Rachel Barnard mezzo-soprano 

Rachel Barnard is a mezzo-soprano completing her Masters studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.  She previously graduated with First Class Honours from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

In 2022, Rachel was a Young Artist at Waterperry Opera Festival, where she performed in the chorus for their productions of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Janáček’s The Diary of One Who Disappeared.  She was also recently involved in the Alexander Gibson Opera School’s production of L’étoile by Chabrier, performing the role of Adza.  Other roles include Mother/Other Mother in Coraline (Turnage) and Ferdinand in The Enchanted Island, both at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.  In scenes she has performed roles including Dorabella (Così fan tutte), The Fox (The Cunning Little Vixen) and Venere (L’incoronazione di Poppea).

With a strong love for song repertoire, Rachel has received first prize in the Norma Grieg French Song Prize, the Edward Brooks Lieder Prize and the Stuart Cameron Smith American Song Prize and in 2022, she performed as 2nd soprano soloist in Vivaldi’s Gloria under the baton of Andrew Nunn with the RCS Choir.

Beth Haughan piano 

Scottish-born Beth is a collaborative pianist and teacher currently working in London.  In 2021, she finished a year of study as a Weingarten Scholar at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest.  Previously, she gained a First Class BMus (Hons) from the Royal College of Music and an MMus (Distinction) from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.  Prior to this, she studied at the Purcell School of Music.

Beth has played chamber recitals at venues including the Southbank Centre and the Wigmore Hall, with a recent highlight being Dvorák’s Piano Quintet at a pre-CBSO Showcase in Birmingham’s Symphony Hall.  During her most recent studies in Birmingham she won the Lieder, English and American Song accompaniment prizes, the Leamington prize and the Sylvia Cleaver chamber prize as well as being a semi-finalist in both the Somerset Song Prize and the British Art Song Competition in 2022.

Beth looks forward to beginning an Advanced Postgraduate Diploma in Collaborative Piano at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in September 2023. 

Charles Cunliffe bass-baritone

Charles Cunliffe studies at the Royal Academy of Music Opera School. In 2019, he was awarded the Silver Medal by the Company of Musicians, of which he has now become a Young Artist.

Charles has an affinity for song and is a member of the Song Circle at RAM for whom he gave the world premiere of ‘I Wake’ by Roderick Williams. He has performed in the final of the 67th Kathleen Ferrier Awards in 2022 and at the Oxford Lieder festival alongside Dame Sarah Connolly and Graham Johnson. He has recorded the baritone solos in both Vaughan Williams’ Love bade me welcome and Finzi’s In terra pax for BBC Radio 3, and recently sang at Wigmore Hall.

In opera, he has performed the role of Guccio in RAO’s production of Gianni Schicchi and Keeper (The Rake’s Progress). He is now preparing Tobia Mill for this summer’s production of Rossini’s La Cambiale di Matrimonio.

Charles is generously supported by the Thompson Family Trust, the Drake Calleja Trust and the Countess of Munster Musical Trust.

Noëlle Drost soprano  

Dutch soprano Noëlle Drost turned to singing after studying piano at the School for Young Talent at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, and is currently studying at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague.   She has won prizes at the International Student LiedDuo Competition and at the Prinses Christina Competition. 

Noëlle has participated in numerous masterclasses and in 2021 was invited to a masterclass with Elly Ameling on Lied Repertoire.  She has also joined pianist Jorian van Nee in masterclasses at the International Liedfestival in Zeist and the International Chamber Music Festival at Schiermonnikoog.  Noëlle sang as a soloist with the Orchestra of the 18th Century under the baton of Daniel Reuss and has performed in several concert halls, including the Recital hall of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Hertz-zaal in TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht.  She also performed multiple times at the Grachtenfestival Amsterdam. 

Noëlle has a special love for early music and has performed the role of Sesto in Cleopatra e Cesare with the Dutch National Opera Academy, Euridice in Glück’s Orphée et Euridice, and the title role in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea.   

Jorian van Nee piano 

Jorian van Nee studies at the Conservatory of Amsterdam under Frank Peters.  Jorian’s previous teachers are Kirsten Os, Huub de Leeuw, Henk Ekkel and David Kuyken and he has followed lessons and masterclasses from several pianists, including Ronald Brautigam and Jan Wijn. 

