Formations 2017

Helios Collective

About Helios Collective

A Word from Helios’s Founder

Thank You

Helios Collective People

The Masterclasses

Masterclass Introduction

Masterclass Leaders

Masterclass Operas

The Operas

hunger

hunger – Synopsis

hunger – Creatives

hunger – Cast

hunger – Musicians

The Storm

The Storm – Synopsis

The Storm – Creatives

The Storm – Cast

The Storm – Musicians

Mad King Suibhne

Mad King Suibhne – Synopsis

Mad King Suibhne – Creatives

Mad King Suibhne – Cast

Mad King Suibhne – Musicians

The Artists

Adam Lenson

Anna Mclachlan

Beatrice Wallbank

Ben Pickersgill

Callum Speed

Charlie Ransley

Charlotte North

Constance Villemot

Daniel Chappell

Daniel Kramer

Dominic Stewart

Eleanor Garside

Ella Marchment

Emma Black

Freya Wynn-Jones

Gareth Mattey

Geoff Williams

Giuseppe Ciraso Calì

Henry Grant Kerswell

Holly Pigott

Isabella Cheevers

Isolde Roxby

Iúnó Connolly

Ivo Mosley

Jennifer Parker

Jezz Saint-James

Joanna Ward

Jolyon Loy

Joseph Shiner

Judith Thei

Judith Weir

Kathleen Greene

Katie Sazanova

Katy Ovens

Kieran White

Laura Furner

Laura Monaghan

Laurie O’Brien

Lewis Coenen-Rowe

Madeleine Joyce

Makoto Nakata

Noah Mosley

Olivia Martin

Ozlem Celik

Ricardo Panela

Robert Allan

Robert Harm

Roman Lytwyniw

Rosie Middleton

Ryan Hay

Sarah Berger

Sarah Louise Kristiansen

Sinéad Frost

Stephen Barlow

Suzanne Lemeuix

Ughetta Pratesi

Victoria Bernath

Yara Zeitoun

Zita Silva

The Programme

Helios Collective

About Helios Collective

A Word from Helios’s Founder

Thank You

Helios Collective People

ABOUT HELIOS COLLECTIVE

Founded in 2012 by artistic director Ella Marchment, Helios Collective produces new operas, reinterprets works from the canon, develops interdisciplinary collaborative ventures, and nurtures artistic talent.

Helios’s programming caters for people who appreciate high-quality productions, but who are also looking for experiences and compositions that are able to take them beyond what opera is traditionally perceived to be.

As well as running Toi Toi opera club nights and the annual Formations Masterclasses, recent plarias and opera adaptations have included Briar Kit Esme’s Hathaway – Eight Arias For A Bardic Life in Buxton and Copenhagen, Christopher Hogg’s Il Letto in Buxton, Copenhagen, and London, and an adaptation of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas as Dido and Belinda in London.

With award-winning directors and designers, graduates from the leading music conservatoires and drama colleges, and highly skilled professional mentors, Helios is a close-knit operative that delivers artistic excellence in its productions, kindles creativity in others, and helps opera-makers from diverse backgrounds to refine their talents.

For more information, please visit Helios’s website, or subscribe to Helios’s mailing list for the latest news and developments. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

A WORD FROM HELIOS’S FOUNDER

The really beautiful thing about opera is that it brings together so many different art forms – including singing, drama, dance, and design – and combines them into a single creative spectacle that can both capture life and question it.

I, for one, am intent on seeing opera thrive in the future, and the Formations Masterclasses grew out of two desires that drove my early ambitions onwards. The first was a longing to create new operas, and the second was a determination to provide emerging artists with opportunities to hone their performance techniques, studying under the tutelage of world-renowned opera professionals. In short, I wanted to create the kind of artistic-training environment that I went in search of when I first pursued a career as an opera director.

I am proud to be able to say that Formations doesn’t just succeed in helping theatre-based artists to develop their production skills, as it also manages to shine some of its limelight on eclectic new operas, allowing composers and librettists to showcase their curious, wonderful, and rapturous works to a diverse cross section of operagoers.

Formations is very much a frontier programme, and I am extremely grateful to everyone who has chosen to venture into the limitless potential of the great operatic unknown with Helios.

Ella

Ella Marchment
Artistic Director
Helios Collective

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

THANK YOU

Helios Collective would like to thank the masterclass leaders and everyone involved in staging Formations 2017 for their help, kindness, and generosity.

Thousands of hours of work are needed each year to plan and produce Formations, with numerous volunteers freely giving their time to help the next generation of opera-makers take significant steps in their careers. From all of us to all of you: thank you.

Helios would also like to thank English National Opera, Bury Court Opera, Opera Awards Foundation, PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund, the music department of King’s College London, and Stone House for the wide-ranging support and advice they have offered.

And, of course, Helios Collective would like to thank everyone who has helped the company to blossom and grow, and to say a big thank you to you for attending Formations 2017 and sharing your love of opera with us.

Opera – we make it just for you.

For more information, please visit Helios’s website, or subscribe to Helios’s mailing list for the latest news and developments. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

HELIOS COLLECTIVE PEOPLE

Ella Marchment – Artistic Director

Noah Mosley – Music Director

Robert Harm – Production Manager

Laura Furner – Production Assistant & PR Manager

The Masterclasses

Masterclass Introduction

Masterclass Leaders

Masterclass Operas

MASTERCLASS INTRODUCTION

Helios Collective’s Formations 2017 is an opera-masterclass programme for emerging artists, hosted this year in conjunction with English National Opera.

Following an open invitation to composers and librettists, asking them to put forward their ideas for new operatic works, two compositions were finally selected for production as part of Formations 2017: hunger and The Storm.

With each opera having its own cast and crew, the production teams rehearse their works before the masterclasses begin, and then refine their ideas based on the feedback given by the masterclass leaders, ready for two evenings of performances.

Participants from previous Formations programmes have gone on to work for major opera companies worldwide, as well as winning international awards for their work.

Welcome to Formations 2017: your gateway to the future of opera.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

MASTERCLASS LEADERS

The masterclass leaders for Formations 2017 are Judith Weir, Daniel Kramer, and Stephen Barlow.

Previous masterclass leaders have included Kasper Holten, David Parry, Stephen Unwin, Robert Saxton, Janis Kelly, Mark Wigglesworth, Jonathan Moore, and David Pountney.

Stephen Barlow – Musical Performance

Judith Weir – Composing

Daniel Kramer – Directing

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

MASTERCLASS OPERAS

The two masterclass operas for Formations 2017 are hunger, by composer Joanna Ward and librettist Ryan Hay, and The Storm, by composer and librettist Lewis Coenen-Rowe.

Helios Collective is also proud to host two performances of the critically acclaimed Mad King Suibhne, by composer Noah Mosley and librettist Ivo Mosley, supported by Bury Court Opera.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

The Operas

hunger

The Storm

Mad King Suibhne

hunger

hunger – Synopsis

hunger – Creatives

hunger – Cast

hunger – Musicians

HUNGER – SYNOPSIS

Joanna Ward and Ryan Hay’s hunger is an original operetta, inspired by Franz Kafka’s A Hunger Artist. Kafka’s story is predicated on how artists have to adapt their work for commercial and critical success – how every performance is dependent on its audience and reception – and hunger explores this process of self-editing and self-censoring in the face of criticism in the life and work of female artists.

‘The Artist’ in hunger is, like Kafka’s artist, deep into a long-term performance piece, but rather than a literal cage, our artist sequesters herself away within a semblance of family life.

When we were writing this, we read over a lot of Yuriko Saito’s work, whose ideas about the aesthetic of the everyday inform her work at the Rhode Island School of Design, but they also seem, for us, to call into question the barriers that are established between being a woman and being an artist. If the home can be an art object, how can anyone assert that a woman ought to be a homemaker instead of an artist, if those two can be one and the same? This became our Artist’s project – she strives for aesthetic beauty every day in her performance of this domestic life, and in doing so tries to defy any reductive categorisation as ‘mother’ or ‘wife’ or ‘homemaker’.

But the performance can’t continue without an audience. As her agent the Impresario explains, with public interest waning in the piece, it risks ceasing to be art at all, if nobody is there to behold it – paintings can go in a gallery; a life can’t.

The piece is concerned with the stifling of feminine voices in the creative sphere, and so the artist never speaks in the presence of others – she can be present, opinionated, human on her own, but she is subjectified, reduced, and silenced in anyone else’s presence.

The music draws on this non-naturalistic, stylised reflection of the artist’s situation, as well as Joanna’s own musical aesthetic, to result in a score filled with unsettling repetitions, expansive tonal stasis, and gradually shifting timbral effects. The lack of obvious or readily accessible musical tension adds to the cloud of uncertainty and difficulty around the power relationships depicted. Simultaneously, the musical associations which develop around each character, as well as the sometimes austere, sometimes deceptively welcoming sound-world, add to the stylisation of the piece as a whole – jarring with the extremely real and pertinent issues at hand.

There’s an easy way to break down the barriers facing women’s art and women’s perspectives: look at, and listen to, the work of women artists. Normalise the female artist, talk to her, but for god’s sake, don’t ask if her children impact on her work.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

HUNGER – CREATIVES

Joanna Ward – Composer

Ryan Hay – Librettist

Noah Mosley – Conductor

Freya Wynn-Jones – Director

Emma Black – Assistant Director

Constance Villemot – Designer

Daniel Chappell – Répétiteur

Beatrice Wallbank – Stage Manager

HUNGER – CAST

Eleanor Garside – The Artist, Light Soprano

Rosie Middleton – The Impresario, Contralto

Jezz Saint-James – Watcher 1, Tenor

Callum Speed – Watcher 2, Baritone

Geoff Williams – Watcher 3, Bass

HUNGER – MUSICIANS

Roman Lytwyniw – Violin

Victoria Bernath – Viola

Sarah Berger – Cello

Katy Ovens – Flute and Piccolo

Joseph Shiner – Clarinet and Bass Clarinet

The Storm

The Storm – Synopsis

The Storm – Creatives

The Storm – Cast

The Storm – Musicians

THE STORM – SYNOPSIS

Kate Chopin’s 1898 short story The Storm was not published until after her death. In all likelihood the narrative’s content was considered too controversial for publication to be possible at the time. In short, the story is about a woman, Calixta, who has an extramarital affair under the cover of an unexpected storm. And then… nothing happens. There are no negative repercussions, her husband doesn’t suspect anything, she feels no apparent guilt and, if anything, is rejuvenated by the experience. Such ostensible immorality, as well as the story’s frank and detailed depiction of the sexual encounter, reads like a deliberate challenge to nineteenth-century standards of morality.

However, Chopin’s story sets out to do more than simply shock. The depiction of the affair is complex and delicately balanced. The characters are not entirely satisfied with their lives, but neither are they truly unhappy. Calixta is neither seducer nor seduced. Her actions are neither condoned nor condemned. Chopin’s story seems to point out two things. Firstly, both happiness and morality are more complex and multifaceted entities than we usually admit. Secondly, contrary to narrative logic, sometimes stuff just happens, events occur in isolation and don’t lead on to anything, and that’s how life goes. Just as the storm that provides the cover for their affair cares nothing for human order or continuity, so does the narrative shape.

This operatic adaptation seeks to be as faithful as possible to Chopin’s tale, while allowing it to take on a new light through the medium of music and staging, and through the perspective of twenty-first-century audiences. The script uses a combination of Chopin’s idiosyncratic handling of the Louisiana bayou dialect – a melting pot of Deep South slang, flavoured with a liberal helping of colloquial French and her rich and highly symbolic descriptive writing. The characters mainly converse as we would expect them to, but occasionally step outside of themselves to comment on the action from the perspective of an author.

