Biographies

Sophie Bevan

Recognised as one of the leading lyric sopranos of her generation, Sophie Bevan studied at the RCM where she was awarded the Queen Mother Rose Bowl for excellence in performance. She was awarded the MBE for services to music in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2019. She works regularly with leading orchestras and conductors worldwide with recent and future highlights including concerts with the London, Bergen, Netherlands Radio, Royal Liverpool and BBC Philharmonic Orchestras, Aurora, Finnish Radio Symphony, Hallé, English Concert, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Concertgebouw, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, OAE and Swedish Radio Orchestras and has appeared regularly at both the Edinburgh and the BBC Proms Festivals. An acclaimed recitalist she performs regularly at prestigious venues including the Concertgebouw and Wigmore Hall in London as well as at leading lieder festivals. Sought after for her work in opera, Sophie’s recent and future engagements include Ilia Idomeneo, Sophie Der Rosenkavalier, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Dalinda in Ariodante and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at Covent Garden, title role in The Cunning Little Vixen and Fiordligi in Così fan tutte for WNO, Hermione in Ryan Wigglesworth’s The Winter’s Tale and Télaïre in Castor and Pollux for ENO, Melisande in Pelleas et Melisande for Dresden Semperoper, Freia in Das Rheingold at Teatro Real, Madrid and Governess in The Turn of the Screw for Garsington Opera. She made her debut at Glyndebourne Festival Opera as Michal in Saul and at the Salzburg Festival and Metropolitan Opera as Beatriz in Thomas Adès’ The Exterminating Angel.

Sophie lives in Oxfordshire with her husband, children and cocker spaniels.

Ruairi Bowen

A graduate of King’s College, Cambridge, and a finalist in the 2020 International Handel Singing Competition, Ruairi Bowen has collaborated with some of the leading conductors in the Baroque field including

Emmanuelle Haïm, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Stephen Layton.

Wider engagements have included St John Passion with Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Dvorak’s Requiem with Philharmonia Orchestra at Three Choirs Festival and Vaughan Williams’ A Cotswold Romance with Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra.

Current engagements include Jim Cocks in Robinson Crusoe for West Green House Opera, The Indian Queen with Le Concert d’Astrée, Earl Tolloller in Iolanthe for his debut with English National Opera, JS Bach’s B Minor Mass with Opole Philharmonic, Christmas Oratorio with Britten Sinfonia, Magnificat at Tilford Bach Festival and St John Passion with Polyphony, The Creation with the Hanover Band, Messiah with London Handel Orchestra and Vaughan Williams Sancta Civitas at Three Choirs Festival.

Recordings include participation in Proud Songsters, an album of English Solo Song with Simon Lepper, Percy Grainger’s Brigg Fair and Nathaniel Dett’s Music in the Mine for BBC Radio 3 and Stanford’s Mass Via Victrix with the BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales conducted by Adrian Partington on Lyrita CD.

Jonathan Brown was born in Toronto and studied at the RCM (Toronto) and the University of Western Ontario. After moving to England he continued his studies at the University of Cambridge as well as the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh with Sir Thomas Allen and Anthony Rolfe Johnson.

Operatic roles include Marcello in La Boheme, Royal Albert Hall, Count Almaviva, Yamadori in Madama Butterfly, Giove in La Calisto, Orestes in Giasone, Garibaldo in Rodelinda, Ariodate in Xerxes, Silvio in Pagliacci, Malatesta in Don Pasquale, Masetto in Don Giovanni, Shepherd in Venus and Adonis and Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas. He performed the role of Trojan in Idomeneo for Sir Simon Rattle with the Berlin Philharmonic in the Salzburg Easter Festival. He made his debut with Sir John Eliot Gardiner in Holland as the baritone soloist in a concert of Bach cantatas and thereafter was a regular soloist with performances in Zurich, Brussels and Paris. He features as a soloist in Purcell’s

Ode to St Cecilia and Dido and Aeneas for Harmonia Mundi.

He has recorded the baritone solos in the Fauré Requiem with the London Festival Orchestra for BMG and appears in the role of the Forester in Sullivan’s The Golden Legend for Hyperion. Recent recordings have included world premieres of Wesley’s cantata Confitebor tibi (Priory) and Eccles’ Semele (AAM).

