Some of our more regular soloists...

 Artists' Biographies

Carolyn Foulkes ~ Soprano

Born in North Wales, Carolyn trained at the Royal Academy of Music, where she studied with Mary Thomas, Kenneth Bowen and Mark Wildman. At the Academy she won many awards including the Isabel Jay Prize for Opera, the Jennifer Vyvyan Scholarship, the Lieder Prize, the Oratorio Prize and the Sybil Tutton Opera Scholarship as well as taking part in Masterclasses with Sena Jurinac, Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Sir Geraint Evans, Paul Hamburger and Robert Tear. She graduated from the Opera Course at the RAM having performed roles including Amor L’Egisto, Despina Cosi Fan Tutte, Susanna Le nozze di Figaro, Lauretta Gianni Schicchi and Belinda Dido and Aeneas. She was also a prize-winner at the 1995 Welsh Singer Competition and at the Grimsby International Singing Competition. 

Since graduating opera engagements have included Micaela Carmen, Musetta La Boheme and Nanetta Falstaff for Opera Brava, Gretel Hansel and Gretel on tour in the Middle East, First Lady Die Zauberflote at the Amersham Festival and Second Spirit Manfred (Schumann) at the Opera de Lyon. Concert engagements have included performances at the Royal Albert Hall, the Queen Elisabeth Hall, St John’s, Smith Square and the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea. International engagements have taken her to Budapest, Copenhagen, Milan, Paris and Vienna

Recent highlights have included the world premiere of Till Earthly Passions Turn by Carl Rutti with the Cheltenham Bach Choir, Can y Galon by Gareth Walters at the Gower Festival, Arwel Hughes’ Gweddi, Messiah at Llandaf Cathedral and Mainz, Elgar’s The Kingdom in Chester Cathedral, her first Verdi Requiem in Worth Abbey, Handel's Dixit Dominus and Vivaldi Gloria at St John’s, Smith Square for Harry Christophers, Dyson’s Canterbury Pilgrims at the Corn Exchange Bedford, Purcell’s King Arthur at the Krakow Festival, Dyson’s Hierusalem, Vaughan Williams’ Hodie and Finzi’s In Terra Pax with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Tippett’s A Child of Our Time at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Carolyn was an outstanding soloist in the world premiere of Giles Swayne's Havoc at the 1999 proms and returned in the 2001 season to sing Schoenberg’s De Profundis.  She was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music for achieving distinction in the profession.

Engagement in 2002 include The Creation at Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool and for the Montgomeryshire Music Festival, Messiah for Aberdeen Choral Society, the Mozart Mass in C Minor in Manchester and Carmina Burana for Plymouth Philharmonic Choir.
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Claire Seaton ~ Soprano

Born in Wolverhampton, Claire studied at the Birmingham School of Music, at the Royal Academy of Music with Rae Woodland and Kenneth Bowen, and subsequently with Linda Esther-Grey.  She joined Kent Opera during her final year at the Academy, was awarded the Wessex Glyndebourne Association Prize in 1998 and made her Glyndebourne Festival Opera debut in 1999 singing the role of Vitellia La Clemenza di Tito. Further engagements at Glyndebourne included covering the roles of Ellen Orford Peter Grimes and the Countess Le Nozze di Figaro, followed by contracts with Opera de Lyon and Opera Europa.  One of the country’s most adaptable sopranos, Claire also enjoys remarkable success in the early music field where she has worked with ensembles such as The Tallis Scholars and the Gabrieli Consort, with whom she made her BBC Proms debut in Handel’s Dixit Dominus. She has also recorded the soprano solos in Allegri’s Miserere for Regent Records. Claire’s oratorio experience is extremely broad and she is particularly renowned for her performances of Verdi’s Requiem, Brahms’ Requiem and Mozart’s C Minor Mass.  Recent engagements have included Strauss’s Four Last Songs, Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony at the Barbican, Britten’s War Requiem at the St David’s Festival, Elgar’s The Kingdom in Hereford Cathedral, and the world premiere of Jonathan Dove’s The Far Theatricals of Day for Nicholas Cleobury which has recently been released by Fleet Street Records.  In addition to the Allegri and Dove, Claire’s discography also includes the role of The Believer in Rutland Boughton’s Bethlehem for Naxos and she has recently recorded Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with the counter tenor Andrew Watts, again for Fleet Street Records. Forthcoming engagements include Beethoven’s Messe Solenelle in Winchester Cathedral, Verdi’s Requiem in Romsey Abbey and Haydn’s Seasons in Buxton.
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Siân Meinir ~ Mezzo Soprano

