A Night At the Opera Gala Evening Tuesday, 4th November, 2014 at Cadogan Hall, London, SW3 _________________________________________________________________________________ Largo al factotum - Barber of Seville, Gioachino Rossini Ah! mes amis, quel jour de fête! - La Fille du Régiment, Gioachini Rossini Musetta's Waltz - La Boheme Giaccomo Puccini Voi lo sapete, O mamma - Cavalleria Rusticana, Pietro Mascagni Mercè, dilette amiche - I Vespri Siciliani, Guiseppe Verdi ————————————— Au fond du temple saint - Pearl Fishers, Georges Bizet Habanera: L'amour est un oiseau rebelle - Carmen, Georges Bizet Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante - Carmen, Georges Bizet Brindisi - La Traviata, Guiseppe Verdi ————————————— Wagner-Liszt - Isoldes Liebestod - Ben Schoeman, Pianist -- Interval -Soave se'il vento - Cosi fan tutte, Amadeus Mozart La ci darem la mano - Don Giovanni, Amadeus Mozart Casta diva - Norma, Vincenzo Bellini Una furtiva lagrima L'Elisir d'Amore, Donizetti ————————————— Prelude in D major, Op. 23 No. 4 - S. Rachmaninov – Terence Marais, Pianist ___________________________ Toccata for John Ross - Sundran Reddy Csárdás - Die Fledermaus, Richard Strauss Porgy & Bess - George Gershwin There's a boat dat's leaving soon for New York Bess You is my woman O Lord I am on my way Sally Silver - Soprano Filipa Van Eck - Soprano Sarah-Jane Lewis - Mezzo-Soprano John-Colyn Gyeantey - Tenor Njabulo Madlala - Baritone Piano Jeremy Silver William Vann Ben Schoeman Terence Marais Sally Silver – Soprano Commanding a repertoire that spans the operatic heroines of Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi and Handel, romantic rarities by English, French and Irish composers, and newly commissioned works, Sally Silver has been praised by The Times for her "magnificently variegated and tireless soprano" and described by The Daily Telegraph as "dazzling and stylish". With Scottish Opera she has triumphed in Lucia di Lammermoor, I Puritani and Handel's Orlando, also appearing with ENO as Annchen in Der Freischütz and Mila in the world premiere of Jonathan Dove's Palace in the Sky, frequently with Longborough Festival Opera, while other UK operatic appearances have included the title role in Gounod's Mireille at Cadogan Hall (an interpretation welcomed by The Daily Telegraph as "first-class singing by any standards"), Handel's Amadigi at Wigmore Hall, The Fairy Godmother in Massenet's Cendrillon for Blackheath Halls Opera and, for Music Theatre Wales, multiple roles in Mark-Anthony Turnage's Greek at the Buxton, Cheltenham and Edinburgh Festivals. Elsewhere in Europe, operas ranging from Rigoletto and La Traviata to Les Huguenots, Les Contes d'Hoffmann and Thomas Adès' Powder Her Face have brought appearances with the Opéra de Metz, Opéra de Rennes, Opéra de Nantes, Berliner Kammeroper, Denmark's Den Anden Oper and the Netherlands' National Reisopera, while in 2010 in Weimar Sally Silver scored a considerable personal success when she replaced Lyuba Orgonosova at 24 hours' notice in a concert of Bellini and Donizetti arias. At the Spitalfields Festival and Wigmore Hall Sally performed Three Songs from Gitanjali, written for her by the Punjabi-born British composer Naresh Sohal , while other UK concert appearances have included Sullivan's rarely heard oratorio The Martyr of Antioch and a gala with the trumpeter Crispian Steele-Perkins. Sally has also appeared on Friday Night is Music Night and premiered Songs of Five Rivers by Naresh Sohal with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, as well as performing Mendelssohn's Lobgesang with the LSO. Her collaboration with the conductor and pianist Richard Bonynge has produced four recordings: recitals of songs by Massenet, Balfe and Wallace and the title role in a complete recording of Wallace's opera Lurline. A new CD with Bonynge, Sullivan's cantatas On Shore and Sea and The Masque at Kenilworth, is due for future release. Her other recordings include the role of Ariadne in excerpts from Tovey's opera The Bride of Dionysus and Carlo Franci's Dreamtime. Based in London sice 1998, Sally was born in South Africa where she recently gave a concert in Cape Town with American bel canto tenor Lawrence Brownlee. Sally's diary for 2014/15 includes Greek at the Royal Opera House, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Belfast