Opera, Grange Park, Garsington, Opera Holland Park. He has been a guest principal at ENO since 2008, where his repertoire includes roles by Puccini, Britten, Strauss, Ligeti, Lehar, Bernstein and Offenbach. At Aldeburgh Festivals he has performed Pierrot lunaire, Facade, Enoch Arden, Arlecchino, The Cricket Recovers, Ariadne auf Naxos, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and his own narrations to The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra and Peter and the Wolf.

Simon Butteriss

Was a chorister at Westminster Abbey, ran away to play The Winslow Boy in its first West End revival, was a member of the National Youth Theatre, read English at Cambridge and studied at the Royal College of Music Opera School.

He has sung roles at La Scala, Milan, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Barcelona Liceu, Aix-en-Provence, Paris Chatelet, Oper Köln, Royal Opera Muscat, Bregenzer Festspiele, Wiener Festwochen, Opera Zuid, WNO, Almeida Opera, Aldeburgh

He has sung the Gilbert and Sullivan patter roles at the Savoy Theatre with D’Oyly Carte, at the BBC Proms with Sir Charles Mackerras, with Deutsche Oper am Rhein, in Rome and on stages and concert platforms throughout the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. He appeared in Mike Leigh’s Oscarwinning G&S film Topsy-Turvy; wrote and presented the G&S TV series A Motley Pair, wrote and presented a film about George Grossmith, A Salaried Wit, (both Sky Arts TV) and co-wrote and directed the radio series I Am The Very Model of a Modern Major General (BBC), in which he also played Grossmith.

Other writing credits include A Gooseberry Fool (Sky Arts TV); Making Massinger (Wiltshire Creative commission), the new play for Let’s Make an Opera (Britten Estate commission) two opera libretti, Voltaire’s Amphibian and Signor Kelly’s Soufflé, and he has written and directed versions of operas and operettas for OAE, Philharmonia, Boston Symphony Orchestra, CBSO, RLPO, RTE Concert Orchestra, Brighton Festival, Covent Garden Festival and Raymond Gubbay. He has also directed numerous productions for the National Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company.

As an actor, his West End credits include The Winslow Boy, Sweeney Todd, The Relapse, Cats, An Italian Straw Hat, The Mikado, Witness for the Prosecution; he has played seasons with the RSC, at Chichester, Donmar Warehouse and the Lyric Hammersmith. Televison credits include By The Sword Divided, Let them Eat Cake (with French and Saunders), She Stoops to Conquer, Le Grand Macabre and several BBC period dramas.

Court Opera; Zurga in Pearl Fishers and Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte Reisopera, Holland; Demetrius in A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream and Papageno in The Magic Flute ETO; Ned Keene in Peter Grimes, Bern; Ottokar in Der Freischutz Opera Comique, Paris and High Priest in Semele at La Scala, Milan.

Robert Davies

Robert studied at Sheffield University and the GSMD.

Awarded the Erich Viertheer Memorial Award at Glyndebourne in 2003, Robert went on to appear as Mr Gedge in Albert Herring, Marcello in La Boheme, Count in Le Nozze de Figaro and Falke in Die Fledermaus for Glyndebourne on Tour. Other roles include the title roles in Figaro English Touring Opera and Rigoletto Bury

Excelling in a wide range of repertoire, performances include the World Premieres of Blitz Requiem in St Paul’s Cathedral with the RPO and The Sorrows of the Somme (Brian Hughes) Wales Millennium Centre; Bach’s Cantatas BBC Proms (Gardiner); Handel’s Saul (Israeli Camerata); Orff’s Carmina Burana in Barbican, London; Handel’s Messiah in Australia and USA, Bridgewater Hall (Halle Orchestra) and St David’s Hall, Cardiff (Florilegium); Purcell’s King Arthur Muziekgebouw Amsterdam (Vox Luminis); Bach’s St Matthew Passion Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht; and an Opera Gala in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. Recordings include Monteverdi’s Vespers (OAE), BBC Music Magazine’s Choral CD of the Year 2022Bach’s Cantata 106 Actus Tragicus, Bach’s St John Passion; (Dunedin Consort/ Linn); Haydn’s Creation (Alte Musik /ORF), Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (Armonico Consort/Signum).

Winner of a Leonard Ingrams Award and the Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge Bel Canto Award, New Zealand born Samoan soprano Marlena Devoe also won the Tait Memorial Prize. She was a 2018 Alvarez Artist at Garsington Opera at Wormsley, where she made her debut as Alice Ford in Falstaff.

