Bass-baritone Jacob Bettinelli recently won Third Prize in the Piemonte Opera International Singing Competition in Italy and made his Bulgaria debut as ‘Masetto’ in Don Giovanni with the Varna State Opera House in September 2019. Jacob graduated from the Masters of Performance course at the Royal College of Music with Distinction under the tutelage of Alison Wells and Simon Lepper, where he also gained his Bachelor of Music degree in 2017. He was a Jessie Sumner Scholar and Sussex Scholar supported by a Tiong Kiu King Award, Talent Unlimited and K Wah International Vocal Scholarship. Jacob is an alumnus of the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme. Last season, Jacob has been selected to participate in a week masterclass working closely with Dennis O’Neill CBE, culminating with concerts in Nafplio, Greece. He also performed in Hintze Hall at the Natural History Museum; Concert at Verbier Festival and Tête à Tête Opera Festival and a recital for the Rachmaninov Song Festival at Pushkin House; bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah at Regent’s Hall; Uberto in La Serva Padrona and Gil in Il segreto di Susanna in Macau; a concert in Kotor; sung bass soloist in Rossini’s Stabat Mater at Eden Court Theatre in Inverness, Scotland; and premiered music by Puccini (senior) under Bruno Nicoli (La Scala) at the Auditorium del Suffragio in Lucca Italy. Jacob has participated in numerous masterclasses, most notably with Christa Ludwig, Sumi Jo, Susan Bullock, Luis Ledesma, Roger Vignoles, Kim Begley, Rosemary Joshua and Thomas Quasthoff at the Aldeburgh Festival. Upcoming engagements including two Bayerische Staasoper workshops and concerts with Hong Kong Arts Festival; playing the roles of Guglielmo in Così fan tutte and Mr Bluff in The Impresario.
American pianist Dylan Perez is the current Lord and Lady Lurgan Collaborative Piano Fellow and the Royal College of Music, London. He graduated in 2018 with Distinction with an Artist Diploma and in 2016 with Distinction with an Artist Masters from the Guildhall School where he studied with Eugene Asti, Andrew West, Iain Burnside, Julius Drake, and Pamela Lidiard. Prior to relocating to London, he studied at the University of Michigan with Louis Nagel and Martin Katz. Dylan has received the Gerald Moore Prize for Accompanists, the Paul Hamburger Prize for Accompaniment, and the Accompanist Prize at the Bampton Young Singers Competition. He has been a semi-finalist in the Das Lied International Song competition and the Wigmore Hall/Independent Opera Song Competiton, as well as a finalist in the Kathleen Ferrier Awards. Dylan is a Britten-Pears and Oxford Lieder Young Artist, and an alumnus of the Franz-Schubert-Institut and the Académie Royaumont. Dylan recently made his Wigmore Hall recital debut and has performed at Barbican Hall, Milton Court Concert Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields and Cadogan Hall. He has played in masterclasses with Renee Fleming, Joyce DiDonato, Dame Felicity Lott, and with Roger Vignoles, Brigitte Fassbaender, and Christian Gerhaher at Wigmore Hall. Dylan can be heard frequently on BBC Radio 3, whether it is for a Proms Extra concert, a Total Immersion performance, or live on In Tune. Dylan is the founder of re-sung, a London based song recital series that focuses on the connection between text and music, with special interest on creating new interpretations of masterworks and championing contemporary songs.