Hailing from Dolgellau North Wales; Sian graduated from Bangor University and then gained a Postgraduate Dip. R.A.M. from the Royal Academy of Music in 1993. She made her Operatic Debut with The Opera Factory and subsequently at The Batignano Opera Festival, Tuscany before joining The Royal Opera House Chorus where she also sang the roles of Page (Salome), Bridesmaid (Le Nozze di Figaro, Orphan (Rosenkavalier) and soloist in the world premiere of Twyla Tharp's Ballet "Mr. Wordly Wise".

Sian currently sings with Welsh National Opera where she has sung the roles of Annina (Traviata), Inez (Trovatore), Giovanna (Rigoletto), Kate Pinkerton (Madame Butterfly) as well understudying Mary (Die Fliegende Hollander), Voice from Above (Parsifal) and Bird (The Sacrifice), Third Lady (Magic Flute). She has extensive Oratorio experience most notably with Bryn Terfel and Richard Hickocks in Elijah at The Llandeilo National Eisteddfod; but has also performed at The Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, St. Martin's in the Field, St James Piccadilly, St Davids Hall, Montbourg Abbey and most recently in The Armed Man (Karl Jenkins) at The Duke's Hall.

Sian has toured South Africa performing recitals at all the major cities, was soloist at The Best of Welsh Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, has appeared on "Musicale" for S4C, has recorded for Air Ed El Studios and for The BBC Radio 4 Daily Service. She was also reviewed as an "accomplished and exciting" recitalist during the "Wales at the Reid Hall" series of concerts at The Edinburgh Festival 2005. Sian has won The London Young Welsh Singer, the Tankard Lieder Prize, the Flora Nielson Prize and was an acclaimed finalist at the 1996 Young welsh Singer. She has won The Blue Ribband at the 2001 National Eisteddfod and most recently was awarded the honour of being a 2006-2007 Susan Chilcott Scholar and is a Young Artist with The Royal Philharmonic Society.
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 Siân Menna ~ Mezzo Soprano

Siân Menna is an honours graduate of the Royal College of Music, London in singing and piano. She has performed in all the UK’s leading concert halls, and many overseas, in repertoire ranging from the Renaissance to World Premieres. Siân appears regularly with Choral Societies throughout the UK and her repertoire includes Bach’s Passions, Durufle’s Requiem, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, Copland’s In the Beginning, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius and Verdi’s Reqiuem. Siân has worked with many leading orchestras & conductors, with recent highlights being Haydn Paukenmesse (Ulster Orchestra & David Hill), Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle (King’s Consort), Haydn Nelson Mass & Copland In the Beginning (Britten Sinfonia & The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge), Mozart Vesperae Solennes de Confessore (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra & John Rutter) & Handel Messiah (BBC Concert Orchestra & Stephen Cleobury). Siân appears as a soloist on two recent CD releases: the première recording of Bantock Omar Khyyam with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Vernon Handley and the BBC Singer’s recording of Tippett Choral Music (“The angular solo is admirably sung by Siân Menna” MusicWeb International April 2007).Operatic roles include La Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi, Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, the Sorceress and the role of Dido in Dido and Aeneas, and the role of the Beggar Woman in Britten’s Death in Venice with the City of London Sinfonia under Richard Hickox, and recently performed the second woman in Judith Weir’s Vanishing Bridegroom with the BBC Symphony conducted by Martin Brabbins.
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 Andrew Murgatroyd ~ Tenor

Andrew was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and first studied singing with Barbara Robotham, while reading music at Lancaster University. He subsequently spent two years as a Lay Clerk at Christ Church Cathedral Oxford, furthering his vocal studies with Rudolf Piernay.

Andrew’s extensive repertoire ranges form Monteverdi, whose 1610 vespers he recorded for Harry Christophers on Hyperion and Rene Jacobs on Harmonia Mundi and most recently performed in the Barbican Hall, Bath Abbey and Istanbul, to the most demanding contemporary scores, working with conductors such as Richard Bernas, Martin Brabbins, Odaline de La Martinez and  Robert Ziegler.