Marlena Devoe completed her MA in Advanced Vocal Studies with Distinction at the Wales International Academy of Voice. Prior to her studies in Cardiff, she studied at the University of Auckland and the Manhatten School of Music in New York. Her engagements have included Adina in L’elisir d’amore at the Verbier Festival, Mimì in La bohème for Lyric Opera, Dublin, and New Zealand Opera, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi for Singapore Lyric Opera, Gilda in Rigoletto for Opera Project, Violetta in La traviata for Clonter Opera, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Orion Orchestra, Messiah with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Verdi’s Requiem at Snape Maltings.

Engagements during 2022 / 2023 include the title role in Anna Bolena for Musica Viva, Hong Kong, First Nymph in Rusalka at the Edinburgh International Festival with Garsington Opera at Wormsley, Purea in Star Navigator for New Zealand Opera, Violetta in La traviata for the St Endellion Festival and A Night at the Opera with the Hallé.

Robert Hayward

Robert Hayward has been long established as one of the UK’s leading dramatic bass-baritones. He performs with all the major opera companies in the UK and with Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Frankfurt Opera, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Nantes Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opéra de Montreal, Minnesota Opera, Dallas Opera. Roles include: Wotan, Wanderer in Ring, Jokanaan in Salome, title roles in Eugene Onegin, Mazeppa, Der fliegende Holländer, Scarpia in Tosca, Iago in Otello, Don Pizarro in Fidelio, Tomsky in The Queen of Spades, Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress, Kurwenal in Tristan, Bluebeard in Bluebeard’s

Castle, Prince Ivan Khovansky in Khovanshchina, Telramund in Lohengrin, Simone in Zemlinsky’s Florentine Tragedy. Engagements include: Roderick Usher in a double bill of Debussy’s The Fall of the House of Usher and Getty’s Usher House, Khovansky (WNO); Bluebeard (LA Opera); Salome (NI Opera); Moses und Aron (Komische Oper); Boris in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Chief of Police in Iain Bell’s Jack the Ripper, Jupiter in Orpheus in the Underworld, Commander in The Handmaid’s Tale (ENO); Alberich in Das Rheingold and Siegfried (LPO); and title role in Falstaff (Grange Festival). For Opera

North: Golaud Pelléas and Mélisande, Ford in Falstaff, Marcello in La Bohème, Escamillo in Carmen, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Malatesta in Don Pasquale, Count, Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro, Robert in Yolanta, Mandryka in Arabella, Shishkov in From the House of the Dead, Prus in The Makropulos Case, Balstrode in Peter Grimes, Jack Rance in The Girl of the Golden West, Gérard in Andrea Chénier, Wotan, Scarpia, Jokanaan, Der fliegende Holländer, Frank Maurrant in Street Scene, Don Pizarro, Amfortas in Parsifal and title roles Don Giovanni, Saul, Falstaff, Macbeth.

Bethany Horak-Hallett

British mezzo-soprano Bethany HorakHallett read Music at Leeds University and completed her training at Trinity Laban Conservatoire. She was a finalist in the 2020 Cesti Competition at the Innsbruck Festival, won Second Prize in the 2021 Handel Singing Competition. She has been Rising Star of the Enlightenment and a Samling Artist.

Bethany’s opera engagements have included Dorabella in Così fan Tutte for Garsington Opera, Kitchen Boy in Rusalka for Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester / Robin Ticciati as well as Žena Katya in Kabanova at Glyndebourne.

On the concert platform she has appeared with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment singing Bach, Handel and Haydn directed by Steven Devine, John Butt and Mark Padmore. She made her BBC Proms début with the Monteverdi Choir / Sir John Eliot Gardiner singing Handel’s Dixit Dominus, has joined the for Opera du Rhin Strasbourg and his first Tom Rakewell in The Rake’s Progress in Coen, Limoges, Reims, Rouen and Luxembourg. In the UK, Benjamin has performed with Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opera North, Grange Park Opera, Opera Holland Park, Garsington Opera, Welsh National Opera, and in Sir Jonathan Miller’s staging of St Matthew Passion at the National Theatre. Benjamin has appeared regularly at the BBC Proms and is increasingly in demand as an interpreter of song.

Royal Northern Sinfonia / Dinis Sousa, toured with Holland Baroque, sang Bach and Handel with the Academy of Ancient Music, Handel and Mozart arias with Southern Sinfonia Baroque and has appeared with the English Chamber Orchestra and The Instruments of Time and Truth.

