next season he will conduct a new production of Beethoven’s Fidelio at Glyndebourne and on tour around the UK.

On the concert stage, Glassberg has worked with top orchestras in Europe and around the world. Recent highlights include performances with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and London Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2017, he won First Prize at the Besançon International Competition for Young Conductors, making his debut with the Orchestre National de Lyon in the final. Following this collaboration, the orchestra created the position of Chef Invité Associé for him; in this role he has conducted a range of repertoire including Strauss’ Alpine Symphony and works by Pépin, Ades, Haydn and others. Future symphonic highlights include debuts with Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre de Chambe de Lausanne, as well as returns to Orchestre du Capitol de Toulouse and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

A lover of theatre, Glassberg also enjoys his work in the opera house. Recent seasons have seen him conduct new productions for English National Opera, La Monnaie/De Munt and the Salzburger Festspiele. In 2020/21, he will conduct a new production of The Turn of the Screw directed by Andrea Breth at La Monnaie in addition to his work in Rouen. Future seasons include returns to ENO and Glyndebourne.

Recordings include a CPE Bach Keyboard Concerto with Shani Diluka and Orchestre Chambre de Paris for Mirare and Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez and Tansmann’s Musique du Cour with Thibaut Garcia and Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse for Warner Classics.

Photo by Gerard Collett

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

Described as creating a ‘poignant and distinctive sound world’ by Fiona Maddocks for The Observer, accordionist Bartosz Glowacki certainly shows the qualities of a rising star. Winner of numerous competitions, he was named Polish Young Musician of the Year in 2009 and represented his country the following year at the Eurovision Young Musicians. In 2011, he was offered a place under the tutelage of Owen Murray at the Royal Academy of Music, where he graduated with honours in 2016.

Glowacki has performed as a soloist in prestigious concert halls including the Royal Albert Hall, La Salle Cortot and Witold Lutoslawski Concert Studio of Polish Radio. Founder of the Deco Ensemble, he has worked with renowned artists from various musical worlds, such as Nigel Kennedy and Trevor Pinnock. He also plays regularly with international orchestras and companies, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Royal Opera House. He recently worked with Apartment House on their revival of the opera Dejligt vejr i dag, n’est-ce pas, Ibsen? by Henning Christiansen in New York and Copenhagen.

Glowacki is a City Music Foundation Artist and has received numerous awards from the Zygmunt Zaleski Foundation, The Countess of Munster Musical Trust, Biddy Baxter and John Hosier Music Trust, and Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. He was selected to be part of the Open Space residencies at Snape Maltings in 2016 and recently won the Sir John Manduell Prize at the Bromsgrove International Competition.

Inspired by Astor Piazzolla, Gustavo Beytelmann and Osvaldo Pugliese, Glowacki started playing the bandoneon in 2016 and has recorded an album with the London Tango Orchestra and the bandoneon parts for the new Lion King stage show at Disneyland Paris.

In 2020, Glowacki released his debut album, Genesis, featuring solo accordion works and double concerto with British jazz guitarist Rob Luft. This album has been praised by critics as a ‘fascinating tour through the centuries’ (Göran Forsling) and showcasing ‘some terrific playing and fine contemporary writing for the instrument’ (Robert Hugill).

Photo by Krystian Data

Christopher Glynn is a Grammy award-winning pianist and accompanist, praised for his ‘irrepressible energy, wit and finesse’ (the Guardian). He is also Artistic Director of the Ryedale Festival, programming around 60 events every year in historic venues across North Yorkshire.

Glynn grew up in Leicester and read music at New College Oxford, before studying piano with John Streets in France, and with Malcolm Martineau and Michael Dussek at the Royal Academy of Music, where he now teaches. Glynn’s many awards include the Accompanist’s Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards, a Gerald Moore Award, Geoffrey Parsons Award and a Grammy. A regular artist at Wigmore Hall, Glynn also appears in major concert venues and festivals across the world, including the BBC Proms, Carnegie Hall, Edinburgh International Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Cheltenham Music Festival, Schubertiade, Oxford Lieder Festival, Leeds Lieder, Royal Opera House, Barbican, Southbank Centre, The Royal Concertgebouw, Wiener Konzerthaus and as far afield as Japan, China, Brazil, Russia and Sri Lanka. He has made many CD recordings and is regularly heard on BBC Radio 3.