He has played with several orchestras, including Sinfonia Rotterdam with Renchang Fu, the Yehudi Menuhin orchestra with Malcolm Singer, and the Residentie Orkest in The Hague where he played the Mozart piano concerto KV449 with Lawrence Foster as conductor.  He has also performed live on national radio and on television in ‘De wereld draait door’ and ‘Studio Witteman’. 

Jorian won first prize at the Prinses Christina Concours and also first prize for composition in 2013, followed by the best accompaniment prize in 2015.  He has also won prizes at the Young Pianist Foundation, the Peter de Grote Festival and the ‘Vrienden voor het Lied award’ at the International LiedDuo Competition in 2022 with soprano Noëlle Drost. 

Jorian has a Bechstein grand piano on loan from the Nationaal Muziekinstrumenten Fonds.

Edward Campbell-Rowntree piano

British pianist Edward Campbell-Rowntree read music at King’s College London and the University of Oxford before joining the Royal Northern College of Music as a postgraduate in 2020.

Alongside his extensive work on solo piano repertoire Edward is developing a strong reputation as a collaborative pianist, winning first prize in the inaugural Williams-Howard Memorial Prize alongside duo partner Georgie Malcolm. He is a member of the RNCM Songsters, through which he has appeared alongside Sir Stephen Hough for a performance of his song cycle And Other Love Songs.

Edward is also a keen proponent of early repertoire, often playing harpsichord in Baroque projects at the RNCM, including performances of Handel’s Aminta e Fillide and Rameau’s Pygmalion. He will be a finalist in the upcoming final of the Anthony Lewis Memorial Prize at the Royal Academy of Music, playing solo virginal music by Byrd and Gibbons.

Edward’s studies have been generously supported by the Drapers’ Company, the Eric Horner Award, the Headley Trust, the Ogelebsy Charitable Trust, Help Musicians UK and the Duke of Northumberland’s Estate.

Edward Picton-Turbervill piano 

Edward is currently in the second year of a Master’s at Guildhall, studying piano accompaniment. He was the Organ Scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge, where he read Music, graduating with a First and was twice a participant on the Pembroke Lieder Scheme.

From 2018-2021, he was Head of Music at Atlantic College. He is committed to music education and outreach, and works as organist at St John the Divine, Kennington, where he assists with the church’s renowned youth programme.

Whilst at Guildhall, Edward founded Pipit, a company which exists to bring song recitals back into people’s homes. He recently completed a commission to set Harold Pinter’s love poems to music, and one of the songs from that cycle won first prize at the inaugural UK songSLAM. He has since written a further two song cycles: Poems of the Sky, setting texts by Rilke, and Cow, setting a poem by Selima Hill.

He has appeared as Benjamin Britten at the Royal Opera House in a newly-commissioned play, A Letter from Ben, and toured Europe in 2022 as part of Open Your Eyes, an environmental project curated by Iain Burnside.

Florian Störtz bass-baritone

Bass-baritone Florian Störtz sang in Trier Cathedral in Germany from a young age and continued his vocal studies at Cambridge singing in the Choir of Trinity College and at the Royal Academy of Music, where he won first prizes for opera and song recitals. 
A graduate of the Sir Arthur Bliss Lieder Scheme, Florian is the winner of the 2023 International Handel Singing Competition and is part of this year’s Wigmore Hall French Song Exchange cohort, as well as the 2023-2025 Rising Stars scheme run by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. 

Songs by Gustav and Alma Mahler occupy a special place in his repertoire; recent performances include Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen alongside Orchestra VOX and Kindertotenlieder with pianist Dominika Mak.  Recent concert appearances include Mass in B minor, Stravinsky’s Les Noces and Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem and he has forthcoming appearances at Wigmore Hall, Salle Cortot and the International Song Festival Zeist.  Operatic roles include Bartolo (The Marriage of Figaro), Masetto and Commendatore (Don Giovanni) and Sir Thomas in Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park.

Florian trained as a scientist before his musical career, specialising in the physical factors influencing gene editing. 

Mark Rogers piano

Mark Rogers is an American pianist specializing in vocal and chamber music. He has been a Young Artist at the Leeds Lieder Festival, the Ludlow English Song Weekend and the Britten-Pears programme.

