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ENO YOUNG SINGERS English National Opera's Young Singers Programme, the first initiative of its kind in the UK, enables talented singers to be part of a major opera company while still continuing with their training. YSP singers are encouraged to realise their potential through the very specialist support and guidance that this programme offers. For more information and a list of current YSP supporters click here Founding Patrons Vernon and Hazel Ellis The Foyle Foundation Biographies for our YSP singers during the 2007/2008 Season are listed below. Mairead Buicke Soprano Mairead Buicke was born in Limerick and studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and at the National Opera Studio. Roles include Marenka The Bartered Bride (Mid Wales Opera), Mimi and Fiordiligi (RTE NSO), title role Maritana (RTE CO) and Amor L’Egisto (RIAM). Roles at the NOS included Fiordiligi, Antonia, Violetta and Clorinda. Mairead frequently appears in concert with both the RTE National Symphony and Concert Orchestras, and her concert repertoire includes Mahler’s Fourth and Eights Symphonies, Beethoven’s Music from Egmont, Ravel’s Scheherazade, Handel’s Messiah and Dvorak’s Stabat Mater. In recital she has performed at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Leighton House in London, and at the Wexford, Music for Galway, Boyle Arts and Bantry Chamber Music Festivals in Ireland. Plans include a series of recitals in Ireland promoted by the Irish Music Network and Gretel in a concert performance of Hansel & Gretel with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra in Dublin. ENO performances this season include First Lady in The Magic Flute. Madeleine Shaw Mezzo-soprano Madeleine Shaw joined ENO Young Singers last season. She studied at Goldsmiths College and the Alexander Gibson Opera School (RSAMD). Most recently she became a Samling Scholar and studied at the National Opera Studio, sponsored by ENO and the Dewar Arts Awards. Recent concert performances include Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh International Festival, and Mozart’s Requiem in El Escorial, Spain, with Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Operatic roles include Beggar Woman Death in Venice (ENO), Miss Jessel The Turn of the Screw, Mrs Herring Albert Herring, The Forrester’s Wife and The Owl, The Cunning Little Vixen, Female Chorus The Rape of Lucretia and The Grand Duchess of Monteblanco A Dinner Engagement for Opera East Productions; Nerone L’incoronazione di Poppea, Meg Page Falstaff, Marcellina Le nozze di Figaro and Un Pâtre L’enfant et les sortilèges at the RSAMD; and Così fan tutte and Cretian Woman Idomeneo in the Salzburg Spring Festival, Berlin and Lucerne with Sir Simon Rattle. ENO performances this season include Second Lady Magic Flute and Kate Pinkerton. She is supported at ENO by the Shears Foundation. Dwayne Jones Tenor Dwayne Jones entered Opera Australia’s Young Artist Programme and made his début as Rodolfo, followed by various other roles including Alfredo, Nadir Les pêcheurs de perles and Don José. He won the coveted Joan Sutherland Award in 2000 after which he appeared as Licinio La Vestale for ENO. In 2001 he covered Cavaradossi (Opera North) and sang Lensky (Scottish Opera on Tour, also 2004). In December 2003 he sang in the London and Birmingham premières of Howard Blake’s The Bear, and in 2004 sang Radames (Dublin). Last season he understudied the roles of Chevalier de la Force The Carmelites and Pinkerton for ENO, which led to his joining ENO Young Singers for the 2006/07 season, where roles have included Alfredo, Rodolfo and Strolling Player in Death in Venice. Recent engagements include Laca Jenufa (ETO) and Don José (New Zealand), and a Kurt Weill Evening (Young Vic). His concert repertoire is extensive and his performances of Verdi’s Requiem, Bach’s B minor Mass and Berlioz’s Te Deum have gained enthusiastic responses. Plans include an invitation to perform at the Teatro La Fenice, Venice, later this year, and Lord Arthur Bucklaw Lucia di Lammermoor and Italian Tenor Der Rosenkavalier. He is the recipient of the Audrey Gunn Award for an artist at ENO. William Berger Baritone William Berger is an Associate and graduate of the RAM. Since joining ENO Young Singers, roles have included Schaunard, Masetto, Don Giovanni, Fiorello Barber of Seville, Monsieur Javelinot The Carmelites, Second Nazarene Salome, Novice’s Friend Billy Budd, Shepherd Orfeo, roles in King Arthur and a Kurt Weill evening at the Young Vic Theatre. Other roles include Guglielmo (Longborough Festival Opera), Don Giovanni (Opera East), Ormonte (Partenope) and Mercurio Atalanta (Göttingen Handel Festival), Oberon A Summer Night’s Dream (Mozart/ Shakespeare project, Aix-en-Provence), Papageno The Magic Flute (BYO), Harasta Vixen (conducted by Mackerras), Ernesto Il mondo della luna, and Mozart’s Count (RAM). Concert appearances include Carmina burana (CBSO and RAH), Zebul Jephtha (English Concert), Saint-Saëns’s Oratoire de Noël (Milan), Apollo Apollo e Dafne (La Stagione, Frankfurt) Messiah (Japan), Fauré Requiem (LPO) and his Wigmore Hall recital début. Plans include Schaunard and Death in Venice (ENO), as well as recordings of The Carmelites (Chandos) and October Roses (BMS Label), and King Arthur (San Francisco), Wolf’s talienisches Liederbuch (Oxford Lieder Festival), Apollo e Dafne (Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra), Vaughan Williams’s Sea Symphony, Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem and Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium. He is supported at ENO by the American Friends of ENO. James Gower Bass James Gower was born in South Wales and studied at St John’s College, Cambridge and the RAM. Roles include Lord Krishna/Parsi Rustomji Satyagraha (ENO), Un moine Don Carlos, Second Armed Man Die Zauberflöte (WNO, as associate artist), Pinellino Gianni Schicchi (Glyndebourne/BBC TV/Proms), First Preist/Second Armed Man Die Zauberflöte (Glyndebourne), Doctor Pelléas and Doctor Grenvil La Traviata (GOT). Other appearances include Bartolo/Antonio Le Nozze di Figaro (Classical Opera Company), Raimondo Lucia (Iford Arts), Colline (Opera Theatre Company) and High Priest in Dvorák’s Vanda (University College Opera). He made his Proms debut in Mendelssohn’s St Paul (BBC NOW/Richard Hickox; also recorded for Chandos), and has since performed with Hickox as Raleigh Gloriana (St Endellion) and Nym Sir John in Love (Northern Sinfonia). Other performances include Voice of God/Devil/Jesus in Tavener’s Fall and Resurrection (CLS) and Horaste Troilus and Cressida (Philharmonia/Radio 3). At the Dortmund Konzerthaus he has performed Israel in Egypt, Papageno I Lombardi and Silva Ernani. ENO appearances this season include The Coronation of Poppea. He is supported at ENO by the Hedley Foundation. For more information and a list of current YSP supporters click here To contact Young Singers please email; youngsingers@eno.org Photo: Amanda Searle |      | |