Notable performances include Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Elgar’s Coronation Ode and Mozart’s C Minor mass with Sir David Willcocks and the Bach Choir at The Royal Festival Hall; Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis for the RTE in Dublin (also recorded with the Ninth Symphony with the Hanover Band on Nimbus), Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius in Wells, Guildford and Ripon Cathedrals and York Minster; Verdi’s Requiem in Salisbury and Canterbury Cathedrals, the Barbican Hall and at both the Brighton and Flanders Festivals; John Tavener’s We shall See Him As He Is with Richard Hickox and the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra at the proms and subsequently recorded for Chandos; a concert performance of Andrea Chenier in the Concertgebouw for VARA; Britten’s War Requiem in Belfast and a number of Christmas Gala Concerts at the Royal Festival Hall, Barbican and Symphony Hall Birmingham.

Andrew broadcasts regularly with the BBC Orchestras. He has performed Britten, Stravinsky, and Howells with the BBC Symphony Orchestra; Mozart, Haydn and John Tavener with the National Orchestra of Wales; Handel, Nono and Rachmaninov for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra; Mozart and Britten with the BBC Philharmonic and Weill, Pizzetti, Coleridge-Taylor, Spohr, and most recently Britten’s Paul Bunyan with the BBC Concert Orchestra.
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Huw Rhys-Evans ~ Tenor

Born in Tregaron, Wales, Huw Rhys-Evans won the Blue Riband Prize for the Singer of the Year at the Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales and on three occasions, the Tenor Solo Award. Following studies with Kenneth Bowen at the Royal Academy of Music, he was awarded the Tenor Prize at the 1990 Great Grimsby International Competition for Singers and completed his studies at the National Opera Studio.
Huw Rhys-Evans is particularly celebrated as a singer of Rossini, his engagements include Carlo/Goffredo in Armida, the title role Le Comte Ory and Torvaldo from Torvaldo e Dorliska at the Rossini in Wildbad Festival, Count Almaviva from The Barber of Seville for Opera North and Spier Opera,South Africa, Pilade from Ermione, Idreno from Semiramide for Chelsea Opera Group and Belfiore from Il Viaggio a Reims at the Palace of Verseille and the Strasbourg Music Festival. Other Operatic engagements have included Harris from Uncle Remus for Pegasus Opera, Flute from A Midsummer Night's Dream and Brighella from Ariadne Auf Naxos for English Touring Opera. Vivaldo form Die Hochzeit des Camacho at the Flanders International Festival, Duca Ottavio form Don Giovanni (Gazzaniga) and Errico La Vera Costanza for Bampton Classical Opera, (for the latter, he was cited as amongst Who's Hot by OPERA NOW), Ferrando Cosi Fan Tutte for Madrid Comic Opera, Opera d'Automne and Tours Opera, Don Ottavio from Don Giovanni for Perth Festival Opera, Belmonte from Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail for Opera Project, Nadir from The Philosopher's Stone for Collegium Musicum 90 (broadcast on BBC Radio 3), Pang from Turandot for Lyric Opera Dublin, Pong from Turandot for Mid-Wales Opera, Brighella from Ariadne Auf Naxos for the Norwegian State Opera, Young Servand from Electra at the BBC Proms, First Jew from Salome for the Bastille Opera, Third Jew from Salome for Merseille Opera, and Hyllus for Handel Hercules at the Varazdin Baroque Festival Croatia with the Welsh Baroque Orchestra.

Huw Rhys-Evans made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2001 and is particularly celebrated as an interpereter of the Evangelist in the J.S. Bach Passions. His concert engagements have taken him throughout the UK as well as to France, Germany, Italy, Canada, USA, The Netherlands and Singapore. He has broadcast for BBC Radio 2's Friday Night is Music Night and his recordings include Judge in Le Calife de Bagdad, Gouvy Cantata Egill and Stabat Mater, Vivaldo in Die Hochzeit des Camacho and All Through the Night ( Welsh songs with Harp)

