A concert organised by the Franco-British Society, in partnership with the National Opera Studio.
Under the patronage of H.E. Madame L' Ambassadrice Catherine Colonna.
More information below:
For over 40 years the National Opera Studio (NOS) has provided intensive and individual professional training at the highest level to a core group of outstanding singers and répétiteurs who have the potential to become the leading artists of their generation.
We are independent yet work in partnership with all six of the UK’s largest opera companies: English National Opera, Glyndebourne, Opera North, the Royal Opera House, Scottish Opera and Welsh National Opera. These partnerships are key to our success and critical for our reputation and reach. Our selection process is open to all – irrespective of background and financial resources and one of our core strategies is to proactively search for diverse talent. Because we are recognised worldwide as a centre of excellence approximately half of those who audition are from outside the UK. We audition around 300 singers annually and take only 12 along with 4 pianists.
Young Artists do not pay fees to train; the cost of training is covered by NOS donors and stakeholders. The Studio is based in Wandsworth, South London, in our own premises (a former Huguenot chapel) which include a performance space and seven rehearsal rooms.
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We are independent yet work in partnership with all six of the UK’s largest opera companies: English National Opera, Glyndebourne, Opera North, the Royal Opera House, Scottish Opera and Welsh National Opera. These partnerships are key to our success and critical for our reputation and reach. Our selection process is open to all – irrespective of background and financial resources and one of our core strategies is to proactively search for diverse talent. Because we are recognised worldwide as a centre of excellence approximately half of those who audition are from outside the UK. We audition around 300 singers annually and take only 12 along with 4 pianists.
Young Artists do not pay fees to train; the cost of training is covered by NOS donors and stakeholders. The Studio is based in Wandsworth, South London, in our own premises (a former Huguenot chapel) which include a performance space and seven rehearsal rooms.
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Florent Mourier is a French concert pianist based in London. He is specialised in vocal repertoire (art song and opera) and is highly sought after as a recitalist and a vocal coach. Florent is passionate about music making, drama, pedagogy, communication and the human voice. His key words are honesty, passion and flexibility. Florent has played at the Wigmore Hall, the Barbican Hall, Milton Court, St John’s Smith Square in London, the Holywell Music Room at the Oxford Lieder Festival, Festival d’Aix and Fondation Royaumont in France, Brussel’s La Monnaie, Utrecht’s Tivoli Vredenburg and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw in the Netherlands. Both as a solo and a collaborative pianist, he has participated in masterclasses with Dmitri Bashkirov, Pascal Devoyon, Martin Katz, Malcolm Martineau, Iain Burnside, Graham Johnson, Julius Drake, Alain Planès, Renee Fleming, Barbara Hannigan, Edith Wiens, Angelika Kirchschlager, Gerald Finley, Matthew Rose, Stéphane Degout, Richard Stokes, Wolfgang Holzmair and Joyce DiDonato. Florent is a laureate of the Dutch Classical Talent Competition and performed a tour of twelve song recitals at major venues in the Netherlands with mezzo-soprano Esther Kuiper. He was also a semi-finalist of Das Lied International Song Competition in Heidelberg, Germany along with mezzo-soprano Grace Durham. Florent has worked as a vocal coach/répétiteur/assistant conductor on productions of Zemlinsky’s Eine Florentinische Tragödie (Fondation Royaumont/Opéra de Rennes), Verdi’s Falstaff (Royaumont), Bizet’s Carmen (Barefoot Opera), Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (Opera North) and Georgiana (Buxton Festival). Florent is an ENOA Young Artist, a Britten-Pears Young Artist, an Oxford Lieder Festival Mastercourse alumnus, a laureate of the Fondation Royaumont and a member of the Académie du Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Florent curated and coached ‘Viardot at Six’, a concert of songs and chamber music by Pauline Viardot with postgraduate singers, pianists and instrumentalists of the Guildhall School at Milton Court in November 2021. Florent graduated from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (studying with David Kuyken), the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (Artist Masters’ course in solo performance and vocal accompaniment; studying with Charles Owen, Martin Roscoe and Pamela Lidiard) and the National Opera Studio in London. Florent now works as a staff pianist and vocal coach at the Guildhall School of Music and the National Opera Studio. He also coaches privately in central London.
Born in New Zealand and raised in Wales, mezzo-soprano Joanna Harries is a 2021/22 Young Artist at the National Opera Studio in London. She was a choral scholar at Cambridge University and trained at the Royal Northern College of Music and Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (Alexander Gibson Opera Studio).
