Trainees 2010/11

Sopranos
Lucinda-Mirikata Deacon
Susana Gaspar
Aoife O'Sullivan

Mezzo-sopranos
Maire Flavin
Justina Gringyte
Hanna Hipp

Tenors
Tyler Clarke
Nathan Vale

Baritones
Oliver Dunn
Duncan Rock

Bass
Ross McInroy

Repetiteurs
Sonia Ben-Santamaria
Julian Black
Paul Wingfield

John Pierce tenor

John Pierce from Holywell, Flintshire, trained at the Royal Northern College of Music with Jeffrey Lawton. Currently a student at the National Opera Studio in London he was awarded an Independent Opera Scholarship to continue his studies with Ryland Davies.

Operatic roles at the RNCM included Rodolfo La bohème, and full-scale productions of Die Fledermaus (Alfredo) and Katya Kabanova (Boris). He was a winner of the Joyce and Michael Kennedy Strauss Prize, Elizabeth Harwood Memorial Prize and more recently, first prize in the 2010 Welsh Singers Competition.  As a recipient of the Prince of Wales Advanced Study Award he performed for Prince Charles at an event celebrating his 50th year as Prince of Wales.

John joined Glyndebourne Festival Opera chorus and took part in their productions of Falstaff, L’Elisire d’Amore, Rusalka and Tristan und Isolde. 

His many concert and oratorio appearances include Handel’s The Messiah, Beethoven 9th Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem, Karl Jenkins’, The Armed Man, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle  and  Stabat Mater, Puccini’s Messe di Gloria and Mendelssohn’s Elijah.

Recent engagements have included performing the role of Rodolfo in La bohème for British Youth Opera and covering the same role at English National Opera in the Autumn and representing Wales in Cardiff Singer of the World 2011.

During his time at the National Opera Studio, John was sponsored by the WNO and also received support from the Lionel Anthony Scholarship and the Susan Chilcott Scholarship.