Description
Sally-Ann Shepherdson - soprano
Sally-Ann was born in Yorkshire, and studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, at the National Opera Studio in London funded by the Peter Stuyvesant Foundation, and in Paris on a scholarship from the Countess of Munster Musical Trust.
She has appeared in opera and concert throughout the world, performing with Scottish Opera, Welsh National Opera, English Touring Opera, Garsington Opera, the D’Oyly Carte, Opera Factory, European Chamber Opera, Mid Wales Opera, Castleward Opera, Opera Interludes, Diva Opera, Court Opera, Opera South East, First Act Opera, Caledonian Opera, Stowe Opera, Opera Northern Ireland and Dublin Grand Opera.
Her roles include: Drusilla (The Coronation of Poppea), Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Despina (Cosí fan Tutte), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Pamina, and Papagena (Die Zauberflöte), Rosina (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor), Adina (L’Elisir d’Amore), Musetta (La Bohème), Lauretta and Nella (Gianni Schicchi), Micaëla (Carmen), Violetta (La Traviata), Adele and Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), Valencienne and Hanna Glawari (The Merry Widow), and Yum Yum (The Mikado).
Recent engagements have included tours as a guest artist with P&O Cruises and MSC line, Norina (Don Pasquale) for First Act Opera, concerts in Paris, London and the Channel Islands with special guest José Carreras, Frasquita (Carmen) at the Royal Albert Hall, and performances as Clorinda (La Cenerentola), in the UK, Moscow, France, Tuscany, and at the newly restored Teatro La Fenice in Venice.
In 2005 she appeared as First Lady (Die Zauberflöte) and Madame Larina (Eugene Onegin) for Diva Opera, in many venues across the UK and Europe, as Norina (Don Pasquale) for Opera South East and at a World War II 60th anniversary celebration concert at Lincoln Castle with the British Philharmonic Orchestra. Her roles in 2006 included Berta (Il Barbiere di Siviglia) and Nella (Gianni Schicchi) for Diva Opera, and in 2007 she toured the UK with Garden Opera as Musetta in La Bohème. More performances of the same production in February 2008 will include venues in London, Plymouth, Ipswich and the Cayman Islands. This spring, Sally-Ann will sing the role of Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus) with Riverside Opera, and Hanna Glawari (The Merry Widow) for Opera South East, followed by a nationwide tour of Don Pasquale for Garden Opera.
Trevor Alexander - baritone
Trevor was born in Sussex and won a scholarship to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he was awarded the Lieder Prize and a bursary to continue his studies on the opera course. He has sung with many companies including the Royal Opera, Opera North, English National Opera, European Chamber Opera, Opera Interludes, Midsummer Opera, Crystal Clear Opera, Central Festival Opera, The Royal Shakespeare Company, and the D’Oyly Carte.
His roles include Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas), Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Guglielmo (Così fan Tutte), Nottingham (Roberto Devereux), Marcello (La Bohème), Escamillo (Carmen), Germont Père (La Traviata), Sharpless (Madama Butterfly), Lescaut (Manon), Alfio (Cavalleria Rusticana), Silvio (I Pagliacci), Major Haudy (Die Soldaten), Danilo (The Merry Widow), Falke (Die Fledermaus), Captain Corcoran (HMS Pinafore) and Ko Ko (The Mikado).
He has toured the Middle and Far East singing Bartolo (Il Barbiere di Siviglia) and Angelotti (Tosca), and has appeared twice at the Holders Opera Season in Barbados. He understudied the role of Ravenal in the RSC/Opera North award winning production of Show Boat and has appeared on tour in The Magic of Lehár, Happy As A Sandbag, King’s Rhapsody and Tomfoolery.
Trevor has a busy and varied concert career which has taken him all over Britain and the world, including many appearances as a guest artist for P&O Cruises, presidential galas in Malaysia and a concert for the Thai Royal Family in Bangkok. He has sung Mahler’s Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen, Poulenc’s Le Bal Masqué, and Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’Été with the Midsummer Opera Orchestra and his oratorio work includes Carmina Burana (Orff), Child of Our Time (Tippet), The Brahms, Fauré and Duruflé Requiems, Handel’s Messiah and Israel in Egypt, Elijah (Mendelssohn), and Stainer’s Crucifixion.
