Elinor Rolfe Johnson - Soprano

 

 

London born soprano Elinor Rolfe Johnson possesses a "commanding stage presence and the voice to match" (Seen and Heard International) and has been praised by Tim Ashley (The Guardian) for her "superlative singing". A graduate of Cambridge University and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, she has more recently performed as a finalist in the London Handel Competition and the inaugural Sing Finzi Competition, as well as a semi-finalist in the Wigmore Song Competition.

Elinor's operatic roles include Contessa Le Nozze di Figaro, Rosalinde Die Fledermaus, Desdemona Otello, Donna Elvira Don Giovanni, Ismene Orpheus at St George's Hanover Square, with the Classical Opera Company, and she has covered at the Aix-en-Provence Festival for their Bach Trauernacht project, under Raphael Pichon.

Elinor has extensive recital and oratorio experience, performing in such venues as the Wigmore Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, the Barbican, Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw and Berlin Philharmonie. Performances include Bach St John Passion (Britten Sinfonia, dir. Mark Padmore), St Matthew Passion (Israel Camerata), Finzi Dies Natalis (Concordia Orchestra), Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem (Kings College Cambridge), Handel Messiah (Leeds Town Hall), Strauss Vier Letzte Lieder, Haydn Creation (St George"s Bristol), Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music and Sea Symphony (Snape Maltings and York Minster), Mendelssohn Elijah and Verdi Requiem.

 

Tom Lilburn - Countertenor

 

Tom Lilburn is a 29-year-old English countertenor. In 2022 he graduated with distinction from the Master of Performance course at the Royal College of Music, where he was an Ian Evans Lombe scholar. At RCM Tom sang Unulfo in Handel’s Rodelinda and Refugee in Jonathan Dove’s Flight. In 2022 he covered Ottone and Narciso in Handel’s Agrippina with English Touring Opera, and last autumn he covered Ottone and Amore in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea with ETO.

Tom is also a Lay Clerk at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, and in April 2021 he was one of four singers at the funeral of The Duke of Edinburgh. With the Choir of St George’s Chapel, he has sung at events including the commital service of Queen Elizabeth II and the wedding of Prince Harry.

An experienced oratorio performer, Tom has recently performed in Handel’s Messiah and Dixit Dominus, Bach’s St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, Mass in B Minor and Magnificat, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Vivaldi’s Gloria and Beatus Vir, Astorga’s Stabat Mater and Telemann’s Magnificat in C. In November 2022, Tom sang the solos from Handel’s Messiah in the Royal Albert Hall with The Really Big Chorus.

Tom is a member of vocal sextet The Queen’s Six and he has worked with esteemed consorts including Tenebrae, The Sixteen, The Binchois Consort and ORA. He is represented by Ann Ferrier, and he studies with Sally Burgess.

Tom grew up in Solihull and attended King Edward’s School in Birmingham before studying Natural Sciences as a choral scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge. In his spare time he enjoys playing chess, tennis, cricket and golf.

Nathan Vale - Tenor

 

Nathan Vale studied with Ryland Davies at the Royal College of Music and Benjamin Britten International Opera School.

With the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, he has sung Bach’s Christmas Oratorio under Harry Christophers and Arias in Bach’s St John Passion under Paul Goodwin. Other Bach highlights were Evangelist in Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the London Handel Players under Laurence Cummings and with the Northern Sinfonia conducted by Thomas Zehetmair, and Arias in Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano conducted by Ruben Jais.

A former winner of the AESS English Song Competition, Nathan has appeared at Wigmore Hall, Three Choirs Festival, the Temple Recital Series with Julius Drake, Hong Kong Festival, the Housman, Gurney, Warlock and Ireland Societies with Graham Johnson, and Crush Room ROH with Audrey Hyland. He has also recorded Love’s Voice (Songs by Finzi, Gurney, Ireland and Venables) for SOMM Records.

Operatic roles have included Lurcanio Ariodante at the Bolshoi Opera, Belfiore La finta giardiniera for Luxembourg Opera and for Opera Baugé, First Priest & First Armed Man The Magic Flute for ENO, Oronte Alcina and Lurcanio Ariodante for English Touring Opera, First Prisoner Fidelio for Glyndebourne Festival, Grimoaldo Rodelinda for Iford Opera, Evangelist St John Passion (fully staged) Teatro Massimo Palermo and Mr Buchanan in the The Opera Group’s award-winning production of Street Scene.

This season will see a return to Snape Maltings in the newly commissioned To See the Invisible by Emily Howard, Arias in Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano and Ruben Jais, Evangelist in Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Camerata Copenhagen and Martin Nagashima Toft and for the London Handel Society Orchestra and Laurence Cummings, recitals in Hong Kong and the second in a series of Quilter recordings for Nimbus Records.

Jerome Knox - Baritone

 

Jerome Knox was born in London and is a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He won the prestigious London Handel Festival Competition in 2020 and is now much in demand for both concert and opera performances.

Recent appearances include multiple roles in Scottish Opera’s Opera Highlights tour, as well as Aeneas Dido & Aeneas, Polyphemus Acis & Galatea and Count Le nozze di Figaro, all for Waterperry Opera. He also sings regularly with English Touring Opera, with previous appearances including Marcello La bohème, Pallante Agrippina, Don Prudenzio Il viaggio a Reims, Astolfo Lucrezia Borgia and Afron The Golden Cockerel.

In concert, he has recently appeared at the Wigmore Hall as soloist singing Bach Cantatas with the London Handel Players and he has given recitals at the Händel-Festspiele in Halle, also joining baritone Roderick Williams for a joint concert at Music at Paxton, supported by the prestigious Momentum scheme.

Most recently, Jerome returned to the Wigmore Hall with the London Handel Players and Adrian Butterfield, for a programme of Bach Cantatas and Magnificat, and made his Belgian debut with the Flemish Radio Choir as soloist in Handel’s Messiah. In 2024, he makes his role debut as Nick Shadow in Stravinsky’s The Rake's Progress for English Touring Opera, has a first appearance at the Ludlow English Song Festival, and will also make his Swiss debut as Clodomiro in Handel’s Lotario in Payerne.