Isobel Rose (artistic organiser) is a recent Music Graduate of University College, Oxford. As a student of Giles Underwood, she began singing in the city as a Choral Scholar at University College before joining Schola Cantorum of Oxford in 2015. Since then, she has performed as a member of the Magdalen College Consort of Voices,The Martlet Voices, the Oxford Bach Soloists, Ensemble E45, and the newly-established vocal consort, =Untune The Sky. In 2016, she was the recipient of the Mendl-Schrama Prize for solo singing, which has since allowed her to develop her skills as a young Soprano. Her repertoire of operatic performance includes Henry Purcell’s The Fairy Queen in Oxford’s Playhouse theatre and New Chamber Opera’s production of The Rake’s Progress. Her career as a soloist continues to develop, with recent local engagements including performances with The Oxford New Choir, The Oxford University Chorus, and latterly as an invited singers for events held by the Vice Chancellor of Oxford University, a collaboration which saw her perform for Secretary Hillary Clinton in June 2018. She is enjoying her current role as a Assistant Director of Music at New College School, alongside her voluntary work in Oxford’s thriving music scene.
Caroline Lesemann-Elliott (ensemble manager) recently graduated from the University of Edinburgh. She is a singer, conductor, and award-winning composer. Caroline’s compositions have been performed around the U.K., featuring performances by Christ Church Cathedral Choir, the Edinburgh Composer’s Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, The New Voices Consort, and more,as well as being the Composer-in-Residence at the Picture Gallery of Royal Holloway in 2019. Caroline currently conducts Wolfson College Choir, and is a PhD candidate at Royal Holloway, University of London. As a musicologist, Caroline is particularly interested in sacred music by 16th and 17th century English Catholic women, and the relationship between post-Reformation English convent music and domestic musical traditions in recusant households of the 17th century. For this research, she has received funding from both Royal Holloway and the St. Matthias Trust, and is working towards putting together a collection of repertoire designed for use in Anglican worship. Caroline’s interest in sacred music extends to her compositions. She particularly enjoys writing sacred choral music, particularly enjoying setting medieval texts in a way that combines sumptuous harmonies with unusual textural boundaries.
Toronto-born Emily Brown Gibson (soprano) is a performer equally at home in repertoire ranging from Medieval to Present-day. Having recently completed her Master’s degree in music at Oxford University, Emily is currently studying with mezzo-soprano Caitlin Hulcup and tenor Florian Thomas. While completing her degree, Emily performed with the company New Chamber Opera, on several occasions, including singing as the soprano soloist in J. S. Bach’s Peasant Cantata and Coffee Cantata, singing the role of Anne Trulove in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, as well as Galatea in Handel’s Acis and Galatea. Emily also had the opportunity to sing in masterclasses with Jonathon Swinard, Andreas Scholl, and Catherine Wyn-Rogers.
Prior to moving to the U.K., Emily completed a Bachelor’s degree in Classical Voice Performance at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. There she studied with Dominique Labelle and completed a minor in Early Music. At McGill, Emily was a soloist in works including Jesu Meine Freude with McGill’s Baroque Orchestra, as well as a soloist during the Bach Cantata project at Salle Bourgie with L’Ensemble de la Fondation Arte Musica. Previous opera credits include, Spirit in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (Opera McGill), Laura Secord in Errol Gay’s The Legand of Laura Secord (Canadian Children’s Opera Compnay), Shepherd Boy in Puccini’s Tosca (Canadian Opera Company), Second Spirit in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (Canadian Opera Company), and Mrs Cratchit in Errol Gay’s A Dickens of a Christmas (Canadian Children’s Opera Company).
Originally from Oxford, Rosalind Dobson (soprano) began her career singing with the Oxford Girls’ Choir. During her gap year she sang with Schola Cantorum of Oxford before going up to Magdalene College Cambridge to read English Literature. During her time at university she sang as a choral volunteer with the chapel choir of Sidney Sussex, as well as performing regularly with the university chamber choir and the opera society. She recently gained her masters in vocal performance at the Royal College of Music with distinction.
Operatic roles include Miss Wordsworth (Albert Herring), Cunegonde (Candide), Fiordiligi (Cosí fan tutte), Miss Jessel (The Turn of The Screw), Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Tytania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Nella (Gianni Schicchi). She has also appeared as Semele (Semele), Agnes (Written on Skin), Despina (Cosí) and Elmira (Sosarme) in the RCM opera scenes, as well as creating the roles of Horatia and Hipster Cake in the RCM’s contemporary opera scenes in collaboration with Tête-à-Tête.
Rosalind is also an experienced oratorio soloist and recitalist, performing everything from Bach to Birtwistle. She has performed in masterclasses with Iestyn Davies and Brindley Sherratt. Rosalind studies under Sally Burgess.
Having started singing as a choral scholar at St Mary’s Metropolitan Cathedral in Edinburgh, Shannon Miller (alto) recently graduated from Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford, and is currently an Alto Lay-Clerk at Pusey House, as well as singing with the choir of St John’s College, and numerous other small consort groups.
