KATIE BRAY
mezzo-soprano

A Charm of Lullabies: Friday 19 September 2025

Winner of the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize at Cardiff Singer of the World 2019, British mezzo-soprano Katie Bray has become known for her magnetic stage presence and gleaming, expressive tone.

In recital she has performed in venues such as the Wigmore Hall and the Holywell Music Room and she appears regularly in the London English Song Festival, where she has directed concerts at Wilton’s Music Hall, as well as at the Oxford International Song Festival for which she recorded a disc of Schumann songs with Sholto Kynoch. Other highlights include a semi-staged version of Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch with Christopher Glynn and Roderick Williams at Milton Court Concert Hall and Ryedale Festival, and the premiere of new monodrama Frida with the East London Music Group. She has also performed in a staged cabaret of ‘songs banned by the Nazis’, Effigies of Wickedness, at the Gate Theatre, Notting Hill.

Katie Bray is particularly noted for baroque repertoire and has appeared with Barokksolistene and Bjarte Eike, Monteverdi Choir and Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Irish Baroque Orchestra and Peter Whelan, La Nuova Musica, Ludus Baroque, London Handel Orchestra and Laurence Cummings, Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra, and Spira Mirabilis. Equally at home on the operatic stage, she has appeared for Opera North, Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera, Irish National Opera, Grange Park Opera, Opera Holland Park, Garsington Opera and later this season she will sing Rosmira in Handel Partenope with English National Opera. Katie Bray graduated as a Karaviotis Scholar from the opera course at the Royal Academy of Music, was awarded the Principal’s Prize and won First Prize in the Richard Lewis Singing Competition.

MATTHEW CLEMMET
piano | Shipston Song Rising Star

Brahms' Drawing Room: Sunday 21 September 2025

Matthew Clemmet is a collaborative pianist currently pursuing postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Music under the guidance of Simon Lepper, Roger Vignoles, and Kathron Sturrock. He is a Leverhulme Arts Scholar and is generously supported by Help Musicians UK. 

In 2025, Matthew won the Alisdair Graham Pianist Prize in the RCM Lieder Competition and has accompanied singers in masterclasses at Wigmore Hall and the London Song Festival. In July, he will perform in the Gold Medal Final of the Royal Over-Seas League Annual Music Competition with duo partner Madeleine Perring. Matthew also enjoys performing with his piano trio, Trio Storni. 

Before moving to London, Matthew read music at Christ Church, Oxford where he held academic and instrumental scholarships and graduated with a first-class degree. At Oxford, he studied with Anna Tilbrook and developed a particular interest in vocal repertoire and chamber music. He worked as a répétiteur for student productions of Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni, performed with Ensemble ISIS, the music faculty’s flagship contemporary music group, and played orchestral keyboards in Oxford University Orchestra and Oxford University Sinfonietta. As a soloist, he made his concerto debut performing Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor with Oxford University Philharmonia in 2024.

ANGELINA DORLIN-BARLOW
mezzo-soprano | Shipston Song Rising Star 2025

Brahms' Drawing Room: Sunday 21 September 2025

British mezzo-soprano Angelina Dorlin-Barlow studies at the Royal College of Music where she is a Fishmongers’ Company Scholar under the tutelage of Patricia Bardon. She is a Samling Artist, a London Transport Museum Artist, and is also supported by the Josephine Baker Trust. At RCM, she was awarded Best Undergraduate Vocal Performance at the Brooks Van Der Pump English Song Competition 2021 and the Poppy Holden Prize for Vocal 2023.

Opera roles include Third Shining One, Cup-bearer, Pickthank, and Woodcutter’s Boy (The Pilgrim’s Progress) for British Youth Opera with the RPO, Mia (Link In My Bio), Bridesmaid 2 (The Marriage of Figaro), Jewish Child (Cover, A Child in Striped Pyjamas) and concert appearances include Mendelssohn’s Elijah at G Live and Chichester Cathedral, Handel’s Messiah at Gloucester Cathedral, Bach’s St John Passion with the Monteverdi String Band, Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Liverpool Bach Collective, and Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio at the West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge.

As a soloist, she has featured with the LPO at the Royal Festival Hall, Saffron Hall, and on BBC Radio 3 singing the role of Astra Desmond in A Serenade to Music by Vaughan Williams. Angelina was a Cecil King Scholar at the Oxford International Song Festival 2023 where she premiered her composition, Prison, under the pseudonym Lorainne Glorinda Lawb.

PHILIPPE DURRANT
tenor | Shipston Song Rising Star 2025

Brahms' Drawing Room: Sunday 21 September 2025

British-Chinese Tenor Philippe Durrant studied at RCM, where he was generously supported by a Leverhulme Arts Scholarship, Help Musicians UK and the Josephine Baker Trust. Having read Music at Durham University, Philippe has sung with the choruses of ENO, Glyndebourne and Garsington, and won Second Prize at the 70th Kathleen Ferrier Awards at Wigmore Hall in 2025.

