CLAIRE BARNETT-JONES

British mezzo-soprano Claire Barnett-Jones is fast becoming one of the most sought-after voices on the operatic stage and the concert platform, recently being named amongst Operawire’s Top 10 Rising Stars after being a Finalist and Winner of the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2021.

This season, Claire returned to Oper Frankfurt for her role debut as Mescalina in a new production of Le Grand Macabre conducted by Thomas Guggeis, joined Scottish Opera for concert performances as Gaea Daphne, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra for Beethoven’s Mass in C and returned to the London Symphony Orchestra as Barena/Pastuchnya in Jenůfa conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. She also made her company debut with Dutch National Opera as The Government in the world premiere of The Shell Trial, and joined Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra as Second Norn Götterdämmerung and Stephen Barlow and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder. Forthcoming, Claire will return to Bayreuther Festspiele as Waltraute Die Walküre, Dutch National Opera as Mrs Sedley in Barbora Horáková Joly’s new production of Peter Grimes and will appear at Longborough Festival Opera as Waltraute Götterdämmerung. She will make house debuts at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Bregenz Festival, Teatro Nacional de São Carlos and the Bayerische Staatsoper.

In recent years, highlights have included her company debut at the Bayreuther Festspiele as 2nd Norn Götterdämmerung and Waltraute Die Walküre, her French operatic debut as Jezibaba in Rusalka at the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, role and company debuts as Fricka Die Walküre at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl in Austria and as Madame Flora The Medium for Oper Frankfurt, her European concert debut at The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam in Schumann’s Szenen aus Goethes Faust, Sosostris in Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and her BBC Proms debut with a solo recital as part of the Proms at Birmingham 2022.

REBECCA COHEN

Welsh pianist Rebecca Cohen specialises in song repertoire and has appeared in recital in the UK and Europe with leading song performers including Joan Rodgers, Benedict Nelson, Ema Nikolovska, Harriet Burns, James Newby and Claire Barnett-Jones. Concert highlights include London’s Wigmore Hall, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, National Concert Hall, Dublin, Mozarthaus Vienna and festivals including Oxford Lieder, Aldeburgh and the Chipping Campden International Festival.

Recent and forthcoming engagements include a programme of song celebrating Charles Stanford’s legacy at the Great Hall, Belfast which was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 as part of the Belfast International Festival of Chamber Music, the world premiere of a BBC Radio 3 Commission by composer Ella Jarman-Pinto as part of International Women’s Day with soprano Nazan Fikret and recitals in London, Wexford and Aldeburgh.

Rebecca is Co-Director of Song in the City, an artist led charity with a vision to take classical music out of its comfort zone, devising creative cross-arts performance projects. Partnerships include Patrick McDowell for London Fashion Week, Guildhall School, Rambert Dance Company and MIND in Tower Hamlets and Newham.

As a member of Professorial Staff at the Guildhall School in London, Rebecca co-directs and coaches postgraduate students on the Creative Minds in Song elective for singers, pianists and composers. She has been invited to run workshops and masterclasses for various organisations including EPTA, Live Music Now and Wigmore Hall Learning.

Educated at the University of York, she studied at Trinity Laban and the Guildhall School before completing her studies at the Franz Schubert Institut in Austria. Competition successes include finalist in the Das Lied International Song Competition, the Lillian Ash French song prize and the Paul Hamburger Prize for accompaniment awarded by Graham Johnson as part of his prestigious Song Guild.

Rebecca was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (FRSA) in 2015.