Sublime Music Inspiring Faith

Born in Wolverhampton, Claire studied at the Birmingham School of Music, at the Royal Academy of Music with Rae Woodland and Kenneth Bowen, and subsequently with Linda Esther-Grey. She joined Kent Opera during her final year at the Academy, was awarded the Wessex Glyndebourne Association Prize in 1998 and in 1999 made her Glyndebourne Festival Opera debut singing the role of Vitellia La Clemenza di Tito.

An adaptable soprano, Claire has enjoyed success in the early music field where she has worked with ensembles such as The Tallis Scholars and the Gabrieli Consort, with whom she made her BBC Proms début in Handel’s Dixit Dominus and is known for her performances of the soprano solos in Allegri’s Miserere.

Claire’s oratorio experience is extremely broad and she is particularly renowned for her performances of Verdi’s Requiem, Brahms’ Requiem and Mozart’s C Minor Mass. Her recent repertoire has ranged from regularly performed favourites such as Verdi’s Requiem and Mozart’s Requiem to less common works such as Symanowski’s Stabat Mater and Elgar’s The Light of Life.

Claire’s discography includes the role of The Believer in Rutland Boughton’s Bethlehem for Naxos, Brahm’s Deutsche Requiem with Jeremy Backhouse and the Vasari Singers for Guild, and the world première of Jonathan Dove’s The Far Theatricals of Day with Nicholas Cleobury. Claire has also recorded the Pergolesi Stabat Mater with the counter-tenor Andrew Watts.

Claire has been a member of St Bride’s choir since 1987 and is very proud of her continued involvement.

Rachel gained a Bachelor of Music Hons Degree at Manchester University. She undertook further training with English National Opera on “The Knack” programme. She currently studies with Jennie Caron.

Rachel’s operatic experience is extensive and she has worked for such UK companies as Almeida Opera; Carl Rosa Opera; Dartington Festival Opera; English National Opera; Grange Park Opera; Opera by Definition; Opera North; Pavilion Opera; Riverside Opera; Royal Opera House and Surrey Opera.  Her roles include: Adina (L’Elisir d’amore), Angelica (Handel’s Orlando), Bianca (La Rondine), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Mabel (The Pirates of Penzance), Micaela (Carmen), Susan (Berkeley – The Dinner Engagement), Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Vixen Sharp-Ears (The Cunning Little Vixen) and  Zerlina (Don Giovanni).  She works regularly as a member of the Extra Chorus at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.  In the realm of contemporary opera Rachel has performed the world premières of Langer’s “The Girl of Sand” (Almeida Opera) and of Maazel’s “1984” (Royal Opera House).

Rachel is also an experienced oratorio soloist.  She has performed much of the standard repertoire and recent engagements include Bach’s St Matthew’s Passion, Britten’s War Requiem, Brahms’ Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation and The Seasons, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, Orff’s Carmina Burana and Poulenc’s Gloria. She has performed in such leading British venues as:  Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin; Coventry Cathedral; Ripon Cathedral; Southwark Cathedral; Tewksbury Abbey and York Minster.  In London: the Barbican, the Cadogan Hall, London Coliseum, Royal Albert Hall, the Royal Festival and Queen Elizabeth Halls, St John Smith’s Square and St Martin-in-the-Fields.  She has performed some varied recital repertoire in UK, and performed Strauss’ Vier Letzte Lieder in Cheltenham and Annecy.

As an ensemble singer, Rachel has worked regularly with some of the UK’s leading groups, including the BBC Singers, the Choir of the Enlightenment, the English Concert Choir, the Gabrieli Consort, Sonoro and London Voices.  She has taken part in numerous recordings. Her singing has taken her as far a-field as Australia, New Zealand and Japan, and she has worked extensively in Europe.

Rachel is also an established and sought-after singing teacher.

http://www.rachelchapmansoprano.co.uk

Having graduated from Durham University with a First Class Honours degree in Music, Emily Owen went on to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, completing an Extended Artist Masters with Distinction in 2017 and becoming a GSMD Ensemble Artist Fellow with early music ensemble Ceruleo in 2017/18. She is coached by Tim Evans-Jones. Emily leads a varied freelance career as a consort singer and soloist, making her solo debut at Teatro alla Scala, Milan playing the role of ‘Iris’ in Handel’s Semele under Sir John Eliot Gardiner and making her Wigmore Hall debut alongside Dame Emma Kirkby in 2019. She features on two CDs of Purcell Odes with The Kings Consort released in 2020/21.

