Join The Opera Makers in London's iconic Musicians Church for a concert presenting the music of trailblazing composers, including: Caccini, Boulanger, Smyth, Catán and Bologne. Set in the beautiful Musicians' Church in the heart of the City of London and featuring some of the UK's most exciting emerging artists.
Arthur Bruce:
Scottish baritone Arthur Bruce is a former Scottish Opera Emerging Artist, a Samling Artist, and a Britten—Pears Young Artist. He is a graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's Alexander Gibson Opera School, and English National Opera's Opera Works programme.
Recent engagements include covering the Gamekeeper in Rusalka (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden); Belcore in L’elisir d’amore (Longborough Festival Opera); Cristiano in Un ballo in maschera (Chelsea Opera Group); and Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro (Opera Bohemia).This year Arthur is looking forward to returning to the Royal Opera House, as well as Billy Budd with New Palace Opera and a recording with Retrospect Opera.
Becca Marriott:
In 2013 Becca adapted her first opera, The Secretary Turned CEO, a modern take on Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona, garnering superb press at the Tête à Tête Festival. Becca co-adapted, and wrote the libretto for La bohéme at the Trafalgar Studios, West End, which was nominated for an Olivier Award in 2017. In the same year, she created a new production of Tosca, which won the Off West End Award for Best New Opera Production. She went on to adapt and write a radical new La Traviata based on a concept from emerging director, Helena Jackson; published by Oberon Modern Plays. She co-founded The Opera Makers in 2019, launching the charity with a research and development showing of their radical take on Cav and Pag - The Clowns - in 2020 and creating their first major production Hopes & Fears in 2021 for the Grimeborn Festival; 4*s - The Stage.
As a singer she has performed leading roles for Grimeborn, Grange Park Opera, Tête à Tête , The King’s Head, Opera Up Close and Opera in the City. She has also sung with the Royal Opera de Wallonie, in Liege.
Grace Nyandoro
Grace is a versatile lyric soprano of Ugandan and Zimbabwean descent based in London. She graduated from Trinity Laban with the support of the University of Edinburgh Bucher-Fraser scholarship, Oxford-Lieder Society bursary and Laurence Atwell Trust bursary
Grace is an experienced soloist who has performed all over the world. Operatic roles include Musetta 'La Bohème' for Kings head theatre (2022) Aksinya 'Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk’ for Birmingham Opera Company which won The Royal Philharmonic Society award and the title role of Treemonisha (Spectra Ensemble) at the Grimeborn Festival.
Salome Siu
Salome ChungKwan Siu is a Hong Kong mezzo-soprano based in London. Graduated with distinction this year from Master of Music in Performance in Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, she is a proud Eva Malpass Scholar under the guidance of Linda Hirst, Mary Wiegold and Andrew-Matthews Owen. At age 16, she won first prize at Hong Kong School Music Festival. Last year, she reached the finalist of Soloists’ Competition and The Elizabeth Schumann Lieder Duo Competition and was selected as a SongEasel Young Artist with her duo partner Lucas Saraiva Cunha. In 2024, she is awarded Director’s Prize for Excellence in Voice and nominated as finalist for Trinity Laban Gold Medal 2024. Her recent operatic credits include Charlotte (Werther), Lucretia (The Rape of Lucretia), Juno (Semele), La sorella infermiera (Suor Angelica) and gender-swop role Ping (Turandot, produced by The Opera Makers).
Martins Smaukstelis:
Martins is returning to The Opera Makers after successfully performing with the company as Adrian in Hopes and Fears as well as Heinrich in Der Wald. He has also recently debuted as Prince in Dvorak’s Rusalka (New Opera Singapore), Spoletta in Puccini’s Tosca (Devon Opera),
Schoolmaster in Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen (HGO) and covered Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte (The Grange Festival). His concert work includes Beethoven 9th Symphony, Mozart Requiem and more.
Recently he was awarded first prize at the Emmy Destinn Czech singing competition. Find out more at martinstenor.com
Special guests - The Ruffians
The Ruffians (Amy Kearsley, Hester Dart and Miranda Ostler) are a new music collective with a taste for the experimental and the absurd. They specialise in unaccompanied vocal repertoire and work with composers, as well as devising their own work. Since their debut in May 2022, they have been busy growing an audience in a variety of performance platforms across London, and were Highly
Commended at the 2023 Gladys Puttick Memorial Prize for Improvisation. The Ruffians met at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, and have received coaching from Linda Hirst, Douglas Finch, Gregory Rose and Mary Wiegold.
Recent credits include Acoustic Ruminations (Queen’s House, Greenwich, November 2023); Dreams and Variations (New Lights Festival, June 2023); FILTH (June 2023); In Good (Unac)Company (May 2023); and the premiere recording of Georgia Barnes’s Songs for Oppressed Voice and Prepared Piano (2022). They are looking forward to collaborating with a range of composers in 2024, including CN Lester, Barbs Dudek, and Kornélia Nemcová.
as well as a volunteer chorus of student singers.