The music does not attempt to relate to the story’s time and place, but instead deals with the issue of combining the sonic portrayal of something as large and inhuman as the storm, with something as small and intimate as the characters, their emotions, and relationships. Static harmonies and frenetic textures are combined with delicate and fragile melodies, with the balance continually shifting between the two. In this way, the music aims to replicate Chopin’s literary alternation between the neutral, disinterred perspective of nature and the empathetic, sentimental perspective of her characters’ inner thoughts.

The Storm may have been defined by controversy, but it is not limited to that. Like a bolt of lightning, it shocks but also illuminates. From a modern-day perspective, it emerges as a highly perceptive moral critique, as well as a warm and generous human drama. This operatic adaptation treats Chopin’s story not simply as a historical document, but also as a tale that still demands attention today, a rumble of thunder that refuses to die away.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

THE STORM – CREATIVES

Lewis Coenen-Rowe – Composer and Librettist

Noah Mosley – Conductor

Adam Lenson – Director

Gareth Mattey – Assistant Director

Robert Allan – Répétiteur

Beatrice Wallbank – Stage Manager

THE STORM – CAST

Isabella Cheevers – Calixta, Alto

Jolyon Loy – Bobinot, Bass

Laura Monaghan – Bibi, Soprano

Dominic Stewart – Alcee Laballiere, Tenor

THE STORM – MUSICIANS

Roman Lytwyniw – Violin

Victoria Bernath – Viola

Sarah Berger – Cello

Katy Ovens – Flute and Piccolo

Joseph Shiner – Clarinet and Bass Clarinet

Mad King Suibhne

Mad King Suibhne – Synopsis

Mad King Suibhne – Creatives

Mad King Suibhne – Cast

Mad King Suibhne – Musicians

MAD KING SUIBHNE – SYNOPSIS

Mad King Suibhne – pronounced Sweeney – is a new opera by composer and music director Noah Mosley.

Based on an Irish poem that was probably compiled in the twelfth century, it explores what happens after King Suibhne kills his childhood friend during a battle.

Suibhne goes mad at the violence of the world and flees to a forest, where he finds some comfort in nature and discovers that he is able to withstand certain temptations. He is coaxed home by a supportive witch, the trickery of his half-brother, and the thoughts of his wife, Queen Eorann. Having returned to his kingdom, he finally accepts the need to govern the world he is faced with wisely, rather than despair at all of its imperfections.

The libretto of Mad King Suibhne brilliantly balances a fast-paced and magical world of animals, colour, and the supernatural with more serious themes, such as the difficulty of loving someone with a mental illness and the potentially destructive effects of an aggressively competitive society.

The conflict between wildness and civilisation is ongoing, but the original poem and the opera deal with an even more important topic that is still relevant to us today: our desire to make the world a better place and how hard it is to act out that desire.

Librettist Ivo Mosley has published a scene-by-scene guide to Mad King Suibhne on his website.

★★★★
Noah Mosley’s score is varied, lively and energised: rich in instrumental colour from a small ensemble, it contains some divine upper string writing, and – these being Celtic lands – makes effective use of the harp and horn.
Opera Now

★★★★
Mosley, clearly has a gift for melody. Ella Marchment’s production, in Holly Pigott’s simple but atmospheric and versatile decor, had a lot of ground – and some water and air – to cover, but it did so fluently, inventively and with both pathos and humour.
Opera Magazine

★★★★
Mad King Suibhne was an impressive and at times powerful piece on a difficult subject, and it is to Noah Mosley and Ella Marchment’s credit that the audience was held spellbound for ninety minutes and applauded enthusiastically afterwards.
Planet Hugill

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

MAD KING SUIBHNE – CREATIVES

Noah Mosley – Composer and Conductor

Ivo Mosley – Librettist

Ella Marchment – Director

Judith Thei – Assistant Director

Suzanne Lemeuix – Producer

Holly Pigott – Designer

Sarah Louise Kristiansen – Movement Director

Ughetta Pratesi – Movement Director

Ben Pickersgill – Lighting Designer

Robert Harm – Production Manager

Laurie O’Brien – Répétiteur

MAD KING SUIBHNE – CAST

Ricardo Panela – King Suibhne

Iúnó Connolly – Woman at Well

Kieran White – Guaire

Henry Grant Kerswell – Lynschecan

Jennifer Parker – Witch

Isolde Roxby – Queen Eorann

Ozlem Celik – Stag

Katie Sazanova – Blackbird

Yara Zeitoun – Ensemble

Anna Mclachlan – Ensemble

Madeleine Joyce – Ensemble

Kathleen Greene – Ensemble

Charlotte North – Ensemble

Olivia Martin – Ensemble

MAD KING SUIBHNE – MUSICIANS

Makoto Nakata – Violin 1

Roman Lytwyniw – Violin 2

Victoria Bernath – Viola

Sarah Berger – Cello

Giuseppe Ciraso Calì – Double Bass

Katie Sazanova – Flute

Ozlem Celik – Clarinet and Bass Clarinet

Charlie Ransley – Horn

Sinéad Frost – Bassoon

Zita Silva – Harp

The Artists

Adam Lenson

Anna Mclachlan

Beatrice Wallbank

Ben Pickersgill

Callum Speed

Charlie Ransley

Charlotte North

Constance Villemot

Daniel Chappell

Daniel Kramer

Dominic Stewart

Eleanor Garside

Ella Marchment

Emma Black

Freya Wynn-Jones

Gareth Mattey

Geoff Williams

Giuseppe Ciraso Calì

Henry Grant Kerswell

Holly Pigott

Isabella Cheevers

Isolde Roxby

Iúnó Connolly

Ivo Mosley

Jennifer Parker

Jezz Saint-James

Joanna Ward

Jolyon Loy

Joseph Shiner

Judith Thei

Judith Weir

Kathleen Greene

Katie Sazanova

Katy Ovens

Kieran White

Laura Furner

Laura Monaghan

Laurie O’Brien

Lewis Coenen-Rowe

Madeleine Joyce

Makoto Nakata

Noah Mosley

Olivia Martin

Ozlem Celik

Ricardo Panela

Robert Allan

Robert Harm

Roman Lytwyniw

Rosie Middleton

Ryan Hay

Sarah Berger

Sarah Louise Kristiansen

Sinéad Frost

Stephen Barlow

Suzanne Lemeuix

Ughetta Pratesi

Victoria Bernath

Yara Zeitoun

Zita Silva

ADAM LENSON

Director – The Storm

Adam Lenson is a director who specialises in contemporary theatre and new writing, with a particular emphasis on innovative new forms of music theatre.

Adam’s directing credits include Superhero for Southwark Playhouse; 35mm for The Other Palace Studio; Songs For A New World for St James Theatre; Whisper House for The Other Palace Theatre; The Sorrows of Satan and The Quentin Dentin Show for Tristan Bates Theatre; Disgraced for English Theatre Frankfurt; Dark Tourism for Park Theatre; See What I Wanna See for Jermyn Street Theatre; Reel Life for Ustinov Theatre Bath and St James Studio; The Goodbye Girl for Upstairs at the Gatehouse; West End Recast for Duke of York’s Theatre and Phoenix Theatre; Ordinary Days for Trafalgar Studios; Little Fish and Saturn Returns for Finborough Theatre; Come Fly With Me for Salisbury Playhouse; and The Family for Old Vic US–UK Exchange, Public Theater, New York.

His associate and assistant directing credits include work with Terry Johnson, John Doyle, Victoria Wood, Stephen Daldry, Nancy Meckler, Roxana Silbert, Maria Friedman, David Grindley, and Lindsay Posner, at venues including Hampstead Theatre, The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Menier Chocolate Factory, on tour, and in the West End.

In 2016 Adam was a recipient of the Kevin Spacey Artists of Choice Award for British Musical Theatre, for which he is currently developing Wasted, a new rock musical about the Brontës. The piece had a workshop production last year at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

ANNA MCLACHLAN

Ensemble – Mad King Suibhne

Anna Marie McLachlan completed a master’s degree in vocal performance at Trinity Laban Conservatoire, taught by Alison Wells and Robert Bottriel. While there, she participated in the English National Opera Mentor Scheme.

Anna was recently a young artist with Bury Court Opera, performing in the ensemble of mad voices and covering the title role in the premiere of Mad King Suibhne by Noah Mosley. Other roles include Cherubino in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Nancy in Britten’s Albert Herring, Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, La Ciesca in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Hänsel cover in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, Dorabella in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, Instigator in Simone Spagnolo’s It Makes No Difference at the Têtê à Têtê Opera Festival, and Rosina in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Italian Cultural Institute.

Anna was recently a finalist in the Schubert Song Prize and a participant in a masterclass with Felicity Lott at the London Song Festival.

Solo performances include Berio’s folk songs at the Southbank Centre, solos in Vivaldi’s Gloria and Haydn’s Nelson Mass at Exeter Cathedral, and participation in Eugene Asti’s Richard Strauss project.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

BEATRICE WALLBANK

Stage Manager – hunger

Stage Manager – The Storm

Beatrice Wallbank has over nine years of experience working backstage, mostly in opera.

Beatrice’s recent credits include deputy stage manager on The Magic Flute for Mid Wales Opera, assistant stage manager on Silver Birch for Garsington Opera at Wormsley, and stage crew on Garsington Opera’s 2017 season for The Marriage of Figaro, Semele, Il Turco in Italia, and Pelléas et Mélisande. She first worked for Helios Collective on Dido & Belinda in 2016, and then on Formations 2016, and she is very excited to be coming back to work with Helios again.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

BEN PICKERSGILL

Lighting Designer – Mad King Suibhne

Ben Pickersgill enjoys a varied career, working across theatre and opera of varying styles and scales. He has worked with numerous companies, including the National Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre, and Royal Shakespeare Company.

Recent lighting designs include Trouble in Tahiti for Opera North; L’Ospedale and Mad King Suibhne for Bury Court Opera; Snow for Opera Story; Sonny for Arts Ed; Carmen, Idomeneo, and Noye’s Fludde for Blackheath Halls; Cabaret for Aberdeen Arts Centre; Into the Woods for Bridewell Theatre; and La Rondine for Go Opera.

As an associate lighting designer, Ben’s projects include the Little Greats season for Opera North; This House for Garrick Theatre; and Soul for Royal and Derngate in Northampton. Credits as lighting programmer include Hamlet, Cymbeline, Doctor Faustus, and Don Quixote for RSC; Werther, The Tales of Hoffmann, and Pelléas et Mélisande for English Touring Opera; and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui for Minerva Theatre and Duchess Theatre.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

CALLUM SPEED

Watcher 1, Tenor – hunger

Baritone Callum Speed recently graduated from Goldsmiths, University of London, with a first-class bachelor’s degree with honours in music, having studied with Nan Christie. He won the Goldsmiths Concerto Competition and completed his choral scholarship with St Margaret’s Lee in 2016.

As a soloist, Callum’s performances include Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn and Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music at Goldsmiths Sinfonia; Stainer’s The Crucifixion at St Margaret’s Lee Church; and Stanford’s Songs of the Sea at Deptford Town Hall. Callum has worked with OperaGold for three years, taking on roles that have included the chorus of Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, conducted by David Syrus; the world premiere of Robin Haigh’s The Man Who Woke Up; the part of Ben in Menotti’s The Telephone; and, most recently, playing The Sorceress in Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas.