Emily is a soprano at St Bride’s Church Fleet Street and the West London Synagogue and also sings with the Choir of the Enlightenment, The Kings Consort, a cappella group Apollo5 and Dame Emma Kirkby’s Dowland Works. In 2016/17 she participated in the Handel & Hendrix in London Talent scheme including masterclasses with Carolyn Sampson and Laurence Cummings. With her lute and soprano duo Melismata, Emily performs for the charity Live Music Now and Music in Hospitals, taking baroque music into alternative social settings, and as a passionate educator she leads workshops with the VOCES8 Foundation in their outreach work across Europe and is a choral practitioner for the Voices Foundation. She is a visiting singing teacher at Harrow School and Davenies Prep School, holds an AAT qualification in Accounting and is currently training to become a Personal Performance ICF accredited coach with The Coaching Academy. In her spare time she enjoys tending to her allotment and learning new skills!

The versatile lyric soprano Nina Bennet studied Philosophy and English, before embarking on post-graduate study in singing and Early Music performance at the Royal College of Music, London.

Concert platform performances include Haydn’s Creation and Nelson Mass, Mozart’s Coronation Mass and the C Minor Mass under Jeremy Backhouse in Guildford Cathedral. She has also performed Haydn’s Little Organ Mass and Faure’s Requiem with the City of London Sinfonia, Bach’s B Minor Mass and Monteverdi’s Vespers with Charivari Agreable in St John’s Smith Square, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Peter Schreier, also in St John’s, and Vivaldi’s Gloria with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Most recently, she sang Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and Tippett’s Child of Our Time in Cadogan Hall under Ben Palmer, and Mozart’s Requiem under Hillary Campbell in Bristol Cathedral.

Nina is becoming increasingly in demand in contemporary and 20th Century music, performing Birtwistle’s Nine Settings of Celan with Kokoro, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s contemporary group, and Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with Sequenza at the Oxford Lieder Festival. She performed the European premiere of Sebastian Currier’s Vocalissimus, also with Kokoro, and sang in a staged performance of Birtwistle’s Yan Tan Tethera at the Barbican with the Britten Sinfonia.

Nina made her solo Proms debut in the Royal Albert Hall last summer, singing in the UK premiere of Lera Auerbach’s The Infant Minstrel and His Peculiar Menagerie with the BBCSO under Edward Gardner. Equally at home in both Jazz and Gospel, she performed in the Duke Ellington Sacred Concerts under Neil Ferris and Will Todd’s Mass in Blue in Cadogan Hall. She also recently performed with the composer and gospel choir conductor Ken Burton in his piece Take Time to Change, and performed a set of jazz standards with members of the Aurora Orchestra in King’s Place, London.

Moving into more dramatic repertoire, Nina recently sang Britten’s War Requiem in Haileybury College, Mendelssohn’s Elijah in Romsey Abbey, Verdi’s Requiem in Eberbach Abbey, Germany, and is making her first forays into opera with the part of Ortlinde in Wagner’s Die Walküre, Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and the title role in Verdi’s Aida. When Nina isn’t singing, she dabbles in choral conducting and leads singing workshops for both adults and children. She is also employed in raising two children and a cat called Billie Holiday.

Nina is proud to have been a permanent chorister at St Bride’s for the past 10 years.

www.ninabennet.com

Charlie Morris graduated with a music degree from Cambridge University and went on to study with Royal Academy Opera in London. Recent engagements include The Messiah at Cadogan Hall and Bach’s B Minor Mass, both with the London Mozart Players and a return last year to ENO for Handel’s Rodelinda covering the role of Bertarido, and Partenope covering the role Armindo. Operatic credits include The Shaman (cover) at ENO, Guido in Flavio, the title role in Cavalli’s Il Giasone with Royal Academy Opera conducted by Jane Glover, Cupid in Venus and Adonis with La Nuova Musica, Rutilia in Hasse’s Lucio Papirio at the London Handel Festival, Athamas in Semele, Satirino in La Calisto conducted by Anthony Legge, and The Spirit in Dido and Aeneas.

