OPERAFEST

The Company

Ana Salaridze – Soprano

Ana Salaridze is a Georgian soprano currently studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under the tutelage of Yvonne Kenny. She previously completed her Bachelor’s degree at the Tbilisi State Conservatoire, where she studied on a full scholarship supported by a governmental grant for high-achieving students. During her studies, she performed in concerts, opera scenes, and productions, appearing as Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Musetta (La bohème), First Lady (Die Zauberflöte), Anina (La traviata), and Frasquita (Carmen). She then moved to the United Kingdom after receiving a full scholarship from the International Education Center to pursue a Master of Music degree at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. During this time, she performed in solo concerts across the UK and appeared in opera scenes as Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), and Romilda (Serse), and sang the role of the Fairy Godmother (Cendrillon). Ana has participated in international summer festivals, including the Saluzzo Opera Festival, where she sang Amore (L’incoronazione di Poppea), and La Semaine Lyrique d’Excideuil, where she performed Frasquita (Carmen). Since her student years, she has been awarded several prizes in competitions, including First Prize at the Don Matteo Colucci Competition (Italy) and the Mario Lanza Opera Prize (UK), as well as a scholarship from the Government of Luxembourg to attend masterclasses and perform in a gala concert with mezzo-soprano Jennifer Larmore.

Camilla Seale – Mezzo-Soprano

Praised for her ‘velvety mezzo’ timbres (The Telegraph), Camilla adores a wide range of repertoire from contemporary to baroque, performing regularly with Musica Antica (album, ‘La decima musa’ forthcoming). Through 2026, she sings Kate in Die Piraten von Penzance (Volksoper Wien), Alcina in Caccini’s La liberazione di Ruggiero (Buxton Festival / Vache Baroque), alto voice and Stephano in Shakespeare’s The Tempest (Vache Baroque), Female Customer in Angel’s Bone (ENO), and will shoot two film shorts. Recent opera roles include Orlofsky in a UK tour of Die Fledermaus (Merry Opera), Angelina in La Cenerentola (Hurn Court Opera) and Dido for Longborough Festival with Barokksolistene. She was a Britten-Pears Artist, a Young Artist at the National Opera Studio, has performed several times at Clonter before, and looks forward to debuting the title role in Carmen in 2027. She is a keen aerialist, surfer and also ran a physical-theatre / baroque opera ensemble, the New Renaissance Collective for several years.

Felix Kemp – Baritone

Felix Kemp is a former Britten Pears Young Artist, Momentum Emerging Artist, finalist at the 2021 London Handel International Singing Competition, and in the 2022/23 season made his debut at the Royal Ballet and Opera in Don Carlo. Among his recent highlights are Maximilian in Candide (Teatro Verdi Trieste, Teatro Comunale di Bologna), Adham in the world première of Will Todd’s Migrations (Welsh National Opera); Dick Dewy in the world premiere of Paul Carr’s Under the Greenwood Tree, Papageno in The Magic Flute (Dorset Opera Festival); Pilgrim in Britten’s Curlew River (Aldeburgh Festival, filmed for the BBC); and Falke in Die Fledermaus (If Opera). Recent concerts include Zelenka’s Lamentations of Jeremiah (Ensemble Diderot – Chapelle Corneille, Kölner Philharmonie); Beethoven Symphony No. 9 (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra); and Schubert Lieder arr. Brahms (Royal Scottish National Orchestra). In recital, Felix’s performances include the Crush Room at the Royal Ballet and Opera, the Oxford International Song Festival, and London Song Festival. His recordings include Joseph Phibbs Juliana and Ethel Smyth Fête Galante. Broadcasts include In Tune for BBC Radio 3.

