Angharad Morgan was born in South Wales and began singing at an early age. She is a graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama where she was awarded a full scholarship in 2000. During her time at the college she was also the recipient of the Valetta Jacobi Award for Sopranos, the Lee Freeman Memorial Scholarship and the Russell Sheppard Memorial Scholarship. Angharad has recently been working on Welsh National Opera’s production of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, which was highly praised by both audiences and critics alike.
 
Angharad has performed in a variety of venues both home and abroad and is renowned for her versatility and wide ranging repertoire. On the concert platform she has had the opportunity to work with some of Wales’ most prestigious musical ensembles and soloists including duetting with Elin Manahan Thomas at St David’s Hall.

English soprano Eleanor Briggs grew up in Herefordshire and began singing at a young age. She trained as a Scholar at the Royal College of Music and the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, and subsequently gained an Honours degree as an oboist. She then went on to gain a Masters degree with Distinction at Trinity College of Music under the tuition of Teresa Cahill. Eleanor is currently completing her studies with internationally renowned tenor Dennis O'Neill at the Wales International Academy of Voice. She has sung in masterclasses with Anne Howells and Dame Kiri te Kanawa for BBC Radio 2, with Rosalind Plowright, Susan Bullock and the late Robert Tear at TCM. An experienced choral musician, Eleanor is a member of the professional choir of Hampstead Parish Church and she sings regularly with the BBC Singers and the Choir of the Academy of Ancient Music. On the operatic stage, roles have included Pamina (Die Zauberflote), Belinda (Dido & Aeneas), Miss Wordsworth (Albert Herring), and Vixen Sharp-Ears (The Cunning Little Vixen). Most recently she has sung Barbarina/1st Bridesmaid (Le Nozze di Figaro) for Dartington International Summer School, Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflote) for the Castelo de Sao Jorge in Lisbon, Portugal, and became a member of the Scottish Opera Freelance Chorus.  

The Australian-British soprano Justine Viani studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in England between 2000-2004. During her studies at the RNCM she won major competitions such as the ‘Elsie Thurston Memorial Prize’, and the ‘Alexander Young Memorial Prize’. She has privately studied with KS Inge Borkh, and KS Ute Vinzing, and currently resides in Wales and studies with Glenys Linos in Vienna and Dennis O’Neill in Wales. Additional singing coaches include James Pearson (Vienna State Opera), and Maestro Vittoria Rosetta (La Scala, Milan), and Anthony Negus (Welsh National Opera).        

Ms Viani has participated in international singing competitions, and was awarded the Jury prize for the most outstanding young singer in the ‘Concorso Vocale Internazionale di Musica Sacra’ at the age of twenty-two. She was also the recipient of the Bayreuth Stipendium of Vienna in 2007, and is now a finalist in the Bayreuth Bursary Competition (Britain, December 2011). She is also a member of The Mastersingers Company, a prestigious company which promotes the next generation of young Wagnerian singers. She also had the honour of singing for Eva Wagner-Pasquier for the Centerary Concert of the Wagner Society, Madrid.

Other performing experience includes her Wigmore Hall debut of HK Gruber’s Frankenstein!! Richard Strauss’ Orchestral Lieder Op.27, Vier Letzte Lieder and Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder. On the stage of the spoken theatre she has excelled in dramatic roles such as Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth, Desdemona, Juliet, Viola and Beatrice; Chekhov’s Sasha and Ibsen’s Nora. She has given various Liederabend concentrating on composers such as: Brahms, Mahler, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Strauss and Wagner.

Her future engagements include the title role of Tosca for Opera de Bauge, July 2012.

Katie has graduated from the RNCM with a BMus Honours Degree in Vocal and Opera Studies in June 2009. In September 2009,Katie was awarded the Directors Scholarship to study at the Cardiff International Academy of Voice with Dennis O’Neill CBE where she also attended a three week placement in Barga Italy. In September 2010 Katie was awarded a Scholarship to continue her studies with Dennis O’Neill at the RCM International Opera School, London.. Katie has performed with Opera Holland Park and at Buxton Opera House with the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Company.  In 2009, Katie took the role of the Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas with the Manchester Camerata, which was also recorded for BBC Radio 3`s Discovering music.

