Trainees 2009/10

Sopranos
Elizabeth Llewellyn
Sadhbh Dennedy
Anna Devin
Madeleine Pierard
Meeta Raval

Mezzo-sopranos
Sara Gonzalez-Saavedra
Raquel Luis

Tenors
John Pierce
Nicky Spence

Baritones
Joa Rasmus Helgesson

Bass
John Molloy

Repetiteurs
Marie-Elise Boyer
Cameron Burns
Jean-Paul Pruna

Gerard Collett baritone

Gerard Collett studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Mark Wildman and Audrey Hyland. 

With RAO he has performed the roles of Il Conte Perrucchetto in Haydn’s La fedeltà premiata, the Vater in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, Mercurio in Cavalli’s La Calisto, and Bubyentsov in Shostakovich’s Paradise Moscow.  He has participated in masterclasses given by Thomas Quasthoff, at the Verbier Festival Academy in Switzerland, with Leo Nucci at the Solti Te Kanawa Accademia di Bel Canto in Italy, with Roger Vignoles at Schloß Weinberg in Upper Austria.  At the Royal Academy of Music, he has given recitals with Philip Langridge and with Dame Felicity Lott, and has received masterclasses from Alan Opie, Joan Rodgers, Sally Burgess, Rudolf Jansen, Malcolm Martineau, and Julius Drake. 

He is the recipient of the 2009 Jean Meikle Prize for a Duo at this year's Wigmore International Song Competition. He is the inaugural winner of the Peter Hulsen Orchestral Song Award, launched by the Southbank Sinfonia in collaboration with the Musicians Benevolent Fund.  As the award winner, he was mentored by Sir Thomas Allen in preparation for a recital of orchestral song at the Cadogan Hall.  Prizes at the Academy include the Elena Gerhardt Lieder Prize, the Major van Someren Godfery prize for English Song, and the prestigious Richard Lewis/Jean Shanks Award.  He receives a Sybil Tutton Award, and is the recipient of a Maidment Scholarship, both administered by the Musicians Benevolent Fund. He is generously supported by the Countess of Munster Trust.  He is the recipient of a Wingate Scholarship administered by the Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation. He is an Independent Opera Scholar. In 2010 he will be a Samling Foundation Scholar. He is a Susan Chilcott Scholar and a member of the Royal Philharmonic Society.