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Tenor Michael Bell had his first national competitive success when, in 2013, he won Ireland’s Catherine Judge Memorial Prize. He went on to read Music at Cambridge whilst singing with the world-famous Choir of St. John’s College with whom he toured and recorded extensively, most memorably as the Tenor soloist for the Choir’s recording of Janáček’s Otčenás, a performance described as “heroic” in a review by Nicholas Kerrison. Concurrent with his work with the Choir he appeared on the opera stage in roles as varied as Candide, Ferrando, Lysander and Tom Rakewell. In the sphere of contemporary opera he has recorded sketches of Gareth Glyn’s opera Wythnos yng Chymru Fydd for Welsh television channel S4C and created the roles of Gabelkhover and the Schoolmaster in Tim Watts’ Kepler’s Trial at its premiere at the V & A Museum in November 2017. Equally at home as a recitalist, he was a Scholar on Pembroke College Cambridge’s Lieder Scheme for the academic year 2017/2018 and was a prizewinner at the Camerata Ireland Academy in August 2018. He began studies with Russell Smythe at the Royal College of Music in September 2018 as a Big Give Scholar. He is an alumnus of the 2019 Verbier Festival Academy.
A recent graduate of the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and recipient of a number of major awards, British bass William Thomas is fast making a name for himself as one of today’s most promising young singers. As a Jerwood Young Artist he sang the role of Nicholas in the British premiere of Samuel Barber’s Vanessa at the Glyndebourne Festival, he has sung Shepherd Pelléas et Mélisande for Garsington Opera and he made his debut at the Vienna State Opera as Snug in a new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Other recent engagements have included Zweiter Priester/Zweiter Geharnischter Die Zauberflöte for Glyndebourne and Colline La bohème at Alexandra Palace for the English National Opera.
Hailed by critics as a ‘thinking’ musician with engaging stage presence and a gratifying combination of virtuosity and eloquence, pianist Pedja Muzijevic has defined his career with creative programming, unusual combinations of new and old music, and lasting collaborations with other artists and ensembles. The Financial Times sums him up as “a virtuoso with formidable fingers and a musician with fiercely original ideas about the music he plays.” His vision is to bring musicians together to explore new ways of presenting classical and contemporary music to audiences through curation, staging, lighting and other technology. In addition to a busy touring schedule, Muzijevic is Director of Music Programming at the Baryshnikov Center in New York and Artistic Advisor at Montana’s Tippet Rise.
Welsh Tenor, Dafydd Jones, made his international debut in 2022/23 season as Clotarco in Haydn’s Armida for the Bregenzer Festspiele. Busy making a name for himself on the operatic stage, he also recently made his debut in the Title Role of Albert Herring for Opera North. Other operatic roles include Earl Tolloller (cover) in Iolanthe for English National Opera, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni (OPRA Cymru) and Pastore in L’Orfeo (Garsington Opera). Recently, Dafydd won the Ferrier Loveday Song Prize in the Kathleen Ferrier Competition at the Wigmore Hall and was awarded the Prix Thierry Mermod on the 2019 Atelier Lyrique at the Verbier Festival. He was member of the 2023 Wigmore Hall French Song Exchange programme where he worked with Dame Felicity Lott and François Le Roux. Dafydd’s just completed his first year at the Royal College of Music International Opera Studio where he studies with Nicky Spence and Caroline Dowdle.
South Korean baritone Edward Kim is currently pursuing his Master of Performance in Royal College of Music with Professor Janis Kelly. He made his operatic debut as Conte in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at the Berlin Opera Academy in 2019. Equally at home with Oratorio and art song, Edward has sung solos in Mozart’s Requiem and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and was also selected to participate in a recital of Schumann’s Myrthen by Roger Vignoles. He has had success in several competitions, clinching the top prizes in Seoul Music Competition, Osaka International Music Competition, Estonia International Competition and Concert Artists International Competition in New York. Edward is supported by the Sheila Saam Memorial and Drake Calleja Trust.