with the Ulster Orchestra, concerts with Sounds Baroque, recitals of French song in the UK and France, and premiere a new work by Naresh Sohal for voice and violin. She will then perform Reiza in Weber's Oberon for New Sussex Opera this autumn, and Eleanora in Donizetti's Il furioso all'isola di San Domingo with English Touring Opera in early 2015. John-Colyn Gyeantey - Tenor John-Colyn Gyeantey studied at the RCM and the National Opera Studio as a Peter Moores Foundation Major Scholar. He is an alumnus of the prestigious Accademia Rossiniana, where he worked closely with Alberto Zedda. Concert appearances include the title role in Thomas Arne’s Judgment of Paris (Wigmore Hall), a performance with Sir Thomas Allen as a Samling Scholar, Carmina Burana, Messiah, St Matthew Passion for Spanish TV, Mozart Requiem (RAH), Mahler Das Klagende Lied with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski (RFH), Haydn Creation (Cairo Opera House) and Haydn Stabat Mater recorded for Luxembourg Radio. His Rossini roles include Comte Ory Le Comte Ory (Opera South); Count Almaviva Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Diva Opera and WNO); Zefirino Il viaggio a Reims, Adelberto (cover) Adelaide di Borgogna (both for the Rossini Opera Festival, Pesaro); Alberto L’occasione fa il ladro (OperaMinima); Gernando/Ubaldo Armida (St. John’s, Smith Square). For ETO, he has sung Arnalta The Coronation of Poppea and Egeus Jason/Giasone by Cavalli. Other roles include Don Ottavio Don Giovanni (Mid-Wales Opera); Beppe Pagliacci (OperaUpClose); Judge in Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane, recorded for Virgin/EMI with the LPO and Vladimir Jurowski; Camille de Rosillon The Merry Widow (Scottish Opera); Nemorino L’elisir d’amore (Anghiari Festival, Tuscany); Count Almaviva The Marriage of Figaro by Portugal (Bampton Classical Opera); Tamino The Magic Flute (Swansea City Opera); Sportin’ Life Porgy and Bess Suite (Cheltenham Festival). At Glyndebourne, he won the Erich Vietheer Memorial Prize and covered Don Ramiro La Cenerentola, Art Knight Crew. For Garsington, he has covered Tom Rakewell The Rake’s Progress. Filipa Van Eck - Soprano Filipa van Eck is a South African/Portuguese soprano currently studying at the Royal College of Music's International Opera School. She was recently named Kiri Te Kanawa Scholar for the academic year and is also supported by the Toeman Weinberger Award. Having moved to London in September 2011, Filipa successfully completed a Masters in Vocal Performance with distinction. There, under the guidance of Janis Kelly, she was privileged to sing in masterclasses with Dame Anne Evans, Christine Brewer, Roger Vignoles and Jonathan Lemalu; as well as work with directors such as Paul Curran, James Conway, Jean Claude Auvray and John Copley. Her debut for the college was as Laurette in Bizet’s Le Docteur Miracle in November 2011, and was followed by the roles of Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Fortuna in Monteverdi’s L’incorornazione di Poppea, Rosmene in Handel’s Imeneo (London Handel Festival conducted by Laurence Cummings), Gabrielle in Offenbach’s La Vie Parisienne, L'enfant in Ravel's L'enfant et les Sortileges, and most recently Arianna in Handel's Arianna in Creta with the London Handel Festival. Filipa made her debut for English Touring Opera in the Autumn of 2013, singing the role of Poppea in Monteverdi's Coronation of Poppea. Other recent performances include: Britten’s Les Illuminations at the Royal Festival Hall, and Schubert's Der Hirt auf dem Felsen at both Cadogan Hall and The Elgar Room, Royal Albert Hall. Upcoming engagements include the role of Lisetta in Rossini's La Gazzetta for RCM and Barbarina in Jonathan Dove's The Little Green Swallow for British Youth Opera in September 2014. Prior to London, Filipa began her musical studies at the University of Cape Town completing a Bachelor of Music in Western Classical Performance and Postgraduate Diploma in Opera. She was placed on the Dean’s Merit list throughout. In South Africa, Filipa's operatic roles included: Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Vixen in Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen, Corinna in Rossini’s Il Viaggio a Reims, and Lucy Lloyd in the premiere of Words from a Broken