An interest in bringing classical song to a wider audience recently led Glynn to commission Jeremy Sams to create new English translations of Franz Schubert’s song cycles, recorded for Signum Records. He also enjoys working with young musicians and leads masterclasses for the Samling Institute for Young Artists and Britten-Pears School, as well as adjudicating many international competitions. Away from the piano, Glynn is President of Chiltern Arts and Vice-President of Music in Hospitals and Care.

Recent highlights include performing the Schubert song cycles with Roderick Williams (including a nationwide tour of Winter Journey), CDs exploring the music of Edvard Grieg, Percy Grainger, Donald Swann, Eric Coates and Hamilton Harty, and The Passion with Streetwise Opera. Future plans include further collaborations with Jeremy Sams (Robert Schumann and Hugo Wolf songs) and Streetwise Opera, CD recordings with Roderick Williams, Nicky Spence, Kathryn Rudge, Claire Booth and The Sixteen, a tour of Wolf's Italian Songbook and embarking on a project with Rachel Podger to perform and record Beethoven's Violin Sonatas.

Glynn writes of his time at the Academy:

'The Academy has a unique and special tradition of piano accompaniment and some amazing teachers. I was lucky enough to study with Malcolm Martineau and Michael Dussek – but also remember inspiring sessions with string, woodwind and conducting professors too. Accompanists really get the best from conservatoire life because, through their partners, they encounter such a wide cross-section of teachers and influences. The things I learnt - and the colleagues and friends I met - at the Academy have stayed with me throughout my working life. I'm very happy to now teach there, and to see a new generation of student accompanists join the Academy family each year and make their own contribution to its history.'

Photo by Joanna Bergin

Stephen Goss’s music receives hundreds of performances worldwide each year. It has been recorded on over eighty CDs by record labels including EMI, Decca, Telarc, Virgin Classics, Naxos, and Deutsche Grammophon. His output embraces multiple genres including orchestral and choral works, chamber music and solo pieces.

Recent work includes several projects with the guitarist John Williams, who has recorded and toured his Guitar Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Goss’s music has been performed by many of the world’s leading orchestras: Russian National Orchestra under Mikhail Pletnev, China National Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, New Russia State Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Barcelona Symphony Orchestra. In his role as composer-in-residence for the Orpheus Sinfonia, he wrote a Piano Concerto which was released by Signum Classics in 2013 and Concerto for Five for the unique combination of violin, saxophone, cello, bass, piano and orchestra. His Albéniz Concerto for guitar and orchestra was released to great critical acclaim on EMI Classics in 2010. A Concerto of Colours for guitar and wind ensemble was commissioned by a consortium of 13 American wind orchestras in 2017. Most recently, he has written the Koblenz Concerto for two guitars and orchestra and a Theorbo Concerto for Matthew Wadsworth, the first concerto ever written for the theorbo.

As a guitarist, Steve has worked with many leading composers and toured and recorded extensively with the Tetra Guitar Quartet and other ensembles.

Born in Wales in 1964, Goss studied at the Royal Academy of Music where he won the Julian Bream Prize. His composition teachers included Edward Gregson, Robert Saxton, Peter Dickinson and Anthony Payne, and he studied guitar with Michael Lewin. He is Professor of Composition and Director of the International Guitar Research Centre at the University of Surrey and a guitar professor at the Royal Academy of Music, where he was made a Fellow in 2018.

Steven Grahl is a sought-after conductor and keyboard player. He is Director of Music and Tutor in Music at Christ Church, Oxford, an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Oxford and Conductor of Schola Cantorum of Oxford.

Grahl was Director of Music at Peterborough Cathedral from 2014 to 2018, where he was responsible for training the Cathedral Choir, and for the re-pitching of the Hill Organ, on which he has recorded a solo CD. Peterborough Cathedral Choir’s recording of Cheryl Frances Hoad’s EvenYouSong, made under his direction, was released to critical acclaim in December 2017.