Oratorio credits include Chichester Psalms at the Barbican, Handel’s Saul with Laurence Cummings at the Spitalfields Festival, Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Masaaki Suzuki at Snape Maltings, and Handel’s The Messiah with Sir John Lubbock and the Orchestra of St John’s at Kings Place and St John’s, Smith Square. Other oratorio performances include appearing as a soloist on BBC Radio 3, performing a concert series of Bach’s alto cantata Vergnügte Ruh with the orchestra Charivari Agréable, a Messiah tour of Ireland with the Irish Baroque Orchestra and a program of Bach Cantatas at The Royal Albert Hall for the Proms with Solomon’s Knot.

​Further operatic engagements include covering the role of Baba the Turk in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress at the Aix-en-Provence opera festival, playing Arsace in Handel’s Partenope, The Prince in Daisy Chain at the Tête à Tête Opera Festival, previewed at LSO St Luke’s, Dido and Aeneas with Kiez Oper in Berlin, and a tour of the staged Messiah with the Merry Opera.

At the age of eight, Bob won a choral scholarship to St Michael’s College, Tenbury, where he eventually became Head Chorister. He then enjoyed five happy years at the ILEA boarding school Woolverstone Hall (home to such luminaries as Ian McEwan, Phill Jupitus and Martin Offiah) and along the way became an ESU Schoolboy Public Speaking Champion, before going up to Fitzwilliam, Cambridge.

During his time at University, he was able to indulge his varied passions of choral singing, comedy and athletics – managing to juggle two chapel choirs with the 110m hurdles, as well as writing and performing in the Footlights with the likes of Nick Hytner, Clive Anderson, Jan Ravens and Griff Rhys Jones. After University, he was awarded a postgraduate Diploma in Acting from Webber Douglas.

While at Fitzwilliam, he also found time to form the vocal group Cantabile. With them he gave over 3,000 performances worldwide: cut 17 discs – including Chess in Concert with Josh Groban and Idina Menzel; jammed on countless tapes; hit the silver screen – Morons from Outer Space; and had a big smash in the West End – Blondel (written by Tim Rice and Stephen Oliver). But despite these seemingly violent tendencies he remains more Punt Rock than Punk. Awards include the Wavendon Allmusic Prize and the Eurovision ‘Star Festival’ – Best Cabaret. 

Over the years he has also worked with a variety of ensembles including: Pro Cantione Antiqua; Schola Hebraica, New York; the Amsterdam Baroque Choir; Collegium Vocale Gent; the Tallis Scholars; the Gabrieli Consort and The Sixteen.

He left Cantabile in 2014, and now, aside from singing in the Choir, he runs the Recital Series at St Bride’s and is also Librarian. He was in the first UK intake to study for the LAMDA Teacher’s Certificate in Communication (LTCC) which he passed with Distinction, and has run Public Speaking Workshops at St Bride’s.

Having been brought up in Fetter Lane, EC4, and coming from a family of journalists, working at St Bride’s is the nicest way of coming home.

Robin trained at the Royal Academy of Music and on the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Opera Course. His operatic roles include Fox/Vixen (ENO/Silent opera), Mayor/1st cover Anatoly Chess (ENO), Candide/Candide & Alfred/Die Fledermaus (West Green House Opera), Val Jean/Les Miserables & Tony/West Side Story (Pimlico/Grange park opera), Fenton/Falstaff & Alfred/Die Fledermaus (Iford Opera), Gastone & cover Alfredo (Nevill Holt Opera), Bearded Wild Thing/Where the Wild Things are (Shadwell Opera).

Robin’s solo oratorio work includes B Minor Mass/Bach, Mozart Requiem & Le Grand Messe de Morts/Berlioz (Canterbury Cathedral), St Matthew Passion/Bach (Bristol Beacon), The Bells/ Rachmaninov (Winchester Cathedral), Israel in Egypt/Handel (Southwark Cathedral), Stainer The Crucifixion (St Martin’s in the Fields).

Robin was a founding member of the a capella group Voces8. He was also awarded 2nd prize in the International Lotte Lenya competition in New York, and the Young artists’ prize at the Les Azuriales competition in Nice, France.

Upcoming performances include Henry Crawford in Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park (UK tour/ Waterperry Opera Festival) and the title role in Janacek’s Diary of One who Disappeared (Waterperry Opera Festival). He will also be reprising the role of Goat King/Bearded Wild Thing in Where The Wild Things Are in Bamberg, Germany and at Nevill Holt Opera.

