Meet The Team

Nicholas Allan was Managing Partner of Boyer Allan Investment Management LLP (a specialist Asian fund management company) from 1998 to 2012. Prior to setting up Boyer Allan he had senior roles with Kleinwort Benson in London, New York, Tokyo and Hong Kong. His principal business interest now is in Raas Hotels in India.

Nick brings the board a range of fund-raising and commercial insights alongside his financial expertise and experience. He was on the board of English National Opera for 11 years, latterly as Deputy Chairman and Chair of Finance. He is a trustee of The Grange Festival and The Two Moors Festival. He is also a director of Lindsell Train Investment Trust.

During a 35 year career in the international events business, Gini led the pioneering trade fair company, Fairs & Exhibitions Ltd, which from the 1980’s onwards was instrumental in creating high-profile industry events in the Middle East. Working in close collaboration with Government and business leaders in the Gulf and wider Asia region, she specialised in delivering trade opportunities for a broad range of industries such as construction, power generation, water technology, healthcare, and education, ultimately focusing on a 20-year programme developing the Dubai Airshow which continues to be one of the world’s leading forums for the aerospace and civil aviation sectors.

In 2002 Gini was awarded an MBE for services to industry and exports.

Since stepping down from her business in 2009, Gini has immersed herself in the world of opera and classical music and now supports several performing arts organisations, whilst being keen to help young artists develop their careers. Other key interests are property development and her voluntary work includes hands-on involvement fundraising for charitable organisations.

Laura Canning is the General Director and CEO of Opera North, a post she took up in December 2023. Before that, she was Director of Artistic Administration at Garsington Opera for nine years, presenting the first public opera performances after the pandemic in September 2020 as well as spearheading the creation of the company’s new on-site Studios. Earlier positions include six years as Studio Director at Houston Grand Opera in Texas, where she managed the world-renowned young artist programme and created the new Young Artists Vocal Academy, as well as ten years at Welsh National Opera and positions at Glyndebourne and Harold Holt Ltd.

Laura has a modern languages degree from Trinity College Cambridge. She served on the board of Outland Opera and Chapter Arts Centre and has been a regular adjudicator of singing competitions on both sides of the Atlantic. She has two sons and lives in Leeds with her husband.

Sarah Crabtree has been Creative Producer for The Royal Opera since 2017, responsible for programming and producing in the Linbury Theatre and for Royal Opera productions away from Covent Garden at venues such as Shakespeare’s Globe and the Roundhouse. Sarah worked for Opera Holland Park from 2006 to 2015 and became Associate Producer to James Clutton there in 2012. At Opera Holland Park, she delivered the company’s summer season, and commissioned Opera Holland Park’s first ever new work: Will Todd’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in 2012.

Highlights of her career in Covent Garden include overseeing the world premieres of Mark Anthony Turnage’s Coraline at the Barbican, Philip Venable’s 4.48 Psychosis, Laura Bowler’s The Blue Woman and Oliver Leith’s Last Days. She has also been responsible for The Royal Opera’s research and development programme, which supports the development of new work and emerging artists. A passionate advocate for equity in the arts, Sarah founded Engender in 2019, opera’s first network for women and non-binary people with the aim of delivering transformational change in gender equality in opera. Sarah is a change partner with Ramps on the Moon, working towards mainstream cultural change for disabled people in the arts, embedding anti-ableism across the sector. Sarah joined The Royal Opera as a Senior Producer in April 2015.

Alex Reedijk OBE joined Scottish Opera as General Director in February 2006, following four years at the helm of The NBR New Zealand Opera. Prior to that he was Executive Director of the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts.

Having worked for many opera companies and festivals across the world, including Scottish Opera, Wexford Festival Opera and the original Garsington Opera, he became New Zealand Festival’s Deputy Executive Director with particular responsibility for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which made its first highly successful visit out of Edinburgh to Wellington in 2000.