Mark was recently awarded the first prize in Art Song accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music and has previously been awarded the Alex Menzies Memorial prize and the Hester Dickson Lieder prize with soprano Rosie Lavery at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he completed his undergraduate studies in 2021.

Mark performs recitals regularly with musicians on the Countess of Munster and Philharmonia schemes and has played concerts at Scottish Parliament, the Malmö Radhuset, and at Atelier Ferrandou in France. Previously, he was the accompanist for Les Sirènes, and is now a staff pianist at Oxenfoord summer school run by Malcolm Martineau.

In addition to performing, he has won first prize from the Royal Philharmonic Society for his article on Samuel Barber in their Young Classical Writers competition, and writes programme notes for the Wigmore Hall. Mark is currently supported by a scholarship from the Royal Academy of Music where he is finishing a Masters in Piano Accompaniment.

Bethan Terry soprano

Yorkshire soprano Bethan Terry is currently studying on the Guildhall Artist Masters programme. Recent engagements include works by George Walker in a special BBC Immersion concert, a tour of Mozart’s Così fan tutte (Fiordiligi) with North Wales Opera Studio, and a Lieder concert curated by Graham Johnson at Milton Court.

Bethan was a finalist in the Somerset Song Prize 2022, GSMD English Song Prize, Bath Opera Isobel Buchanan Award and English Song Competition for Voice and Piano. Bethan regularly performs recitals across the UK

In 2022 she was invited to perform in Grosseto, Italy, alongside duo partner Francesca Lauri, and will return this Autumn. Last year they recorded a programme of works by female composers, in partnership with Howdenshire Music. During the Summer of 2021 Bethan was a Young Artist at the Waterperry Opera Festival. Bethan was a 2021 Help Musicians Scholar.

She is delighted to have been selected for the Josephine Baker Trust Scheme.

Francesca Lauri piano 

Francesca Lauri recently graduated from the Trinity Laban Conservatoire for Music and Dance with a First-Class Honours degree receiving the TCL Silver Medal for piano studies and winning the David Gosling Prize for Piano Accompaniment. During her time there, she won the duo prize in the Lilian Ashe French Song Competition and the English Song Prize two years in a row. She is currently studying Collaborative Piano at the Royal College of Music and is the recipient of the Ian Evans Lombe Scholarship.

Francesca has performed in venues such as Wigmore Hall, Milton Court, the Fazioli Concert Hall, LSO St. Luke’s and Teatru Manoel in Malta. She recently won the RCM Lieder Competition piano prize and is also the winner of the 2022 Somerset Song Piano Prize and the AESS Dorothy Richardson English Song Piano Prize. As well as performing song repertoire, Francesca has repetiteured for various opera companies and has also worked as an assistant conductor for Gothic Opera. Francesca’s projects for 2023 include Hurn Court’s production of Puccini’s La bohème and the Opera Maker’s concert of Der Wald by Ethel Smythe.

She is a 2023 Shipston Song and Samling Young Artist and holds a scholarship from the Countess of Munster Trust for her studies at RCM next Year.

Helena Moore soprano

Helena Moore is a British soprano who studied at the Alexander Gibson Opera School.  She graduated from her masters at the Royal Academy of Music with distinction, having previously read music at Trinity College, Cambridge.  She was a Finzi Trust Scholar, Bach Scholar, as well as being the recipient of the Ethel Bisland Award and the G Embley Memorial Prize.  In 2020, Helena reached the semi-finals of the Kathleen Ferrier Competition and was nominated for the song prize. 

Helena’s passion for song repertoire began when she was selected for the Pembroke Lieder Scheme.  She was a young artist for the 2022 Ludlow Song Festival and a Garsington Alvarez young artist performing in Rusalka and Così fan tutte. Further opera roles include Galatea (Acis and Galatea), Pamina (The Magic Flute), Gretel (Hansel and Gretel), Iphis (Jephtha) and Venus (Venus and Adonis.) 

Helena is an experienced oratorio soloist, having worked regularly as a Josephine Baker Trust scholar.  She recently made her Danish debut performing with the Henrikes Drengekor and Ensemble Midvest.  She regularly sings with the English Concert, Dunedin Consort and the Academy of Ancient Music. 