Amongst Bethany’s films and recordings are Cupid in John Eccles’ Semele with the Academy of Ancient Music / Julian Perkins, Bach and Telemann for OAE Player and Messiah for the Voces8 Foundation Live from London festival.

This season Benjamin will sing Kudrjas in the Salzburg Festival’s production of Katya Kabanova under the baton of Jakub Hrůsa and later in the season at Opera de Lyon. Benjamin will also sing Davide penitente with Ivan Repusic and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, join the Philharmonie Zuidnederland for Haydn’s Die Jahreszeiten under the baton of Duncan Ward, and sing Haydn’s The Seasons with the Academy of Ancient Music and Laurence Cummings.

Benjamin Hulett

Benjamin Hulett trained as a choral scholar at New College, Oxford and studied with David Pollard at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He was a member of the Hamburgische Staatsoper from 2005 to 2009. He has made his debuts at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Theater an der Wien in the world premiere of Kalitzke’s Die Besessenen, the Salzburger Festspiele, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, and Opera di Roma. He sang Luzio in Das Liebesverbot

Last season Benjamin sang Lysander at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Britten’s Serenade with the Sudwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim and Messiah with the Halle and Sofi Jeannin, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Christian Curnyn and the Kammerorchester Basel and Paul McCreesh.

Further highlights include Pulcinella at the BBC Proms under Martyn Brabbins and his debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in L’heure Espagnole (Dutoit), at Carnegie Hall performing Jupiter in Semele as part of an English Concert tour around the USA and Europe (Harry Bicket), with the Teatro Real Madrid as Arbace in ldomeneo and David in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in concert with the Santa Cecilia Orchestra and Antonio Pappano. Benjamin’s wide range of recordings have received nominations and awards from BBC Music Magazine, Gramophone, Grammy, L’Orfee d’Or and Diapason.

Morgan Pearse

Morgan Pearse is one of the most exciting baritones of his generation. He studied at the Royal College of Music where he won the Lies Askonas Prize and Gold Medal at the Royal Over Seas League Competition. He went on to become a member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio and made his UK debut at ENO singing Figaro in The Barber of Seville. Recent and future opera highlights include Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte and Araspe in Tolomeo (Staatstheater Karlsruhe), Sid in Albert Herring (Buxton Festival), Belcore in L’Elisir d’Amore and Figaro in The Barber of Seville (New Zealand Opera and the State Opera of South Australia), Ned Keene in Peter

Grimes (Auckland Philharmonia), Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro (Opernhaus Zurich), baritone in Idalma (Innsbruck Festival of Early Music), Papageno (Russian National Orchestra) as well as covering the role of Billy Budd for the Bolshoi. Concert highlights include a solo recital at Wigmore Hall, concerts with Birmingham Philharmonic, Moscow Musica Viva Chamber Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, Gabrieli Consort, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Academy of Ancient Music, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, King’s College Choir Cambridge and Messiah with the Tasmanian, West Australian and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras, RSNO and the Sydney Philharmonic Orchestra.

Charles Rice

Current projects of Charles Rice include Marcello in La Bohème and Cecil in Gloriana English National Opera, Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream Opéra de Lille, Albert in Werther Irish National Opera, and Jacques Hury in the world premiere of L’annonce faite a Marie for the Opéra de Nantes.

Other recent engagements have included Oreste in Iphigenie en Tauride, Eugene Onegin (title role) and Hamlet (title role) Opéra de Nantes, Rennes and Angers, Don Giovanni (title role) Opéra de Avignon, Cecil in Gloriana Teatro Real, Oronte in Médée Grand Théâtre de Genève, Simonson Ivanovich in Risurrezione

Wexford Festival Opera, Gabey in On the Town, and Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream Hyogo Performing Arts Center in Japan, Figaro in The Barber of Seville and Maximilian in Candide The Grange Festival, Ned Keene in Peter Grimes Palau de Les Arts Reina Sofia

Valencia, Arthur Koestler in Benjamin, dernière nuit (world premiere) and Procolo in Viva la Mamma Opéra de Lyon, as well as Hermann in Les Contes d’Hoffmann Royal Opera House Covent Garden.

