Rodney Clarke

Winner of the prestigious Richard Lewis/Jean Shanks Award 2001 and a Peter Moores Scholarship, Rodney currently studies on the Royal Academy Opera course with Mark Wildman (professor) and Audrey Hyland (coach). He is much in demand as both a recitalist and concert singer, performing at many London venues including the Purcell Room, South Bank, St John’s Smith Square and the Royal Albert Hall.

On the concert platform performances include Bach’s Mass in B minor, solo cantatas Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne Carissimi’s Jephte, Dvorak’s Te Deum, Elgar’s The Apostles, Handel’s Dixit Dominus, Judas Maccabaeus and Messiah, Haydn’s Creation, Nelson Mass and The Seasons, Lully’s Te Deum , Mendelssohn’s Elijah, St. Paul and Walpurgis Night, Stanford’s Songs of the Fleet, Mozart’s Mass in C minor, Coronation Mass and Requiem, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem and the Requiem’s of Brahms, Duruflé and Fauré. Recent engagements Bach’s St.Matthew Passion with the English Baroque Choir, St. John’s Smith Square, and Haydn’s Creation at the Royal Albert Hall under Sir David Willcocks.

His operatic engagements include Junius - The Rape of Lucretia (BYO), Second Prisoner - Fidelio (GFO) under Sir Simon Rattle, Mercurio - L’incoronazione di Poppea (RAO), Forester -The Cunning Little Vixen under Sir Charles Mackerras( RAO), Trojan Man - Idomeneo under Sir Simon Rattle, Customs Official - La Bohéme (GFO). Future engagements include Tancredi – Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda (BSO), Figaro- Le Nozze di Figaro (ETO) and The Ferryman – Curlew River (BSO) Promenade performance at the Royal Albert Hall next summer.

Jenny Ohlson

Jenny Ohlson, was born in Sweden. After having studied for five years at The Royal College University of Music in Stockholm she has recently graduated from a two year opera course at The Royal Academy of Music. She has been awarded the Blyth-Buesst Operatic Prize, K M Bayfields and Leverhulme Awards.

During her time at RAM, she has sang the roles of Vixen, The Cunning Little Vixen, Une Pastourelle/Lécureuil, L’Enfant et Les Sortilèges, Susanna, Le Nozze di Figaro, Drusilla, L’incoronazione di Poppea. The role of Susanna she also sang at Amersham Music Festival and The Little Theatre in Alberes, France.

Jenny has performed the soprano solo parts on several oratorios, including Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem, Mozart Requiem, Handel Messiah, Bach St John and St Matthew Passions, B minor Mass and The Christmas Oratorio in Sweden, Finland, Germany and Switzerland. She has also performed profane works, such as Orff Carmina Burana and Britten Les Illuminations.

Future plans include Mozart C minor Mass and Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem.

Christopher Dixon

Christopher was a choral scholar at Clare College, Cambridge where he read Modern and Medieval Languages. He subsequently sang for a year in the choir of St. John’s College, Cambridge under Christopher Robinson.

Christopher has recently graduated from the National Opera Studio where he was sponsored by the Derek Butler Trust. Previously he graduated with a Diploma from the Royal Academy of Music where he studied with Mark Wildman, Audrey Hyland and Antony Saunders. Opera roles at the RAM included the title roles in Mozart’s Don Giovanni (with John Copley and Sir Colin Davis) and in Verdi’s Falstaff. On graduating he was awarded the prestigious Princess Alice Award. In the summer of 2000 Christopher performed the role of Tarquinius (Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia) in British Youth Opera’s highly-acclaimed production. He has also recently performed with the orchestras of Welsh National Opera and Scottish Opera.

On the concert platform Christopher is in demand both in Britain and overseas. He has sung with many of the top orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and has recently sung at London’s Wigmore Hall and the Linbury Theatre, Covent Garden. He has also performed both Handel’s Messiah and Mozart’s Requiem in the Royal Albert Hall with Sir David Willcocks. Christopher recently performed Schubert’s greatest song-cycle, Winterreise, at the RAM.