Francesca Orlando piano

Francesca Orlando is a British-Italian pianist who has performed in venues such as the Wigmore Hall, St James’ Piccadilly, the Royal Academy of Arts, and as soloist with Exeter University Symphony Orchestra, Bristol Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra Filharmonica Mediterranea. 

Francesca enjoys collaborating as a chamber musician and accompanist.  Since 2020 she has worked as an Italian vocal coach at the Royal Academy of Music and has recently accompanied Young Artists of the Wiener Staatsoper in their Opera studio coachings.  In 2022 Francesca accompanied bass-baritone Charles Cunliffe in the finals of the Kathleen Ferrier Awards. Francesca is a passionate advocate for quality music education and making classical music more accessible. 

She founded ‘Musica Vitae’, a voluntary non-profit organisation whose aim is to provide young musicians with performing opportunities through organising concerts in aid of charity.  As a RAM Open-Academy fellow she developed her skills as workshop leader and collaborator, working on various musical outreach projects with leading arts organisations such as Wigmore Hall Learning, Resonate Arts, Oxford Lieder Festival. 

Francesca currently resides in Vienna where she is undertaking a postgraduate diploma.  In October 2023 she will begin her Masters in Lied-accompaniment at the MdW in Vienna.

Anna Trombetta mezzo-soprano  

Anna Trombetta’s repertoire ranges from early Baroque to contemporary works.  In the United States, she has premiered with the Center for Contemporary Opera (To Be Sung, Dusapin), Atlantic Music Festival as Dorabella (Così fan tutte), and OperaNEO as Ramiro in a North American premiere of the Prague version of La Finta Giardiniera.  In Europe, she has performed with renowned contemporary ensemble ASKO | Schoenberg as part of their Words & Music Festival, Berlin Opera Academy as Emperor Nerone in L’incoronazione di Poppea, and Lyric Opera Studio as Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro). 

Currently based in Amsterdam, Anna and her duo partner, Koenraad Spijker, explore new music in art song and in 2021 had the pleasure of performing in the pre-programme for Christian Gerharher in the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in Amsterdam. 

In 2023, Trombetta will return to the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ for the Minimal Music Festival with ASKO | Schoenberg.  She will cover the role of Kitty Oppenheimer in Lustrum Opera’s production of Doctor Atomic by John Adams and take part in Dutch National Opera’s world premiere of Animal Farm by Aleksander Raskatov.  Anna also works as a presenter and interviewer. 

Koenraad Spijker piano

Koenraad Spijker was born in Amsterdam and studied for both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the Conservatorium van Utrecht, with his Master’s thesis on the music of Russian composer Aleksander Skrjabin and the harmonic development in his piano sonatas.

As a concert pianist, Spijker received third place in the Skrjabin Competition in Bulgaria in 2018 as well as the prize for Best Performance of a Skrjabin work.

Spijker formed a lied duo with mezzo-soprano Anna Trombetta, with whom he performs in the Netherlands.  The duo recently had their debut at the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ as part of the Grote Jonge Zangers pre-programme for baritone Christian Gerharher. 

Spijker is the founder and musical director of the chamber music series Spijkerklassiek, an Amsterdam initiative that strives to integrate classical music and other art forms including dance, visual art and theatre.  He is frequently asked to perform at festivals as a solo artist as well as at chamber music festivals around the Netherlands.

Stephanie Wong soprano

Soprano Stephanie Wong completed a Bachelor’s degree, majoring in vocal studies, at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, where she was awarded the Michael Rippon Memorial Scholarship and HKSAR Reaching Out Award. 

She is currently studying for a Postgraduate diploma at the Royal Northern College of Music after gaining her Masters degree there, also majoring in Vocal Studies and Opera.  She will start the opera course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in September 2023. 

In Hong Kong, Stephanie has performed Le Converse in Suor Angelica and Second Lady in Die Zauberflöte, as well as performances of Giannetta (L’elisir d’amore), First Lady (Die Zauberflöte) and Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro) in various opera scenes.  In the UK, her recent roles include Despina (Così fan tutte) with North Wales Opera and opera scenes include Samantha in Moore’s Ballad of Baby Doe and Ilia (Idomeneo). 