Her opera roles stretch from baroque to contemporary opera, including Dido (Dido and Aeneas), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Varvara (Kat’a Kabanova), The Drummer (The Emperor of Atlantis) and the title role in Holst’s Sāvitri. She has performed with Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera, Grange Park Opera, Opera Holland Park, Longborough Festival Opera and British Youth Opera. As concert soloist her performances include Bach’s Christmas Oratorio at Snape Maltings Concert Hall; Macmillan’s Seven Last Words From The Cross with the BBC Philharmonic at Harrogate Royal Hall; Bach’s Easter Oratorio at the Bach Festival Świdnica in Poland and Handel’s Messiah at Lincoln Cathedral. A keen recitalist, Joanna has performed song and Lieder at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Oxford Lieder, the Britten Studio at Snape Maltings, Pushkin House and the National Portrait Gallery. A Britten-Pears Young Artist, Handel House Talent artist and Opera Prelude Young Artist, Joanna is also an Emerging Artist for the Royal Opera House’s “Opera Dots” programme for children. Joanna holds a Sybil Tutton Opera Award (supported by Help Musicians) and a Tait Memorial Trust Award. |
London based Welsh Soprano Ffion Edwards is currently a Young Artist with the National Opera Studio. She is a Master of Performance graduate at the Royal College of Music, and is an alumna of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. She is generously supported by the Carne Trust.
This season, Ffion has made debuts at Opéra National de Lorraine, in the role of Kristin in Julie by Belgian composer Boesmans, English National Opera in the role of Frantik and The Jay in Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen and Glyndebourne Festival Opera covering the role of Oberto in Handel’s Alcina. Recent operatic performances include Ffion covering the title roles of Oriana Amadigi with English Touring Opera and Zerlina Don Giovanni with Nevill Holt Opera. Other performances include Clarice Il Mondo Della Luna, 1st Trio Member Trouble in Tahiti, Zerbinetta Ariadne auf Naxos, Elisa Il Re Pastore at the Royal College of Music. She has also performed a number of times with Welsh National Youth Opera in small roles and as a chorus member. In 2019, Ffion sang in the Chorus in a Royal Opera House production of Tosca with Sir Bryn Terfel, Vittorio Grigolo and Kristine Opolais in the Abu Dhabi Festival. As a soloist, Ffion has worked with ENO Orchestra, WNO Orchestra, performed Bach Ascension Oratorio (RCM), Bach B Minor Mass (Tilford Bach Festival), Messiah (Bristol Cathedral), Eternal Light (Gloucester Cathedral) and debuted at the Royal Albert Hall. Ffion was the winner of the Handel Prize in The Maureen Lehane Virtual Vocal Awards 2021. She has also given private recitals accompanied by maestro Carlo Rizzi and performed for HRH Prince of Wales at his home in Wales. |
Laura is the winner of a Musicians Company Award
Latvian soprano Laura Lolita Perešivana started her operatic journey when she was only nineteen years old covering Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi) at the Latvian National Opera House. Laura Lolita is a recent graduate of Guildhall School of Music & Drama Opera Course, where she was recipient of the Derek Butler Trust Scholarship and The Mercers’ Company Scholarship. This year Laura was one of four finalists selected for the Guildhall School’s most prestigious music prize, The Gold Medal, and performed on the stage of the Barbican Hall. During the summer Laura performed with great success as Berenice (L’occasione fa il ladro) with the British Youth Opera at Opera Holland Park with Laura described as ‘her tone pearly, her coloratura purling’ (Opera Magazine) and called ‘a superb singer and actress’ (Opera Today). Laura Lolita has participated in many competitions, receiving awards including the Second Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards, the 54th Tenor Vinas International Singing Contest Extraordinary prize, as well as the Musicians’ Company Award, and was selected as a 2021 City Music Foundation Artist. Laura Lolita is Georg Solti Accademia di Bel Canto alumna and has worked with conductor Richard Bonynge. Laura has joined the famed National Opera Studio in London for the 2021/22 season. |
Mezzo soprano Shakira Tsindos is a 2021/2022 Young Artist at the National Opera Studio in London, is a Samling Institute Artist and an Emerging Artist for the Oxford Liederfest. Shakira’s work has spanned across various companies in Australia including Opera Australia as Agatha in By the Light of the Moon; Victorian Opera as Dorothée in Massenet’s Cendrillon, and Il Cucolo in Respighi’s The Sleeping Beauty, among others; The Seven Sopranos; Stonnington: The Classics as Kate Pinkerton in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly; and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra with a performance as the alto soloist in Haydn’s The Creation conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. Further UK and European debuts include the title role in Bizet’s Carmen, Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Merry Opera directed by John Ramster, originating the role of the Daughter in HERA’s Generation, Dorabella in Così fan tutte in Sicily and Second Witch in Dido and Aeneas in Germany. |
Korean baritone Josef Ahn studied singing at the Theatre Academy August Everding in Munich, the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich, and Seoul National University.
Josef was sponsored by the German Stage Association of Bavaria while studying at the Theatre Academy August Everding in Munich. After the Academy, he performed in Kammeroper Munich in the role of Guglielmo in Così fan tutte in the Cuvilliés Theatre in Munich. He has appeared in the following opera productions: Marcello (La bohème), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Raphaël (L’ancêtre), Papageno (Die Zauberflöte) and Malatesta (Don Pasquale). Josef has won several international singing competitions. Most recently, in 2021 he took 3rd Prize in the ARD Music Competition in München, Germany. In 2019 Josef received 1st prize at the Marmande Competition in France, and the Lieder Prize at the Debut Competition in Weikersheim. Josef won the Richard Strauss Competition in 2018 and in 2016 he won 1st place at the 29th Tokyo Music Competition and also 1st place at the 26th Korean Voice Competition. |