Katie was a finalist in the Elizabeth Harwood Memorial Award and the Les Azuriales Opera Young Artist Competition 2010. In 2009-2011, Katie was a recipient of the Ian Fleming Award and the Sybil Tutton Award administered by the Musicians Benevolent Fund. Katie was also supported by the Josephine Baker Trust and was grateful to the Countess of Munster Musical Trust for their continuing support of her studies. This year Katie will be completing her MA in Advanced Vocal studies with Dennis O’Neill at the Wales International Academy of Voice, supported by a Les Azuriales Opera Young Artist Scholarship 2011. 

Laura was born in Essex and read Classics and English at St John’s College, Oxford, where she was awarded the Passmore Edwards Prize.  She then studied at Trinity College and the Royal College of Music before joining the Chorus of Welsh National Opera.  She now studies with Laura Sarti and Dennis O’Neill.  Principal roles while at WNO include Marzelline (Fidelio), Paggio (Rigoletto), Mascha (The Queen of Spades), First Bridesmaid (Marriage of Figaro), a soloist in the Messiah at St David’s Hall and Frou Frou (The Merry Widow).  Laura is a regular soloist for WNO MAX, for whom she recently performed the new commission A Real Princess (featured in Opera Now and Critics Choice in The Guardian).  Opera roles elsewhere include Fiordiligi (Cosi Fan Tutte), Lucia (The Rape of Lucretia), Drusilla (L’Incoronazione di Poppea), Nora (Riders to the Sea), Woodpecker, Hen, Creature (The Cunning Little Vixen). Future engagements include the return of A Real Princess for a national tour in 2012.  In 2011 Laura was selected to participate in Masterclasses with legendary soprano Mirella Freni at the Centro Universale di Bel Canto in Modena and was a semil-finalist in the Mezzo International Opera Competition in Szeged, Hungary.  Laura won the prestigious W. Towyn Roberts Scholarship at the National Eisteddfod in Wales in 2010.   

Mari Wyn Williams hails from Llanberis, but has been in Cardiff for the past 10 years. She completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Vocal Studies from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with the international soprano Suzanne Murphy and then went on to study with Gail Pearson.During her studies she performed the roles of Lucya from Shostakovich’ Paradise Moscow, Beggar woman from Sweeney Todd for Welsh National Youth Opera, Rooster from the Cunning little vixen, Maria from Suppe’s comic opera, Ten Belles without a ring.

In 2003 Mari won the prestigious Towyn Roberts scholarship at the National Eisteddfod in Meifod. Other Scholarships include S4C Scholarship, Robart Foulkes Scholarship (NY), James Pantyfedwen Scholarship, Sir Geraint Evans Scholarship and the Lawrence Attwell Scholarship. Mari took part in a concert arranged by the Welsh Tourist Board promoting Wales in New York and in Paris. And oncert work include performing at the famous Fringe festival in Edinburgh, Machynlleth music Festival and most recently Mari sang at the closing concert at the 2005 National Eisteddfod singing a new work by Robart Arwyn alongside Bryn Terfel.

Lincolnshire born Soprano, Nicola Pulford, received two scholarships, a First Class Honours Degree and Diploma with Distinction from Trinity College of Music, London. She was also a student of the English National Opera Works. She has since toured the UK and Europe, working with a variety of companies, including Opera Holland Park, Charles Court Opera, Kentish Opera and Opera UK. Her stage credits include Musetta La Bohème, Sylvia Merry Widow, Shepherd boy Tosca and Carmella in Menotti’s The Saint of Bleecker Street.

Concert and recital work includes opera galas in Dubai, prize-winning performances in Spain and premiering a work in Paris. Nicola has performed in many of the main concert venues in London, most recently at Cadogan Hall with Classic FM. She has worked with Sir David Willcocks and the late Sir Charles Mackerras and was a Young Concert Artist’s Trust semi-finalist.

Nicola would like to thank the Mario Lanza Foundation, Kathleen Trust and Lynn Foundation for their support of her current studies at the Wales International Academy of Voice with Dennis O’Neill.