Recently, Trevor has sung Bach’s St John and St Matthew Passions, Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony, and Noah in Britten’s Noye’s Fludde. Following his performances as Albert (Werther) at last year’s Carnoules Festival in the South of France, Trevor had a role created for him in a new work for the Festival in 2007. Last year he also sang the role of Ping in Turandot for Midsummer Opera and appeared in Kentish Tales for The Canterbury Festival. He is now in rehearsals for The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which will be performed at The Theatre Royal, Margate.
Alex Collinson - piano
Alex was born in Somerset and studied piano and accompaniment at the Royal College of Music, where he won many awards including the Ricordi Prize, the Accompanist Prize and the John Ireland Prize. He was then awarded a place at the National Opera Studio to continue his studies as a repetiteur.
He has worked for many of the major opera companies including Scottish Opera, English National Opera, European Chamber Opera, Opera Box, Opera Holland Park, Opera Factory, Raymond Gubbay at the Royal Albert Hall, Regency Opera, Diva Opera, English Festival Opera, Wexford Festival Opera, Dublin Grand Opera, Opera South, Opera Box, Opera East, Court Opera and the D’Oyly Carte, on productions of Così fan Tutte, The Coronation of Poppea, Fidelio, Maria Stuarda, L’Assedio di Calais (Donizetti), Carmen, La Traviata, Simon Boccanegra, Rigoletto, Il Trovatore, Madama Butterfly, La Bohème, Cavalleria Rusticana, Il Piccolo Marat (Mascagni) I Pagliacci, Zampa (Herold), Hansel and Gretel, Eugene Onegin, Das Liebes Verbot (Wagner), Albert Herring, Die Fledermaus, and The Mikado.
He has also worked extensively in London’s West End and for the Royal National Theatre on shows such as Oklahoma!, Lady In The Dark, Sunset Boulevard, Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Miss Saigon, Oliver, Damn Yankees, She Loves Me, Carousel, Romance Romance, and Passion. For the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, he worked on Salad Days and The Sound of Music. Alex also took part in the cast recordings of Lady In The Dark, Passion and Oklahoma!.
He has appeared on several cruise lines including Swan Hellenic and Cunard, and was repetiteur and chorus master for London City Opera’s coast to coast tour of the USA of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Alex has played in galas at Buckingham Palace, the Argentine Embassy and at the El Escorial Palace in Madrid. He worked on the BBC show Lesley Garret - Tonight, and has appeared on Radio 4’s Loose Ends, Radio Scotland, Radio London, The Gloria Hunniford Show, GMTV, and RTE in Ireland. In 2006/7 Alex played on the hit West End show Mary Poppins, and for the nationwide tour of Matthew Bourne’s production of Edward Scissorhands. He is currently playing in Marguerite and The Sound of Music.
Peter Crockford - Pianist
Peter was born in Surrey and is a graduate of the Birmingham School of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music. He has worked as an accompanist and coach and conductor for many companies, including Welsh National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Wexford Festival Opera and New Sadler’s Wells. As assistant to the Music Director at the Stadt Theater in Freiburg, he conducted L’Elisir d’Amore, Anna Bolena, Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail, Carmen and Die Fledermaus.
He has worked extensively in the Middle and Far East and conducted a highly successful European tour of West Side Story. Now back in the UK, Peter works as a vocal coach, and conductor, in a wide and varied repertoire, for companies such as Crystal Clear Opera, European Chamber Opera, the Holder’s Opera Season in Barbados, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Wren Orchestra, the National Youth Music Theatre and the National Symphony Orchestra, the Wren Orchestra, London City Opera and Bromley Open Air Music Theatre. He recently conducted the world premiere of Philip Muger’s The Skies Are Weeping at the Hackney empire, London, and Massenet’s Herodiade for Dorset Opera.
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