The Beautiful and Damned

After a period as a member of the soloists’ ensemble at the Perm State Opera Theatre, Galina Averina studied at the Royal College of Music International Opera School. She won the Bampton Classical Opera Young Singers Competition, the Audience Prize in the Francisco Viñas Competition at Liceu in Barcelona, and came second in the 2016 Handel Competition in London.

Her roles have included Mimi (La Bohème) for Mid Wales Opera, Marzelline (Fidelio) for Garsington, and Magda (La Rondine) and Contessa Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro) for West Green House Opera. She is currently singing Adina in Wild Arts's own Elixir of Love, and will debut (again as Magda in La Rondine) for Opera North this October.

Natasha Page is a graduate of the Royal College of Music International Opera Studio and the Royal Academy of Music.

 Natasha’s operatic roles include the title role in Rita and Bianca/Gabriella in La Rondine (both for IfOpera), Cleopatra in Julius Caesar (Kings Opera), Pamina in The Magic Flute (RCMIOS), and Semele (Garsington Opera Create). She has also covered Comtesse Adele in Le Comte Ory, Despina in Così fan Tutte and Ismene in Mitridate for Garsington Opera, Semele for Opéra de Lille, Soprano in Medusa for the Royal Opera House, and has worked with English National Opera. Her concert work includes performances at Cadogan Hall, St John’s Smith Square, and Chichester, Guildford, and Southwell Cathedrals.

Joanna Songi studied at Cambridge University and the Royal College of Music and was awarded first place in the Dean and Chadlington Competition, and the Brooks-Van der Pump English Song Competition. She was an Opera Prelude Young Artist, a Philip and Dorothy Green Young Concert Artist Award winner, and a Britten-Pears Young Artist.

As well as performing with companies including Glyndebourne, Garsington Opera, West Green Opera, Opera de Tenerife, the Dunedin Consort, and the English Concert, her recent roles have included Despina for Wild Arts’s Così fan tutte (2022), and a variety of parts in Henry V at the Donmar Warehouse (2022), with a subsequent NT Live Broadcast. 

Martha Jones studied at the Royal College of Music International Opera School and was awarded the Susan Chilcott Scholarship by the Royal Philharmonic Society during her time there. She has participated in Young Artist programs for the Ravinia Festival, Carnegie Hall, Britten Pears, and Samling.

As well as singing Dorabella for Wild Arts’s Così Fan Tutte last summer, she has performed the same role for English Touring Opera and Classical Opera /The Mozartists, and has sung with English National Opera, the Grange Festival, Scottish Opera, Opera de Limoges, Opera Vlaanderen, Glyndebourne, and the LPO. Her recordings include The Call with Malcolm Martineau.

Hannah Sandison is a graduate of the Royal College of Music and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where she won the Governers’ Recital Prize. She has performed roles with Glyndebourne Opera, English Touring Opera, and Mid-Wales Opera, and, on the concert platform, has performed at venues including St Martin-in-the-Fields, the Royal Festival Hall, Cadogan Hall, the Oxford Lieder Festival, and the Royal Albert Hall, as well as concert halls in Moscow, Dusseldorf, Malta, and Geneva.

This July, she commissioned and produced Green Spaces: A Celebration in Song – a concert of three new song cycles for Opera Holland Park. As a part of this, she performed the world premiere of Of Nature’s Light by Mark-Anthony Turnage.

Alex Aldren originally trained in medicine at the University of Birmingham, and worked as a doctor at the Royal London Hospital for 2 years, before joining the Royal Academy of Music Opera School in 2016.

After graduating, Alex immediately went on to cover Vašek in The Bartered Bride (Garsington Opera Festival) and D’Esparaudieu in Gerald Barry’s The Intelligence Park(Royal Opera House). Since then, he has sung leading roles in Schubert’s Alfonso und Estrella (Opera de Baugé) and Verdi’s La Traviata (Hampstead Garden Opera) and reached the finals of both the Maureen Lehane and Emmy Destin competitions, as well as the semi-final of the international Clermont-Ferrand competition.

Richard is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music’s Opera Course and supported by Opera Prelude. As well as various live performances with English Touring Opera (including Mozart’s Così fan tutte and Bach’s St John and St Matthew Passions), he has appeared in a number of their online broadcasts during lockdown, and in roles for Garsington Opera (in their 2013 and 2015 seasons), Birmingham Opera Company, Buxton International Festival, and as a young artist for Mid-Wales Opera. He sang Pedrillo (The Abduction from the Seraglio) in Tokyo with Diva Opera. 

Gareth Brynmor John studied at St John’s College, Cambridge, the Royal Academy of Music, and the National Opera Studio where he was supported by the Royal Opera House. As well as performances with Welsh National Opera, English Touring Opera, Royal Academy Opera, and Shadwell Opera, he sang Guglielmo for Wild Arts’s Così fan tutte in 2022, and has performed extensively in concert (at venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Birmingham Town Hall, and Guildford and Chichester Cathedrals).

He recently shared two recitals with Roderick Williams as part of the Momentum Artists project and is reprising his Opéra de Lille performance as Ismeron (The Indian Queen) this Spring with performances at Opera de Caen, Opera de Luxembourg and Antwerp Opera.

Timothy Nelson studied at the Royal College of Music International Opera School, where he was awarded the McCulloch Prize for Opera. He was a Jerwood Young Artist at the Glyndebourne Festival; a winner of the Bruce Millar Gulliver Prize, the RCM Joan Chissell Schumann Competition, and the Gerald Moore Award Singers Prize; and was a recipient of the Independent Opera at Sadler’s Wells Postgraduate Voice Fellowship.

Alongside solo performances at venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, and Cadogan Hall, he has sung with Opera North (as Marcello in La Boheme), the Royal Opera House, English Touring Opera, Diva Opera, Opera Holland Park, and the Grange Festival.