Over his 16+ years at Scottish Opera the company has flourished, bringing opera performances to over 45 communities across Scotland every year. There have also been an array of new initiatives for young people, and for people living with Dementia, including the world’s first Dementia Friendly opera performances in 2016. He has also worked closely in partnership with Music Director Stuart Stratford to sustain and develop a very strong commitment to both 20th century opera and new commissions.

In November 2011, Alex was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and currently serves as Vice Chair of the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow and Chair of the Beacon Arts Centre in Greenock.

English director Oliver Mears is The Royal Opera’s Director of Opera. He joined The Royal Opera in March 2017.

Oliver studied English and history at Oxford University and began his career assisting playwright Howard Barker. In 2004 he co-founded London-based opera company Second Movement and directed numerous site-specific productions for the company, including several UK stage premieres. He was founding Artistic Director of Northern Ireland Opera from 2010 until 2017. His productions for Northern Ireland Opera included Tosca (winner of the 2012 Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Opera), Der fliegende Holländer, Macbeth (with Welsh National Opera), Salome, Agrippina, Hansel and Gretel, The Turn of the Screw (also at Kolobov Novaya Opera Theatre, Moscow) and Noye’s Fludde (London Cultural Olympiad/Beijing/Shanghai Festivals). In 2021 he made his Royal Opera debut with a new production of Rigoletto. His has directed for other companies including the Young Vic, Norwegian National Opera (L’Elisir D’Amore), Aldeburgh Music (Albert Herring) Magdeburg Opera (Aida), Opera North, Scottish Opera (Eugene Onegin), Pimlico Opera, Nederlandse Reisopera, Bergen National Opera (Don Giovanni) and the National Opera Studio.

Stephen Langridge is Artistic Director of Glyndebourne. Before this, he was Director of Opera at Gothenburg Opera.

Stephen studied drama at Exeter University. Particularly noted for his work in the field of opera, he has directed numerous productions worldwide, including at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Salzburg Festival, Stockholm Royal Opera, Tokyo Opera City, Bregenz Festival, Teatro Nacional de Sao Carlos Lisbon, Den Norske Opera Oslo, Opera di Roma, Grange Park Opera, Greek National Opera, Volksoper Wien and at the operas of Bordeaux, Malmö and Angers-Nantes.

A strong advocate of contemporary music, he has directed several world premieres, including productions of major new works for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Aldeburgh Festival, Nationale Reisopera, and for Glyndebourne.

He is also well known for his large-scale theatre work in unusual settings – including Bernstein’s West Side Story and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in UK Prisons, and Ngoma, a multi-racial music and theatre project in South African townships – and for his work with integrated groups of disabled and non-disabled young people with Share Music Sweden. He regularly leads training, development, and education projects for opera companies and orchestras across Europe.

Jenny Mollica is Chief Executive of ENO and the London Coliseum.

Jenny has been Chief Executive since 2023 and is responsible for leading ENO’s vision, strategic direction and impact across London, Greater Manchester, nationally and internationally – and for the year-round creative and commercial operation of the London Coliseum, the West End’s largest receiving cross-arts venue and home to ENO’s London season.

Jenny originally joined ENO in 2020 as Director of Strategy and Engagement, where she was responsible for leading organisational strategy and business planning, and for the company’s learning and participation programme, ENO Engage. Highlights include creative health programme ENO Breathe, which received the RPS Impact Award in 2021.

Prior to this, Jenny worked at the Barbican and Guildhall School of Music & Drama for just over a decade in a range of roles, including as Director of Creative Learning, leading the strategic development of its participatory cross-arts programmes, festivals and events across music, theatre, dance, visual arts, film and literature.

Jenny is currently Chair of the Board of Clod Ensemble, and Board Member of the National Opera Studio and the Lord Lieutenant’s Cultural Heritage Council for London.

Dori Dana-Haeri has a wide-ranging experience of the strategic problems facing industries. After a career as a management consultant, she now has a portfolio of interests. Her portfolio includes advisor/board member to a number of organizations. These include: the investment committee of a significant corporate Venture where she performs strategic marketing due diligence; an early-stage Agri- tech company, advising them on how to go to market with their environmentally innovative products, a pre-IPO unicorn with a unique technology in Israel and -a global multi-family office and independent investment firm where she works on direct investments.