Christopher was a finalist in the first Handel Singing Competition, the Royal Overseas League Vocal Awards 2002 and the National Mozart Singing Competition 2001, where he won fourth prize. He was also a semi-finalist in the Kathleen Ferrier Awards 2003. Christopher was presented with the Worshipful Company of Musicians’ Silver Medal for 2001. His discography includes the world-premiere recording of Handel’s Silla with the London Handel Orchestra under Darlow, a recording of Handel church anthems for Naxos and Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia for British Youth Opera. Future plans include the role of Christiano Silvano (Ballo in Maschera) and the understudy of Schaunard (La Boheme), both for Scottish Opera, and the world-premiere of Anthony Bailey’s The Black Monk at London’s Bloomsbury Theatre.

Christopher gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the Countess of Munster Trust, the Musicians’ Benevolent Fund Awards, the Royal Academy of Music and the Josephine Baker Trust for their support of his studies and career.

William Berger

William Berger was born in South Africa and is currently a student on the Opera Course at the Royal Academy of Music in London, studying with Mark Wildman and Audrey Hyland. Winner of the UNISA/SAMRO Bursary and the National Panasonic Music Competition, he was also awarded the Kathleen Ferrier Society Bursary for Young Singers in 1999.

William made his operatic debut at the Göttingen Handel Festival in Germany as Ormonte in Handel’s Partenope and returned in May 2003 to sing Zebul in Jephtha with the English Concert. Live recordings of both works have been released on disc. He recently performed the role of Papageno in Mozart’s The Magic Flute for British Youth Opera to great critical acclaim. In the summer of 2002 he created the role of Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Mozart/Shakespeare project at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and toured to Madrid, Orleans, Munich and Ingolstadt with the same production. For the Royal Academy Opera William sang Harasta in the The Cunning Little Vixen conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras and the role of the Count in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Little Theatre in the Alberres, France.

Other performances include Carmina Burana with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Saint-Saens’ Oratoire de Noel with the Complesso Internazionale Cameristica in Milan, the Messiah at the Pacific Music Festival in Japan, Elijah with the British Choral Institute and the world premiere of The Angry Garden by Michael Stimpson in St. John’s, Smith Square. He has toured as soloist with the English Concert Singers to Australia and Bali, and to Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary where he performed Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem with the Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra. In recital he has sung Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch at various London venues and was involved in a series of American Song in the Duke’s Hall.

William was a member of the Steans’ Institute for young Artists at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, USA where he studied with Barbara Bonney and Håkan Hagegard. Other masterclasses have included Malcolm Martineau, Philip Langridge, Bob Tear, Thomas Hampson and the Young Songmakers 2002 with Graham Johnson. He has also worked with Sir David Willcocks, Nicholas McGegan and Michael Tilson Thomas.

William has recently been made a Yeoman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. He would also like to thank the Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Trust in South Africa, the Musicians Benevolent Fund and the Countess of Munster Musical Trust for their generous support.

Steven Stead

Steven Stead was born and educated in South Africa, graduating from Natal University in 1991 with a BA Hons(cum laude) in Drama and Literature. His stage career in South Africa was extensive, involving work as performer or director in more than fifty productions, ranging from classical drama and opera to musical theatre.

In 1994 he received the Best Supporting Actor Vita Award (South African National Theatre Award) for his portrayal of Ariel in The Tempest (CAPAB at Maynardville) and Best Actor Vita in 2000 for Hamlet (Themi Venturas Productions at Durban’s Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre). His South African directing credits include Dracula, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Salome and The King and I. He has also worked as movement co-ordinator for productions of La Traviata and Nabucco for Cape Town Opera.

Since settling in the United Kingdom in 1995 Steven has appeared in several productions including Joseph and the Amazing Technicoloured Dreamcoat (as Joseph for Newpalm Productions), Cinderella (Prince Charming for International Artists), Hamlet (Hamlet, for Cambridge Shakespeare Festival), Camelot (Mordred for Covent Garden Festival) and Edward II (Gaveston, for The Kings Head Theatre). He has subsequently specialised in opera direction, joining the staff of the English National Opera in 1998 as a staff director. As an assistant Steven has worked on over twenty operas with directors including Matthew Warchus, David MacVicar, Richard Jones, Jonathan Miller, Jude Kelly and Neil Armfield, and has revived productions of Alcina, La Traviata and Falstaff.