Callum made his professional operatic debut with Helios Collective in Dido & Belinda. With Helios, Callum has also sung at the International Opera Awards, held at the London Coliseum. Callum’s future engagements include the premiere of a new commission by Charlie Wells for the First World War centenary, called Symphony For The Mothers and Sons.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

CHARLIE RANSLEY

Horn – Mad King Suibhne

Charlie Ransley graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 2015, where he was awarded a scholarship to complete his postgraduate horn studies with Michael Thompson, Richard Watkins, and Martin Owen. Charlie is currently studying with Lisa Ford at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

Since graduating, Charlie has worked with numerous orchestras, including the London Sinfonietta, Eroica Ensemble, Jersey Chamber Orchestra, and London Sinfonietta Academy, as well as performing the concertos of Mozart and Strauss as a soloist with Barnet Symphony Orchestra and Aldwych Sinfonia.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

CHARLOTTE NORTH

Ensemble – Mad King Suibhne

Charlotte North studied postgraduate singing under Sarah Rhodes and Louise Winter at the Royal Northern College of Music, where she was awarded a scholarship from the D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust. She also received the Eva Turner Award, the Contemporary Music Performance Prize, and was a finalist in the Frederic Cox Award.

Roles include Drusilla in L’incoronazione di Poppea for Longborough Festival Opera Young Artists; Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore and Frasquita in Carmen for Barefoot Opera; Governess in Turn of the Screw for Manchester Opera Ensemble; Musetta cover in La Bohème for Woodhouse Opera; and Greta Fiorentino in Street Scene for RNCM.

Charlotte made her concert debut at the Wigmore Hall in 2016 as the soloist in Harrison Birtwistle’s The Woman and the Hare. Charlotte now studies privately in London under Susan Roberts.

Charlotte is also a qualified solicitor and works in the financial regulation department at Linklaters.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

CONSTANCE VILLEMOT

Designer – hunger

Constance Villemot is currently reading for a master’s degree in scenography at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, having graduated from Guildhall School of Music and Drama with a bachelor’s degree in technical theatre, specialising in design realisation. She has also completed a HND in spatial design, focussing on set design, architecture, and landscape design; and a foundation year at École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués et des Métiers d’Art – Olivier de Serres in Paris.

While studying at Guildhall, Constance worked on several productions in a number of different roles, including working as a set designer for a performance of classical and contemporary operatic excerpts, directed by Stephen Medcalf; as a scenic-art coordinator in Great Expectations, directed by Christian Burgess; as a props coordinator in Mavra and Iolanta, directed by Kelly Robinson; and as a construction manager in Tale of Januarie, directed by Martin Lloyd Evans.

Constance recently worked as the assistant set designer to Ruth Patton on an English National Opera-Baylis summer workshop of Aida, directed by Freya Wynn-Jones.

She has also completed one month’s work experience with the Stray Cats Theatre Company in Australia, working on Miss Saigon, directed by Karen Francis; and a work placement at Comédie-Française in Paris, working as a prop maker on L’Hotel du Libre Échange, directed by Isabelle Nanty, and Le Testament de Marie, directed by Deborah Warner.

Constance has also worked as a model-box assistant for a number of designers, including Dick Bird.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

DANIEL CHAPPELL

Répétiteur – hunger

Salford-born composer and pianist Daniel Lee Chappell recently graduated from the Royal College of Music with a master’s in composition, where he was a Robert McFadzean Whyte Scholar, studying with Kenneth Hesketh. Prior to this, he studied piano with the acclaimed concert pianist and recording artist Andrew Wilde, with the financial support of the North West Arts Trust.

His expertise in the music of contemporary composers has seen him perform with London Sinfonietta Academy under Pierre-Andre Valade, as well as tours across the UK, USA, and Russia with numerous ensembles, including Melos Sinfonia, Illinois Modern Ensemble, ddmmyy series, Asyla Ensemble, and Khymerikal. His work as a soloist has included performances of Luigi Nono’s ...sofferte onde serene... and Messiaen’s piano concerto Oiseaux Exotiques, among a wide repertoire that spans from the baroque to world premieres.

His own music has been featured at major festivals and venues across the UK, including the St Magnus Festival, New Music North West, Arts Theatre Leicester Square, Palaver Festival, and National Portrait Gallery, and been performed by Psappha, BBC Singers, Manchester Camerata, Quator Danel, Spectra Ensemble, and Helios Collective, among others.

This summer he was also awarded a scholarship by the Fondation de Amis Royaumont to attend the Voix Nouvelles Course at Royaumont Abbey in France, where he worked with soprano Juliet Fraser and string quartet Quatuor Tana on a new work. His full-length ballet collaboration with Spectra Ensemble was premiered at The Place dance studios as part of the Tête à Tête festival in July.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

DANIEL KRAMER

Artistic Director – Masterclass Leader

Daniel Kramer is the artistic director of English National Opera.

His most-notable credits include Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Strindberg’s Dream Play, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sadko, in addition to Verdi’s La traviata, Purcell’s King Arthur, and Pélleas et Mélisande for Mariinsky Theatre and Bolshoi Theatre; Carmen for Vlaamse Opera and Opera North; Punch and Judy for Grand Théâtre Geneva and ENO – Outstanding Achievement in Opera, South Bank Award; Bluebeard’s Castle for Mariinsky Theatre, Bolshoi Theatre – Golden Mask Award, and ENO; Pictures from an Exhibition for Sadler’s Wells and Young Vic; The Serpent for Brown / Trinity Rep; King Kong for Regent Theatre, Australia; Angels in America for Headlong Theatre, Glasgow Citizens Theatre, and Lyric Hammersmith; Woyzeck for St Ann’s Warehouse; Bent, starring Alan Cumming, for Trafalgar Studios; Hair and Woyzeck for Gate Theatre; and Through the Leaves, starring Simon Callow and Ann Mitchell, for Southwark Playhouse and Duchess Theatre.

Daniel is a New York City Drama League Fellow, and he was educated at Northwestern University, Ecole de Mime Corporeal Dramatique, International School of commedia dell’arte, and Circus Space.

Daniel was an associate at both the Gate Theatre in Notting Hill and the Young Vic, and a creative associate at the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has also been a guest artist and professor at Harvard University, Brown University, New York University, Northwestern, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

DOMINIC STEWART

Alcee Laballiere, Tenor – The Storm

Dominic Stewart graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music in 2015, where he had studied with Peter Wilson.

While studying at the RNCM, Dominic sang the roles of St Brioche in The Merry Widow and Paul in Company. In scenes, he sang Dormont in La Scala di Seta, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, Schmidt in Werther, and Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire. Roles performed include The Defendant in Trial by Jury, for Opera on Location; Romeo Coates in Malcolm Williamson’s English Eccentrics, for British Youth Opera; and cover for the role of Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore, for OPRA Cymru.

Dominic’s oratorio repertoire as a soloist has included Beethoven’s Mass in C at Southwell Minster; Mozart’s Requiem and Coronation Mass with Fleetwood and District Choral Society; Eternal Light with Blackburn Choral Society; and multiple performances of Handel’s Messiah.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

ELEANOR GARSIDE

The Artist, Light Soprano – hunger

Eleanor Garside, originally from Oldham in Lancashire, is a graduate of the University of Manchester and the Royal Northern College of Music, and she recently completed the ENO Opera Works professional development course. She has been a recipient of the Lees Award, Proctor Gregg Prize, Richard Newitt Fund Award, Claire Croiza Prize for French Song, and Frederic Cox Prize for Singing, as well as being a finalist for the Elizabeth Harwood Award at the RNCM. As a freelance performer, she won second prize in the AESS Patricia Routledge Prize for English Song and was a semi-finalist in both the Royal Overseas League Vocal Competition and the Mozart Competition.

Eleanor has performed the roles of Yum Yum in The Mikado, Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance, Belinda in Dido and Aeneas, Miss Wordsworth in Albert Herring, Atalanta in Xerxes, Jano in Jenufa, Helene in Koanga, and Papagena and First Boy in The Magic Flute. She has covered the roles of Pamina in The Magic Flute for Young Opera Venture, and First Niece in Peter Grimes for Grange Park Opera. She has also been a chorus member for Grange Park Opera and Wexford Festival Opera.

A frequent performer with choral societies, Eleanor’s recent performances have included Mendelssohn’s Elijah, with Bolton Choral Union; Handel’s Messiah, with Salford Choral Society; Bach’s Magnificat, with Ellesmere Port Choral Society; and Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, with Phoenix Operatic Society.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

ELLA MARCHMENT

Artistic Director – Helios Collective
Director – Mad King Suibhne

Ella Marchment – artistic director of Helios Collective and director of productions for Constella OperaBallet – has worked on over eighty opera and theatre productions throughout Europe, and produced over one hundred events that span opera, ballet, musicals, concerts, theatre, comedy, workshops, club nights, art installations, and development programmes.

In 2017 Ella directed the International Opera Awards ceremony held at the London Coliseum in Covent Garden, home to English National Opera.

‘A big thank you to the remarkable Ella Marchment, who directed tonight’s show. Our best ever.’
International Opera Awards

Ella’s many directing credits include a groundbreaking reimagining of Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas as Dido & Belinda in London; Alexander Goehr’s Tryptich at Mariinsky II; an opera–ballet production of Stravinsky’s Renard; a lauded international tour of Peter Maxwell Davies’s Eight Songs For A Mad King; London productions of Verdi’s Macbeth and A Masked Ball with Opera Integra; a semi-staging of Puccini’s Il Tabarro at LSO St Luke’s; the world premiere of Noah Mosley’s Mad King Suibhne for Bury Court Opera; acclaimed performances of Briar Kit Esme’s Hathaway – Eight Arias For A Bardic Life, Christopher Hogg’s Il Letto, Verdi’s Otello, Charpentier’s Louise, and Mozart’s Lucio Silla at Buxton Opera; and a sell-out West End run of An Evening With Lucian Freud, starring Cressida Bonas. Ella is also co-founder of Theatre N16, a London-based arts company that promotes new plays and opera adaptations.

‘There is no doubt that Ella will be an important part of the UK and international theatre and opera scene in years to come.’
Kasper Holten, Director of Opera, Royal Opera House

Ella has worked for world-renowned organisations, including the Royal Opera House, International Opera Awards, Wexford Opera, Copenhagen Opera, Bury Court Opera, Opera Mass Actions, International Opera, Buxton Opera, Melos Sinfonia, and Opera Integra. She is committed to creating professional development opportunities for young and established artists, as well as to solving the problems that impact on opera’s accessibility and reach. Ella particularly enjoys presenting opera with a twist, having written and directed a play–opera adaptation of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger, staged an electric rock-opera version of Puccini’s Tosca, and established an opera club-night series, called Toi Toi, in Peckham, London.

‘In Ella Marchment, I see a director and artistic leader of imagination, assurance and style.’
Bernard Hughes

In 2015 Ella became the first director to receive an International Opera Awards foundation bursary. Her work is currently supported by Arts Council England and The British Council Artists International Development Fund, in association with Den Jyske Opera – the Danish National Opera.

Ella’s past, current, and future productions are detailed in her online diary.

You can find out more about Ella in the following interviews:

+ M Magazine, PRS – Performing Right Society for Music

+ Resonance FM

Or you can subscribe to Ella’s mailing list by clicking here.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

EMMA BLACK

Assistant Director – hunger

Emma Black studied classical literature and English at the University of Leeds, before going on to work for the chorus and orchestra department of Opera North.

She has been assistant director on La Fanciulla del West, The Coronation of Poppea, Swanhunter, The Ring Cycle, Trial By Jury, Trouble in Tahiti, and Cavalleria Rusticana for Opera North; Albert Herring for Hampstead Garden Opera; The Lighthouse for Royal Opera House, The Fairy Queen for Academy of Ancient Music, Cinderella for HighTime Opera; and Cenerentola for Lyric Opera Studio Weimar.

Emma has recently directed The Wandering Scholar for Northern Opera Group; La Voix Humaine for PB&J Opera; The Magic Flute for Leeds Youth Opera; HMS Pinafore for Athena Opera; and The Bear for The Living Room Opera Company.