String (part of the 5:20 operas) by South African composer Peter Klatzow. Soloist performances were given in Mozart’s Requiem for Cape Town Opera, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Brahms’ Requiem and Vaughn Williams’ Sea Symphony with The Cape Philharmonic Orchestra. Sarah-Jane Lewis - Soprano Sarah-Jane graduated from the Royal College of Music in 2009 with First Class Honours and received her MA DipRAM from the Royal Academy of Music in 2013. She is now a trainee at the National Opera Studio supported by a scholarship from the Nicholas John Trust and the Countess of Munster Musical Trust. Sarah-Jane has performed as a soloist at prestigious venues such as St Paul’s Church Covent Garden, The Royal Opera House, The National Portrait Gallery, The Royal Albert Hall and Cadogan Hall, Mitsunaka Hall (Japan). She is the winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Bursary for Young Singers 2006, The Leith Hill Award 2008, Jackdaws Great Elm Vocal Awards 2009, Essex Young Musician of the Year 2010, Major Van Someren Prize 2011, Richard Lewis / Jean Shanks Award 2012, Ludmilla Andrew Russian Song Competition 2013, 3rd Prize & Art Song Prize Mozart Singing Competition 2013, Samling Scholar 2014 and 2nd Prize Kathleen Ferrier Award. In 2012, she was pleased to receive a place at the George Solti Accademia where she had a chance to perform for Angela Gheorghiu, Dennis O'Neill and Richard Bonynge. She has performed on BBC Radio 3 several times, appears in Kenneth Branagh's film version of The Magic Flute and has recorded as part of a small chorus for the advert for the fragrance ‘Flora (pour femme)’ by Gucci. Njabulo Madlala - Baritone Winner of the 2014 Standard Bank Young Artist Award South Africa, the 2010 Kathleen Ferrier Competition, of the Singers Section Final at the 2012 Royal Overseas League Competition, of the 2012 Lorna Viol Memorial Prize and Royal Overseas League Trophy for the Most Outstanding Musician From Overseas, the Sir John Manduell Award for an Outstanding South African Musician the Azuriales Festival Opera competition, Kenneth Loveland Gift Prize and of the 2012 Worshipful Company of Musicians Award, Njabulo Madlala is a South African born British resident baritone. Njabulo came to London in 2002 and studied on the undergraduate and post-graduate opera course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under teachers Robert Dean, Sarah Walker and Rudolf Piernay. Upon completing his studies at the Guildhall in 2010, Njabulo went on to the Cardiff International Academy of Voice under Dennis O'Neill. Njabulo Madlala has been a Britten Pears Young Artist, Ravinia Institute of the Arts at the Chicago Ravinia Festival and a Samling Foundation Scholar led by Sir Thomas Allen. He is most grateful for the help without which his studies would not have been possible from The Sir Peter Moores Foundation, Ernst Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, Countess of Munster Trust, Music Benevolent Fund Trust, Worshipful Company of Musicians and the South African National Arts Council. Njabulo Madlala's roles and engagements have included the tittle role in Don Giovanni (Mid-Wales Opera), Le Calender La rencontre Imprévue (Gluck - Guildhall School of Music), The King Goes Forth to France (Salinnen - The Guilhall School of Music), Don Fernando Fidelio (Beethoven), Bello La Fanciulla del West and Schaunard La bohème (Puccini) all for Opera Holland Park, Moralès Carmen (Bizet - Dorset Opera), Peachum The Threepenny Opera (Kurt Weil - Hawaii Performing Arts Festival), Rangwan Koanga (Delius - Sadler’s Wells Theatre) , for ROH2 he has sing premiers of The Heart of Darkness (Tarik O'Ragen), How The whale became (Julian Philips), Another America: Fire ( Errollyn Wallen). He has also sung Don Giulio L’ajo nell’imbarazzo (Rossini - Barga International Festival), Porgy Porgy and Bess (Gershwin Cheltenham Festival and Three Choirs), Mel The Knot Garden (Tippett) at the Montepulciano Festival in Italy broadcast live on radio Rai. Opera Highlights tour for Scottish Opera, Scarpia in Tosca for Grange Park Opera ‘Rising Stars’, He sang The Kammersinger in Strauss's Intermezzo at the 2012 Buxton Festival conducted by Stephen Barlow, Escamillo for WINSLOW HALL OPERA, Forester Cunning Little Vixen at Woodhouse Music and Dan Cairo for