Previously, he was Assistant Organist at New College, Oxford, and he combined this post with that of Organist and Director of Music at St Marylebone Parish Church, London. He has also been musical director of the Guildford Chamber Choir, Peterborough Choral Society and the Stamford Chamber Orchestra. Recent conducting engagements include Verdi’s Requiem with Peterborough Choral Society and Cathedral Choirs; Bach’s Magnificat and Handel’s Coronation Anthems with the Guildford Chamber Choir and Instruments of Time and Truth; and works by Escaich, Copland, Maw, and Whitacre with Cambridge University Symphony Chorus. Grahl has worked with numerous other ensembles, including the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble, Guildford Philharmonic, New London Chamber Choir and Prime Brass.

Grahl was an interpretation finalist in the International Organ Competitions at St Albans (UK) in 2011, and in Dudelange (Luxembourg) in 2013, and was President of the Incorporated Association of Organists from 2017 until summer 2019. He is a prize-winning graduate of Magdalen College, Oxford and the Royal Academy of Music, gained the top prizes in the FRCO examination and is also a holder of the Worshipful Company of Musicians’ Silver Medallion. In 2010, he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.

Edward Gregson is a composer of international reputation, whose music has been performed, broadcast and commercially recorded in many countries. He has been described as ‘one of the most significant British composers currently active in this country’ (Robert Matthew-Walker, International Record Review, 2011).

He studied composition and piano with Alan Bush at the Royal Academy of Music, winning five prizes for composition, with later studies at London University. His commissions have included works for the English Chamber, Bournemouth, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras, with performances by many other orchestras and ensembles around the world. His discography includes recordings of his orchestral and concerto repertoire (Chandos), instrumental and chamber music (Naxos) and music for brass band (Doyen).

His major works for orchestra include Music for Chamber Orchestra (1968), Metamorphoses (1979), Concerto for Orchestra (1983, rev. 2002), and Dream Song (2010), with many concertos written for eminent soloists, whilst his choral music includes Make a Joyful Noise (1988), a large-scale cantata The Dance, forever the Dance (1999), and Three John Donne Settings (2013). His instrumental and chamber music includes two string quartets and numerous works for solo instruments, including a Piano Sonata in one movement (1983), Tributes and Aztec Dances (both 2010),

His contribution to the wind and brass repertoire has also been of particular significance and in 2016 he was composer-in-association with the Black Dyke Band. In the following year he was composer-in-residence at the Presteigne Festival, with numerous performances of his music. In 2019 he won an Ivor’s Academy Composer Award for his Hallé commission for children’s choir and orchestra, The Salamander and the Moonraker.

His academic career has included appointments at Goldsmiths College, University of London (1976-1996), where he was awarded a Personal Chair and Principal of the Royal Northern College of Music (1996-2008). He has been a member of many international juries, has worked for BBC radio and television, and is currently a Writer Director of PRS for Music. He has also been the recipient of a dozen honorary Doctorates and Fellowships from various English universities and conservatoires, including Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Music (1990).

Photo by Simon McComb

British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor is internationally recognised for his electrifying performances, distinctive sound and insightful interpretations. His virtuosic command over the most arduous technical complexities underpins the remarkable depth and understanding of his music making, with Süddeutsche Zeitung lauding his ‘astounding technical gifts, the freshness of his imagination, his intense concentration, the absence of any kind of show, and the unmistakable sense of poetic immersion directed solely at the realization of music’.

A pianist of widespread international acclaim, Grosvenor’s recent and forthcoming concerto highlights include engagements with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Gürzenich-Orchestra Cologne, Orchestre National de France, Hallé Orchestra, Orquesta Nacional de España, Filarmonica della Scala and the Philharmonia Orchestra with such esteemed conductors as Andrey Boreyko, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, Elim Chan, Sir Mark Elder, Edward Gardner, Manfred Honeck, Andrew Manze, Kent Nagano, Gianandrea Noseda, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, François-Xavier Roth, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas, Krzysztof Urbański and Kazuki Yamada.