Future engagements include a return to Lyric Opera Studio Weimar in 2018 to assist on The Marriage of Figaro.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

FREYA WYNN-JONES

Director – hunger

Freya Wynn-Jones is a director and singer who takes on projects across a wide range of professional and community settings. Freya has been involved in numerous collaborations to write, compose, and devise new works, while also venturing to find contemporary resonances in pieces from the long-standing repertoire.

Recent projects include directing ENO’s Youth Company in Threads of The Past, The Marigold That Goes To Bed With The Sun, and Speak Some Truth, and directing The Royal Opera House’s abridged Boheme, performed at The Curve in Leicester as part of the Opera Exposed programme. This autumn, Freya is involved in bringing work to the V&A with Garsington Opera and ENO for the Opera: Passion, Power and Politics exhibition, as well as directing Tchaikovsky And The Marvellous Kingdom with Aurora Orchestra for its Far Far Away series.

In 2018 Freya will be creating new work for Spitalfields 2017 Open Call.

At the heart of Freya’s work is truthful storytelling and a desire to test how the voice, in all its forms, can enhance the theatrical experience and connection.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

GARETH MATTEY

Assistant Director – The Storm

Director and librettist Gareth Mattey recently graduated from Cambridge University, and is now studying for a master’s in opera making and writing at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

While studying at Cambridge, Gareth directed many modern and contemporary operas, including Britten’s Curlew River, Weir’s King Harald’s Saga, Dove’s Tobias and the Angel, and Tavener’s Mary of Egypt, as well as developing three new operas, subsequently taking one – Owain Park’s The Snow Child – to Edinburgh.

Since graduating, Gareth has assisted with British Youth Opera, Cambridge Arts Theatre, Royal Academy Opera, and COSI 2017 in Sulmona, Italy. Gareth is also writing and directing his first short film with Random Acts North.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

GEOFF WILLIAMS

Watcher 3, Bass – hunger

Baritone Geoff Williams received a master’s degree with distinction from the Royal Academy of Music. He is an accomplished soloist and sings with some of the top choirs in London. His recent solo work includes Bach’s St John Passion, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater, and Verdi’s Requiem.

Geoff is a founder member of a four-part group called Ensemble Floriade that specialises in male-voice repertoire. Other ensembles include The Templar Scholars, The Epiphoni Consort, and Blossom Street. He also sings regularly at some of London’s top churches, such as Westminster Cathedral, Brompton Oratory, and St Bartholomew the Great. He is also on the Professional Singers Scheme with the Philharmonia Chorus, which has enabled him to work with some of the world’s top conductors, including Semyon Bychkov, Christoph von Dohnányi, Vasily Petrenko, and Yaron Traub.

Geoff has recently performed the roles of Don Alfonso in a set of opera scenes from Cosi fan tutti with the Royal Academy of Music, and General Achilla from Giulio Cesare with Kings College Opera. He has also appeared in high-profile events, such as Terry Pratchett’s memorial concert at the Barbican, and the documentary The Joy of Rachmaninoff, broadcast on BBC 4. Geoff studies with Giles Underwood and Gavin Carr.

Upcoming solo concerts include Ode to St Cecilia for Bath Minerva Choir in November 2017, and Carmina Burana for Bristol Choral Society in March 2018.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

GIUSEPPE CIRASO CALÌ

Double Bass – Mad King Suibhne

Giuseppe Ciraso Calì is a double bassist who studied at the Conservatory of Vicenza with Gergely Járdány, graduating in 2013.

After spending some time in Budapest, he pursued a master’s degree at the Music and Art University of the City of Vienna, formerly known as Konservatorium Wien. There he had the chance to study with Botond Kostyak of Orchestre National de Lyon, Herbert Mayr of Vienna Opera House and Wiener Philharmoniker, and Patxi Montero of Europa Galante. He also participated in masterclasses with Ernst Weissensteiner of Vienna Symphony Orchestra and Uli Fussenegger of Klangforum Wien, the national new music ensemble of Austria.

Giuseppe was a member of Southbank Sinfonia in 2015, gaining comprehensive experience of chamber music, chamber orchestra, opera, and the symphonic repertoire, playing alongside established orchestras in London. He now enjoys a busy freelance career, being active in a broad variety of projects from symphony to education. He has a soft spot for contemporary chamber music on one hand, and opera and anything theatre-based on the other.

Some of Giuseppe’s recent engagements include the award-winning production of Amadeus at the National Theatre, in which the orchestra takes a central onstage role as a full character in the play; a musical at Charing Cross theatre; Peter Maxwell Davies’s The Lighthouse for Shadwell Opera; Noah Mosley’s Mad King Suibhne for Helios Collective and Bury Court Opera; George Benjamin’s Written on Skin for Melos Sinfonia; Arch Sinfonia at Swaledale Chamber Music Festival in Yorkshire; and Army of Generals orchestra with Charles Hazelwood at Glastonbury Festival.

Giuseppe is currently putting together three different projects in chamber and new music.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

HENRY GRANT KERSWELL

Lynschecan – Mad King Suibhne

Henry Grant Kerswell trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and as a Young Artist with the Britten–Pears Programme and Grange Park Opera.

Since making his debut as a principal for Opera Holland Park, Henry has gone on to sing with many companies, including Scottish Opera, Opera North, Birmingham Opera Company, Bergen National Opera, English Touring Opera, Royal Opera House, Wexford Festival Opera, Opera de Bauge, and Bury Court Opera.

Henry’s roles have included Angelotti in Tosca, Don Alfonso in Così Fan Tutti, Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Simone in Gianni Schicchi, Bartolo in Le Nozze di Figaro, Bartolo in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Snug in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Grenvil in La Traviata, Talpa in Il tabarro, Sergeant of the Police in Pirates of Penzance, Narumov in Queen of Spades, Krilycov in il Risurrezione, and Robin in Guglielmo Ratcliff.

Future plans include a return to Opera Holland Park in 2018 to sing Grenvil in La Traviata.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

HOLLY PIGOTT

Designer – Mad King Suibhne

Designer Holly Pigott graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in 2011. She was a finalist in the Linbury Prize for stage design and also completed a year-long placement as a trainee designer with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Her design credits include La Scala Di Seta at Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House; The Island for the JMK Award at Young Vic; Little Wolf at Chapter Arts Centre; International Opera Awards at London Coliseum; Skin A Cat at Vault Festival and Bunker; Klippies, East Of Berlin, and Monster at Southwark Playhouse; Constellations at Theatre Municipal De Fontainebleau; The Prophet at Gate Theatre; Sex With A Stranger at Trafalgar Studios; Elegy For A Lady and The Yalta Game at Salisbury Playhouse; Fleabag for Underbelly at Soho Theatre and UK tour; Lean at Tristan Bates Theatre; Flashes at Soho Theatre; Now This Is Not The End, Façade, Eight Songs For A Mad King, Handel Furioso, and Sound Of A Voice at Arcola; Die Fledermaus for OperaUpClose at Kings Head Theatre; Below The Belt at Pleasance Courtyard and Omnibus Theatre; The Cage Birds at LAMDA’s Linbury Studio; and Who’s Afraid Of Rachel Roberts at Torch Theatre.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

ISABELLA CHEEVERS

Calixta, Alto – The Storm

Isabella Cheevers is currently completing her master’s degree in vocal performance at the Royal Northern College of Music. Prior to this, she graduated with first-class honours from The Queen’s College, Oxford University, where she studied under a choral scholarship.

Opera experiences include Dido in Dido and Aeneas and Mrs Noye in Britten’s Noye’s Fludde. RNCM roles in scenes include Ramiro in La Finta Giardiniera, Lucienne in Korngold’s Die tote Stadt, and Tisbe in La Cenerentola. In 2017 Isabella joined the chorus of Longborough Festival Opera for their production of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice.

On the concert platform, Isabella has appeared in various works, including Handel’s Messiah, Dixit Dominus, and Dettingen Te Deum; Bach’s St John Passion and Magnificat; Haydn’s Missa Sancti Nicolai; Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater; and Beethoven’s Mass in C.

She is also a regular recitalist, having performed at such venues as St Martin-in-the-Fields, Holywell Music Room, Foundling Museum, and Handel House Museum.

Isabella’s postgraduate studies are kindly supported by the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation Sarah Brightman Scholarship and the Richard Newitt Fund.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

ISOLDE ROXBY

Queen Eorann – Mad King Suibhne

Soprano Isolde Roxby graduated with distinction from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2015, having completed a master’s in vocal studies under the tutelage of Marilyn Rees, with the support of the National Opera Studio and The Ruby and Will George Trust.

In the last two years, she has performed with Bury Court Opera, Clonter Opera, Helios Collective, and Buxton Opera Festival, and has been heavily involved with the contemporary opera scene, being the first to sing roles in a number of new operatic works. In 2015 she performed one of these roles for Helios Collective’s Formations Masterclasses, working with Kasper Holten, Stephen Barlow, David Parry, Stephen Unwin, and Robert Saxton. In 2016 she sang the role of The Woman in The Yellow Wallpaper, a new work about a nameless young woman’s descent into psychosis as a result of being put through the ‘resting cure’. The piece was workshopped with Janis Kelly, Mark Wigglesworth, Jonathan Moore, David Pountney, and Judith Weir. Isolde also performed as Eorran with Bury Court Opera in a new opera written for her voice. For this, she received the following reviews:

‘Isolde Roxby carried her swooping phrases on lush tone.’
Opera Magazine

‘The aptly named Isolde Roxby, suitably moving.’
Opera Now

‘The soprano of Isolde Roxby is characterised by beauteous tone.’
MusicOHM

‘Isolde Roxby...powerful...moving.’
Planet Hugill

‘Superbly Sung...Moving Performance.’
Farnham Herald

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

Isolde has an extensive background in the performing arts, having been a member of the National Youth Theatre and a stage director for operas featuring young adults. She has appeared on television on a number of occasions for the BBC and Northern Film and Media. Most recently, she was filmed by Channel 4, performing ‘Roxana’s Aria’ for a short opera video, aired in autumn 2016. Originally from Newcastle, Isolde performed regularly in her local area. When she moved to London in 2009, she enjoyed singing with various choirs and performing roles alongside her academic studies, including Dido in Dido and Aeneas in 2009, Mabel in Pirates of Penzance in 2010, and Ida in Princess Ida in 2011. She graduated from King’s College London in 2011, where she was a choral scholar with the KCL Chapel Choir, singing solos for performances of Bach’s St John Passion and Duruflé’s Requiem.

Isolde’s other recent engagements were with Buxton Opera Festival as chorus and cover for the role of Lady Billows in Albert Herring, and as Belinda in a reconstruction of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Isolde is proud to be a 2016–17 Opera Awards Bursary recipient, and the 2016 winner of the John Kerr Award for English Song.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

IÚNÓ CONNOLLY

Woman at Well – Mad King Suibhne

Soprano Iúnó Connolly holds a master’s degree and diploma from the Royal Academy of Music, and a bachelor’s degree with honours from Birmingham Conservatoire.

She is a winner of the Elena Gehardt Lieder Prize; promising-singer prize at the Dean & Chadlington Singing Competition; Cecil Drew Oratorio Prize; and Vocal Competition at the International Eisteddfod. She has been a Josephine Baker Trust soloist; RAM / Kohn Foundation Bach Cantata soloist; and member of the academy’s prestigious Song Circle.

Engagements for 2017 have included appearances with English Voices in Don Giovanni and The Rake’s Progress at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence; soloist in L’inconnue de la Seine for Aldeburgh Music / ENOA; and recital debuts at Chipping Camden International Music Festival and 1901 Arts Club in London, with duo partner Dylan Perez. Earlier this year, the duo were semi-finalists in Das Lied – International Song Competition, held in Germany.