Riveraide Opera. On the recital platform Njabulo has performed with Roger Vignoles at the Lugo Festival in Spain and Cambridge, with Julius Drake at the Mananan Festival Broadcast live by the BBC, the Oxford Lieder Festival with William Vann, Wigmore Hall Monday Concert series & Buxton Festival with Simon Lepper, Gower Festival with Llyr Williams, Lake District with James Baillieu. Other concert highlights have included J. S. Bach Ich habe genug with the Ten Tors Orchestra, Mahler Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen with the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Foyles First series conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, Beethoven Choral Symphony with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Messiah with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Elijah at the Snape Maltings, Gathering Wave at the 2012 Three Choirs Festival, Aeneas Dido and Aeneas at the Wimbledon Festival, Mozart Requiemwith the English Chamber Orchestra, the London Mozart Players and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Belshazzar’s Feast with the Philharmonia at the 2013 Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester and with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall. Future engagements include three recitals at the National Arts Festival Grahamstown (July 2014), a recital at the Harare International Festival of the Arts (May 2014), Israel tour of Bach Cantatas (June 2014), role of Marcelo La Boheme in Edinburgh (April 2014). Other engagements in the UK include Carmina Burana, Elijah, a recital as part of the Ripon International Festival, a South African Programme to Celebrate Mandela at the Christopher Summer Music Festival in Lithuania. His broadcasts include In Tune for BBC Radio 3, BBC live recordings of the Mananan Festival and Radio Italy. William Vann - Pianist William Vann was born and brought up in Bedford before reading law and taking up a choral scholarship at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he was taught the piano by Peter Uppard. He then studied as a pianist at the Royal Academy of Music with Malcolm Martineau and Colin Stone, graduating with distinction; he has recently been made an Associate of the RAM in recognition of his services to the music profession. He has been awarded several prestigious prizes for piano accompaniment, most recently the 2013 Wigmore Song Competition Jean Meikle Prize for a Duo (with baritone Johnny Herford), and also including the Gerald Moore award, the Royal Overseas League Accompanists’ Award, the Great Elm Awards Accompanist Prize, a Geoffrey Parsons Memorial Trust award, the Serena Nevill Prize, the Sir Henry Richardson Scholarship and the Hodgson Fellowship in piano accompaniment at the RAM. He is also the founder and artistic director of the London English Song Festival, the fourth season of which will take place in June 2014: the artists this year include Katie Bray, Gareth John and worldrenowned mezzo-soprano Ann Murray. Recent performances have included several appearances at Wigmore Hall including the Samling Foundation’s fifteenth anniversary concert with Sir Thomas Allen, Malcolm Martineau, Jennifer France, Kitty Whately and Njabulo Madlala, concerts at the Aldeburgh Festival, Sage, Gateshead, and St John’s, Smith Square and abroad in South Africa, Nigeria, Ireland and Sweden. He has given guest recitals for the Lennox Berkeley, Elgar, Finzi, Gurney and John Ireland Societies, performed the music of Judith Weir at the RAM in the presence of the composer and toured a programme of Dvorak and Brahms’ chamber music with the Nephele Ensemble at St David’s, Cardiff and in the Rhyl and Carlisle festivals. He recently made his Oxford Lieder Festival and City of London Festival debuts and recorded his first CD on the Champs Hill label with South African baritone Njabulo Madlala entitled Songs of Home. In addition to his performances of standard song repertoire, he has also either commissioned or given the first performance of new English songs and song cycles by several English composers, including Christian Alexander, Joseph Atkins, Martin Eastwood, Johnny Herford, David Nield and Graham Ross (the latter two at Wigmore Hall). He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, a Samling Scholar, a