BETTY BANNERMAN AWARD FOR FRENCH SONG - SOPHIE AKKA
Fri 16 October 2026 – 3:00pm
Sophie Akka, winner of the Betty Bannerman Award for French Song 2025, established for students at the Royal Northern College of Music, will give a recital in the neighbouring Clonterbrook Music Room.
Please note that the Music Room at Clonterbrook is located just after or before the bend approaching Clonter Opera Theatre, on the opposite side of the road.
Sophie Akka – Soprano
Soprano Sophie Akka is currently studying at the Royal Northern College of Music for her Masters in Vocal Performance, under the tutelage of Linda Richardson, and is a grateful recipient of the Dame Eva Turner Award. She graduated from The Queen’s College, University of Oxford in 2024, where she held the Hildburg Williams Leider Scholarship, and was an active member of the college’s prestigious choir, with highlights being working on the CD ‘That Sweet City’ with Rowan Atkinson, performing in the Oxford Lieder Festival with Jonathan Dove and for King Charles III and the Prime Minister of Portugal at St James’ Palace. On the operatic stage, Sophie has performed as Susanna in ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’ (The Oxford Opera Society), Donna Anna in ‘Don Giovanni’ (The Oxford Student Opera Society), Violetta in a performance of the Brindisi (China State TV), Columbina in ‘Le Donne Curiose’ (RNCM Spring Opera Scenes), Pauline in ‘La Vie Parisienne’ (RNCM Spring Opera Scenes), Nella in ‘Gianni Schicci’ (RNCM Summer Opera Scenes) and Fiordiligi & Susanna, ‘Così fan tutte’ & ‘Le Nozze di Figaro’ (Chetham’s Opera Scenes). During her time at RNCM so far, she has won the Sir David Maddison Opera Prize, was a finalist in the Frederic Cox Award and is currently a member of RNCM Songsters. She sang as the soprano soloist in Bach’s B minor mass at Shrewsbury Cathedral with Shrewsbury Choral Society, sang the Monteverdi Vespers with Michael Chance’s SienAgosto in Sienna, and performed Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater in the Basilica di Santa Trinita in Florence, sponsored by the Fondazione Biagioni Borgogni and Cireneo. She also participated in a residency at Opera North in English Operatic Repertoire with David Cowan and James Hurley, gives regular recitals (her most recent venue being Manchester Cathedral) and recently also won the Betty Bannerman Award for French Song with Clonter. Upcoming performances include Nicolette in RNCM’s Autumn Opera ‘L’Amour des Trois Oranges’ and the eponymous role in Alcina.
Robin Humphreys – Accompanist
Robin Humphreys is a graduate of the University of Birmingham and a holder of the prestigious Diploma in Professional Performance from the Royal Northern College of Music, where he studied piano accompaniment with David Lloyd. Appearing in concert for over 40 years, he enjoys a successful career as an accompanist and répétiteur (praised as “world-class” by Louise Flind for “Opera Today”), the breadth of his repertoire being reflected in television and radio broadcasts ranging from BBC Radio 3 to Emmerdale! A Principal Lecturer at the RNCM, Robin is a senior music coach within the School of Vocal Studies and Opera, for whom he was also chief répétiteur on the majority of college opera productions from the late 1990s until 2013. He has appeared with the Manchester Camerata in the world première of “A Feast of Fables” by Paul Reade, has been Musical Director for Feelgood Theatre Productions and, from 1990-2000, Opera & Concert Productions (Worldwide) Ltd with whom he toured throughout the Gulf, the Indian sub-continent and the Far East. Robin has a particularly close association with Clonter Opera Theatre in Cheshire, where he regularly works as Assistant Musical Director and Accompanist. For 35 years he was an accompanist member of the British & International Federation of Festivals.
About Betty Bannerman
Betty Bannerman was a distinguished mezzo-soprano who enjoyed a career spanning some seven decades, latterly as a teacher. She specialised in French song and was a pupil and friend of the great French mezzo Claire Croiza. Bannerman’s own voice ranged from low G to the high A flat. She had a rich, warm tone and exemplary diction in whatever language she was singing. A regular soloist at the Three Choirs Festival before and after the Second World War. She sang in the Elgar oratorios and in choral works by Kodáy, Lambert, Mendelssohn and Bliss; She gave more than 200 solo recitals for the BBC; She was a soloist in Bach Passions conducted by Vaughn Williams at the Leith Hill Festivals and worked often with such conductors as Ansermet, Beecham, Goosens and Boult. Besides French song, she excelled in German Leider, Old Italian songs and the English repertoire of Purcell to Britten. Bannerman spent six months in Berlin with Lilli Lehmann and made a special study of lieder with von ur Mühlen. Her first important London recital was at the Aeolian Hall in 1927. The next year she attended a Croiza recital, which made such an impression that she immediately asked to become her pupil, and for the next 10 years studied with her for a month every year.
(Extract from piece written by Michael Kennedy, 2 March 1992, Daily Telegraph).
More Info https://clonter.org/betty-bannerman/
Ticket Pricing & Booking Information
Tickets £20, FREE for Patrons – Click here for details on how to become a Patron
Doors Open 2.30pm
Performance Starts 3pm
Duration Approx. 1 hour
Ticket price includes post-performance tea, coffee and cake.
For Patrons – Please note that when you go to book online, to click on the log-in link.