The French cellist Edgar Moreau, who turned 21 in 2015, can already look back on a number of exceptional achievements, among them becoming the winner – at the age of just 17 – of the Second Prize in Russia’s formidable Tchaikovsky Competition, winning the Young Soloist Prize in the 2009 Rostropovich Cello Competition in Paris, and performing with such distinguished musicians as Valery Gergiev, Gidon Kremer, András Schiff, Yuri Bashmet, Krzysztof Penderecki, Gustavo Dudamel, Renaud Capuçon, Nicholas Angelich, Frank Braley, Khatia Buniatishvili, Gérard Caussé and the Talich Quartet. In 2013 his huge potential was highlighted by France’s top music awards, Les Victoires de la Musique, which named him the year’s ‘Révélation’ among young classical instrumentalists.
He released his debut album in March 2014 on Erato with pianist Pierre-Yves Hodique: Play is a collection of short pieces and brilliant encores from Popper, Paganini, Chopin, Saint-Saëns, Fauré, Dvořák, Massenet, Schubert, Poulenc and Tchaikovsky among others. His follow-up album, Giovincello, presents 18th-century cello concertos recorded with the Italian Baroque ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro.
A Parisian by birth, Edgar Moreau first realised he wanted to play the cello when he was just four years old – the instrument caught his imagination when he saw a girl having a cello lesson in an antique shop he was visiting with his father. He began lessons soon afterwards, and was giving concerts with major orchestras by the time he was 11 years old. Since the age of 13 he has been a student at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris. He has participated in masterclasses given by such cellists as Lynn Harrell, Anner Bylsma, Miklós Perényi, Gary Hoffman and David Geringas, and since October 2013 has been attending the Kronberg Academy near Frankfurt – home to the Emanuel Feuermann Conservatory, named after the legendary Ukrainian-born cellist.
When the editor of the international music website Bachtrack saw Edgar Moreau perform in Gstaad in early 2013, he had the following to say: “One always comes to a young musician’s concert with a hope that this will be that special day when you hear a performer who you are absolutely sure will be a star of the future. That hope only comes to fruition on a small number of occasions: this concert was one of them. I’m willing to take bets that nineteen year-old Parisian cellist Edgar Moreau is going to have a glittering career … His playing is muscular and he throws himself into the music … and Moreau has bags of stage presence, with a flexible face which can turn from smile to grimace and back in an instant but always shows deep involvement with the music … Even at such a young age, Moreau can completely win over an audience with his big sound and no-holds-barred style. I think he’s going to be a winner.”
The tenor Sungho Kim was born in Gwangmyeong (South Korea) tenor Sungho Kim studied singing at the National University of Art in Korea with Kwangsun Song and at the Hanns Eisler University of Music in Berlin with Ewa Wolak, Julia Varady Master classes with the professors, Deborah Polaski, Bejun Metha, Malcolm Martineau, Brigitte Fassbaender. He received numerous awards both in his home country and internationally, such as a 1st prize at the Korea National Singing Competition in Seoul and at the International Belvedere Singing Competition in Vienna 2018. In the 2018/19 season, Sungho Kim became a member of the International Opera Studio of the Hamburg State Opera, where he u. a. conducted by Kent Nagano Scaramuccio (Ariadne on Naxos), Czekalisky (Pikowaja dama) and Capitano dei Balestrieri (Simon Boccanegra) alongside Plácido Domingo and Ks. Kwangchul Youn. In 2020/21 he will join the Dortmund Opera as a new member of the ensemble.
This season, soprano Sylvia D’Eramo joined the prestigious Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. She previously trained with the Los Angeles Opera in its Young Artist Program, where she covered Mimì in La Bohème, and sang Fosforo and Euretti in Landi’s La Morte d’Orfeo. She made her debut with Lyric Opera Kansas City as Musetta in La Bohème. She was slated to join the Britt Festival Orchestra in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, conducted by Teddy Abrams (cancelled). In 2019 D’Eramo returned to Santa Fe Opera for her second year as an Apprentice, where she covered Mimi in La Bohème and sang Barena in Jenůfa. In 2017-18 she joined Santa Fe Opera as an Apprentice Artist singing Cugina in Madama Butterfly. Sylvia is a graduate of the Yale School of Music, where she performed various roles. In concert, she joined the Yale Philharmonia for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under Maestro Marin Alsop. D’Eramo has been the recipient of multiple awards: national semifinalist in the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions; Grant Award from the Santa Fe Opera; career grant from Giulio Gari Foundation; encouragement award from Jensen Foundation. Sylvia D’Eramo appears by kind permission of The Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.