In recital, Grosvenor regularly performs at major venues such as London’s Barbican and Wigmore Halls as well as the Southbank Centre, Théâtre des Champs Elysées Paris, Munich’s Herkulessaal, Cologne’s Philharmonie, Washington’s Kennedy Center, and New York’s Carnegie Hall and 92nd Street Y. A keen chamber musician, this season sees him embark on a North American tour with the Doric String Quartet, perform duo concerts with violinist Hyeyoon Park, join musicians from the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France for a chamber concert, and perform at the Verbier Festival at Schloss Elmau and at Internationales Musikfestival Koblenz.

Grosvenor signed to Decca Classics in 2011, becoming the youngest British musician ever, and the first British pianist in almost 60 years, to sign to the label. His most recent CD on the label features Frédéric Chopin’s piano concertos, recorded with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under the baton of Elim Chan. Named Recording of the Month by Gramophone, the disc was also awarded a Diapason d'Or, with Diapason's critic declaring that the recording is ‘a version to rank among the best, and confirmation of an extraordinary artist.’

Photo by Patrick Allen operaomnia.co.uk

Christopher Hart graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 2016 with Distinction in his Master’s degree, studying under Mark David, Paul Beniston, Gareth Small, Robert Farley and John Hutchins. Prior to this, Chris completed his undergraduate studies at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, graduating with first-class honours in 2014.

During his time at the Academy, Hart won the John Solomon Brass Prize in 2014, the Worshipful Company of Musicians Brass Ensemble Prize in 2015 and graduated with a DipRAM for an outstanding final recital. He recorded Igor Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale for Linn Records as part of the Royal Academy of Music Manson Ensemble and was chosen to play the Peter Maxwell-Davies Trumpet Concerto at the Royal College of Music in January 2016.

His studies at the Academy gave him the opportunity to perform for some of the world's leading conductors, including Semyon Bychkov, Yan Pascal Tortelier and Oliver Knussen, and The Countess of Munster Musical Trust selected Hart to be a member of their Recital Scheme, which saw him perform as a solo artist at music festivals across the UK.

Hart was appointed Principal Trumpet of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in Glasgow in 2016. Since he joined the orchestra, Hart has been fortunate enough to perform to audiences throughout the UK and across the world, including the USA and China. He has appeared as a soloist with the orchestra in Haydn's Trumpet Concerto with Sir Roger Norrington and the Neruda Trumpet Concerto with Gemma New.

Hart enjoys a busy freelance career alongside his full-time position, having performed as Guest Principal Trumpet with many of the UK's leading orchestras, including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra and London Sinfonietta, with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Vladimir Jurowski, Sakari Oramo and Academy alumnus Edward Gardner.

Joseph Havlat was born in Hobart, Australia and studied at the Royal Academy of Music under Professor Joanna MacGregor between 2012 and 2018, receiving his BMus and MMus with distinction and awards for exceptional merit in studentship and the highest recital mark for a postgraduate pianist.

Havlat has performed in major concert venues around the UK and in Europe, America, Japan and Australia as a soloist and as part of chamber groups. In 2019 he was made a Young Artist at St. John’s Smith Square where he is to give recitals in the 2020/21 season, and he was awarded first prize in the keyboard section of the Royal Overseas League Music Competition. The same year he was made a Young Artist of the Oxford Lieder Festival alongside fellow Australian mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean, with whom he works regularly in both standard and contemporary classical spheres.

He is a keen chamber musician, performing frequently with groups including Tritium (clarinet) trio, Trio Derazey and the two-piano Duo Ex Libris, as well as frequently collaborating in many other chamber music scenarios. He is a member of the LSO percussion ensemble with whom he has released a CD on the LSO Live label, including the premiere recording of John Adams’ two-piano work Roll Over Beethoven.

Passionate about modern and contemporary music, he is a founding member and original artistic director of contemporary music collective Ensemble x.y. During his time studying he gave performances of concertos by Ligeti, Messiaen, Stravinsky and others, which has led him to collaborate with such composers as Michael Finnissy, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Gerald Barry and Thomas Larcher. He is an avid composer, having written for the aforementioned ensembles, and views his compositional work as intrinsic to his musical development and his most important form of artistic expression.

Photo by William Marsey

South London-born Ashley Henry is one of a new generation of musicians who have been raised with a wide range of influences. His album debut Beautiful Vinyl Hunter saw him nominated by Cerys Matthews for BBC 6 Music’s Album of the Year, only the second jazz album to do so. The album won Jazz Japan's Album of the Year and Henry is France’s Jazz Magazine New Jazz Artist of the Year.