She has sat for many years on the board of trustees of several charities in the UK and Africa. She was chair of the London Development and a Trustee of Maggie’s Cancer Care and a Trustee of the Persia Educational Foundation. Dori was the founder and General Partner of Eden Ventures an early-stage technology venture capital fund, and Executive Chairman of Above Wealth an innovative wealth management start up. Dori is the founder of DDH Consultants working with fortune 500 companies on growth and innovation.

Diane Henry Lepart is the Founder and Managing Director of FEND Capital Partners Limited, which focuses on investments in scalable and advanced projects and technologies, primarily in agriculture, water and renewable energy, that sustain the environment and enhance life. Diane is also is an International Private Placement Consultant (Commodities and Real Estate), within a Global Affiliate structure, where her role is business development and transaction due-diligence, and a Senior Advisor to a small number of specialist international projects. Diane is a former RSA Advisor, and a former Board Member of the Museum of London. She was a GLA London wide Conservative Candidate for the Assembly and Mayoralty in 2000, and subsequently a Member of the GLA’s Cultural Strategy Group for London, and TfL’s Finance Committee.

Prior to establishing FEND, Diane was a Vice President and the European Head of Asset Management Audit at Lazard. Diane has over 20 years of City based audit and consultancy experience. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants England & Wales, a Chartered Fellow of the Securities Institute (UK) and a Fellow of the British American Project. Diane currently serves as a Board Member of the Donmar Warehouse Theatre, a Main Board Member of the Hospital Club (a Vulcan Inc. Investment) and a Trustee of the MOBO Trust. She is married with two children and lives in London.

Lorna has been conducting Board Effectiveness reviews for UK public companies for over ten years as an Advisory Partner at Manchester Square Partners and also as an independent consultant. In addition she is a Non-Executive Director of Indivior plc and was Chair of its Nominations and Governance Committee until 2021; a member of the Supervisory Board of PAI Partners SAS; a Trustee of the Royal Horticultural Society and Chair of its Nominations, Appointments and Governance Committee; and a Trustee of the National Opera Studio.

Lorna’s executive career was primarily in executive search, as a partner at Spencer Stuart for nearly 20 years, where she created and led their private equity practice across Europe, co-led the legal search practice, was a member of the UK Board practice and was the UK Managing Partner. Until recently she was a senior advisor at CVC Capital Partners, a leading private equity firm, providing advice on portfolio company leadership, succession and recruitment. She previously held a similar role at BC Partners. Previously she was a Trustee of BC Partners Foundation, a Director of Future Academies, a Trustee of Place2Be and a member of the Royal Opera House Foundation Advisory Council. Lorna has an MA in Economics from Cambridge University and an MBA from Stanford Business School.

Dr Gilluley qualified in Medicine from the University of Glasgow in 1991. He subsequently trained in psychiatry and was appointed Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist for Westminster in 2000.

Dr Gilluley has worked in a number of clinical settings and also spent time working in NHS London Specialist Commissioning. He helped develop the Quality Network for Forensic Psychiatry at the Royal College of Psychiatry and went onto be specialist advisor in Forensic Mental Health to the Care Quality Commission.

In 2012 he moved to become Head of Forensic Services at ELFT where in 2017 he became Chief Medical Officer. During the COVID pandemic Dr Gilluley provide clinical leadership in the roll out of the COVID vaccine across North East London.

In July 2022 Dr Gilluley was appointed Chief Medical Officer at NHS North East London.

Born in Paris, Florence settled in London in 1982, trained as a singer at the Royal Academy of Music in London and at the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles. She is now in great demand as a French coach, and has been working in music colleges and opera houses in England and Europe for the last 30 years: Glyndebourne, ROH, Salzburg Festival, La Scala, Stockholm Royal Opera, Danish Royal Opera, New Israeli Opera, De Nederlandse Opera, Korea National Opera, Teatro Real, Wielki Theatre Warsaw etc. As well as lecturing and doing pre-concert talks, she has worked with many distinguished singers in preparation for operatic roles, recitals and recordings. Florence loves working with young artists and is a staff member at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Royal Academy of Music, the National Opera Studio and the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at ROH.