Grace Hope-Gill – Soprano

Welsh soprano Grace Hope-Gill is in her second year of Royal Academy Opera at the Royal Academy of Music as a bicentenary scholar. Grace is under the tutelage of Mary Nelson and Anna Tilbrook. Recent successes include, winning the John Fussell Award for Young Musicians and the Major Van Someran Godfrey prize and Elena Gerhardt prize and coming second in the Schumann Prize. Grace’s performances range from performing cantatas under Eamonn Dougan and John Butt in the Academy’s ‘Bach in Leipzig’ series, to singing on the CBeebies channel. She recently travelled to Munich having been awarded the Elton John Global Exchange scholarship which concluded in her international recital debut with baritone Christian Gerhaher. Other recent engagements include, performing the roles of Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Micäela (Carmen), Armida (Rinaldo), Sandmänchen (Hänsel und Gretel) and ‘Cis’ (Albert Herring).

Joshua Baxter – Tenor

London-born tenor Joshua Baxter has performed extensively across the UK and Europe in opera, operetta and concert repertoire. Roles include Des Grieux (Manon), Laërte (Hamlet), Luigi (Il Tabarro), Harry Benn (The Boatswain’s Mate) and Don José (Carmen). He has appeared with companies including Buxton International Festival, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, The Grange Festival and Clonter Opera. An experienced oratorio soloist, Joshua’s repertoire includes Verdi Requiem, Handel The Messiah, Bach Magnificat and Christmas Oratorio, Haydn The Creation and Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle. Joshua trained at the Royal Academy of Music, where he was awarded both a Professional Diploma and MA in Performance. Recent engagements include Des Grieux (Manon) for Preston Opera, tenor soloist for Clonter Opera Gala, Handel’s Messiah for Skipton Choral Society, and Laërte (Hamlet) for Buxton International Festival.

Philip Sunderland – Music Director

Philip was born in Norwich and educated at the Cathedral School. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and the National Opera Studio, Philip began his professional like as a repetiteur, working for all the major opera companies in the UK. This led to many conducting opportunities, first with English Touring Opera, for whom he conducted Marriage of Figaro, Cenerentola, Pearl Fishers, Daughter of the Regiment and Cosi fan tutte. In 1999, having worked as an assistant conductor at Opera North, Philip was appointed Chorus Master, a role he performed for five years. Whilst working for Opera North he conducted La traviata and the company’s acclaimed production of Sweeney Todd, as well as numerous concerts including the Brahms’ Requiem in York Minster. Philip has continued to conduct for ETO, winning an Olivier Award for Paul Bunyan in 2015 and returned the following year with Tales of Hoffman. He was music director to Swansea City Opera and W11 Opera for Young People and Chorus Master at the Bregenzer Festspiele. In 2014 he was commissioned by the Saffron Hall to write an opera for over 200 schoolchildren, professional singers and orchestra. The Glass Knight was first performed in the Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden in March 2015. Advent Calendar, a setting of biblical texts and a poem by Ronan Williams, was premiered in St Mary’s church, Saffron Walden in 2018. Philip is delighted to return to Clonter Opera, having conducted Rigoletto in 2009, a particularly exciting time as his son was born prematurely during the final stage and orchestra rehearsals! Philip is currently Head of Preparatory and Vocal Faculty Opera at the Royal Academy of Music, for whom he conducted Cunning Little Vixen in 2019.

Jeanne Pansard Besson – Director

Jeanne Pansard-Besson is an opera director, dramaturge and librettist. She was a finalist in the ninth European Opera-directing Prize and a semi-finalist in the Ring Award. Productions include Don Pasquale (NOF-Neue Oper Freiburg), La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers (VBF/Buxton International Festival), La Tragédie de Carmen (Royal Academy of Music), Hänsel und Gretel (Hampstead Garden Opera), Die Fledermaus (Berlin Opera Academy), L’Amico Fritz (Gattières/Opéra de Nice) and Penelope’s Web, a new opera written and developed in collaboration with composer Cheryl Frances-Hoad (with support from the National Opera Studio, King’s College London and the University of Oxford). Her book, based on her PhD from the University of Cambridge, The Imagination of Rome’s Foundation Myths, will be published by Routledge this year. Her film, The Shadows of Kok Thlok, was selected for several international festivals.

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.