Past engagements have included Escamillo in Carmen Stadttheater Klagenfurt and Vorarlberger

Landestheater, Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos and Silvio in Pagliacci Opéra de Toulon, Sid in Albert Herring English Touring Opera, HK Gruber’s Gloria - A Pigtale Mahogany Opera Group tour (Linbury Studio, Bregenz Festival, Norfolk and Norwich Festival), roles in Candide Opéra National de Lorraine, Ned Keene in Peter Grimes Aldeburgh Festival, Bello in La Fanciulla del West English National Opera, Conte Robinson in Il Matrimonio Segreto Festival de Sédières, Morales in Carmen Royal Albert Hall, Angelotti in Tosca Grange Park Opera, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte and the Vicar in John Copley’s first Albert Herring, both for RAO. He covered Mr Redburn in Billy Budd Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and sang the Cat in Stravinsky’s Renard Glyndebourne Jerwood Young Artist Programme.

Charles sang concerts at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, Canterbury Cathedral, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Chelmsford Cathedral, Cadogan Hall, Mayfield Festival and others. He studied with Mark Wildman at the Royal Academy of Music and the National Opera Studio.

Claire Ward

Claire Ward is a British/Irish soprano based in London. In 2022 Claire became an Opera Prelude Young Artist and returned to perform with Opera Holland Park in the chorus of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. Opera roles include Frantik in the The Cunning Little Vixen at Opera Holland Park in 2021, and Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro which Claire understudied at The Grange Festival in 2019. In the same year Claire sang the role of Venus in John Blow’s Venus and Adonis with the Royal Academy of Music and made her Oxford Lieder debut. As a

Britten Pears Young Artist in 2019, Claire performed Bach Cantatas in the Snape Maltings Proms, conducted by Philippe Herreweghe. As a student, she regularly performed in the Kohn Foundation/RAM Bach Cantata series, as well as with the Ensemble Baroque de Toulouse, whilst studying in France.

Further concert highlights include Bach’s B minor Mass, Berlioz’ Les Troyens with the Monteverdi Choir, Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius with the Gabrieli Consort and a solo recital at St Martin-in-the Fields. 2022 City Music Foundation artist, Claire is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and Samling Academy. She holds a First-Class honours degree from Durham University and attended the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Toulouse.

Oslo Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Sydney Symphony orchestras, and productions at English National Opera and Glyndebourne Summer Festival.

For many years Wilson appeared widely across the UK and abroad with the John Wilson Orchestra. In 2018 he relaunched the Sinfonia of London. Their muchanticipated BBC Proms debut in 2021 was described by The Guardian as “truly outstanding” and they are now much in demand across the UK, returning to the BBC Proms, Birmingham Symphony Hall and London’s Barbican Centre among other venues this season.

Wilson has a large and varied discography and his recordings with the Sinfonia of London have received exceptional acclaim and several awards including, for three successive years, the BBC Music Magazine Award in the Orchestral category for the Korngold Symphony in F sharp (2020), Respighi Roman Trilogy (2021) and Dutilleux Le Loup (2022) recordings. The Observer described the Respighi recording as “Massive, audacious and vividly played” and The Times declared it one of the three “truly outstanding accounts of this trilogy” of all time, after those by Toscanini (1949 and Muti (1984).

John Wilson

John Wilson is in demand at the highest level across the globe, regularly guest conducting the world’s finest orchestras: in recent seasons these have included the London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Budapest Festival,

Born in Gateshead, Wilson studied composition and conducting at the Royal College of Music where, in 2011, he was made a Fellow. In March 2019, John Wilson was awarded the prestigious ISM Distinguished Musician Award for his services to music and in 2021 was appointed Henry Wood Chair of Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music.

Catherine Wyn-Rogers

Catherine Wyn-Rogers has appeared at the Bayerische Staatsoper, English National Opera, Royal Opera House, Teatro alla Scala Milan, Scottish Opera, Welsh National Opera, Opera North, Semper Oper Dresden, Teatro Real Madrid, Netherlands Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera de Paris and Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Amongst her many performances, she has sung Erda and Waltraute in Valencia and Florence with Mehta, appeared at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Sosostris in The Midsummer Marriage, and made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera as Adelaide in Arabella. Catherine has also performed for the Salzburg, Verbier, Aldeburgh, Edinburgh and Enescu festivals as well as the BBC Proms.

On the concert platform, she has appeared with Slatkin, Haitink, Andrew Davis, Colin Davis, Rozhdestvensky, Mackerras, Norrington, Gardner and Barenboim. Her numerous recordings include The Dream of Gerontius with Barenboim, Samson with Harry Christophers, Mozart’s Vespers with Trevor Pinnock for DG and Peter Grimes with the LSO and Sir Colin Davis.

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