Thursday 17th May 2012: The Gala Dinner
19.30 - Midnight at The Hilton Metropole Hotel
We hope that as many people as possible will bring their partners to our congress and that they will join us at the Gala Dinner. We are planning great event with excellent food and wine. We promise short speeches, dancing and entertainment. Bring a partner.
Dress: Lounge suits and cocktail dresses
Rhona McKail SOPRANO
Rhona McKail is one of Scotland's finest Sopranos. She made her debut with her home Company, Scottish Opera, last year in the acclaimed production of Orpheus in the Underworld. Recently she sang the leading role of Hanna in an international tour of The Merry Widow with Opera Della Luna and is looking forward to making her debut at Opera Holland Park singing Nannetta in Verdi's Falstaff in their distinguished Summer festival.
In demand throughout the world, Rhona has sung in venues such as The Wigmore Hall, The Royal Opera House, The Birmingham Symphony Hall and in recital in the renowned Purcell Room in the Queen Elizabeth Hall and has recorded CDs with both Lynn and Stone Records. She studied at GSMD and RSAMD during which time she won many accolades including the Association of English Speakers and Singers Patricia Routledge National English Song Competition. Rhona has performed on numerous occasions on prestigious programmes on BBC Radio 3 and 4 and now she enjoys being one of Scotland's finest Operatic Exports.
Charlotte King MEZZO SOPRANO
London born, Charlotte King began her studies for her BMus (Hons) and MMus degrees in music at Goldsmiths College, before going on to continue her studies at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Charlotte made her professional debut singing the role of Siegrune in Die Walküre for the St. Endellion Festival in 2011 and has gone on to more success in role debuts as Sesto – La Clemenza di Tito and Sorceress – Dido and Aeneas at the Cadogan Hall. While at the Guildhall School, Charlotte has performed the roles of Rosina - Il Barbiere di Siviglia, the title role in Carmen, Suzuki - Madama Butterfly and has performed the world première of Inno Turco for the Turkish president. Also excelling on the concert platform, she has premiered many works including Elena Firsova’s Night Songs, Korngold’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Elgar’s Sea Pictures, Mahler’s Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen and Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder. Charlotte is currently rehearsing with Grange Park Opera for their forthcoming production of Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades.
Timothy Connor BARITONE
Northern Irish Baritone Timothy Connor studied at Trinity College of Music and then at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Described as an actor of "great skill and wit' (Opera, 2010), his operatic roles include Title Role Le Nozze di Figaro, Vicar Albert Herring, Frank Maurrant Street Scene, Gaoler and Sacristan Tosca, and Title Role in Jonathan Dove's Pig. He has worked with British Youth Opera, Co-Opera Company. Earlier this year, Timothy made his Barbican debut in Iain Burnside’s ‘A Soldier and Maker’ and was noted for ‘ some of the most eye- (and ear-) catching work… Connor’s rich, Terfel-esque Bass-Baritone of a Soldier”. (Mark Valencia – WhatsOnStage ). He recently appeared with the Orion Orchestra at Cadogan Hall conducted by Toby Purser and gave recitals of Ibert and Mahler as part of 'Song in the City'. Timothy also sang with Graham Johnson in an evening Lecture Recital of 'Winterreise' as part of his Series 'Cycles in Tandem' at the Guildhall School. This Summer, as a Christine Collin’s Young Artist, Timothy makes his Opera Holland Park solo stage debut in a special production of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi.
Nicky Spence TENOR
Praised in the Daily Telegraph for possessing ‘a tenor voice of real distinction’, Nicky Spence is fast emerging as one of ‘our finest young singers’. He is currently a young principal tenor at the English National Opera and is in high demand on both the Classical platform and Operatic stage having taken on the coveted position as one of the Coliseum’s Harewood Artists. His most recent roles include Tom Rakewell The Rake’s Progress, MacHeath The Beggar’s Opera, Jaquino Fidelio (Opera Holland Park), Lampwick The Adventures of Pinocchio, and Quint The Turn of the Screw (Opera North; Arcola Theatre London), and Baron Lummer Intermezzo (Scottish Opera). This was followed by his debut at the English National Opera in the leading part of Brian in Nico Muhly’s Metropolitan Opera commissioned Two Boys, which received its world premiere at the Coliseum and gained him uniformly outstanding reviews. Earlier this year created the role of Thomas Mason in Hohepa for New Zealand Opera. An experienced recording artist and twice Classical Brit Nominated, Nicky's debut album hit the top spot of the Classical Charts and having sung for the Queen and various heads of state, he is fondly known as ‘Scotland’s Top Tenor’. Future plans include a return home to ENO for Novice Billy Budd, a concert performance of Tristan and Isolde with the BBC Scottish Symphony and Donald Runnicles, his Grange Park Opera debut as Chevalier in Les Dialogues des Carmelites and Steva in a new production of Jenufa for La Monnaie in Brussels. Later this year Nicky will record a recital disk with Malcolm Martineau and a premiere recording of Jonathan Dove Songs for Naxos.
Sholto Kynoch PIANO
Sholto Kynoch is in demand as a chamber musician and song accompanist, regularly performing with many outstanding instrumentalists and singers. Sholto is also the founder and director of the Oxford Lieder Festival. Having read Music at Worcester College, Oxford, and studied at the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, he was recently appointed an Honorary Research Fellow of Bangor University in 2009. In 2010, Sholto was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music..
Recent highlights have included recitals at Wigmore Hall, the Berliner Konzerthaus, the St Endellion Festival, the Chichester Festivities, and at the BBC Proms in chamber works by the composer Marc-André Dalbavie. He is the pianist of the Phoenix Piano Trio, with violinist Jonathan Stone and cellist Marie Macleod. The trio recently performed the complete Beethoven trios to great acclaim. They will give their Wigmore debut in May 2012.
Featuring regularly on record, he is currently recording the complete songs of Hugo Wolf for release on Oxford Lieder Live, having collaborated on disk with artists such as Mark Stone, Sophie Daneman, Anna Grevelius, James Gilchrist and Stephan Loges and Kaoru Yamada., where he has accompanied countless song recitals over the past ten years, working with singers including Susanna Andersson, Geraldine McGreevy, Mark Stone, Kate Royal and Jonathan Lemalu.