Yeoman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians, a Young Songmaker, a Britten-Pears Young Artist. He also works as a conductor and repetiteur and is the Assistant Conductor at Bury Court Opera where he directed two performances of Purcell’s Fairy Queen in 2014. He is a coach on the Oxenfoord Summer School, a visiting member of staff at King’s College, London and the position of Director of Music at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea. Ben Schoeman - Pianist Ben Schoeman is regarded as one of South Africa’s foremost pianists. He has won major prizes, including the first grand prize in the 11th UNISA International Piano Competition, Pretoria (2008 – sponsored by Vodacom), first prize and gold medal in the Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition, London (2009), the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Music (2011) and the Contemporary Music Prize at the Cleveland International Piano Competition, USA (2013). He has given solo, chamber music and concerto performances throughout Europe, Canada and South Africa in such prestigious concert halls as the Wigmore, Barbican, Cadogan and Queen Elizabeth Halls in London, the Konzerthaus in Berlin, Paleis het Loo in the Netherlands, the Gulbenkian Auditorium in Lisbon, Teatro del Giglio in Lucca, the Cape Town City Hall and the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest (a duo-recital with pianist Matei Varga). He has performed at major festivals in the United Kingdom (City of London, Edinburgh Fringe, King’s Lynn and Chester Festivals), Italy (Festival da Bach à Bartók and Festival Mario Ghislandi), South Africa (Grahamstown and Klein Karoo National Arts Festivals), Romania (George Enescu Festival) and Canada (Ottawa Chamber Music Festival). He recently performed Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand as well as Tchaikovsky’s Concerto no. 1 with the Guildhall Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Hall in London.During the 6th Cape Town International Summer Music Festival in 2012 he gave critically-acclaimed performances of Liszt’s Piano Concertos nos. 1 and 2 with the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra and these concerts were broadcast on South African national television. He has collaborated with a number of celebrated conductors, including Yasuo Shinozaki, En Shao, James Judd, Diego Masson, Nicholas Cleobury, Gérard Korsten, Vincent de Kort and Conrad van Alphen. In 2012, along with duo-partner cellist Anzél Gerber, he was awarded the first prize in the Ibla Grand Prize Competition in Italy. As part of this prize the duo will give a debut performance at Carnegie Hall in 2014. Ben Schoeman studied at the University of Pretoria (South Africa), the Accademia Pianistica ‘Incontri col Maestro’ in Imola (Italy), the Guildhall School of Music & Drama (United Kingdom) and the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole (Italy). His teachers include Joseph Stanford, Michel Dalberto, Louis Lortie, Boris Petrushansky, Ronan O’Hora and Elisso Virsaladze. He is currently completing a doctoral thesis on the piano music of South African composer Stefans Grové under the supervision of dr. Christopher Wiley at City University London and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. He gratefully acknowledges the generous financial support from the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, the National Research Foundation, the Wingate Scholarships and the Worshipful Company of Cordwainers. Mr. Schoeman’s debut solo album, featuring works of Franz Liszt, was released in 2011 under the TwoPianists label (sponsored by Standard Bank). His DVD recording of concertos by Mozart and Tchaikovsky with the Chamber Orchestra of South Africa and conductor Arjan Tien was released by Salon music and UNISA. He received the Laureate Award from the University of Pretoria (2008) and he was also awarded the KykNet Fiesta and Kanna Awards in recognition of his performances of Liszt’s music during the bicentenary of the composer (2011). Terence Marais - Pianist Terence Marais is a South African pianist based in London. He holds postgraduate qualifications from Rhodes University and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he studied with Catherine Foxcroft and Peter Bithell, respectively. He has studied Alexander