Some of her most exciting opportunities so far have come through singing with the National Youth Choir of Scotland, under the direction of Christopher Bell. With NYCoS she has performed in prestigious venues across the world, including at the opening of the 2014 Commonwealth Games, the BBC Proms, televised BBC Christmas Service, and the Festival Berlioz with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, as well as at the Chicago Jay Pritzker Pavilion for the July 4th celebrations, and the Grand Teton Festival with Donald Runnicles. Recent solos include Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Durufle’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, and Vivaldi’s Gloria.
Alice Habisreutinger (alto) grew up in Oxford and was largely a pianist and organist until starting university, where she studied Ancient & Modern History. As organ scholar of University College, under Giles Underwood, she frequently directed the choir and organised their international tours. She became interested in singing while at Univ and began learning under Rebecca Outram. She also set up the ‘Univ Consort’, a small ensemble designed to give choral scholars the opportunity to sing a more challenging range of one-per-part music. This choir had two projects, one focusing on English Renaissance polyphony and the other on more recent part-songs from the British Isles. She appeared on two CD recordings as organist and singer and was a choral soloist in venues such as St Martin-in-the-Fields and La Madeleine, Paris.
A highlight of her time at Univ was working with the ‘Martlet Voices’, a group set up by Giles Underwood, which allowed students to sing music alongside professionals such as Carys Lane, Anna Crookes, Lucy Ballard and James Oxley. She also enjoyed the opportunity to sing alongside musicians such as Ian Bostridge and Instruments of Time and Truth in a recent concert exploring ‘Bach and the Voice’ in the Holywell Music Room. Aside from choral and consort singing she has recently started performing at Open Mic nights and particularly enjoys singing the music of Julie London, Etta James and Marilyn Monroe, to name but a few! Alice currently resides in London.
Margaret Lingas was born in Cyprus, raised (mostly) in Oxfordshire, and completed her BMus and Linguistics minor at the University of Victoria, Canada, where she studied with Benjamin Butterfield. Margaret’s formal music training began when she joined Oxford Girls’ Choir, where she now teaches. While in Canada, Margaret was a choral scholar at Christ Church Cathedral (Victoria), a member of the Pacific Opera Victoria chorus, and a soloist with groups including the Sooke Philharmonic, the UVic Chorus and Orchestra, the Victoria Baroque Players, Christ Church Cathedral Choir, UV Vocal Jazz, and Fretwork. Here in the UK, Margaret has performed with groups including Schola Pietatis Antonio Vivaldi, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Oxford Contemporary Opera, Instruments of Time and Truth, Untune the Sky, Schola Cantorum, Vespri Segreti, Southwell Festival Voices, Fount and Origin, and most of Oxford's chapel choirs. She directs chamber ensemble Rad Camerata, and recently graduated from the Genesis Sixteen young artist scheme. This year’s projects include a graduate scholarship with Ex Cathedra, a recording of MacMillan’s 5th Symphony with the Sixteen and Britten Sinfonia, Il matrimonio segreto with New Chamber Opera. and a US tour and recording of music by the 9th century abbess Kassia with Cappella Romana. As a soprano based in a city where many of the most stable singing and educational posts are traditionally reserved for men and boys, she feels especially strongly about empowering other women and girls to be musical leaders and educators, so they can create their own opportunities rather than relying on invitations from others.
A graduate of the University of Edinburgh in English Literature and French, Georgie Malcolm (soprano) now works full-time in publishing in Oxford, but enjoys a busy schedule of singing engagements alongside this, with a mind to the possibility of pursuing music professionally in the future. She continues to study singing with Christine Cairns.
Georgie has performed recitals in Oxford, Salisbury, Chepstow, Chester, and as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and has sung solos at Poole Lighthouse, St John’s Smith Square, the Sheldonian, Oxford, and as part of the English Music Festival at Dorchester Abbey. She enjoys performing across a range of styles, recently tackling the jazz soprano solo line in a performance of Will Todd’s Mass in Blue.
As well as singing as a soloist, Georgie performs widely in choirs and consorts – including the Sarum Consort, the Newman Consort, and the Oxford Bach Soloists – and has previously held scholarships with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra Chorus and the choir of Somerville College, Oxford.
Priya Radhakrishnanis currently a finalist reading Music at University College, Oxford. She is a first study singer and has been formally training in classical voice and musical theatre since the age of 14, having completed her first diploma in Singing from the Royal Schools and in Musical Theatre from London College of Music. Since being at Oxford, she has sung with both the University College and Exeter College Chapel Choirs, and has been a soloist for the Hollywell Singers and New College Chamber Orchestra. She is also a volunteer with the singers at Sing Inside Oxford, who raise money to conduct music workshops in prisons in and around Oxfordshire. Predominantly an opera singer, she found the her feet in the field in 2016 after winning the American Protégé International Vocal Competition and subsequently performing at the Winners’ Recital in Carnegie Hall, New York. Recent performances have included Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado and the Yeomen of the Guard, Anna Karenina - The Musical, and The Beginning of an Idea (UK Premiere). Her upcoming performances include Judith Triumphs, and Bonnie and Clyde - The Musical, along with her directorial debut in Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus.