Forthcoming engagements include Woman at Well in Noah Mosley’s Mad King Suibhne; Orpah in Philip Hagemann’s new chamber opera Ruth; and recitals at St Martin-in-the-Fields and Schubert Society of Britain.

Iúnó is a Britten–Pears Young Artist; Concordia Foundation Artist; and BYO alumna, covering Vixen in The Cunning Little Vixen and seven soprano roles in English Eccentrics.

She is grateful for the generous support given by the Rothermere Foundation, Nicholas Boas Trust, Alice Coombes Trust, Jennifer Vyvyan scholarship, and Winship Foundation.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

IVO MOSLEY

Librettist – Mad King Suibhne

Writer Ivo Mosley holds a bachelor’s degree in Japanese from Oxford University, and a master’s in music theatre from Goldsmiths, London University.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

JENNIFER PARKER

Witch – Mad King Suibhne

Jennifer Parker completed her master’s degree with distinction at the Royal Northern College of Music in 2015, studying with Antonia Sotgiu and Louise Winter. While at college, she performed the roles of Valencienne in The Merry Widow and Jenny in Company, in addition to a variety of concert appearances, including Bernard Rands’ Walcott Songs and performances with the RNCM Jazz Collective.

Since graduating, Jennifer has performed with a range of prestigious companies, most notably Opera Holland Park, Wexford Festival Opera, Manchester Opera Ensemble, Buxton Festival, and the International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival. She has also premiered works at the North West New Music Festival and the International Opera Theater in Umbria, as well as participating in the young-artist platforms of both Helios Collective and Bury Court Opera. Jennifer has appeared in public masterclasses with Sarah Connolly, Juanjo Mena, David Poutney, and Mark Wigglesworth.

Jennifer is a keen recitalist and most recently returned from a concert series in Lithuania. Her oratorio performances include Verdi’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Mass in C, Bach’s Magnificat, Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater.

Jennifer is currently studying with Anthony Roden.

Her future engagements include performances of Karl Jenkins’s The Armed Man at Gainsborough Choral Society, Mendelssohn’s Elijah at the RNCM, and Elgar’s Sea Pictures in Dublin.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

JEZZ SAINT-JAMES

Watcher 2, Baritone – hunger

Tenor Jezz Saint-James completed the English National Opera’s Opera Works programme in 2009, and his performing roles to date have included Jaquino in Fidelio, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, Egeus in Giasone, Tito in La Clemenza di Tito, and Tamino in Magic Flute.

He’s played numerous principal roles with many of London’s leading small opera companies, including Tamino in Magic Flute and Bob Boles in Peter Grimes for LCM; Goro in Madame Butterfly for HGO; Alfredo in Die Fledermaus for SCO; and Albert and Mr Upfold in Albert Herring for Co-opera. With AIMS, Jezz has performed The Magician in The Consul, Mr Upfold in Albert Herring, First Commissaire in Carmelites, and Charlie in Mahagonny Songspiel.

With Unexpected Opera, Jezz played Count Almaviva in the hugely popular eighteen-month tour of their English adaptation of The Barber of Seville, followed by Orpheus and Mercury in their 2010 tour of Orpheus in the Underworld. Following on from appearing as a tenor soloist in Merry Opera’s staged Messiah in the winter of 2010, Jezz featured as one of the tenor soloists in a revival of Unexpected Opera’s sell-out tour of A Pastoral Messiah.

In 2013 Jezz was delighted to work with a number of top industry coaches and directors on the Associated Studios opera course, and in 2015 he had the great pleasure of performing the role of Remendado in Carmen for New Cornwall Opera, at the stunning cliff-edge Minack Theatre.

Since then, Jezz has twice been engaged to perform Marco in Gondoliers and performed in a variety of productions, most recently reprising the part of Mayor Upfold in Britten’s marvellous Albert Herring. Jezz is regularly engaged to sing at private and corporate functions and is in demand as a concert and oratorio soloist.

Jezz trained with the celebrated Australian tenor Anthony Roden.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

JOANNA WARD

Composer – hunger

Composer Joanna Ward, from Newcastle upon Tyne, is currently reading music at Cambridge University. Her works have been performed, commissioned, and workshopped by various ensembles across the country, including the likes of RNS, St John’s College Cambridge Chapel Choir, Gesualdo 6, and Cambridge Music Festival. Joanna is an alumna of both the NYO Composers and Sage Gateshead’s Young Musicians programmes, and is currently part of Sound and Music’s prestigious Next Wave scheme.

Her work draws on the abstract and beautiful within a wide variety of music, and her experience of performing as a singer has combined with these aesthetic priorities to create an interest in writing opera that is idiomatically and narratively successful, while also being expressive and removed from the explicit.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

JOLYON LOY

Bobinot, Bass – The Storm

British baritone Jolyon Loy is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and the University of Oxford. He is currently based in London, where he studies with Robert Dean.

Operatic roles to date include Marchese d’Obigny in La Traviata for Opera Lyrica; Papageno in The Magic Flute for Hampstead Garden Opera; Giove in La Calisto for Woodhouse Opera; Theseus in Hippolyte et Aricie for Woodhouse Opera; Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro for Berlin Opera Academy, directed by David Paul; and Ronald / Missionary in the world premiere of The Life to Come, written by Louis Mander, with a libretto by Stephen Fry, for Surrey Opera. In 2018 Jolyon will appear as Valens in Handel’s Theodora, working with Sarah Connolly and Christian Curnyn in Aldeburgh as a Britten–Pears Young Artist.

Opera scenes at the RAM include Onegin in Eugene Onegin, Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte, Vicar in Albert Herring, and Count Robinson in Il matrimonio segreto, working with directors Bruno Ravella, Jon Ramster, and Chris Cowell.

In 2016 Jolyon joined the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus in a revival production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, directed by David McVicar, and in 2017 he joined the chorus of Opera Holland Park.

He has also sung in Royal Academy Opera productions of The Rake’s Progress and Le nozze di Figaro at the Hackney Empire Theatre, directed by Janet Suzman and conducted by Jane Glover. In concert, Jolyon has performed at London’s Royal Festival Hall with the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus, the LPO, and Vladimir Jurowski in Shakespeare400, and with Opera Coast as The Demon in The Demon and Robert in Iolanta.

In oratorio, Jolyon has sung Pilate / Bass in JS Bach’s St John Passion with the Chipping Campden Festival Chorus and the ESO, and he will appear as the bass soloist in Schubert’s Mass in G and Britten’s Cantata Misericordium with the Hastings Philharmonic Orchestra later this year.

As part of the 2016 Oxford Lieder and London Song Festivals, Jolyon appeared in masterclasses with Sarah Walker and Felicity Lott, singing lieder by Schubert, Joseph Marx, and Schumann.

Jolyon began singing at the age of nine as a chorister at Worcester Cathedral, where he sang as a soloist in Three Choirs Festivals for the queen, in the year of her golden jubilee, and regularly at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall with the Birmingham City Choir and the CBSO. He was a member of the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, and went on to become a choral scholar and lay clerk at Worcester Cathedral. He was educated at The King’s School Worcester and later at the University of Oxford, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in modern and medieval languages from Magdalen College, and was a choral scholar with Magdalen College Choir. In 2016 he graduated with distinction from the Royal Academy of Music with a master’s degree in vocal performance, having studied under the tutelage of Philip Doghan, Mary Hill, and James Baillieu.

Jolyon’s professional development has been generously supported by Kate Sokoloff, Trevor Osborne Charitable Trust, Josephine Baker Trust, ll Circolo Italian Cultural Association, Mario Lanza Educational Foundation, and Zenaida Nevsky Memorial Scholarship.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

JOSEPH SHINER

Clarinet and Bass Clarinet – hunger
Clarinet and Bass Clarinet – The Storm

Clarinettist Joseph Shiner is an active soloist in concert around the United Kingdom and internationally, having appeared at numerous venues, including Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, and St Martin-in-the-Fields, and made regular festival appearances at Ryedale, Southwell, Aberystwyth, and St Magnus. He is the recipient of numerous prizes, including the Hattori Foundation Senior Award, Making Music Philip and Dorothy Green Award for Young Concert Artists, Worshipful Company of Musicians’ Prince’s Prize, and Royal Academy of Music’s Buffet Crampon Clarinet Prize. A selected artist for Making Music and the City Music Foundation, he is currently Artist-in-Residence at Lancing College, and was featured as BBC Music Magazine’s rising star in August 2016.

Joseph made his London solo debut with the Cambridge University Symphony Orchestra at St John’s Smith Square in 2011, and was a public finalist for the Young Classical Artists Trust in 2015. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with the Endellion and Alauda quartets, as well as pianists Somi Kim and Ashley Fripp, and is a founding member of the wind chamber group Magnard Ensemble, which held a Chamber Music fellowship and the inaugural Open Academy / Wigmore Hall ensemble fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music for the 2014–15 season, and are currently selected artists for the Tillett Trust. As an orchestral musician, Joseph has performed with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Aurora Orchestra, and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. He is currently trialling the position of principal clarinet with the BBC Concert Orchestra.

Joseph has a keen interest in the commissioning of new music, always endeavouring to incorporate new or hitherto unfamiliar repertoire into his programmes. In 2012 he accepted a Contemporary Ensemble fellowship at the Atlantic Music Festival, Maine, USA, and during the four weeks of his residency, Joseph premiered thirty-eight works by students, fellows, and faculty members. Currently his repertoire extends through an expanding number of commissions from composers such as Misha Mullov-Abbado, Kate Whitley, Ian Morgan-Williams, and Freya Waley-Cohen.

Joseph’s initial studies took place at Wells Cathedral School under the tutelage of Kevin Murphy and Timothy Orpen, during which time he was principal clarinet of the National Youth Orchestra, as well as a BBC Young Musician wind category finalist. He subsequently read Music at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University, graduating with first-class honours and several awards and prizes, before moving on to one year of postgraduate study with Angela Malsbury, Mark van de Wiel, and Chi-Yu Mo at the Royal Academy of Music, London, where he graduated with a diploma. Subsequently, he has undertaken private study with Patrick Messina and Christopher Richards.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

JUDITH THEI

Assistant Director – Mad King Suibhne

London-born Judith Thei studied engineering at the University of Nottingham and completed her doctorate in mechanical engineering at Imperial College London.

Judith has worked for a number of world-leading companies, designing and installing theatre equipment for a range of venues, from large opera houses – including the Royal Opera House, Copenhagen Opera House, and Royal Festival Hall – to cruise ships, such as those owned by P&O. She has attended courses and masterclasses in stagecraft, acting, and opera, including ones run by RADA and Morley College. Judith is now focusing on directing, and she is delighted to be joining Helios Collective and Bury Court Opera for Mad King Suibhne.

Judith’s onstage and offstage credits include Rigoletto, The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, Ruddigore, The Mikado, Kiss Me Kate, Much Ado About Nothing, Dangerous Liaisons, The Flint Street Nativity, Daisy Pulls It Off, and Wyrd Sisters. She has also been an actor in training simulations for aid workers.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

JUDITH WEIR

Composer – Masterclass Leader

Judith Weir was born into a Scottish family in 1954, but grew up near London. She was an oboe player, performing with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and studied composition with John Tavener during her schooldays. She went to Cambridge University, where her composition teacher was Robin Holloway, and in 1975 she attended the summer school at Tanglewood, where she worked with Gunther Schuller. After this, she spent several years working in schools and in adult education in rural southern England, followed by a period based in Scotland, teaching at Glasgow University and RSAMD.

During this time she began to write a series of operas, including King Harald’s Saga, The Black Spider, A Night at the Chinese Opera, The Vanishing Bridegroom, and Blond Eckbert, which have subsequently received many performances in the UK, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the USA. Her most recent opera, Miss Fortune, premiered at Bregenz in 2011 and was then staged at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 2012.

