Where Are They Now? 2016
MARLENA DEVOE – Soprano – 2016
Since performing the role of Violetta in Clonter’s production of La traviata in 2016, returning to take part in Clonter’s Opera Gala in 2018, Marlena, having already won the Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge Bel Canto Award and the Tait Memorial Prize, went onto win the Leonard Ingrams Award later that year, and was a 2018 Alvarez Artist at Garsington Opera at Wormsley, where she made her debut as Alice Ford Falstaff. Further engagements have included Mimì La bohème for New Zealand Opera 2018, which she also repeated for additional performances with Lyric Opera, Dublin, Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with the Orion Orchestra at Cadogan Hall and Messiah with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Current engagements include Mimì La bohème for Oxford Opera, Verdi Requiem at the Snape Maltings and Classical Favourites with the Roman River Festival Orchestra.
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Click here to watch Si, mi chiamano Mimì – La bohème, 2018
Click here to watch TVNZ – New Zealand Public Broadcast, 2018
PETER AISHER – Tenor – 2016
Since performing the role of Alfredo in Clonter’s production of La traviata in 2016, Peter graduated from his postgraduate studies with Distinction and was the winner of the Ted Moss & Bertha Taylor-Stach Prize for Lieder, and of the Joan Chissell Schumann Prize. He was a young artist at Deutsche Oper am Rhein, singing 120 performances across two seasons. His operatic repertoire includes several Mozart roles: Tamino Die Zauberflöte, Ferrando Così fan tutte, Don Ottavio Don Giovanni; Handel: Arete (Giove) Giove in Argo, Lurcanio Ariodante; and several other roles from the lyric repertoire: Alfredo La traviata, Lensky Eugene Onegin, Albert Albert Herring, Arturo Lucia di Lammermoor. Operetta roles include Alfred Die Fledermaus, der erste Fremder Der Vetter aus Dingsda and Frederick Pirates of Penzance. Performances on the concert platform include: Bach St John Passion (tenor soloist), St Matthew Passion (tenor soloist), Christmas Oratorio (evangelist and tenor soloist), Handel Messiah, Haydn Missa Sancti Nicolai, Missa in tempore belli, Mendelssohn Lobgesang, Monteverdi Vespro della Beata Virgine, Mozart Requiem, Vesperae solennes de confessore, Litaniae Lauretanae, K.109, Orff Carmina Burana, Tippet A Child of Our Time, Vaughan-Williams On Wenlock Edge, as well as contemporary works: Giles Swayne’s Hubbub, Christopher Brown’s A Five-Gated Well, and David Earl’s settings of Rupert Brooke poetry for tenor and piano with the composer at the piano.
PIRAN LEGG – Bass-Baritone – 2016
Since performing the role of Germont in Clonter’s production of La traviata in 2016, Piran has performed extensively in Opera and concert around the UK and abroad, singing roles with companies such as Wexford Festival Opera, Garsington Opera and the LSO. He has ranged from characters such as Schaunard in La bohème at the Cadogan Hall to Antonio in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Ferrando in Verdi’s Il Trovatore. Piran also enjoys more contemporary projects and has taken part in cutting edge new work in festivals around London and the U.K. He has recorded a C.D. of new songs written on a theme of “Songs of the Big Smoke” and has played the roles of Crow and Eric Satie in WorkShopOPERA’s acclaimed productions of Boys of Paradise and Seven Velvet Suits respectively. He also premiered the role of King Erysichthon in Edward Rushton’s chamber opera Cicadas with the LSO. As well as performing on the Operatic Stage, Piran has a busy schedule of concert performances. 2017 saw Piran undertaking a wide variety of projects, including Bach’s St. Mathew Passion and Elgar’s masterpiece The Dream of Gerontius, working with Bergen National Opera on Il Turco in Italia and taking the role of Samuel in Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera, with Winslow Hall Opera. Highlights of 2018 included a critically acclaimed role debut as Ferrando in Verdi’s Il Trovatore, a debut as Colas and Buff in a Mozart double bill with Pop Up Opera and a return to Bergen National Opera in the Flying Dutchman, along with a thrilling performance as Action in West Side Story with the Bath Festival. Piran has won Music Prizes at the Canterbury Festival, is a former International Opera Awards Young Artist Bursary Winner and Fishmongers Music Scholar.
NATALIE SINNOTT – Mezzo Soprano – 2016
Since performing the role of Flora inn Clonter’s production of La traviata in 2016, Natalie went on to cover Lel in Snowmaiden and chorus in Aida at Opera North in 2019. She also works a lot with a music charity called “Lost Chord” performing with Dementia. Natalie was due to cover the role of Tisbe in La Cenerentola at the Grange Festival this summer.
RICHARD SHAFFREY – Tenor – 2016
Since performing the role of Gaston (and understudying the role of Alfredo) in Clonter’s production of La traviata in 2016, Richard went on to perform the role of Il Cancelliere in the Wexford Festival Opera’s production of Maria de Rudenz in the same year. In 2018, in addition to returning to Clonter to take part in its annual Opera Gala, Richard performed the role of Rodolfo in La bohème at the Rye Arts Festival and made his debut with Scottish Opera as The Officer in Ariadne auf Naxos.
TURIYA HAUDENHUYSE – Soprano – 2016
Since performing the role of Fora in Clonter’s production of La Traviata in 2016, she was awarded a Golden Medal in the 3rd Berliner International Music Competition 2019, and won the 2nd Prize in the Kattenburg Competition 2017 at Opéra de Lausanne. She is also a prize winner of the 27th International Singing Competition 2017 Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg. In 2019 Turiya was part of the prestigious Vocal Residency at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. She made her guest debut at the Dutch National Opera in 2018 as part of the Opera Forward Festival, in the role of Dinah in Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, for which she received critical acclaim in the New York Times. Further appearances on the operatic stage include Dinah in Bernstein’s A Quiet Place (Opera Zuid), Mercédès in Carmen (Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg), Iphigénie in Iphigénie en Tauride (Euphonia Opera), Cinders in the world première of The Hive (Grimeborn Festival), Kirsten in the world première of Der Eisenhut (Tête à Tête Opera), Zerlina in Don Giovanni (Rye Arts Festival), Papagena in Die Zauberflöte (RCM International Opera School), Model in Henri Christiné’s Phi-Phi (Opéra Lausanne), and Suor Dolcina in Puccini’s Suor Angelica (LUCA School of Arts Belgium).
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Click here to watch Je veux vivre, Gounod – Concours Kattenburg – 2ème Prix 2017
ELIZABETH SKINNER – Soprano – 2015, 2016 & 2017
Since performing the role of Fiordiligi at Clonter in 2015, taking part in the Opera Gala in 2016, and returning to perform the role of the Countess in Clonter’s 2017 production of the Marriage of Figaro, Elizabeth then went on to perform the role of Iolanta Tchkiovsky and to create the role of Prosperpina in the world première of The Tale of Januarie by Julian Phillips and Stephen Plaice based on Chaucer’s A Merchant’s Tale. Recent engagements have included Amadeus at the National Theatre, and Glyndebourne over the last year.