James hails from Southwell, Nottinghamshire where he began his musical pursuits as a cathedral chorister. He is a graduate of the Artist Masters programme at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he was supported by a Leverhulme Scholarship and the Chizel Education Trust. Highlights included a cross-arts performance of Schubert’s Schwanengesang with Iain Burnside, and being chosen by Graham Johnson to perform in a recital with the Song Guild.

James is looking forward to performing as ‘Nemorino’ in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore at Longhope Opera with the Scherzo Ensemble. Other recent operatic performances include: ‘Aeneas’ Dido & Aeneas, ‘Madwoman’ Britten Curlew River, ‘Tobias’ Dove Tobias and the Angel, ‘Male Chorus’ Britten The Rape of Lucretia, ‘Box’ Sullivan Cox and Box. As an oratorio soloist: Haydn Creation (forthcoming), Handel Joshua as ‘Joshua’, UK premiere of Lidarti Ester, Bach St John Passion, Rossini Messe Solennelle, and Handel Messiah with the Britten Sinfonia. Opera scenes: ‘Tamino’ Die Zauberflöte, ‘Ferrando’ Così fan tutte, ‘Count Almaviva’ Il Barbiere di Siviglia. James also took part in the 2020-21 Nevill Holt Young Artist programme.

Once a member of the choir, James runs the Marketing and Communications for the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge. He manages the college’s award-winning label with Signum Classics, and in 2018 he directed the filming of the first video live-streamed Evensong in collaboration with Classic FM. In January, James project managed and coordinated the release of an album of Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin, recorded by Iestyn Davies and Joseph Middleton.

Website: www.jamesbeddoe.com

Thomas Herford began his singing career as a boy chorister in the choir of New College Oxford, and went on to study at Trinity College Cambridge and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

As a concert soloist, he has sung with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia and the AAM, among many others. Stage roles include Don Ottavio Don Giovanni, Eisenstein Die Fledermaus, Don Narciso Il Turco in Italia, Don Ramiro La Cenerentola and Albert Albert Herring. 

Thomas sings with many of Europe’s leading ensembles. As a founder member of Solomon’s Knot, he has performed at the BBC Proms, Aldeburgh Festival and Bachfest Leipzig, and has sung the Evangelist in Bach’s St John Passion at Wigmore Hall. With the Monteverdi Choir, Thomas has taken part in numerous landmark projects, notably the St Matthew Passion tour (2016) and the choir’s debut tour to South America (2019). 

Philip Tebb studied Music at Durham University, where he was a Choral Scholar at the Cathedral, and at the Royal College of Music on the Benjamin Britten International Opera School with Russell Smythe. His studies at RCM were generously supported by the Anne Clayton Award, Stanley Picker Trust Award, the Audrey Sacher Award and the Josephine Baker Trust.

Roles at RCM included: Demetrius in Britten A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Harasta in Janacek The Cunning Little Vixen; Nicandro in Handel Atalanta (as part of the London Handel Festival); Father Trulove in Stravinsky The Rake’s Progress and Antonio in Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro. With the Academy of Ancient Music he has sung Uno Spirito in Monteverdi Orfeo and Littore/Famigliare in Monteverdi Poppea at the Barbican, in Bucharest and Venice. Other appearances include Momus in Rameau Platee with the Early Opera Company in St John’s Smith Square. Philip is in great demand as an oratorio soloist.

Recent highlights include: Bach Matthaus Passion (Christus and Arias) in Jesus College Chapel Cambridge, St John’s Smith Square and St Edmundsbury & Southwark Cathedrals; Bach Magnificat with Barts Choir in Cadogan Hall; Bach Weihnachts Oratorium with Cor Dyfed in St David’s Cathedral; Brahms Requiem with UCS Choral Society; Handel Messiah in the Royal Festival Hall, St David’s Cathedral, St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Guildford Cathedral, St Martin-in- the-Fields and Tewkesbury Abbey; Mozart Requiem with Stroud Choral Society in Gloucester Cathedral; Mendelssohn Elijah with Whitstable Choral Society in Canterbury Cathedral; Mozart C Minor Mass with Barts Choir in Cadogan Hall and Verdi Requiem with the English Chamber Choir and the Belmont Ensemble in St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Francis Brett started singing as a Quirister at Winchester College. He was a music scholar at the same school before winning a Choral Scholarship to King’s College, Cambridge where he studied with Roderick Earle and read for a music degree. He studied as a postgraduate at the Royal College of Music and held a position as a Lay Vicar at Westminster Abbey before turning freelance. He has recently assumed the directorship of the vocal ensemble The Amaryllis Consort.