His latest recording or 'Torvaldo e Dorliska' by Rossini has just been released on the Naxos label.
At present he is performing in Cavalli's Erismena the roles of Flerida and Apollo from Monteverdi's Orfeo with ETO.
Future engagements include Handel Messiah with Keighley Vocal Union and at the Leith Hill Music Festival, Dorking. Dvorák Stabat Mater in Maidstone and Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle in Oldham.
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Paul Cary Jones ~ Bass

Born in Cardiff, Irish-Welsh baritone Paul Carey Jones studied at Ysgol Glantaf, Queen’s College Oxford, the Royal Academy of Music, and at the National Opera Studio, where he was the recipient of the Welsh National Opera Bryan Davies Award. His operatic roles have included Marcello La bohème (Scottish Opera on Tour), Figaro The Barber of Seville (Opera East), Sam Trouble in Tahiti (Second Movement), Escamillo Carmen (Lyric Opera, Dublin, Stowe Opera), Gaspar Rita, Eurymaque Pénélope, Martino L’occasione fa il ladro and First Comrade Der Silbersee (Wexford Festival Opera), Osmin Zaïde (Aldeburgh Festival), Malatesta Don Pasquale (Bel Canto Opera), The Forester The Cunning Little Vixen (Surrey Opera), Figaro Le nozze di Figaro (Diva Opera), Papageno Die Zauberflöte (Opera by Definition), Bartolo in Paisiello’s Il barbiere di Siviglia (Bampton Classical Opera & Buxton Festival). Paul has performed in concert and recital across the UK, at venues including Cardiff’s St David’s Hall, The Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Purcell Room, the Royal Albert Hall, at the Edinburgh Festival and in 2002 at Buckingham Palace with the LSO under Seiji Ozawa at Mstislav Rostropovich’s 75th birthday concert. In 2001 he was awarded the National Eisteddfod of Wales’ most prestigious award for young singers, the W. Towyn Roberts Scholarship and in 2007 was featured in the Metropolitan Opera’s Opera News. His broadcast performances include Media Man Man on the Moon for Tiger Aspect / Channel 4 and Friday Night is Music Night for BBC Radio 2. Engagements in 2007 / 2008 include Andy Warhol Jackie O at the Teatro Rossini, Lugo, and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Blazes The Lighthouse at the Montepulciano Festival, Guglielmo Così fan tutte for opera by definition, Masetto Don Giovanni for the Oxford Philomusica and both Fiorello Il barbiere di Siviglia and Marchese d’Obigny La traviata for Scottish Opera. His début CD recording, ENAID – Songs of the Soul – is now available on SAIN.
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Jenny Trew ~ Pianist

Jenny was born in Swansea and after two years as a scholarship holder at Chetham’s School of Music, she went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music with Christopher Elton. While there, she was awarded several prizes for her solo playing, including the John Ireland Prize and the Frank Britton Scholarship. With the support of the Welsh Arts Council and a scholarship from the Guildhall School of Music, she spent two post-graduate years specialising in accompaniment. She now freelances in London and has given recitals throughout the UK supported by the Countess of Munster Recital Scheme. Overseas work has taken her on tours in Italy, France, Russia and the Czech Republic. Television and radio broadcasts include a live recital on Classic FM and Channel 4’s Late Late Show.
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Edward Kemp Luck ~ Organist

Having begun his organ studies at Dovercourt, near Harwich in Essex, Edward then trained with Harrison Oxley at St Edmundsbury Cathedral. He was an organ scholar of The Queen’s College, Oxford, under James Dalton and subsequently gained his FRCO while studying with Catherine Ennis at St Lawrence Jewry. He won the Walford Davies organ prize at the Royal College of Music, participated in master classes at Haarlem, Alkmaar, St Albans, Oundle and the London Organ Day, and studied historic organ performance practice in Holland with a scholarship from the Rotary Foundation. He has given many recitals in London and the south-east, and is also active as a continuo player and choral accompanist, working with the choirs at Morley College, Richmond Parish Church (including '..from scratch' workshops with Sir David Willcocks) and St John’s, Islington, and with the City of Canterbury Chamber Choir (including new commissions by composer-in-residence Cecilia McDowall and performances at the Presteigne Festival). He currently works at the Royal Academy of Music and is a freelance organist, playing regularly for the Welsh Metropolitan Congregation at St Benet's Church, Paul's Wharf, and for churches throughout east and north London.
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