Trainees 2008/09

Soprano
Verity Parker
Sarah Power
Valda Wilson
Ida Falk Winland

Mezzo
Susan Boyd
Alexandra Cassidy

Tenor
Carthaigh Quill
Jonathan Stoughton

Baritone
Nicholas Lester
Benedict Nelson

Bass-baritone
Wade Kernot

Repetiteur
Sam Hogarth
Alison Luz
Geoffrey Paterson

Ben Johnson tenor

Ben studied singing at the Royal College of Music with Neil Mackie and graduated with First Class Honours in 2006. In April this year he won First Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier awards, the first out right male winner for 13 years. This award comes after much success at the RCM including the Lieder Prize, English Song Prize and the singer’s prize at the Gerald Moore Award as well as a prize at the Wigmore hall International Song Competition. Recently a graduate of the Benjamin Britten International Opera School he takes up a place at the National Opera Studio from September. A committed recitalist, he enjoys a partnership with pianist James Southall. Future recital highlights also include Schubert programmes with Graham Johnson and Iain Burnside. 

Ben is increasingly in demand as an oratorio soloist around the UK and Europe. He has worked with such conductors as Sir Charles Mackerras, Peter Schreier , Andrerw Parrott and Neil Thompson. He works regularly with the London Mozart Players, most recently taking part in the world premiere of Lynn Plowmann’s Cries Like Silence. He also gave three performances of Lynn Plowmann’s cycle for tenor and strings The Star Gazer with the LMP. Last season also saw Ben make his debut in Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, with the National Philharmonic of Lithuania.

In 2005 Ben made his operatic debut in Handel's Rodelinda for Opera de Baugé, France and returned in 2006 to sing his first Don Ottavio. In September 2007 he played the title role in BYO's acclaimed production of Albert Herring and most recently sang his first Tom Rakewell in the BBIOS production of The Rakes Progress. Future plans include his debut with Scottish Opera as Tonikin Smetena's The Two Widows and the world premiere of Das Babylonexperiment by Matthew King at the Internationales KammermusikFestival Nürnberg this September when he will also become an associate artist of Classical Opera Company. For the last 2 years he has studied with the tenor Tim Evans-Jones, with whom he continues to work.  

Ben joins the National Opera Studio in September 2008.