As a baritone Francis has worked as a soloist with conductors such as Andrew Litton, Trevor Pinnock, Richard Hickox, Esa Pekka Salonen and Edward Gardner. International solo work has taken him to Australia, Poland and the USA. He has taken part in masterclasses with Wolfgang Holzmaier, Sarah Walker, Philip Langridge and Catherine Wyn-Rogers.

Francis has performed the major works of Oratorio throughout the UK. Recent concerts include Bach ‘B minor Mass’ with I Fagiolini on the South Bank, Monteverdi ‘Vespers’ with His Majesty’s Sackbutts and Cornets in Exeter Cathedral, Haydn ‘Creation’ in King’s College Chapel, Verdi ‘Requiem’ in St. Mary’s, Nottingham, Bach ‘St John Passion’, Mozart ‘Coronation Mass’ in Westminster Abbey with the ECO, Handel ‘Dettinger Te Deum’ in Westminster Hall with St James’s Players and Brahms ‘Requiem’ in St John’s, Smith Square.

Solo recordings include Elgar ‘Great is the Lord’ and the Benedictus of Harvey ‘Missa Brevis’ both on Hyperion, Puccini ‘Madame Butterfly’ (the Official Registrar) for Chandos conducted by Yves Abel, and Stainer ‘Crucifixion’ on A&M.  As a recitalist he has recently performed Schubert ‘Winterreise’ and Vaughan Williams ‘Songs of Travel’. Last season he performed in Wagner ‘The Flying Dutchman’ and Britten ‘Billy Budd’ both with ENO as well as regular appearances with The Sixteen and Exaudi.

Neil was born in London and studied philosophy and psychology at New College, Oxford. He currently studies singing with Russell Smythe. Neil enjoys performing a wide range of repertoire as both a soloist and a consort singer. In recent years he has particularly enjoyed working extensively with Emmanuelle Haïm and Le Concert d’Astrée including staged productions of Monteverdi Orfeo, Bach St John Passion, Rameau Dardanus, Purcell Dido and Aeneas and an extended tour of Purcell Fairy Queen (baritone solos) across France, Holland and Beligum.

He has worked a great deal with the English National Opera Contemporary Studio on Sarah Collins The Terminatrix (Psychiatrist), Jonathan Dove Palace in the Sky (Schmidt), David Charles Martin’s The Judgement of Theodora (Vitalian), Martin Butler A Better Place (Michel), Gertrude Stein & Virgil Thomson Capital Capitals (3rd Capital), a commission by Richard Taylor, and Will Todd Damned & Divine (Avenging Angel).

Other opera roles include Rossini La Gazza Ladra (Il Pretore) for Garsington Opera and Bizet Carmen (El Dancaïro) for European Chamber Opera, and Mozart Don Giovanni (Leporello). Neil has also worked with the chorus of the Royal Opera House in Götterdämmerung and Der Fliegende Hollander, and with the Birmingham Opera Company in the world premiere of Stockhausen Mittwoch aus Licht.

Neil made his solo début at The Proms with the London Sinfonietta in the UK premier of The Last Day by Andriessen with repeated performances in the The Queen Elizabeth Hall and at the Huddersfield International Festival of Contemporary Music.

Neil has worked repeatedly for a number of British choral societies. Performances include Bach Mass in B minor, St Matthew Passion, St John Passion; Haydn Nelson Mass, Paukenmesse; Dvorák Te Deum; Handel Messiah; and Michael Haydn Requiem.

As an ensemble singer, Neil has had the pleasure of working with many of the world’s leading groups including amongst others The Gabrieli Consort, European Voices, The King’s Consort, The Academy of Ancient Music, Europa Galante, Pygmalion, London Voices, Metro Voices, and The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. This work embraces a huge range of repertoire from creating film soundtracks and contemporary opera, to rediscovering forgotten works.

In his spare time, Neil tutors Physics and Maths online to A level (http://dorkingtutor.co.uk/) and is trying to improve his conservation and habitat management skills by volunteering.