Judy Louie Brown

Mezzo-Soprano
Judy Louie Brown

 

 

Scottish mezzo-soprano Judy Louie Brown read Music at the University of Edinburgh and received her Masters from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and is now a much sought-after recitalist, opera and consort singer. Described by Opera Magazine as singing with “steadiness, purity, dignity and command”, she works with Dunedin Consort, Scottish Opera, the Monteverdi Choir, English Concert and the Academy of Ancient Music. She has performed at the Proms, Aix-en-Provence Festival, London Handel Festival, Handel Festival in Halle, Germany, Edinburgh International Festival, the Barbican’s Contemporary Music Season and at the Tête-à-Tête opera festival, and on stages as diverse as Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, the Wigmore Hall, the Vienna Musikverein and St Magnus’ Cathedral, Orkney.

Praised for the “dynamism and delicacy” of her singing, solo performance highlights include the Orcadian premiere of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ song cycle for mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble The Birds in St Magnus Cathedral, Orkney, a recital of the lieder of Schubert and Hans Gál in the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Handel’s Messiah for The Edinburgh Royal Choral Union in the Usher Hall, and the Angel in Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius in Southwark Cathedral.

Recent performances include the St Matthew Passion with Dunedin Consort, Second Witch in Errolyn Wallen’s Dido’s Ghost, at the Barbican, Edinburgh International Festival and Buxton Opera Festival and Messiah with Nevil Holt Opera. Forthcoming engagements include Mozart’s Coronation Mass in the Barnes Music Festival, Rutter’s Feel the Spirit in Southwell Minster, Dunster and Brighton Festivals with the Marian Consort, and a solo lieder recital in Vienna.

Samuel Mitchinson

Baritone, Soloists
Samuel Mitchinson


Sam began his singing life as a chorister at Southwell Minster before becoming a Magnus Scholar at the church of St Mary Magdalene, Newark. He is also a music scholar at Worksop College where notable solo work has included Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Mozart’s Requiem. He recently gave a recital in Newark’s renowned ‘Music for Market’ series and sang in the Leicester Philharmonic Choir’s performance of Bach’s famous cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben. In his scarce moments of free time he likes to relax with his dogs.

Michael Overbury

Continuo, Soloists
Michael Overbury

Organist and harpsichordist Michael Overbury’s early musical influences centred on Farnham and London, where he was introduced to the glories of the English liturgical tradition, and it was here also that his organ teacher Stephen Thomson inspired in him a love of the harpsichord.

Horizons broadened with an Organ Scholarship to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. After graduating he held a number of posts including deputy organist and choir master at the Cathedral and Abbey Church at St Alban’s. After winning First Prize in the 1982 Manchester International Organ Competition, he appeared twice as soloist at the Royal Festival Hall and has continued to play with many choirs and orchestras.

He is currently accompanist to Ruddington and District Choral Society, and to Sinfonia Chorale.

Robert Parker

Instrumentalist, Soloists
Robert Parker

Originally from Bath, Robert is a Graduate and Fellow of the Trinity College of Music, London.  He studied horn with John Burden, former principal horn of the London Symphony Orchestra and top session player – the John Burden Horn Quartet can be heard at the start of the Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club album!

Robert has appeared as a soloist across the country including in London, Somerset, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, and the East Midlands.  He has performed concerti by J S Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Telemann, Schumann and Richard Strauss, and also Benjamin Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, becoming something of a champion of the horn and new music for the horn along the way… He has had music written especially for him, including Andy Evans’ Horn Concerto which he premièred in 2009 at the Albert Hall, Nottingham. Andy said that he wrote the piece ‘to showcase Robert’s lyrical and sensitive playing, that I have listened to over many years’.  Robert was invited to play the horn obbligato in A Celebration of Psalms, a new choral work composed in 2013 by Burton Joyce based David Machell, who then wrote a Horn Concerto for him.  Robert gave a “bravura performance” at its première in St Mary’s Church, Nottingham in July 2018.   He is looking forward immensely to playing the horn obbligato part in Guy Turner’s Lux Aeterna with the B&DCS on 17th November 2018.

As a busy freelance musician, Robert plays principal horn with the English Pro Musica, Lincolnshire Chamber Orchestra British Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, National Festival Orchestra (including ten years with the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival at Buxton’s Opera House), along with numerous other professional orchestras, and has been a member of the Southwell Festival Sinfonia since its inception in 2014, under the baton of artistic director Marcus Farnsworth.  Robert enjoys chamber music, performing with the Hough Ensemble (a piano and wind group) at a variety of venues, including Nottingham’s Theatre Royal, Worksop College as part of their Worksop Music Concert Series, Grantham Music Club and Bingham Community Arts. He also regularly gives horn and piano recitals with Antony Clare.

The year 2018 heralds Robert’s 25th anniversary as Music Director of the Nottingham Concert Band, a thriving community band based in West Bridgford.  They are fresh from their tenth season of Proms in the Park, having celebrated Armed Forces Day in Bridgford Park on 30th June 2018 in collaboration with Rushcliffe Borough Council.  He is currently grants and donations officer for the British Horn Society as well as being a member of the executive committee, and has been active in co-organising a number of BHS national festivals, most recently in 2017 in Glasgow: this year’s festival is on 21st October 2018 in Cardiff.

For relaxation, Robert and his wife Ann enjoy walking their greyhound Mr Piper by the River Trent, and tending their allotment.

 

Stella Radić

Mezzo-Soprano, Soloists
Stella Radić


Stella Radić, previously a Lay Clerk at Peterborough Cathedral, has been recently appointed the role of Alto Lay Vicar at Lincoln Cathedral. She trained as a Chorister at Peterborough and has been involved in choirs ever since.

