Welsh soprano Grace Hope-Gill is in her first year of Royal Academy Opera as a Bicentenary Scholar under the tutelage of Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Mary Nelson and Anna Tilbrook. In July 2022 Grace graduated with a First-Class Honours degree and was awarded the Eldee scholarship for outstanding studentship. In July 2024, Grace recently gained her Master of Arts in Performance with distinction. She is a member of the Academy Song Circle and is generously supported by the Josephine Baker Trust.

Grace’s recent successes include, winning the John Fussell Award for Young Musicians, the Major Van Someran-Godfrey prize and Elena Gerhardt prize and coming second in the Isabel Jay Memorial Prize, Flora Nielsen prize and Marjorie Thomas Art of Song prize. Her versatility and innovative nature has led to an array of performance opportunities, from performing cantatas under Eamonn Dougan, Margaret Faultless and John Butt in the Academy’s ‘Bach in Leipzig’ series, premiering new compositional works both as a soloist and within an ensemble, to singing on the CBeebies channel.

Grace travelled to Munich having been awarded the Elton John Global Exchange scholarship where she was coached at the Bayerische Staatsoper and the Theaterakademie with the trip concluding in her international recital debut with renowned baritone Christian Gerhaher. She has also sung in a number of masterclasses with leading singers such as Freddie de Tommaso, Angelika Kirchschlager, John Mark Ainsley, Susan Bullock MBE and Ailish Tynan. Other recent engagements include, performing the role of ‘Cis’ in the Royal Academy Opera’s production of Britten’s ‘Albert Herring’, singing Adina (L’Elisir D’amore), Musetta (La Boheme), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) and Miss Wordsworth (Albert Herrring), in the Royal Academy Vocal Faculty opera scenes, performing Mahler’s third symphony under the baton of Semyon Bychkov at the Royal Festival Hall and singing in the chorus of the Royal Academy Opera’s production of Stravinsky’s ‘The Rake’s Progress’..

After receiving a first-class honours degree, followed by a Distinction in Instrumental Performance Postgraduate Certificate from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, William is enjoying a varied career as a freelancer. He has recently worked with the Hanover Junges Orchester and Cumbria Opera Group, alongside playing for the Welsh National Opera’s outreach project ‘Opera Tutti’ based in the West Midlands. He has a keen interest in the performance and delivery of contemporary music and recently was invited to perform with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group’s ensemble NEXT.

In October 2023, William began his full-time role as Events Assistant for the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and plans to continue his studies in a Masters at the Royal Academy of Music in September 2024. He enjoys long walks in the countryside with friends, and often finds himself in the pub to enjoy locally brewed beer and live music.

John was born in Brentwood, Essex. He grew up in a household where eclectic musical taste was the norm:  his father, a largely self-taught amateur musician, enjoyed (and would have a go at playing) almost anything from Bach to the Beatles. As a teenager, John was fortunate to be offered a local authority funded place in the Saturday Junior Department of Trinity College of Music. Five years at Junior Trinity considerably broadened his musical horizons, with the weekly classes in creative musicianship a particular highlight, alongside piano and organ lessons.

As a young boy John was drawn to all things technical, and was probably as keen to build radios as he was to practise the piano. However, though he may have originally imagined a career in science, the pull of music became gradually stronger and eventually he chose to read Physics and Music – thus keeping his options open! – in Cardiff, where he has lived ever since. And, as it has turned out, the scientific career never materialised.

John enjoys a wide range of musical activities and is especially busy as an accompanist, organist and continuo player. He has worked with many local choirs over the years, has often been heard in BBC broadcasts such as Radio 4’s Daily Service and plays harpsichord in Ystradivarius baroque ensemble.  He has always been involved with church music, and is currently organist at All Saints, Penarth, while also running the music group at Beulah United Reformed Church in Rhiwbina. In addition, John is a Music Therapist – having trained at UWE in Bristol – and since 2011 he has worked part time in the Bristol Community Learning Disabilities Team.