Recent operatic engagements include Shepherd/Spirit L’Orfeo with Garsington, and Remendado (Cover) Carmen, Rooster/Innkeeper (Cover) The Cunning Little Vixen and Luke (Cover) The Handmaid’s Tale with ENO.

Concert highlights include Bach’s St. John Passion (Evangelist) with the Avison Ensemble at Durham Cathedral, Handel’s Messiah for Southwell Minster Choirs, Parnasso in Festa with London Handel Orchestra at Wigmore Hall, Haydn’s The Creation and Mendlssohn’s Elijah for North Herts Guild of Singers, Timothy Jackson’s No Answer for JAM on the Marsh at St. Bride’s Church Fleet Street, Mozart’s Requiem and Regina Coeli with Beaufoy Sinfonia for Thames Philharmonic Choir at Cadogan Hall.

JAMES EMERSON
baritone | Shipston Song Rising Star

Brahms’ Drawing Room: Sunday 21 September 2025

Australian baritone James Emerson is a versatile and expressive performer, recognised for his compelling stage presence and refined vocal artistry. He recently completed a Master of Performance (Vocal) at the Royal College of Music, London, where he was a Sir Gordon Palmer Scholar and recipient of the Martin Harris and Big Give Scholarships. His operatic credits include Antonio (Le Nozze di Figaro), Bogdanowitsch (The Merry Widow), and Philippe in the contemporary short opera Airtime. He also appeared in Parsifal at the 2025 Glyndebourne Festival Opera. A sought-after soloist, James performs regularly in recital, oratorio, and choral engagements, and has participated in numerous masterclasses and workshops. He previously completed a Master of Music (Opera Performance) and Bachelor of Music with Honours at the University of Melbourne.

James’s studies and career have been generously supported by the Australian Music Foundation (Yvonne Kenny Award 2024/2025, sponsored by the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust), the Welsford Smithers Travelling Scholarship from the University of Melbourne, and the Tait Memorial Trust (Tait Sutherland Bursary). In September 2025, James will begin the Artist Diploma Opera Studio program at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where he aims to further his training in preparation for a dynamic international operatic career.

RODERICK WILLIAMS OBE
baritone

Whither must I wander? Saturday 20 September

Roderick Williams is one of the most sought-after baritones of his generation with a wide repertoire spanning baroque to contemporary. He enjoys relationships with major UK and European opera houses also performs regularly with leading conductors and orchestras throughout the UK, Europe, North America and Australia. Festival appearances include the BBC Proms, Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Aldeburgh and Melbourne. As a recitalist he is in demand around the world and appears regularly at venues including the Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw and Musikverein and at festivals including Leeds Lieder, Oxford International Song, Aldeburgh and Ludlow English Song.

Roderick Williams was awarded an OBE in June 2017 and was Artist in Residence with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra from 2020-22, Artist in Residence at the 2023 Aldeburgh Festival and Singer in Residence at Music in the Round. He was also one of the featured soloists at the coronation of King Charles III in 2023.

As a composer he has had works premièred at Wigmore Hall, the Barbican, the Purcell Room and on national radio. In 2016 he won Best Choral Composition at the British Composer Awards and he currently holds the position of Composer in Association of the BBC Singers.

MARYAM WOCIAL
soprano | Shipston Song Rising Star 2025

Brahms' Drawing Room: Sunday 21 September 2025

Maryam Wocial is a postgraduate at the Royal College of Music where she is the Poppy Holden Scholar supported by the Cuthbert Smith Scholarship, Countess of Munster Trust, H R Taylor Trust, and Josephine Baker Trust. In 2024, she made her debuts with The Mozartists, Instruments of Time and Truth, and was awarded The English Concert’s inaugural Early Career Fellowship for vocalists. She recently won the 2nd Prize at the 2025 International Handel Singing Competition.

In 2024, Maryam was one of five young musicians performing as a New Wave Artist at the Bloomsbury Festival alongside her duo partner, Archie Bonham. In 2023, she gave a solo recital at the Holywell Music Room in Oxford as winner of the Mendl-Schrama Singing Prize. She will perform song repertoire as an Atelier Lyrique artist at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland and as a Rising Star of Voice at the Edinburgh International Festival this summer.

At the RCM’s Britten Theatre, Maryam has performed the roles of Poppea (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Ilia (Idomeneo), and The Governess (The Turn of the Screw) in opera scenes, and recently performed the role of Angel in Jonathan Dove’s chamber opera Seven Angels in June 2025.