Katherine Manley  (soprano)

Born in 1979 and educated in Leicester, Katherine Manley became a scholar at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama where for four years she worked under the tuition of Patricia MacMahon. She is currently in her first year at the Benjamin Britten International Opera School at the Royal College of Music, studying with Lillian Watson.

Her operatic experience includes performances of Don Giovanni, La Rondine, Carmen, roles include staged scenes as Fox in Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen, Armida in Handel's Rinaldo, Despina in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte. Katherine has performed with Opera Holland Park productions and more recently in the role of Emmie in Britten's Albert Herring for New Kent Opera, and as Cuzzoni in the Handel and Hendrix project with Streetwise Opera.

As a soloist, she has worked with The London Mozart Players, The London Pro Arte Orchestra, the Brandenburg Sinfonia and the Philharmonia Orchestra. Katherine last sang with the Brighton Orpheus Choir two years ago, in Haydn's St Nicolas Mass and Schubert's Magnificat. Her concert performances have included Haydn's Creation under the direction of Stephen Cleobury at the Royal Albert Hall, Bach's St Matthew Passion, Haydn's Nelson Mass, Mozart's Requiem and Coronation Mass, Handel's Messiah, Kurt Weill's Die Dreigroschenoper, Mozart's Exsultate Jubilate, Rachmaninov's Vocalise and performances of Britten's Les Illuminations. Katherine looks forward to the role of Belinda in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in April 2005.

Nicola Stonehouse  (mezzo-soprano)

Nicola Stonehouse was born in Essex in 1975 and began her formal training at the London College of Music with Pamela Bowden. She is now in the second year of Operatic study as the Van der Beugel Scholar at the Benjamin Britten International Opera School, Royal College of Music, studying with Kathleen Livingstone.

Her recent operatic experience includes: Holst's Savitri (singing the title role) at the 2004 Henze Festival in Montepulciano in Italy, the role of Wowkle in Puccini's La Fanciulla del West at Opera Holland Park, Miss Jessel in Britten's The Turn of the Screw. She has played the Third Lady in Mozart's The Magic Flute for British Youth Opera and the Lay Sister in Puccini's Suor Angelica for Opera Holland Park. Staged scenes played at the RCM have included the title role in Carmen, Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte, Bianca in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia and Medoro in Handel's opera Orlando.

Nicola last joined the Brighton Orpheus Choir two years ago, as a soloist in Haydn's St Nicolas Mass and Schubert's Magnificat. She is an experienced concert soloist and among her past engagements she has sung in Bach's St John Passion, St Matthew Passion, and the Christmas Oratorio with Peter Schreier at St John's Smith Square. Other concert appearances have been in Handel's Messiah, Haydn's St Nicholas Mass, Mozart Requiem with Hilary Davan Whetton and the London Mozart Players, Rutter's Feel the Spirit, Rossini's Petite Messe Solenelle and Stabat Mater, Copland's In the Beginning with Paul Spicer and the Birmingham Bach Choir, and in Vivaldi's Gloria at St Martin in the Fields.

Dawid Kimberg  (baritone)

Dawid Kimberg was born in Johannesburg in 1981. He showed an interest in music from a young age and subsequently attended the Drakensberg Boys' Choir School. He excelled as a young soloist and toured extensively with the choir to five continents. At the age of 18 he appeared with the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra for performances of the Messiah by Handel and Nelson Mass by Haydn.

He moved to the UK in 2001 and is now a scholar at the Royal College of Music where he studies with Ryland Davies. Last year he performed in Bach's Weinachts Oratorium at St John's Smith Square under the direction of Peter Schreier. He also performed the Missa Solemnis by Beethoven in Wells Cathedral with the London Mozart Players.

Other performances around the UK and in South Africa include the St John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, Magnificat in D and the Mass in B minor by Bach, Messiah, Mozart's Requiem, Carmina Burana by Carl Orff and Puccini's Messe di Gloria. He has recently performed in the opera Parthenogenesis by James MacMillan in Canterbury Cathedral under the direction of Nicholas Cleobury, in the presence of the composer and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Dawid recently gave his first performance of Die Schöne Müllerin in the Mitchell Hall in Aberdeen. Future appearances include Porgy in George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess and the Cantor in Ernest Bloch's Sacred Service.