Originally from Québec city, Jean-Philippe Mc Clish holds a master’s degree and an artist diploma in opera performance from McGill University’s Schulich School of Music, where he studied with soprano Dominique Labelle. Previous roles include Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte (Opéra de l’Université de Montréal) as well as Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Il Re in Ariodante, Készakállú in Bluebeard’s Castle, Falke in Die Fledermaus, Garibaldo in Rodelinda and Dulcamara in Elisir d’amore (Schulich School of Music). He also sang the King in Fête Galante (Smyth) with opera5. As a soloist, he has performed in Handel’s Messiah (Ensemble Sinfonia), Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle (Chœur polyphonique de Rimouski), Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana (Kingston Symphony), along with the Requiems of Brahms (Orchestre symphonique de Lévis) and Mozart (Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières). With l’Opéra de Montréal, Jean-Philippe sang in 2019-2020 the part of the Captain in Eugene Onegin, the Second Prisoner in Fidelio, as well as covering Raimondo in Lucia di Lamermoor. He was supposed to sing the role of the second Armoured guard and covering Papageno in the Komishe Oper production of Zauberflöte at Opéra de Montréal. A production cancelled due to Covid19. He was also singing with the Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques (2018-2019). Who gave him the opportunity to sing with Regensburg Opera. He is a grant recipient from the Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation (2019) and the Art Song Foundation award (2019). Jean-Philippe will be singing this year the role of Antonio and covering Figaro in Nozze di Figaro with Opéra de Montréal. He would also normally have been singing the rôles of Dr. Grenvil in Traviata and the Mayor in Jenufa. Two production that will be presented in the season of 2021-2022 instead. He will be part of the prestigious Verbier Festival for the summer 2021. Jean-Philippe is currently a resident artist at Opera de Montreal.
Brought up in Derbyshire, Bass-Baritone Edward Jowle is a postgraduate at the Royal College of Music, studying with Russell Smythe and Gary Matthewman. A 2019/20 Samling Scholar, he is supported by the Drake Calleja Trust, the Josephine Baker Trust and the recipient of the RCM Rose Williams Scholarship. Recent Operatic work includes: Guglielmo (Cosí fan tutte/Devon Opera); Elviro (Serse/Accademia Europea Dell’Opera); Papageno (Die Zauberflöte/Westminster Opera); Lord Dunmow (A Dinner Engagement), Snug (A Midsummer Nights Dream/RCM Opera Studio); Falke (Die Fledermaus/Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts); Gendarme (Les Mamelles de Tirésias/Euphonia Studio); Alidoro (La Cenerentola/Bedford Park Festival) Cecil (Maria Stuarda) for Magnetic Opera/Edinburgh Festival Fringe; and Adonis (Venus and Adonis/Brighton Early Music Festival). Recent concert highlights include Handel Messiah (Nevill Holt); Bach B Minor Mass (Lloyds Choir); Berlioz L’enfance du Christ (Scherzo Ensemble); Finzi Let us Garlands bring (East London Symphony Orchestra); Oli Tarney St Mark Passion (Endellion Festival) Mozart Requiem (Orchestre Symphonique de Canet et Rousillon, France) and Elgar The Apostles (London Philharmonic Orchestra). Acting work includes Lomov/Narrator/Smirnov (Chekhov Tripple Bill: The Proposal/On the Evils of Tobacco/The Bear) for Euphonia Studio. Edward has worked with conductors including Martyn Brabbins, Michael Rosewell, Jonathan Peter Kenny and Natalie Murray Beale, as well as directors including Iqbal Khan, James Conway, Liam Steel, Bill Bankes-Jones and Rodula Gaitanou. He has participated in masterclasses with Gerald Finley, Dennis O’Neill, Sir Thomas Allen and most recently with Thomas Quasthoff at the Wigmore Hall. Forthcoming projects include Masetto (Don Giovanni) for Nevill Holt,. Gendarme (Les mamelles de Tirésias) for British Youth Opera and a recital for the Oxford Lieder Festival with Ana Manastireanu. He will also appear at this year’s Verbier Festival as part of the Atelier Lyrique Young Artist Programme, playing Colline in the festival production of La Bohème. Edward is delighted to be continuing his studies at the RCM in September as a a member of the Opera Studio.