As resident composer with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in the 1990s, she wrote several works for orchestra and chorus, including Forest, Storm, and We are Shadows, which were premiered by Simon Rattle, the orchestra’s then music director. She has also been commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra – Music Untangled and Natural History; the Minnesota Orchestra – The Welcome Arrival of Rain; and the London Sinfonietta – Tiger under the Table; and has written concert works for some notable singers, including Jane Manning, Dawn Upshaw, Jessye Norman, and Alice Coote. Her latest vocal work is Good Morning, Midnight, which was premiered by Sarah Connolly and the Aurora Orchestra in May 2015.

She now lives in London, where she has had a long association with Spitalfields Music Festival, and in recent years she has taught as a visiting professor at Princeton, Harvard, and Cardiff universities. Honours for her work include the Critics’ Circle, South Bank Show, Elise L Stoeger, and Ivor Novello awards, a CBE in 1995, and the Queen’s Medal for Music in 2007. In 2014 she was appointed Master of The Queen’s Music, in succession to Peter Maxwell Davies. In 2015 she became associate composer to the BBC Singers.

Much of her music has been recorded and is available on the NMC, Delphian, and Signum labels. In 2014–15 there were releases of The Vanishing Bridegroom on NMC and Storm on BBC Singers / Signum.

Photo credit Ben Ealovega.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

KATHLEEN GREENE

Ensemble – Mad King Suibhne

Kathleen Anne Greene is an award-winning, classically trained young soprano.

Since graduating from the London College of Music in 2015, she has appeared in numerous professional opera productions, including The Magic Flute for Hampstead Garden Opera, Dido and... for Helios Collective, Mad King Suibhne for Bury Court Opera, and Suor Angelica for Lunchbreak Opera. She has also won several prestigious awards for her vocal talent.

Recently, she sang the National Anthem in front of 70,000 fans at Wembley Stadium, prior to the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup Final.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

KATIE SAZANOVA

Blackbird – Mad King Suibhne
Flute – Mad King Suibhne

Flautist Katie Sazanova received her first-class bachelor’s degree with honours in music from Birmingham Conservatoire in 2015.

Katie won the 2014 Woodwind Prize, a prestigious competition held annually at the conservatoire. In the same year, she was highly commended in the British Flute Society Competition and a finalist in the Doris Newton Club Prize.

Katie has spent the last sixth months performing in the show Any Port in a Storm with Giffords Circus, and she has just started her master’s degree at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

KATY OVENS

Flute and Piccolo – hunger
Flute and Piccolo – The Storm

British flautist Katy Ovens graduated with distinction from the Royal Academy of Music, London, where she studied with William Bennett, Clare Southworth, and Patricia Morris, and was also awarded the academy’s prestigious diploma for an outstanding final recital.

Katy performs regularly throughout Europe as both a soloist and an ensemble player. She is a founding member of Trio Aeolian and the award-winning quintet Cavendish Winds. Katy has won numerous awards, including the Una Clark Young Artists’ Trust’s Jellinek Award, for which she performed the Ibert Concerto with the Guildford Symphony Orchestra; second prize in the British Flute Society’s Young Artist Competition; and for two consecutive years was a prizewinner in the Jonathan Myall Piccolo Prize. As an orchestral player, Katy has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Vitae, Constella OperaBallet Orchestra, and the Euphonia Orchestra.

Alongside her performing career, Katy is also a teacher and workshop leader. She is keen to share her love of music with people in her local community – an interest which began while studying for her undergraduate degree in music at the University of Manchester. Following her graduation from the academy, Katy was invited to be a teaching assistant on The 30th William Bennett International Flute Summer School in Sale Marasino, Italy. Now based in London, Katy works as a peripatetic flute teacher for various local music services, is a trainee on Create’s Nurturing Talent programme, and regularly collaborates with Wigmore Hall Learning, Involuntary Movement, and Music for the Moment.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

KIERAN WHITE

Guaire – Mad King Suibhne

Dorset-born tenor Kieran White studied at The Royal Academy of Music, where he held a Kohn Bach scholarship and was under the tutelage of Neil Mackie and Iain Ledingham; and The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, under Iain Paton and Amand Hekkers.

While at the Royal Academy of Music, Kieran was involved in a number of projects, including performances as a soloist in the Royal Academy of Music / Kohn Foundation Bach Cantatas; a tenor and harp concert in which he performed Britten’s A Birthday Hansel; and a production of Dido & Aeneas as the Sailor, under Michael Chance.

Recent concert performances include Evangelist in Bach’s St John Passion, with the choir of King’s College London and Christchurch Choral Society; Bach’s St Matthew Passion, with Morley College, London; Bach’s B minor mass and Rachmaninov’s Vespers, with Bristol Bach Choir; Bach’s Magnificat, with Bath Bach Choir; Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, with St Mary’s Singers, Truro; Monteverdi’s Vespers, with the Edvard Grieg Kor, Norway; and Handel’s Messiah, with Trinity College Dublin.

He has recently debuted with Amsterdam Baroque on a tour of The Matthew Passion, conducted by Ton Koopman.

On the operatic platform, Kieran’s roles include Hippolyte in Hippolyte e Aricie by Rameau, and Renaud in Armide by Lully, both with Woodhouse Opera; Conte Alberto in L ocassione fa il Ladro, Florville in Il Signor Bruschino, Bertrando in L’inganno Felice, and Edoardo in La Cambiale di Matrimonio by Rossini, with Raucous Rossini; Ferrando in Cosi Fan Tutte by Mozart, with Opera dei Lumi; and Corridon in Acis and Galatea by Handel, with Music of the Spheres and Glasgow Opera, conducted by John Butt. He has also sung in the chorus at Dorset Opera, appearing in seven years of productions.

Current and future engagements include tours with Amsterdam Baroque; Britten’s Cantata Misericordium, with Hastings Philharmonic; tours with London Philharmonia; Monteverdi’s Vespers, with Hastings Philharmonic; recital for tenor and lute, with Elizabeth Kenny in Sherborne Music Festival; and Monteverdi’s Vespers, with Copenhagen Soloists.

Kieran is very grateful for the support of the Kathleen Trust, Richard Stapeley Trust, Sherborne Music Festival, and Simon Groves.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

LAURA FURNER

Production Assistant & PR Manager – Helios Collective

Laura Furner is a recent graduate from the University of Leeds, where she received a first-class degree in English literature. Since graduating, she has worked for a creative production company in London, spending her spare time supporting arts organisations, such as The Yard Theatre and the Nunnery Gallery, through voluntary work.

Laura’s dedication to providing support for artists of all forms has led to her involvement with a huge range of organisations, including The Poetry Society, Dulwich Picture Gallery, The Hepworth Gallery, Leeds City Council, and Leeds Industrial Museum. She has also given her time to a number of festivals, including Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival, Headingley Literature Festival, Leeds Big Bookend Festival, and London Screenwriters Festival.

Her love for opera began with the University of Leeds Opera Society, where she performed as a chorus member in The Elixir of Love, Carmen, Ruddigore, and HMS Pinafore. From 2014–15, Laura also acted as the society’s social secretary, organising fundraisers and creating links between the university and Opera North, as well as providing press and marketing support for all society performances.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

LAURA MONAGHAN

Bibi, Soprano – The Storm

Laura Monaghan studied at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance with Linda Hirst and Robert Aldwinkle, where she was the Drapers’ and the Robinson Hearn scholar.

Laura is a chorister at Finnish National Opera, and she has recently performed at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Blackheath Halls, Great Yarmouth Minster, and Buxton Festival Fringe, where her recital of Strauss’s Four Last Songs was awarded Best Vocal Performance. She created the role of Maid in Gala by Ergo Phizmiz at Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival, and some of her other roles include Serpina, Adina, Miss Wordsworth, Eurydice, and Susanna.

In 2015 Laura performed the world premiere of Andrea Cavallari’s Whim of Silence II, and her interest in contemporary music resulted in her being awarded the Trinity College of Music prize for vocal contemporary performance for her rendition of Berio’s Sequenza III.

After joining the festival chorus and singing the role of Victorian in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland at Opera Holland Park, forthcoming engagements for 2017 include Four Last Songs at Guards’ Chapel, a staged song recital with The Opera Box at St Bride’s Fleet Street, and a recital of music by Dove and Strauss at Morden College.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

LAURIE O’BRIEN

Répétiteur – Mad King Suibhne

Laurie O’Brien is a freelance répétiteur, originally from Merthyr Tydfil. In 2012 she completed her postgraduate studies at Royal Holloway, University of London, with distinction in music.

During her time at university, she co-founded Opera Holloway. Other companies Laurie has worked for include Bill Kenwright Productions, British Youth Opera, Fulham Opera, Opus Opera, Melos Sinfonia, Helios Collective, Opera de Bauge, London Armenian Opera, Opera Prelude, Opera Room, Euphoria Opera, and Opera Lyrica.

Laurie has also recorded for BBC Radio Drama.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

LEWIS COENEN-ROWE

Composer and librettist – The Storm

Lewis Coenen-Rowe is a Liverpool-born, London-based composer and pianist. His composition studies have included a master’s degree at Oxford University, with Martyn Harry and Robert Saxton, and a doctorate at King’s College London, with Silvina Milstein.

Lewis has had works premiered by Mark Simpson, Jonathan Powell, and Ensemble Anima, as well as workshops with the BBC Singers and Oxford Philomusica, among others. Lewis founded Oxford university’s RendezVous concert series for New Music and was a co-founder of Spectra Ensemble, a group devoted to music and multimedia.

His first opera, Collision, was performed at the Greenwood Theatre and had a sell-out run at Grimeborn opera festival.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

MADELEINE JOYCE

Ensemble – Mad King Suibhne

Madeleine Joyce is a mezzo-soprano, who hails from Perth, Western Australia.

Madeleine studied for a bachelor’s degree and a postgraduate diploma in music performance at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Highlights of her time at WAAPA include performing the roles of Hansel in Humperdinck’s Hansel und Gretel, directed by Thomas de Mallet-Burgess; and Alma March in Adamo’s adaptation of Little Women.

Madeleine has been a regular performer with Art Song Perth and Music Amica. She enjoyed working with Perth Fringe Festival’s opera company, OperaBox, covering the role of Smeton in its production of Anna Bolena.

Madeleine has just completed her master’s degree at the Royal Academy of Music in London, studying under Sarah Walker and Jonathon Papp. While studying at RAM, she performed with Royal Academy Opera in Rimsky-Korsakov’s May Night and Weil’s Der Dreigroschenoper.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

MAKOTO NAKATA

Violin 1 – Mad King Suibhne

Violinist Makoto Nakata has won numerous prizes, including the Worshipful Company of Musicians’ Busenhart Morgan Evans Award, Harriet Cohen Memorial Award, and LSO Candide Award, and her playing has been supported by the generosity of the Drapers’ Company, Stephen Bell Trust, and Countess of Munster Trust.

Makoto recently graduated with distinction from the Royal Academy of Music, where she was under the tutelage of Philippe Honoré as a Leverhulme Trust postgraduate scholar. On graduating, Makoto was awarded the Doris Faulkener Prize, the Roth Prize for the highest violin mark in the year, and a Regency Award for outstanding studentship. Prior to her studies at the academy, Makoto read music at St Catherine’s College, Oxford University, as a Leask Scholar, graduating with first-class honours and receiving The Stuart Craig Award in recognition of her distinguished achievements in music.

Makoto began violin lessons at the age of 5, gaining a place in the junior department of the Royal College of Music two years later, where she went on to receive numerous awards, including The Drapers’ Company Music Award, Constance Farrington Prize, Freda Dinn & Ida Mabbett Prize, and first prizes in the Gordon Turner and the Hugh Bean violin competitions. In 2013 she was awarded first prize in the Oxford Philharmonic Concerto competition, performing Korngold’s Violin Concerto, and was invited back to perform Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with the orchestra.