Stephanie was awarded the Espoir prize in Age U Arts Songs category at the Osaka International Music Competition in 2019 and is the French song winner in the David Clover Festival of Singing 2022. 

Anna Chiu​ piano

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Anna Hoi Ching Chiu obtained her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Music from Hong Kong Baptist University and her Master of Performance in Piano Accompaniment at the Royal Northern College of Music, where she was a member of the RNCM Songsters. 

Anna was the recipient of RNCM Brodsky Cross-School Prize in 2017, Piano Prize of RNCM Chris Petty English Song Competition and Milton Waring Award in 2018. 

Anna was an accompanist to the Hong Kong Youth Choir under the baton of composer, Bob Chilcott and has accompanied RNCM soloists at St Gaudéric Festival in France, as well as being rehearsal pianist and continuo player in Handel’s Messiah. 

Anna is currently the rehearsal pianist with Macclesfield and Haydock Male Voice Choir.  Her recent collaboration includes Gey Teal Music.  Her past choral rehearsal accompaniment experience includes Hong Kong Youth Choir for J.S. Bach Motets Concert and Opera Hong Kong Children Chorus in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. 

Anna was also selected as a Leeds Lieder Young Artist in 2018. 

Wencong Xue baritone

Wencong Xue was born in China.  He studied at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing (CCOM), and then at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. 

He was a member of the Chinese Chamber Music Opera Program of CCOM, and performed as a soloist in the Young Artist Program at the Shanghai International Arts Festival.  He has performed the role of Alidoro in La Cenerentola, produced by CCOM, the role of Cheng Ying in the Chinese chamber opera I Love Peach Blossom in Beijing, and won first prize at Voice of the Yellow River, an international classical singing competition in China. 

Wencong has performed with the pianist Chia-Yun Hsieh at the Trossingen Song Academy.  Also with Chia-Yun Hsieh, he won first prize at the Mozart Prize, second prize at the Gustav Mahler Competition in Hamburg In 2022, and third prize at the HIDALGO Grand Song Prize in Munich.  He was subsequently invited by the HIDALGO Festival to participate in the Street Art Song project in Munich.

Wencong is a scholarship holder of the LIEDBasel/LIEDAcademy 2023.

Chia-Yun Hsieh piano

Chia-Yun Hsieh was born in Taiwan. She completed her bachelor’s degree in artistic piano at the Münster University of Music in 2020 and has subsequently specialised in song interpretation for her master’s degree at the Hamburg University of Music and Performing Arts. 

She was a recipient of the Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now foundation scholarship in Münster and in Hamburg between 2018 and 2022, and of the Lied Academy Basel scholarship 2023. 

Awards include second prize with the baritone Wencong Xue at the 5th Gustav Mahler Song Competition of the Rochna Foundation in Hamburg in 2022, and third prize at the Hidalgo Grand Song Prize in Munich. She also won third prize in the Gustav Mahler song competition in 2021, in collaboration with soprano Shu Lin. The following year the duo gave a recital at the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg. 

Chia-Yun has been a guest pianist at the Hamburg State Opera, and has premiered two song cycles and two contemporary operas Die Reise zum Mond and Waiting for Godot. 

Jocelyn Bundy
Young Artists Coordinator

Jocelyn joined English National Opera after studying stage management at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she specialised in opera.  After five years at ENO she became a freelance stage manager. 

Over many years she has worked for most of the major UK companies and Festivals in a variety of stage management positions: from a community opera in a Camden church to the only opera ever presented at the O2, and all size of venues in between.  Often involved in site specific productions she had an enduring relationship with Raymond Gubbay Ltd and the Royal Albert Hall, where she worked on every opera and musical they presented there between 1996 and 2015. 

On the festival circuit Jocelyn has stage managed for Garsington Opera, Opera Holland Park and Dorset Opera and has just completed ten years as company manager for Buxton International Festival.  She has combined stage management with concert management and has worked in numerous UK and international concert halls and arenas with a variety of orchestras. 

A longstanding commitment to the Royal Academy of Music culminated in Jocelyn being the first stage manager to receive an Hon ARAM from RAM, where she now works producing their operas. 

Jocelyn has lectured on opera stage management to many drama schools.