Stella undertook her undergraduate in Drama and Theatre at the University of Lincoln, during which she became a Choral Scholar at Lincoln Cathedral. Recently, she trained with Harry Christophers and Eammon Dougan as part of The Genesis Sixteen programme (cohort twelve). With them she performed at venues such as St Jame’s Piccadilly and King’s Place, in a variety of works including Tallis’ Spem in Alium.

Last season, Stella performed as a soloist in Bach’s St John’s Passion in Lincoln and she appeared with Stamford Choral in Mozart’s Vespers. In her spare time she is working on her tailoring business along with being Social Media officer for Dowland Youth Works.

Alison Rose

Soloists, Soprano
Alison Rose

Alison Rose is the winner of the 2015 Maggie Teyte Prize and a 2017 Leonard Ingrams Award. Born in East London, Alison’s first forays into music making came through the Redbridge Music Service. She subsequently went on to undergraduate studies at the RNCM and postgraduate at the RAM. She is a graduate of the GSMD Opera School and the National Opera Studio and is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.

 

Previous operatic roles include Papagena Die Zauberflöte for Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the BBC Proms; Barbarina Le nozze di Figaro for Garsington Festival Opera and English National Opera; Susanna The Marriage of Figaro for Opera North’s Whistlestop Tour; The Governess Turn of the Screw for Bury Court Opera and Vixen The Cunning Little Vixen for Grimeborn Opera. On screen, Alison performed the role of Olivia for an animated production of Aidan for English Touring Opera, and the role of La Bergère for VOPERA’s award winning animation of Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges. Recent engagements include Flavia in Handel’s Silla for the Northern Opera Group and Klara in Stephen McNeff’s Beyond the Garden at Lichfield Festival and Three Choirs Festival.

 

Concert highlights include Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music at the BBC Last Night of the Proms, Handel’s Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall, Britten’s Les Illuminations and Mahler’s Symphony no.4, both for the Southwell Music Festival, and solo recitals at the Oxford Lieder Festival and the Royal Opera House Crush Room.

 

http://www.alisonrosesoprano.com

 

 

 

James Savage-Hanford

Soloists, Tenor
James Savage-Hanford

James read Music at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and Royal Holloway, University of London, before undertaking postgraduate training in vocal performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, studying with Adrian Thompson.

James made his international debut as Ferrando Così fan tutte with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra at the Birgitta Festival, Tallinn, in 2016. Other operatic highlights include Don Ottavio Don Giovanni, Bardolfo Falstaff (Black Cat Opera Company) and Remendado Carmen (OperaUpClose). Earlier this year, he made his solo debut at St Martin-in-the-Fields, in a performance of Mozart’s Requiem alongside the Brandenburg Sinfonia.

When not singing, James is also active as a musicologist, and is currently studying for a PhD on the music of George Enescu at Royal Holloway, where he is also a visiting tutor. www.jamessavagehanford.com.

India Simpson

News, Soloists, Soprano
India Simpson


India Simpson was born in Norfolk where, during her school years, she studied with Jane Roberson. She joined the Norwich Cathedral Girls’ choir at 12, now at 22 she sings in various choirs in Lincolnshire. She won the Norfolk Young Musician Competition in 2022. India is in her third year at the University of Lincoln studying music. In 2023 she played the role of ‘Lola’ in Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana and in 2024 ‘Michal’ in Handel’s Saul with Lincoln Choral Society. She hopes to have a career as a musician in the future.

Matthew Spillett

Tenor
Matthew Spillett

 


Currently a Lay Clerk at Southwell Minster, Matthew is a graduate of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, studying with Maureen Brathwaite and Andrew King. He has also sung with the choirs of St Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham, Ex Cathedra, and Guildford Cathedral. Having started singing as a chorister at Peterborough Cathedral, Matthew has since performed in all the major oratorios, being in demand for his interpretations of both the Evangelist and soloist roles in Bach’s St Matthew and St John Passions. 

Matthew also appears frequently on stage, and has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company, performing in their acclaimed production Written on the Heart, directed by Gregory Doran. 

Matthew’s work has taken him throughout the USA and Europe, including the first solo Classical vocal recital for many years at the Alexandra Palace. He has appeared alongside such artists as Dame Felicity Lott, David Owen Norris, John Rutter, Nicola Benedetti and Jeremy Irons.

Geoff Williams

Baritone
Geoff Williams

Geoff Williams trained at the Royal Academy of Music completing a Master’s Degree in Performance, with Distinction.

Recent roles include Papageno and Sprecher Die Zauberflöte, Geronio Il turco in Italia, Escamillo and Dancaire Carmen, Don Alfonso Cosi fan tutti, General Achilla Giulio Cesare (Handel). He also covered the role of Marchese d’Obigny La Traviata for Longborough Festival Opera.

Geoff’s concert performances have included Herod in Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ (Scherzo Ensemble), Orff’s Carmina Burana (Colston Hall), Verdi’s Requiem (L’église de la Madeleine and Chartres Cathedral), Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle (St Margaret’s Church, Westminster), Pilatus and Arias in Bach’s St Matthew Passion (Wells Cathedral), Pilatus and Arias in St John Passion (Southwell Minster and Galway Cathedral), Barber’s Dover Beach with the Villiers Quartet (St John’s Smith Square).

He also understudied Roderick Williams in the World Premiere of the ‘Da Vinci Requiem’ by Cecilia Mcdowall with the Philharmonia Orchestra (Royal Festival Hall).

Upcoming performances in 2022 include: Brahms Requiem. Handel’s Messiah, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and a new work by Steve Banks ‘Blue Pearl’ which will be filmed in St Giles, Cripplegate, London with the London Mozart players.

He studies with Janice Chapman and Gavin Carr

For further information, visit www.geoffwilliamsbaritone.com