Makoto has featured on BBC Radio 3 as part of the Proms, performing solo and chamber works by Colin Matthews. She has participated in masterclasses with Tasmin Little, Shlomo Mintz, Anne-Sophie Mutter, and Maxim Vengerov, among others.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

NOAH MOSLEY

Music Director – Helios Collective
Composer and Conductor – Mad King Suibhne
Conductor – hunger
Conductor – The Storm

Noah Mosley has worked on numerous productions in England and Europe as a conductor, assistant, répétiteur, composer, and arranger. He has been music director of Helios Collective since 2014, and during his tenure, he has commissioned, conducted, or toured over ten new operas, from as many composers. As an opera composer himself, Noah was commissioned to compose a one-act opera by Bury Court Opera for their 2017 season. Called Mad King Suibhne, based on an ancient Irish story, it premiered in March to critical acclaim.

Noah’s many conducting and music-directing credits include Piazzolla in Paris at the Reform Club, London; Salon Russes at the National Portrait Gallery; Hathaway – Eight Arias for a Bardic Life at Buxton Opera Festival and Copenhagen Opera Festival; María de Buenos Aires at The Vaults in Waterloo and the Latitude Festival; two of his own chamber operas – July 20th, 1944 and A Last Farewell – at the Bussey Building, Peckham; and serving as conducting fellow at the Dartington International Summer School, conducting the Dartington Festival Orchestra. His conducting career started when he founded King’s College London Opera Company, which is still going strong today, conducting The Fairy Queen, West Side Story, Le Nozze di Figaro, and The Magic Flute. In 2012 Noah was the praktikant at Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, assisting Justin Brown on Tannhäuserand Gurre-Lieder.

Noah is committed to creating opera that speaks to a wide audience. He was music director at Woodbrook Summer Academy in Wexford, teaching, conducting, and creating two new children’s operas, performed by the children in the academy at the end of the course. He has twice served as assistant music director and chorus master for Pimlico Opera, working in the prison intensively for a month and a half, teaching and training people who had never appeared in a show before to sing solo and chorus parts in a professional production. With Helios Collective, he was involved in starting a series of popular opera club nights, and every year he works with talented young composers, librettists, and directors in creating new operas as part of Helios Collective’s contemporary opera development programme, Formations. His recording of three Baroque arias, his last session as music director of King’s Opera, has had over 23,000 YouTube views.

Noah has won numerous awards, including the Cameron Mackintosh Award for music at the National Student Drama Festival – conducting a production of Shaffer’s Amadeus – and the Outstanding Arrangement Award at the highly competitive 2012 Varsity Vocals International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella in the New York City Town Hall, America. The group performing the arrangement were placed third, officially recognising the singers as the third-best a cappella college group in the world. Formations, the contemporary opera development programme of which he is co-producer and music director, was awarded an International Opera Awards Foundation Bursary for 2016–17. He was also accompanist to Isolde Roxby when she won the John Kerr Award.

Noah’s most recent and future engagements include a London premiere of Mad King Suibhne; a new opera / oratorio commission; a tour of Il Letto – a Puccini show for two sopranos, actor, and piano – to Buxton Festival and Copenhagen Opera Festival; a tour of La Vie en Rose – an Édith Piaf show for orchestra and singers – to Les Sources de Caudalie, Bordeaux; and We’ll Meet Again – a new opera–play for orchestra, tenor, and mezzo – at Torre del Lago, Italy.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

OLIVIA MARTIN

Ensemble – Mad King Suibhne

Mezzo-soprano Olivia Alice Martin holds a bachelor’s degree with honours in music from Oxford Brookes University, and she will be applying for a master’s degree at a music conservatoire in the autumn.

Previous engagements include chorus in Un Ballo in Maschera and La Traviata for Winslow Hall Opera; and The Fairy Queen, The Rake’s Progress, Madama Butterfly, and Così fan tutte for Bury Court Opera.

Olivia was also in the chorus for Grimeborn Festival in Samson and Delilah, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly.

Recent concert engagements include singing the alto solo for Mozart’s Requiem with Petersfield Choir and Southdowns Camerata.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

OZLEM CELIK

Stag – Mad King Suibhne
Clarinet and Bass Clarinet – Mad King Suibhne

Having established herself as a solo and chamber musician of distinction, Ozlem Celik is a versatile principal clarinettist who currently plays for a number of orchestras and groups across the UK.

Ozlem’s music education began at the Dokuz Eylul University State Conservatory, where she studied clarinet with Atif Peynirci and chamber music with oboist Murat Ozulgen, principals of Izmir State Symphony Orchestra.

During her degree studies, she also periodically took lessons with Nusret Ispir, the principal player of Bilkent Symphony Orchestra. She has participated in masterclasses with Alain Damiens, Nicholas Baldeyrou, and Sarah Elbaz at Bilkent Clarinet Festival. She has attended the International Clarinet Festival and studied with Guy Deplus, Alexander Fitterstein, and Karl Heinz Steffens. While studying in London, she has attended masterclasses with Karl Leister, Patrick Messina, Martin Fröst, Andrew Marriner, Robert Plane, and Michael Collins.

She played as a soloist in the Youth-Genç Symphony Orchestra, which features young German and Turkish musicians, and she subsequently toured Germany and Turkey with the orchestra in 2006.

Ozlem is currently based in London, having completed her master’s in performance at the Royal Academy of Music in June 2016, studying clarinet under the tutelage of Angela Malsbury and Timothy Lines. She was delighted to be awarded a full scholarship by the Philharmonic Orchestra. Ozlem was also awarded a scholarship by the Royal Academy of Music in 2016 and is supported by Talent Unlimited.

Recent engagements include solo and chamber concerts in the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe’s summer festival, Asia House Talent Unlimited Music Future Festival, and Wimbledon Festival. She has appeared at the Royal Festival Hall, Royal Overseas League, and St James’s Piccadilly, as well as undertaking performances as principal clarinettist for The World of Women Orchestra, Dulwich Opera Company, Hornton Chamber Orchestra, and the world premiere of Noah Mosley’s Mad King Suibhne.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

RICARDO PANELA

King Suibhne – Mad King Suibhne

Born in Aveiro, Portugal, Ricardo Panela has distinguished himself through his florid interpretation of baritone bel canto roles, deemed ‘beguilingly sonorous’, a ‘technical tour-de-force’, and ‘mesmerising’ by different music publications.

The 2016–17 season saw Ricardo debut to critical acclaim at both the National Opera House in Lisbon – in Poulenc’s Les Dialogues des Carmelites, directed by Luís Miguel Cintra – and at Opera Holland Park in London, as Masetto in Don Giovanni.

Future projects for 2017–18 include the title role in Noah Mosley’s Mad King Suibhne for Helios Collective at English National Opera; a return to the National Opera House in Lisbon to sing Le Fauteuil / L’arbre in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges; his Spanish debut as Lescaut in Massenet’s Manon for Opera Valladolid; and a return to Longborough Festival Opera to sing the Wigmaker and cover Harlekin in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos.

Previous career highlights have included the London premieres of Saverio Mercadante’s Don Chisciotte, at Leighton House Museum; and Federico Ruiz’s Los Martirios de Colón, at the Southbank Centre. Equally at home in opera, oratorio, and recital, Ricardo has also performed, among others, for Wexford Festival Opera, Longborough Festival Opera, and Casa da Música in Porto.

Ricardo has received two bursaries from The International Opera Awards Foundation, which generously supported him through 2015 and 2016, and he would like to acknowledge the Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust for providing invaluable career support.

Having started his music tuition with Brazilian soprano Juracyara Baptista, Ricardo then went on to the University of Aveiro to study with Portuguese bass-baritone António Salgado, before moving to London to work with Laura Sarti at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. After Guildhall, he trained at the Welsh International Academy of Voice with Dennis O’Neill, and he currently studies with Sherman Lowe.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

ROBERT ALLAN

Répétiteur – The Storm

Glasgow-born-and-bred Robert Reid Allan is a pianist and composer, currently studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Rolf Hind, having graduated with first-class honours from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he had studied piano with Aaron Shorr, Sinae Lee, and Heather Slade-Lipkin, and composition with Stuart MacRae.

Robert has worked with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, as well as many distinguished ensembles – including Ensemble Modern, Psappha, and Red Note – and his recent compositions have been praised for their ‘clarity and sonic inventiveness’ by The Scotsman, and hailed as ‘exquisite [and] a real gem’ by The Herald.

As a pianist, he has played with a variety of orchestras, ensembles, and soloists – including violinist Nicola Benedetti – and has been broadcast as a soloist on BBC Radio 3. Also a dedicated educator, in 2016 he was appointed associate accompanist with the National Youth Choir of Scotland, as well as working as accompanist and musicianship tutor with Perth Boys’ Choir.

Robert is grateful for the support of the Scottish International Education Trust, Cross Trust, Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, and Guildhall School Trust.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

ROBERT HARM

Production Manager – Helios Collective
Production Manager – Mad King Suibhne

Robert Harm is a highly versatile and experienced film and theatre production manager, with a track record of delivering robust logistical, budgetary, administrative, and technical management, supporting the transition of creative visions into production realities.

Having operated on a freelance basis since 2012, Robert possesses considerable hands-on knowledge of the broad spectrum of film production, from budgetary management to location scouting, and from managing production crews to creating set designs.

With a background in theatre production, Robert is able to draw on extensive technical expertise, having the authority to advise electrical and lighting crews.

Robert’s recent production credits include production manager for Pierre Aïm on Life Sentence for the Ben Kinsella Trust; production manager on Green Street III; and theatre manager at Ellesmere Arts Centre.

Able to hit the ground running in any given situation, Robert possesses exemplary problem-solving skills, demonstrating a facility to think outside the box in order to provide innovative solutions to complex production or technical issues.

Robert is entirely flexible, used to working long hours, and not afraid to step outside his comfort zone to get a job done, while maintaining a good sense of humour at all times. Robert’s experience, transferable skills, and positive attitude are a considerable asset to any production company.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

ROMAN LYTWYNIW

Violin – hunger
Violin – The Storm
Violin 2 – Mad King Suibhne

Roman Lytwyniw, a violinist from Manchester, is currently in his third year at the Royal Academy of Music, studying under the guidance of So-Ock Kim. He has performed as a soloist at many different venues across the UK, including the Barbican in London, Bamford Chapel, Christchurch in Southport, Sedbergh Music Festival, and Music at Dingley. As an ambassador for Future Talent, Roman has had the chance to lead a string quintet performing Bocherrini at Buckingham Palace and the RNCM.

With the Ernst String Quartet, Roman has performed at numerous venues, most notably Wigmore Hall and King’s Place. His quartet has travelled to Lithuania and Norway to perform works by Mendelssohn, Beethoven, and Shostakovich, helping young instrumentalists to understand the challenges of playing chamber music. Performing to Edward Mountbatten-Windsor in 2011 was a particular highlight of the quartet’s achievements.

Roman has a wide range of orchestral experience, such as leading Chetham’s Symphony Orchestra, playing in several London-based orchestras, and performing in most of the major London concert halls.

Masterclasses with Chloe Hanslip, Talich Quartet, Kuss Quartet, and Carducci Quartet, and performances at NYSQW, Music at Dingley, and the Leicester Quartet Series have been very important in Roman’s professional development.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

ROSIE MIDDLETON

The Impresario, Contralto – hunger

Manchester-born Rosie Middleton began her formal music training at Chetham’s School of Music. She was an Annie Ridyard scholar at the Royal Northern College of Music and completed a master’s degree in opera and vocal performance in 2013.

