Stephen Brown (The Evangelist - tenor)

Stephen Brown first started singing with various opera companies and choirs when he was a treble. As a tenor, he studied singing at Trinity College of Music and then with Neil Mackie in the opera school of the Royal College of Music, supported by several prestigious awards.

His operatic rôles include Troufaldino in Prokofiev's The Love of Three Oranges; The Mayor in Britten's Albert Herring; and several Mozart rôles - Tamino, Don Ottavio, Ferrando and Basilio. He has worked as a principal for many companies such as Almeida Opera, in London and Aldeburgh; Kent Opera and New Sussex Opera in the Brighton Festival. Performances have included rôles in the French premieres of Gilbert & Sullivan's Cox and Box and Trial by Jury in Paris; Marco in The Gondoliers at the Buxton Festival; Don Curzio in Le Nozze di Figaro with Sir Colin Davies; and Physignatus in The Donkey's Shadow by Richard Strauss for English National Opera at the Covent Garden Festival. Recently, Stephen has been covering major roles with both the Garsington Festival, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and the Glyndebourne festival.

A prize winning interpreter of English song and German lieder, Stephen regularly gives recitals all over Britain and even recently on the QE2. In oratorio, his repertoire ranges from Monteverdi to Berio. Recent performances include Verdi's Requiem at the Barbican Centre in London and in Wells Cathedral. International engagements have taken him to Romania for a televised Messiah, to Norway in Rossini's Stabat Mater, to Jerusalem for a performance of Stradella's San Giovanni Battista, to Spain with a tour of Beethoven's 9th Symphony and he has taken part in concerts in India and Austria. He regularly sings the Evangelist in Bach's Passions and recently sang the arias in the St Matthäus Passion in Iceland and in London with Peter Schreier. It was in Messiah that he last joined with the Brighton Orpheus Choir in April 2000.

Geoffrey was born in South Wales. He read History at Cambridge and studied singing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and subsequently with Ottakar Kraus and Peter Harrison. He was a principal bass at Welsh National Opera for several years and sang many roles, in a great variety of repertoire.

His Covent Garden debut was in 1981 and he has returned there regularly during his career, in roles such as Pistola in Falstaff, the Commendatore in Don Giovanni and Micha in The Bartered Bride. He has worked with all the major British companies and has appeared many times in Glyndebourne productions, most recently as Peter in Harrison Birtwhistle's The Last Supper, Snug in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Prince Gremin in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. In opera abroad he has appeared at the Staatsoper in Hamburg, the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, Belgian Opera in Brussels, Dutch Opera in Amsterdam, and Paris and recently in Seville where he played Collatinus in Britten's Rape of Lucretia.

Concert appearances include Verdi's Requiem at the Philharmonie in Berlin, and again under Sir David Willcocks at St Paul's in London, in Berlioz' Damnation of Faust at Alte Oper Frankfurt with Sir Georg Solti, Mendelssohn's St Paul in Gothenburg with David Atherton, in Janáček's Glagolitic Mass at Bridgewater Hall with Sir Charles Mackerras, and the Beethoven Missa Solemnis under Sir Charles Groves. There have been many appearances at the Festival Hall and the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, and he has taken part in several recordings and in radio and TV productions.

Katherine Manley  (soprano)

Born in 1979, Katherine Manley began her musical training at Leicester Arts In Education. Here she participated in various ensembles and choirs such as the Leicester Bach Choir and the Chanterelles, performing in venues including the Royal Albert hall and the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

For four years from 1997 she was scholar studying at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, where she was chosen as the young singer to represent the college in the Kathleen Ferrier Society Bursary. She has appeared in master classes with Benjamin Luxon, Roger Vignoles and recently with Sarah Walker. She took part of college opera performances of Mozart's Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte and Bizet's Carmen.

Katherine is now continuing her postgraduate training on the Diploma Course at the Royal College of Music.

As a soloist Katherine has worked with both amateur and professional performances of oratorio and as a member of the RSAMD Chamber Choir performed with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Forthcoming engagements include work with Opera Holland Park, and singing in Händel's Messiah, Haydn's Nelson Mass, and an orchestral recital in Cambridge of Britten's Les Illuminations.

Nicola Stonehouse  (mezzo-soprano)

Now 27 years old and currently a postgraduate at the Royal College of Music, Nicola began her training in 1994 at the London College of Music.

After gaining her degree Nicola qualified as a teacher whilst undertaking professional engagements. She participated in a course with English National Opera ending with a production of Shauna and Ron's Half Moon Café, a modern opera commissioned by ENO in which Nicola played the role of Leanne.   In 2000, she took part in other ENO workshops which led to the creation of a new opera   A Palace in the Sky, later performed by local community groups at The Hackney Empire.

From 1997 Nicola worked with the professional chorus in English Festival Opera's production of Turandot in the Holland Park Theatre. She also sang in Iolanthe with Grosvenor Light Opera, and in Carmen last season with Opera Holland Park. Carmen also came in 2002 to the Royal Albert Hall and Birmingham Indoor Arena. She has just finished working again with Opera Holland Park where she took the role of Lay Sister in Suor Angelica.

Nicola is an experienced choral singer and is currently a regular member of the chorus of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, with whom she has toured Europe. With them she has made CD recordings, the most recent with Richard Hickox was a compilation of Percy Grainger choral works, when Nicola was given a solo.

Recent solo engagements include Rossini's Stabat Mater and his Petite Messe Solennelle, and the Mozart Requiem.

Born in Yorkshire, it was in 1996 that Nicholas Watts was awarded a Foundation Scholarship to study voice at the Royal College of Music. Whilst there he was selected to perform under Sir David Willcocks in Haydn's Nelson Mass at King's College Chapel, Cambridge, and under Peter Schreier in Bach's St John Passion at St John's Smith Square. In 2002 Nicholas won the RCM's Concerto prize and performed Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings under Gordan Nikolitch. He has taken part in masterclasses at the RCM with Emma Kirkby, Michael Chance, Roger Vignoles, Philip Langridge, Wolfgang Holzmair and Sir Thomas Allen.

On the recital platform he has performed Vaughan Williams' On Wenlock Edge, Britten's Winter Words and the premiere of Malcolm Arnold's Kensington Gardens. In opera his performances have included Fritz in Mascagni's L'Amico Fritz, with Opera Omnibus; Simon of Cyrene in a staged performance of Handel's Brockes Passion for the London Handel Society, and Hilarian in Princess Ida with the University of London Opera Group. Currently Nicholas is continuing his studies at the Benjamin Britten International Opera School.

Johan Bogren  (baritone)

Born in Linköping Sweden, Johan Bogren's musical talent was discovered at a young age when he sang as a soloist with Johannelund's boys choir.

Pursuing his love of singing, in 1995 he took the decision to begin formal voice studies at Vadstena folkhögskola, and began to extend his experience on the concert platform. In 1997 he was accepted onto the BMus (honours) degree course at the Birmingham Conservatoire. Whilst there he sang in several operatic performances, among them taking the roles of Ottone in Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea, Sid in Britten's Albert Herring and Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen. Oratorio performances have included Mendelssohn's Die erste Walpurgisnacht with Birmingham University, the Requiems of both Fauré and Brahms, and a Bach Cantata no. 82 Ich habe genug.

Johan is currently studying on a postgraduate course at the Royal College of Music in London.