His freelance directing work has included The Marriage of Figaro (English National Opera), Caterina Cornaro (conducted by Richard Bonynge and starring Julia Migenes at the Queen Elizabeth Hall), Rinaldo (Bloomsbury Theatre and Trinity College), Four Forests (Cochrane Theatre), Amahl and the Night Visitors (Camerata Opera), Suor Angelica, Macbeth, Nabucco, Der Vampyr, L’Incoronazione di Poppea (Opera Integra), Ariadne auf Naxos (Abbey Opera), Weill Bodies (Jenny Drivala’s one woman show in Athens) and Wasteland (State Theatre, Pretoria).

Steven has recently worked as Associate Director of the Olivier Award winning West End musical, Our House, and has just directed the English National Opera’s production of Alcina in Bilbao, Spain, to great critical acclaim.

Steven has also translated two of celebrated South African playwright, Reza de Wet’s dramas: Miracle and Missing, both published by Oberon books. Missing was staged in London at the White Bear Theatre in Kennington in April 2002, and Miracle in the USA at the White Barn Festival, Connecticut in July 2002.

David Lawrence

David Lawrence returns to The Bloomsbury having previously lit the opera Louise. This is his second production with Daniel Capps and Steven Stead.

His work with Christopher Fettes spans 17 years at Drama Centre, now part of Central St Martin’s School Of Art. Productions with Christopher include Intermezzo and Phaedra, with Sheila Gish; the national tour of The Miser with Warren Mitchell, and recently the Bath Shakespeare Festival success of Othello.

Other high-lights include Jenufa ENO, Ezio Théâtre des Champs-Elysée, La Traviata Royal Opera House-Stockholm, A Midsummers’ Night’s Dream at the KNS Antwerp and the premiere of Teorema at Maggio Musicale di Firenze. David has also designed for Daldry, Callow, McBurney and Vic.

His paper on ‘Industrial Lighting For The Stage’, was seen as a landmark in contemporary lighting design, following his work with Max Keller at the Kammerspiele. Architectural credits include the Theatre Royal Stratford East, Stratford Circus and the BBC Radio Theatre. David joined The National Video Corporation, as part of the first Western team to be invited to the Bolshoi to video Spartacus, having been apprenticed to the renowned television LD Chris Bartlett-Judd.

David conceived and produced The River Of Light show on the banks of the Shannon for 30,000 people, on the night of the millennium. In 2001 David was awarded the Industrial Design Society of America-Gold Medal for his ground-breaking Virgin Atlantic Upper Class cabin designs, which are currently flying and he has also designed the first concepts for the new Airbus A380 aircraft.

Stuart Nunn

Stuart Nunn graduated from Nottingham Trent University in 1997 with a first class degree in Theatre Design. Stuart’s designs for The Alchemical Wedding, won the 1997 Linbury Prize for Stage Design, has also worked as associate and assistant designer for many productions, including Sophie’s Choice for the Royal Opera House, The Marriage of Figaro for Aix en Provence, The Love of Three Oranges for Cologne Opera, Der Rosenkavalier for Wuppertaler Opera and currently Our House, The Madness Musical at the Cambridge Theatre, London.

Shelly Nel

Shelly Nel was born and educated in South Africa graduating from a 3 year Video technology diploma with Best Director Award. In 1996 she established her own production company producing lifestyle commercials and popular culture documentaries.

Her work includes an award winning art installation as well as private productions for artists exhibitions. Shelly has produced work for the Fantastic Flying Fish Dance Company and is well known for her fashion installation work. She is at present working on conceptual videos for a trend forecasting company.

Cécile Dauby

Cécile Dauby graduated in July 2001 with a BA Hons Theatre Design for Performance at Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design, where she designed Mozart's La Finta Giardiniera directed by Steven Stead. This production of The Black Monk is her third collaboration with Steven after Menotti's Ahmal & the Night Visitors. She also designed the costumes for Berlioz' Benvenuto Cellini at the Bloomsbury and a short filmFlour Baby (National Film and Television School). She has been costume supervisor for Peer Gynt (Battersea Art Centre), Abyssinia (Southwark Playhouse) and Into the Woods (Bloomsbury)

Cécile is also assistant to Costumier Claire Christie with whom she has been working on costumes for actors such as Angelina Jolie, Dawn French and Melinda Messenger.