Henry graduated from Royal Academy of Music in 2016, going on to perform with Jason Marsalis, Terence Blanchard and Jean Toussaint, the latter featuring on Henry’s record, Easter EP. At the age of just 25, Henry was commissioned as guest resident Musical Director for both Jazz Café and Ronnie Scott's, and won the Jazz FM Live Experience Award. In 2018/2019, he toured with Christine and the Queens and supported Loyle Carner’s 2019 tour.

His live performances have gained outstanding reviews, including a sold-out standing-room-only show as part of the 2019 EFG London Jazz Festival and he featured in BBC Music Introducing at New York's Winter Jazzfest, curated by Gilles Peterson.

Jonathon Heyward is forging a career as one of the most exciting young conductors on the international scene. Winner of the 2015 Besançon International Conducting Competition, he was selected as a Los Angeles Philharmonic Dudamel Conducting Fellow for the 2017-2018 season, later making his subscription debut with Hilary Hahn as part of the orchestra’s Bernstein @ 100 Celebration at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The LA Times declared that he had ‘forged a seamless connection among the music, the orchestra, and the audience’ and that his ‘concert augurs great things to come’.

Named Chief Conductor Designate of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie in 2019, a position that commences in January 2021, Heyward recently completed three years as Assistant Conductor of the Hallé Orchestra, conducting his first subscription concert with Benjamin Grosvenor, in 2018. Other notable moments with the ensemble include: a 200th birthday concert for the orchestra’s founder, Sir Charles Hallé, with a programme of Hallé’s own Souvenir and Scherzo, Beethoven’s Leonora No. 3 Overture, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17 (with Heejae Kim) and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5; a finalist nomination for Young Creative of the Year at the Manchester Culture Awards 2018, in recognition of his extensive community outreach work and commitment to music education as Music Director of the Hallé Youth Orchestra; and a ‘roaringly bold account’ (Bachtrack) of Shostakovich’s thrilling Leningrad Symphony, marking Jonathon’s debut at the Manchester International Festival and culmination of his tenure in Manchester.

Hailed by Sir Mark Elder as ‘a bright rising star of the conducting world’, Heyward’s recent and forthcoming engagements include debuts with the Seattle Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Oregon Symphony, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Brussels Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Hallé, Württembergisches Kammerorchester, Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa in Lisbon, Osaka Symphony, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Flanders Symphony, South Netherlands Philharmonic and the Het Gelders Orkest.

Originally trained as a cellist and chamber musician, Heyward commenced his conducting studies at the Boston Conservatory with Andrew Altenbach. In 2013, he became the youngest ever semi-finalist at the Blue Danube International Opera Conducting Competition at the age of 21, and, soon after, was appointed Associate Director of the Hampstead Garden Opera Company in London. In 2016, he completed his postgraduate studies in conducting with Sian Edwards at the Royal Academy of Music.

British conductor Adam Hickox has already shown considerable promise, demonstrating an impressive fluidity of technique and mature interpretation of a wide symphonic and operatic repertoire. He studied with Sian Edwards at the Royal Academy of Music, where he graduated with DipRam and the Ernest Read Prize for Conducting. He was recently announced as Assistant Conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra for the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons.

Hickox's commitments in Rotterdam include assisting for programmes with their Chief Conductor Lahav Shani, Valery Gergiev and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, amongst others. He was recently awarded the Tanglewood Festival's Conducting Fellowship in 2020, selected out of hundreds of applicants.

In the coming season he will also conduct the Gävle Symphony Orchestra, and recent engagements include the UK premiere of Thomas Larcher's Still for viola and chamber orchestra, with Lawrence Power and Collegium; Music of Exile with members of the ARC Ensemble – conducting and reviving works of exiled Jewish composers from the 1930s; assisting on The Turn of the Screw at English National Opera and concerts at the St Endellion and Klosters Music Festivals. In the last year he has also conducted the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Philharmonia Orchestra.