Hailing from the seaside town of St. Annes, Lancashire, Eleanor Chapman attended the Junior Royal Northern College of Music from the age of 16.  She continued to study viola at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, with Robin Ireland. Here she was a member of the Dunev String Quartet and the Gaia Ensemble, which lead to recording debut albums in 2019/20. To further her studies Eleanor moved to Limerick in Ireland late 2020 to take part in a Masters programme in String Performance with the Irish Chamber Orchestra, from which she graduated with a First Class Honours. She has since been living in Ireland working as a tutor with the ICO’s celebrated youth education program, and as a freelance artist with various groups including the National Symphony Orchestra, RTE Concert Orchestra, the Con Tempo String Quartet and Kirkos Ensemble, playing regularly in venues such as the National Concert Hall Dublin, the 3Arena, and Windmill Lane Recording Studios.

Photo credit: John Soffe

Scottish-born Beth Haughan is a pianist and teacher working across London and Birmingham. She works as both a soloist and in collaboration with many singers and instrumentalists, having performed in venues such as the Southbank Centre, the Wigmore Hall and the Victoria and Albert Museum. She held a Weingarten Scholarship at the Liszt Ferenc Academy in Budapest, where she studied with Gábor Farkas. Previously she gained a First Class BMus (Hons) from the Royal College of Music and an MMus (Distinction) from the Royal Birmingham Conservtoire, studying with Gordon Fergus Thompson, Margaret Fingerhut and Pascal Nemirovski. Recent highlights include being a Young Artist at Leeds Lieder Festival 2023, performing Dvorák’s Piano Quintet at a pre-CBSO Showcase in Birmingham’s Symphony Hall and winning the Dennis Horner Accompanist Prize at the Junior Kathleen Ferrier Society Awards. Currently, she is working on all of Friedrich Kiel’s solo piano works for recording this summer with Naxos.

British composer Georgia Denham draws on a love of visual arts, anecdotal experience and reimagined transcription to create her music. She studied composition at The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag, and now for her PhD, at the University of Cambridge. In Birmingham, she was awarded the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Undergraduate Prize, and was the youngest nominated for an Ivor Composer Award in 2020. She has written music for Music We’d Like to Hear, Fidelio Trio, Decibel, New European Ensemble, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Orkest de Ereprijs. Georgia also performs as a singer with electronics, and will release her debut EP later this year working with harpist, Gina Taylor. Her study in Cambridge has been generously supported by the Ralph-Vaughn Williams Trust and the Harding Distinguished Postgraduate Scholarship.

Millicent B James is an award-winning composer, arranger, performer and artist who combines gospel, jazz cinematic and  afro-futurism to create a myriad of sonorities. Her music has been commissioned BCMG, the CBSO, Sister Music, NMC Recordings, Spitalfields Music Festival and NYCGB and arranged three pieces for BBC Radio 2’s Piano Room Session with Lemar at Maida Vale Studios in London. She has two self-released EPs, Moyo, Vol. 1 (2020) & Moyo, Vol. 2 (2021).  

In 2017, Millicent received a scholarship to study Composition at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire where she graduated with a First-Class (Honours) undergraduate degree in Music and was awarded the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Composition Prize in 2021.

Victoria Harley is a soprano from North Yorkshire and recent graduate of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. She is a 2024 Serena Fenwick Artist with British Youth Opera, the Winner of the 2024 RBC Singing Prize and was the 2023 recipient of the St Clare Barfield Rosebowl for Operatic Distinction at RBC.

Previous Operatic Roles include La Fée and Noémie in Massenet’s Cendrillon, Vixen Sharp-Ears in The Cunning Little Vixen, Gertrud in Hansel und Gretel and Musetta in La Bohéme. She also originated the role of Helena Handcart in the world premiere of Roger Simmonds’ Fame and Envy and was a Chorus Mentor in Birmingham Opera Company’s recent production of Tippett’s New Year. She was a prize winner in both the Ashleyan Opera Prize and both the Edward Brooks Lieder and English Song Prizes. She has sung in masterclasses for David Butt Phillip, James Black and David Gowland.

Joe Yates is a Tenor from Staffordshire, entering his second year of postgraduate study at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where he studies with Christopher Turner. Since beginning his studies Joe has been a prize winner in the conservatoire’s Oratorio Prize, sang the title role of Mozart’s Idomeneo in Opera Scenes and recently performed as Le Doyen in the conservatoire’s production of Massenet’s Cendrillon.