Caroline Taylor recently graduated with Distinction from the Royal Northern College of Music. Prior to this, she read for an MA (Hons) in French, Italian and Spanish at the University of St Andrews, where she received the Cedric Thorpe Davie Memorial Prize for outstanding musical contribution. She is generously supported by an RNCM Oglesby Scholarship, the Mario Lanza Educational Foundation, the Lynn Foundation, the Clemence Charitable Settlement and Help Musicians UK, with whom she holds a Maidment Award. She currently studies with Louise Winter and Nicholas Powell; her previous teachers include Anthony Roden and Jonathan May.
At the RNCM, Caroline won the 2018 Joyce and Michael Kennedy Award for Singing of Strauss and the 2017 Brodsky Cross-School Prize with her chamber ensemble, the Lucrezia Trio; and she was a finalist in the 2018 Concerto Competition and 2019 Gold Medal. She represented the RNCM in the 2018 Sir Anthony Lewis Memorial Prize with Musica Britannica, winning first prize, and in the 2018 Gerald Moore Award with pianist Sid Ramchander. This year, she won joint First Prize at the Dean and Chadlington Singing Competition. Caroline has been a member of the Opera North Chorus Mentor Scheme, an RNCM Songster and a Leeds Lieder Young Artist; and has recently become a Concordia Foundation Artist, making her debut recital earlier this year.
Concert performances include soprano soloist in Monteverdi/Vespers of 1610 (Phoenix Singers), Handel/Messiah (Chesterfield Philharmonic Choir) and Jephtha (St Andrews Chorus), Vivaldi/Gloria (Anstruther Philharmonic Society), Bach/Mass in B Minor (Kellie Consort) and St John Passion (Chester Music Society), Vaughan Williams/Sinfonia Antarctica (Dundee Symphony Orchestra), Boulanger/Soir sur la plaine (Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus), Brahms/A German Requiem (Chester Cathedral Nave Choir), Britten/Les Illuminations (Northern Ballet Sinfonia) and Mahler’s Symphonies No. 4 (Helix Ensemble, chamber arrangement) and No. 8 (Chetham’s Symphony Orchestra, Mater Gloriosa). Opera credits include Lauretta/Gianni Schicchi (RNCM Opera), Helena/The Enchanted Island (British Youth Opera), Governess/The Turn of the Screw and Miss Wordsworth/Albert Herring (Byre Opera), Yum-Yum/The Mikado (Southampton Operatic Society), Papagena/The Magic Flute (St Andrews Voices) and scenes as Tina/Flight, Suzel/L’amico Fritz and Blanche de la Force/Dialogues des Carmélites (RNCM) and Sophie/Der Rosenkavalier (Edinburgh Festival Fringe). In June 2018, she created the role of Sara in Ben Kaye and Adam Gorb’s The Path to Heaven (Psappha); and in June 2019, she performed the role of She in the European staged premiere of Madeleine Dring’s Cupboard Love (Byre Opera).
Caroline now looks forward to taking part in this year’s Oxenfoord International Summer School, generously supported by an Oxenfoord Bursary and the Nicholas Boas Charitable Trust.
British pianist Guy Murgatroyd enjoys an international reputation as one of a leading generation of pianists pliable to many musical roles. Having worked with a diverse selection of musicians including Leslie Howard, Janis Kelly and George Vass along with contemporary composers including Rolf Hind, Edward Rushton and Nikolai Kapustin Guy is no stranger to most corners of both the solo and collaborative repertory.
Guy enrolled at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in 2012 on a scholarship where his principle teachers were Victor Sangiorgio and Pascal Nemirowski. During this time he was garlanded with every major award for piano accompaniment as well as academic tributes for the highest BMus degree marks in his class. Further studies as a Postgraduate at the Royal Academy of music in London under Michael Dussek resulted in numerous additional awards for performances as accompanist as well as a Master of Arts with DipRAM.
Guy is in high demand as a teacher at the North London Music School and is also director and founder of the song concert series London Art of Song Collective. Conceived to further the performance of contemporary art song it features over 50 singers who are hand-chosen for each project working in a repertoire of more than 450 composers and 25 languages. The collective also actively seeks new commissions from living composers to continue the legacy of the art song repertoire.
Guy is also a sought-after musical director and is currently working with opera companies Opera Rougue and Opera on the move for their 2019 productions and has also been a regular house pianist on both the Dartington International Summer School and the Abingdon Summer School for Solo Singers.
Recent performances as a solo pianist include sonatas by Scriabin, Kapustin and Beethoven as well as pieces by Haydn, Haydn Rachmaninov, Debussy, Prokofiev and Chick Corea. A major recording project of piano sonatas by Kapustin is planned for 2019. Recent performances with instrumentalists has included programmes of British music for violin and piano, Russian music for cello and piano and several recitals exploring the performance of art song repertoire on Woodwind and String instruments.
Recent performances in London include St Martin-in-the-fields, Italian Cultural Institute Mayfair, Austrian Cultural Forum Knightsbridge, St Stephens Walbrook Bank, St James Sussex Gardens Paddington, St Pancras parish Church, St George the Martyr London Bridge, St Boltoph-without-bishopsgate Aldgate, and The Bunker Theatre Borough. Other recent performances include The Holywell music room Oxford, The Venue Leeds College of Music, Pro Corda Suffolk, Cramphorn Theatre Chelmsford, Hotel Nolinski, Paris, Chapelle des Pénitents noirs, Villefranche-de-Rouergue, France.
Free recital (retiring collection)