In Autumn 2020 he has been invited to return to English National Opera to conduct Knussen's Where the Wild Things Are and Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortilèges, following his work in Autumn 2019 for Birtwistle's The Mask of Orpheus, assisting Music Director Martyn Brabbins. He recently assisted Leo Hussain at Theater an der Wien, and Raphaël Pichon at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence in a production directed by Romeo Castellucci of Mozart's Requiem, and in performances of Mozart symphonies, and has also assisted and worked together with Ryan Wigglesworth, Sir Mark Elder, Edward Gardner, Jac van Steen and Marin Alsop.

Hickox is a graduate of Gonville and Caius College Cambridge, where he studied music and composition with Robin Holloway, and was the conductor of the Cambridge University Symphony Orchestra. In 2016, he co-founded the Endelienta Ensemble, which brings together postgraduate instrumentalists for a series of concerts in Cornwall.

Magdalena Hoffmann was appointed Principal Harpist of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2018 and teaches at the Tyrolean State Conservatory in Austria. Previously, she held the same position with the Tyrol Symphony Orchestra for four years. In addition, she played with various other orchestras, including the Münchner Philharmoniker, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne and La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra.

Hoffmann studied with Fabiana Trani in Düsseldorf, Cristina Bianchi in Munich and Skaila Kanga in London, while broadening her education in masterclasses with many renowned harpists such as Fabrice Pierre, Isabelle Moretti, Mara Galassi, Alice Giles, Milda Agazarian and Park Stickney.

She has won numerous scholarships and prizes at various national and international competitions, among them two special awards at the prestigious ARD International Music Competition in Munich in 2016.

In high demand as a chamber musician, Hoffmann has been invited as soloist and chamber musician to festivals such as the Davos Festival and Festival Alpenklassik. She regularly performs with renowned musicians, including Karl-Heinz Schütz, Andrea Lieberknecht or Aleksey Igudesman.

Hoffmann not only chooses her concert programmes with the aim of extending the conventional harp repertoire, but she also constantly works on interdisciplinary concepts. Thus, in 2014, she first performed her theatre concert Odyssey on 47 Strings at the Harp Masters Festival in Switzerland, and in 2017 contributed texts and illustrations to Aleksey Igudesman's album Funny Animals. Her first solo CD, Footnotes, was released in 2018.

Hoffmann is cultural ambassador for the project Casa Hogar, which aims at providing education and a home for young girls in the Colombian crisis region of Chocó.

Photo by Julia Wesely

Peter Holder has held the post of Sub-Organist of Westminster Abbey since October 2017. He is Principal Organist for the Abbey’s daily services and at state occasions, and accompanies the Abbey Choir in its concerts, recordings and broadcasts. He is the Principal Deputy Conductor of the choir and supports Organist and Master of the Choristers James O’Donnell in training the Abbey choristers.

Having served for two years as Organ Scholar of Westminster Abbey, Holder was Sub-Organist of St Paul’s Cathedral between 2014 and 2017. He regularly accompanied choral services and played a significant role in developing the portfolio of organ events at the Cathedral, including staging two Grand Organ Galas in which he appeared as soloist in concertos by Handel and Poulenc.

As a recitalist, Holder performs in cathedrals and concert halls across the world. He made his BBC Proms solo debut at the 2019 First Night of the Proms performing Leoš Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass. Ivan Hewett, writing in The Telegraph, commented that ‘it was Peter Holder’s wild organ solo which stole the show’, while BBC Music Reporter Mark Savage wrote that ‘Holder deservedly received an ovation after untangling the labyrinthine solo’.

Holder’s solo recording, Bach ist der Vater, wir sind die Buben, produced at Neresheim Abbey, has garnered much and he regularly features on BBC radio and television broadcasts.

Holder is an organ tutor at the Royal Academy of Music, where he undertook his undergraduate and postgraduate studies, and won numerous major prizes and awards. He was Pidem Organ Fellow for the academic year 2014-15. He has given masterclasses across Europe and the USA, and in 2016 was elected Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.

Lynda Houghton is Principal Double Bass with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and has been playing with the orchestra for more than 25 years on many recordings and world tours.

