Guest lecturers
We often feature contributions from visiting guest lecturers. A few, but by no means all of them, are listed below.
Benjamin Costello, MA PGDip BMus FRSA
Benjamin is a London-based freelance musician working throughout the U.K. and overseas as a musical director, choral director, singing coach and accompanist. He performs and teaches in very diverse genres ranging from the Renaissance period to contemporary music, but principally musical theatre, and he has been involved with numerous productions across the U.K.
He has worked extensively throughout the Further and Higher Education sectors as a musical director, singing coach and répétiteur. He is a vocal adjudicator for the British and International Federation of Festivals and has been Chairman of Kingston Arts Council since 2006.
He is presently engaged in doctoral research at the University of Surrey.
Quentin Hayes
Quentin’s career in opera began 23 years ago with Welsh National Opera. Since then he has sung in many varied places including St.Petersburg, Rio de Janiero, Trondheim(Norway), Accra(Ghana) and Leon(Nicaragua).
In 1993 he was winner of the VARA Dutch Radio Prize at the Belveredere Competition, Vienna, as a result of which he has worked extensively in Europe (namely Germany, Holland and Belgium). This last season he has sung Achilles (Achilles et Penthésilea) in Montpellier, Enrico (Lucia di Lammermoor) in Dublin and Sonora( La Fanciulla del West) for Grange Park Opera (Hampshire).
He has appeared frequently at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam where works have included Britten’s War Requiem, Elijah, Where the Wild Things are, Les Troyens and Messiaen’s St. Francoise d’Assise. He is due to return there next year for Ades’ The Tempest.
For the past nine years he has been a principal artist at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden where roles have included Ping (Turandot), Herald (Lohengrin), Schaunard(La Bohème), Ned Keene (Peter Grimes) and in September this year Happy (La Fanciulla del West).
Nicholas Heath
Nicholas has many years’ experience of the opera world. After studying art and design, he chose to pursue a career in singing, which grew from the Montepulciano Arts Festival in the early 1980s and led in 1993 to a full time contract at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
He formed his own opera company Opera A La Carte in 1993 where he has produced, directed and designed over 40 productions as well as devising masterclasses and education programmes within the UK and abroad.
Since 2004 he has regularly lectured in Opera Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. He left the Royal Opera House in 2006 to work on a project run by Streetwise Opera and to devote more time to Opera a la Carte.
In 2007 he participated in the Clore Cultural Leadership Programme and in 2009 joined Davies Music and Concert Directory International developing opera work for their singers.
Linda Hirst
Linda began a widely varied career in the 70s in the early music revival with John Eliot Gardiner, Roger Norrington and David Munrow, then joined the Swingle Singers in 74-78, and co-founded Electric Phoenix in 79. With both groups she travelled the world, the latter leading to a solo career - Proms, Edinburgh, Aldeburgh, Berlin etc. and opera at Glyndebourne, ENO Studio and ROH.
She became renowned for contemporary music and worked with Berio, Henze, Ligeti, Knussen, Osborne, Weir, Lachenmann and many more living composers, with London Sinfonietta and ensembles Intercontemporain, Modern, recherché, Contrechamps and Ex Novo in Europe.
There were many premieres of pieces written for her and numerous recordings including Monteverdi, Globokar, Weir, Marsh, Lachenmann and the recent Teldec Ligeti Project. She is Head of Vocal Studies at Trinity College of Music and a Fellow of Dartington College of Arts. She holds an honorary DLitt from Huddersfield, her home town, in whose festival she has appeared many times in its distinguished history.
Alison Pearce
Alison has a distinguished international career as a soprano soloist in opera, oratorio and recital. She appears with the world's leading conductors and orchestras at major venues and festivals as well as broadcasting for radio and television in many countries.
She is a vocal professor at the Royal Academy of Music and the artistic director of a European Summer School for Singers in Tuscany.
She also gives master-classes and lectures for Birkbeck College in their series in association with the Royal Opera House, and in addition, for the Research Department of the Royal Academy of Music in England, with regular invitations to visit other conservatoires around the world.
