Claire McKenna  (soprano)

Claire is currently in her second year of postgraduate study at Trinity College of Music, learning with Teresa Cahill. Her studies are generously supported by the Eva Malpass bursary and the Worshipful Company of Musicians Allcard Award.

Stage roles include Susanna Le Nozze di Figaro, Maria West Side Story (University of Birmingham), Fiametta Mozart's Ladies, Zdenka Arabella (London Opera Vocal), Zaide understudy Zaide, Tytania A Midsummer Night's Dream, Lucietta School for Fathers, Sifare Mitridate (TCM), Anna Maurrant Street Scene.

Recent solo performances include Messiah, Bach Mass in B Minor, and Johannes Passion (with Richard Egarr), Rutter Requiem, St-Martin-In-The-Fields celebratory concert, Vivaldi Gloria and Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem.

Claire was accepted onto the TCM Mentor Scheme with The Sixteen and has sung with the New London Chamber Choir and Philharmonia Voices. Performances include Stravinsky Les Noces with the Michael Clark Company at the Barbican Theatre and Vaughan-Williams' The Pilgrim's Progress with Richard Hickox at Sadler's Wells.

Emma Watkinson  (mezzo soprano)

Born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, Emma Watkinson gained her music degree from City University with vocal tuition from Ian Kennedy at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. She is now studying under Alison Wells at Trinity College of Music with an award from both TCM and the Mario Lanza Foundation.

Her operatic experience includes singing Ino in Semele and Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro (Winterbourne Opera), Gossip Noyes Fludde (a BBC4 televised production) and various roles at Morley Opera School. Recently she sang Schwertliete in an excerpt from Die Walküre at London Opera Vocal and Chorus with British Youth Opera in La Rondine.

Soloist concert experience includes Handel's Messiah; Bach's St John Passion; Mozart's Coronation Mass and more recently Cleofe in Handel's La Resurrezione with Handmade Opera in Rome.

She has upcoming recitals in St Alfege Church, Greenwich, a duo with Soprano Joanna Weeks at Waltham Abbey and Opera Scenes at TCM.

Ben is 21 years old and originally from South Wales. He is currently training at Trinity College of Music in London under Mary Wiegold.

His recent theatre credits include The Rake's Progress (Blackheath Halls), L'elisir d'amore (Anghiari Festival), Chess (Royal Albert Hall), The Barber of Seville (Rosemary Branch Theatre), La Rondine and The Magic Flute (Peacock Theatre), Closer than Ever (King's Head Theatre), Noye's Fludde (St Johns, Paddington), Coram Boy (National Theatre), Dialogues des Carmelites (Blackheath Halls), The Threepenny Opera (Blackheath Halls) and Carmen (Sherman Theatre).

He has also appeared as a soloist in Bach's St John Passion (Ealing/Greenwich) Beethoven's Mass in C (Bromley) Mozart's Requiem (The Gate) and Bernstein's Chichester Psalms (Blackheath Halls).

James began his career as a solo singer comparatively late in life, taking his first singing lessons at the age of 17 with Andrew Yeats during his time at Bishop's Stortford College. He then went on to study voice with Gordon Sandison at the Birmingham Conservatoire while completing a BMus at the University of Birmingham. James is now undertaking a Masters in voice at Trinity College of Music.

James's experience as a baritone includes performances of Pergolesi's Magnificat, Schubert's Mass in G, Vaughan Williams's Five Mystical Songs, Handel's Messiah with the Hertfordshire Choral Society, Fauré's Requiem, Stainer's Crucifixion, as well as solo roles in Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld and two productions of Mozart's The Magic Flute.

From an early start on the jazz scene to a recent performance of Messiaen Cinq Rechants, Helen-Jane maintains a varied and busy concert schedule which includes opera, oratorio, recitals and early music.

Helen-Jane has been the winner of three competitions this year: the John Warner Competition, the Russell Sheppard Vocal Scholarship and the Simon Fletcher Award.

Solo work has included Arwel Hughes Dewi Sant; Zelenka Magnificat, Bach St John Passion and Christmas Oratorio; Finzi In Terra Pax, Rutter Psalmfest, Mozart Mass in C, and most recently the Haydn Heiligemesse in Paris. Recent commitments have included master-classes with Dame Emma Kirkby, Roger Vignoles and Sir Thomas Allen.

As an operatic singer she has played a range of roles, from Gretel Hansel & Gretel to Lucy Lockitt The Beggar's Opera; and from Helena A Midsummer Night's Dream to the Marschallin Der Rosenkavalier. Helen-Jane is also an experienced choral singer and has sung with Welsh National Opera Community Choir, BBC Chorus of Wales and Welsh National Youth Opera. She is involved with 'English Voices' and has made recordings for BBC Radio 3 with 'Serendipity'.

Nick Milner-Gulland studied piano with Arnold Foster and organ with Sir David Willcocks while he was at Cambridge reading classics. He was headmaster of Cumnor House School from 1969 to 2000, where he was responsible for music, drama and classics.  He has conducted the Fayrfax Singers for over 30 years, performing much of the major choral repertoire.

In January 2002 he was appointed conductor of the Fletching Singers, and when not conducting he leads a busy life as a teacher, and as player of the piano, organ and harpsichord.

Valerie was born in Bolton, Lancashire, and recently moved down to Sussex. She has sung professionally with the Ambrosian Singers under the direction of John McCarthy, and did two summer seasons with John Hanson's company.

Her operatic roles with Opera 74 in Lancashire include Marcellina (Marriage of Figaro), the Sorceress (Dido and Aeneas) and Zulma (The Italian Girl in Algiers); Flora (La Traviata), and Polly Peachum (The Beggar's Opera) with Westminster Opera in London.

Her oratorio performances include Haydn's Nelson Mass, and Schubert's Mass in E in Bolton, as well as various performances of Messiah. She has also sung Vivaldi's Gloria in Salford with the Manchester Mozart Orchestra, and the part of David in Handel's oratorio Saul, in Orpington.

Frank started singing on stage. His first major role was as Tulsa in Gypsy (1984) and since then he has played other leading roles in opera and musical comedy including Cavalleria Rusticana, Otello, Oklahoma, The Boyfriend, Showboat, Carousel, Bless the Bride, Yeomen of the Guard, Mikado and with Lewes Operatic Society in their recent performance of The Gondoliers.
While living in Rome he sang in the Choro Capella Sistina as first tenor and as gregorianist and with the Choro Academia Philharmonica. In Sussex he was tenor soloist with the Brighton Orpheus Choir in John Rutter's Requiem and Psalmfest in 2006. He moved to Ireland in 2007 and has appeared as the tap-dancing Mikado in Hot Mikado and as tenor soloist in Handel's Messiah.

David Hadden won a choral scholarship to Oxford and was later a Lay Clerk at Christ Church. He abandoned a career in cathedral music to pursue mammon in London, where he sang at St Margarets Westminster and was an early member of the Louis Halsey Singers and the Monteverdi and Schutz Choirs. He now sings mainly in London and the South East, both as a soloist and as a member of several small choirs. Engagements in the near future include Handel's Messiah, Charpentier's Te Deum, and a series of Christmas concerts in northern Italy.