Having studied at the Royal Academy of Music and at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Canada, Houghton rapidly went on to establish a reputation as a talented exponent of contemporary music, much in demand with London Sinfonietta. She was also invited to play with the London Symphony Orchestra – the first woman bassist with the orchestra.

Houghton also enjoys playing with a number of other chamber orchestras and ensembles, such as the City of London Sinfonia and Orchestra of St John’s, where she is Principal Bass in both, and as a guest in many other ensembles, including The Nash Ensemble and The Fibonacci Sequence. She has played at the Sangat Chamber Music Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Orpheus & Bacchus Music Festival and Edinburgh International Festival. An enthusiastic period instrumentalist, she has toured and recorded with Trevor Pinnock’s The English Concert and John Eliot Gardiner’s English Baroque Soloists.

Houghton is an Associate at the Academy and, while being in demand as a teacher and examiner, her playing engagements encompass not only the world of contemporary, symphonic and chamber music but also films and popular music.

Ben Hulme began horn lessons at the age of seven, before being accepted into Chetham’s School of Music, where he studied with Lizzie Davis and Julian Plummer.

During his eight years at Chetham’s, he enjoyed the abundance of wide-ranging opportunities provided by the school and was also fortunate to be a member of the National Children’s Orchestras and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. Hulme was then awarded the Sir Elton John scholarship to attend the Royal Academy of Music. While at the Academy, he studied with Michael Thompson, Richard Watkins, Martin Owen, Katy Woolley and Roger Montgomery, as well as having regular masterclasses with Radovan Vlatković. He also studied the organ with Gerard Brooks.

During his time at the Academy, Hulme had the opportunity to work with conductors Robin Ticciati, Semyon Bychkov, Sir Mark Elder, James Newton Howard, Oliver Knussen, Edward Gardner and John Wilson in the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra and Manson Ensemble. He also particularly enjoyed the vast array of chamber music opportunities offered by the brass department under the direction of Mark David and Bob Hughes.

Hulme is a founding member of London Metropolitan Brass, which won the Academy’s Worshipful Company of Musicians Brass Ensemble Prize in 2017 and claimed third prize at the inaugural Philip Jones Brass International Brass Ensemble Competition in July 2019. The ensemble members were also Academy Chamber Fellows for the 2018-19 academic year.

After graduating from the Academy with a first-class honours degree in July 2019, Hulme embarked on a freelance career, including trials for Principal Horn with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and BBC Philharmonic. Alongside this, he has played Guest Principal with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia and Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra. Hulme will be joining the BBC Philharmonic as Section Principal Horn in June 2020.

Stuart Jackson studied Biological Sciences as a choral scholar at Christ Church, University of Oxford, before completing his training at the Royal Academy of Music in 2013 where he studied with Ryland Davies.

He then went on to Stuttgart Opera Studio for the 2013/14 season and a highlight which was singing the title role in Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice.

He won second prizes at the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition and Hugo Wolf Competition in Stuttgart and has since given recitals at the Stuttgart Opera, Wigmore Hall, Oxford Lieder Festival and Albertina Musensaal in Vienna.

Recent opera highlights include Saul at Théâtre du Châtelet Paris in the role of High Priest/Abner/Amalekite/Doeg; his debut at Komische Oper Berlin as Jupiter in Semele; Vasek in Bartered Bride in his debut for Garsington Opera.

Jackson has sung Purcell’s The Fairy Queen with RIAS Kammerchor and Rinaldo Alessandrini; Bach’s St John Passion on a European tour with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Chappelle Harmonique in Versailles; as well as on tour with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and Daniel Reuss, with whom he has also performed St Matthew Passion; Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang with the Royal Northern Sinfonia; Martin’s Le Vin Herbé with the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra; Bruckner’s Te Deum with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra; and many performances of Handel’s Messiah including with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and Daniel Reuss, Hallé Orchestra and John Butt, and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Nicholas McGegan.

Further afield he has repeated his roles in Handel’s Saul for the Adelaide Festival, sung Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni for Stuttgart Opera and Nettuno in Legrenzi’s La Divisione del Mondo for Opéra national du Rhin.

Stuart was a Samling scholar and a past recipient of the Sybil Tutton Award administered by the Musicians Benevolent Fund.