Technique with Gwyneth Lloyd and Nelly Ben-Or. Terence has on many occasions appeared at the National Arts Festival of South Africa, both as a soloist and as a collaborator, and has also appeared in many places in South Africa and in London, UK, including Buckingham Palace. He has performed with the Eastern Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, the Odeion String Quartet and the erstwhile Sontonga Quartet. Terence is grateful for having received the support of the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, the Apollo Music Trust, the National Arts Council of South Africa, the Jessie Wakefield Bursary, the Worshipful Company of Tin Plate Workers, the African Legacy Foundation; Rhodes University and many private donors. Jeremy Silver - Conductor / Pianist Acclaimed for being “as exciting as he is subtle in his conducting”, Jeremy Silver’s passionate music making and overriding sense of lyricism and balance have made him an esteemed conductor among orchestras, singers and opera directors alike. The British conductor was principal conductor of Opera Africa, South Africa from 2004 to 2007 where productions included I Capuleti e I Montecchi, La Traviata, Rigoletto and Lucia di Lammermoor. He also conducted performances of the highly acclaimed Zulu opera Princess Magogo at Het Muziektheater, Amsterdam. Equally active in the concert hall he has given concerts with the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of South Africa and KZN Philharmonic Orchestra (Durban). In Britain he has conducted Pelléas et Mélisande (Glyndebourne Touring Opera); Madama Butterfly (English National Opera); Aida and Carmen (Raymond Gubbay productions, Royal Albert Hall); La Rondine, Lucia di Lammermoor and Le Nozze di Figaro (Opera Holland Park); Così fan tutte, Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Carmen (Longborough Festival Opera); Ariadne auf Naxos and Die Fledermaus (English Touring Opera); Tosca (Castleward Opera); Carmen (European Chamber Opera) in addition to other productions of Die Zauberflöte, Idomeneo, L’Elisir d’amore, Il Trovatore, Aida, Eugene Onegin, Le Nozze di Figaro, Carmen and Tosca. In the concert hall he has led the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Concert Orchestra, Salomon Orchestra, Orchestra of Scottish Opera, Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra, Surrey Sinfonietta and Islington Sinfonia. His highly acclaimed appearances in France include productions of Les Huguenots and Tosca at the Opéra-Théâtre de Metz as well as a concert with the renowned Polish orchestra Sinfonia Varsovia at the Evian festival. In addition he conducted a special festival production of Turandot at the National Theatre in Malaysia and made his USA debut in 2008 with Die Fledermaus at Yale Opera. Jeremy Silver was formerly Music Director of Opera on a Shoestring and Music Director of English Pocket Opera Company where productions included a national tour of Tristan and Isolde, Massenet’s Cléopâtre, Milhaud’s La Mère Coupable as well as La Bohème, Così fan tutte, Il barbiere di Siviglia, La Traviata, Don Pasquale, Lucia di Lammermoor and Don Giovanni. He also served on the music staffs at Scottish Opera, English National Opera and Glyndebourne. His repertoire is extensive, ranging from the eighteenth century to contemporary. He gave the first performances of the concerto for 2 horns Deus llluminatio Mea by Howard Thomas, the orchestral version of John Simon’s Portrait of Emily , Martin Watt’s Mtshali Songs and two operas by Mark Glentworth, Blood Rose and Ula, produced at this year’s Tête-à-tête contemporary opera festival in London. He has also conducted the work of several young composers on the Jerwood Opera Writing Course at Aldeburgh Music. As staff conductor at English National Opera he worked closely with such composers as Mark Anthony Turnage, Gavin Bryars, Gerald Barry, Jonathan Dove and Martin Butler. Jeremy Silver studied Modern Languages and Music at Clare College, Cambridge and went on to study conducting at the Royal College of Music with Norman del Mar, continuing his studies for a number of years with internationally renowned teacher George Hurst. He furthered his studies at the prestigious National Opera Studio in London where he is now assistant Head of Music. He is also Music Director of Opera Brava.