Rosie has a keen interest in contemporary music, and in 2015 she made her Royal Opera House debut at the Linbury Theatre in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Other recent work includes playing Anne Sexton in A Certain Sense of Order, for Catherine Kontz-Vaxby and Tick Tock Performance at Tête à Tête Festival; and Ada Lovelace in Emily Howard’s Ada Sketches, on tour in the UK. In 2016 Rosie co-founded Aequitas Collective, an Anglo-Icelandic contemporary-music group, and collaborated with Icelandic Opera in workshops for The Echo Chamber, in advance of its world premiere in 2018.

Other operatic roles include Mother and Hatter in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for Opera Holland Park; Rose in Lakmé for Opera Holland Park as a Christine Collins Young Artist; Third Lady and Papagena in The Magic Flute at the Soho Theatre; Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro for Opera Up Close; and Betty Doxy in A Beggar’s Opera for the European Opera Centre. Rosie has recorded John Adams’s Dr Atomic with the BBC Singers, and extracts from Carmen with Debbie Wiseman and the National Symphony Orchestra.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

RYAN HAY

Librettist – hunger

Ryan Hay is an emerging writer from Newcastle. He is a co-founder and artistic director of Wanton Theatre Company, and he is currently studying playwriting under Oliver Emmanuel and Zinnie Harris as an English literature finalist at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.

As well as writing for various journals and online publications, Ryan has written a number of texts for choral setting.

hunger is his first libretto for opera.

Ryan is interested in dramatic works that take formal risks, question representation, and push conventions to find optimal ways to express ideas. He is currently working on a sprawling play that questions Lowland Scots identity, as well as co-writing a piece with a psychology researcher that explores how years seem to contract with age.

Ryan also has experience as a director and dramaturg on theatrical productions across Scotland.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

SARAH BERGER

Cello – hunger
Cello – The Storm
Cello – Mad King Suibhne

Cellist Sarah Berger recently completed a year of mentorship with the Southbank Sinfonia chamber orchestra in London.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in music performance from DePaul University, where she studied with Stephen Balderston, and, thereafter, completed her master’s studies at The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, under the professorship of Amit Peled. During these years, Sarah held principal and tutti positions in numerous ensembles, such as Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Orchestra, Peabody Symphony Orchestra, DePaul Symphony Orchestra, and Round Top Festival Orchestra. Sarah returned briefly to her hometown of Chicago where she devoted her time to performing and teaching in the Chicagoland area. She is an avid orchestral and chamber performer and has frequently guested with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra as principal.

Having recently returned to London, Sarah currently freelances throughout the country, performing with the Philharmonia, Hallé, and other London ensembles. She is very excited to be back in the UK, exploring and engaging with the national music scene.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

SARAH LOUISE KRISTIANSEN

Movement Director – Mad King Suibhne

Danish choreographer Sarah Louise Kristiansen has worked at numerous internationally renowned venues, including the Royal Albert Hall, Kremlin Theatre, Gwangju Biennial, and ICA, as well as completing training at the Millennium Dance Studios and EDGE Pac in Los Angeles, and researching Shaolin Wushu martial arts at the Shaolin temple in China.

Sarah Louise has successfully choreographed a number of lauded productions around the world, including performances at leading venues in London, such as Sadler’s Wells and The Place, and for companies and individuals in South Korea, Italy, and Ghana. She has also toured internationally with Making Dance Happen, a company that she established in order to provide development opportunities for young artists to work worldwide.

Making Dance Happen currently runs annual participation and outreach programmes for children and young people in Peru.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

SINÉAD FROST

Bassoon – Mad King Suibhne

Sinéad Frost is a London-based bassoonist, who hails from Cork in Ireland.

After receiving her bachelor’s degree in music with first-class honours from the Cork School of Music – which included a year of study at Hochschüle für Musik und Theater in Leipzig – Sinéad went on to complete her master’s degree at the Royal Academy of Music in London, having been awarded an entrance scholarship.

She plays bassoon and contrabassoon regularly in Ireland with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, and other ensembles of high calibre, while also enjoying a busy life as a freelance orchestral and chamber musician in London.

As principal bassoon of St Endellion Music Summer Festival, she has performed alongside singers Mark Padmore, Susan Bullock, Roderick Williams, John Tomlinson, and BAFTA-winning actor Rory Kinnear.

Personal highlights include collaborations with Irish folk groups Altan and De Dannan; singers Bryn Terfel and Ute Lemper; actor Brendan Gleeson; percussionist Evelyn Glennie; and conductors Simon Rattle, Colin Davis, Martyn Brabbins, John Wilson, Jaime Martin, and Rafael Payare.

Sinéad can be heard prominently on the soundtrack of the landmark documentary Older Than Ireland.

With a particular love for opera and theatre, she has been delighted to work with the Cork Operatic Society, performing entire operas from memory to critical acclaim. She currently holds the principal bassoon chair at Wexford Festival Opera.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

STEPHEN BARLOW

Composer and Conductor – Masterclass Leader

Composer and conductor Stephen Barlow is currently artistic director of Buxton Festival, for which he has conducted numerous productions, including Intermezzo, La Colombe, La Princesse Jaune, The Jacobin, and Otello.

While an organ scholar at Trinity College‚ Cambridge University‚ he was music director of both Cambridge University Chamber Orchestra and Cambridge University Chamber Choir, as well as the founder of Cambridge University Bach Choir. He subsequently studied at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Stephen has conducted with numerous orchestras around the world, including Auckland Philharmonia, Vancouver Opera, San Francisco Opera, Victoria State Opera, Grange Park Opera, Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne, Royal Festival Hall, English National Opera‚ Scottish Opera‚ Dublin Grand Opera‚ Opera Northern Ireland‚ and Opera North. His many recordings include his composition for children, Rainbow Bear, which was narrated by his wife, Joanna Lumley; and Joseph James’s Requiem. As a pianist, Stephen has also recorded the complete songs of Butterworth, Delius, and Quilter.

Stephen’s opera King – based on the murder of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170 – poignantly received its world premiere at the cathedral in 2006.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

SUZANNE LEMEUIX

Producer – Mad King Suibhne

Suzanne Lemeuix’s company Bury Court Opera hosted the world premiere of Mad King Suibhne in 2017.

Bury Court Opera focusses on productions that feature emerging singers and creatives, selecting the most-talented artists for their inventiveness, vitality, and drive.

The company’s core ethos is centred on helping opera-makers to develop their careers, providing them with opportunities to perform roles that they might not otherwise tackle for many years.

Bury Court’s intimate and emotive theatre space offers richly layered acoustics, as well as insights into performance details that are easily missed on larger stages.

Helios Collective is very grateful to Suzanne and everyone at Bury Court Opera for supporting the performances of Mad King Suibhne during Formations 2017.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

UGHETTA PRATESI

Movement Director – Mad King Suibhne

Ughetta Pratesi is a London-based choreographer. Originally from Italy, she completed her dance training in the UK at Laine Theatre Arts and Guilford School of Acting, receiving a National Diploma in professional dance and a first-class bachelor’s degree with honours in theatre.

As a dancer, she’s performed extensively in contemporary dance and physical theatre, including for Platform Theatre at Central Saint Martins, V&A, Brighton Fringe, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Avignon LeOff Festival, Robin Howard Theatre at The Place, ICA, and RichMix. Ughetta has also worked on music videos and appeared in short and feature films, including Les Miserables for Universal Pictures.

She’s the resident choreographer for City Academy Musical Theatre Companies, working on Fame: The Musical and Legally Blonde at the Polish Theatre, and Cinderella at the Crypt on the Green; and her latest international project with Making Dance Happen took her to Peru at the start of 2017. She has also produced dance shows in Italy as part of the summer Artisti Sotto le Stelle theatre festival near Florence, including Luci e Ombre, Storie, and ODISSEA in the Teatro Don Bosco, choreographing dancers from Europe and America.

Ughetta teaches at various schools in and around London, and choreographs works for local and West End shows. She also teaches contemporary dance at Pineapple Dance Studios in Covent Garden for SolDans Company.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

VICTORIA BERNATH

Viola – hunger
Viola – The Storm
Viola – Mad King Suibhne

Victoria Bernath is an award-winning violist and composer, currently resident in London. As a Jack Lyons research and performance scholar, Victoria recently finished a doctorate in performance and musicology.

An alumna of the Royal Academy of Music and the University of York, Victoria is also the recipient of numerous awards for both solo performance and composition.

Alongside a busy international solo schedule, she currently performs with London’s leading ensembles, including the BBC Symphony and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Her first solo album, Modern Muse, due for release on the Sheva Contemporary label in March 2018, features contemporary works for viola duo and viola–voice.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

YARA ZEITOUN

Ensemble – Mad King Suibhne

Yara Zeitoun is a young Lebanese–Canadian soprano, currently living in London. Most recently, she has performed the roles of Despina in Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte and Musetta in Puccini’s La Boheme at the Mediterranean Opera Festival in Italy. She also performed the role of Lauretta in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi in 2016.

Other stage experience includes the roles of Adina in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto, Lisette in Puccini’s La Rondine, Fortuna in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, Najade in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, Miss Wordsworth in Britten’s Albert Herring, and La Fee in Massenet’s Cendrillion.

She has performed with various opera companies, most recently as an ensemble member with Bury Court Opera for the world premiere of Noah Mosley’s Mad King Suibhne. She has also been part of the chorus for Cavelleria Rusticana and Pagliacci for Hampstead Garden Opera, and La Traviata, Suor Angelica, and Tosca as part of the Mediterranean Opera Festival.

Yara has been honoured to take part in masterclasses with Jennifer Larmore, Salvatore Fisichella, Tanja Baumgartner, David Gowland, and David Syrus, among others.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

ZITA SILVA

Harp – Mad King Suibhne

Zita Silva is a Portuguese harpist who has performed widely in the most prestigious venues in Portugal, as well as broadcasting live for the national classical-music radio station. Her performances also include recitals at Wigmore Hall and David Josefowitz Recital Hall, as well as participating at numerous festivals, including the Harp on Wight Festival, Sherborne Abbey Festival, and Proms at St Jude’s Music Festival.

Zita is a winner of the Guy Magrath Harp Prize, Casa da Musica Prize, Yamaha Prize, and an international prizewinner in the Camac Harp Competition in London, and the International Harp Competition in Szeged. She has also won the Young Musicians Award in Portugal in the category of chamber music. Zita was a finalist at the Patrons Awards; was awarded the Renata Scheffel-Stein Prize for the highest recital mark; and was awarded a diploma from the Royal Academy of Music in 2017.

Zita has established several chamber-music ensembles, including a duo with tenor Kieran White; Portucale Trio with flute and viola; and 94Strings Duo with harpist Glain Dafydd.

She has been invited to play with numerous orchestras, including Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Orquestra Gulbenkian, Royal Orchestral Society, Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, Bloomsbury Opera Orchestra, and Academy Symphony Orchestra, working with prestigious conductors, such as Mark Elder, Andrew Davies, Semyon Bychkov, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Pedro Neves, Christopher Warren-Green, Manuel Lopez-Gomez, and Eugene Corporon. She has also toured Portugal with the Orquestra XXI and the emerging conductor Dinis Sousa; and the Estágio Gulbenkian Orquestra under the baton of conductor Joana Carneiro.

A student of the Royal Academy of Music, Zita was awarded a first-class bachelor’s degree with honours in 2015, and a master’s degree with distinction in 2017. Zita studied under the tutelage of Karen Vaughan and Skaila Kanga, and she was supported by scholarships from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Santander Universities UK, and Golden Charitable Trust.

Helios | Masterclasses | Operas | Artists

THE PROGRAMME

We apologise for any errors, omissions, or late changes.

Additional free copies of this programme can be downloaded from Helios’s website.

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