Florence is a co-founder and director of the Academy of French Song and Opera.

Matteo Dalle Fratte is an Italian language coach, musicologist and Italian tenor, who studied at the University of Padua and with Paolo Badoer, a pupil of Gilda Dalla Rizza, Puccini’s favourite soprano.

In addition to his role as Italian language coach at the National Opera Studio since 2010, Matteo is a Professor of Italian at the Guildhall School, where he completed a Research Fellowship in Italian phonetics for opera in 2013. He is also an Italian coach on the ROH Jette Parker Young Artists Programme and visiting Professor at RCM, RCS and RWCMD.

In 2014, Matteo founded Melofonetica to promote the correct use of Italian language in opera. With Melofonetica Academy, Matteo leads courses in the UK and Italy, using his research-based Melofonetica Method®, which helps singers and other music professionals develop their skills in sung Italian.

Since 2010 Matteo has coached opera productions for the Royal Opera House, Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras, Welsh National Opera, Opera North, Grange Park Opera, Classical Opera, Nevill Holt Opera, Arcangelo, La nuova musica, Opera Settecento and Opera Rara.

Dominik has been working as German language coach for more than 15 years. He coaches regularly for opera productions at the Royal Ballet and Opera, Covent Garden and has been engaged at Garsington Opera, Longborough Festival Opera, Opera Holland Park, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Glyndebourne Tour.
He is also currently a member of the coaching staff at the National Opera Studio and the Jette Parker Artists Programme.
International coaching credits include Vilnius City Opera (Lithuania), Nederlandse Reisopera (Netherlands), Mariinsky Theatre (St Petersburg) and Teatro Real (Madrid).
Notable engagements as language coach for recordings and broadcasts are: Classical Opera Company, BBC Singers and BBC Proms Festival, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra.

Alessandra Fasolo was born in Padova. She is an Italian Mezzo Soprano and Language Coach and studied “Classical Singing and Melodramatics” at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory of Music in Venice and the Francesco Venezze Conservatory of Music in Rovigo, where she graduated with merit under the guide of the soprano Gabriella Munari.

Alessandra moved to London in 2012 and as a Mezzo-Soprano she has performed in concerts and opera productions in Italy and in the UK.

As a Language Coach she has worked on a wide range of operas around the UK including Don Giovanni, Alcina, Xerse, L’incoronazione di Poppea, Così fan tutte, Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria, Le nozze di Figaro, Rodelinda, Traviata, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, La Boheme.

She was appointed Professor at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 2018, where she teaches Italian grammar and holds coaching classes and sessions.

French pianist Florent Mourier is a recitalist, collaborative pianist and vocal coach. He is passionate about music making, drama, pedagogy, communication and the human voice. Florent trained in Paris, Amsterdam, the Guildhall School of Music and the National Opera Studio in London. Florent is an ENOA Young Artist, a Britten-Pears Young Artist, an Oxford Lieder Festival Master-course alumnus, a laureate of the Fondation Royaumont and a member of the Académie du Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Florent works as pianist/vocal coach at the Guildhall School of Music, the National Opera Studio and for the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House.

Czech / British conductor Lada Valešová is a 2023 Winner Off West End Award in Opera Ensemble for the enterprising production of Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen with the Hampstead Garden Opera, a company with a long record of giving opportunities to young singers performing fully staged operas on the London scene.

She opened the 2022 season at Opera Holland Park with a new production of Eugene Onegin to a great critical acclaim, and previously conducted Le Nozze di Figaro as an Associate Conductor with the OHP Young Artists. Her credits include conducting a UK professional premiere of opera Svadba by Canadian/Serbian composer Ana Sokolović for the Waterperry Opera Festival and Eugene Onegin for Opera West Green House. Highlights of this season include conducting an opera double bill at the Royal Scottish Conservatoire, which included the UK premiere of the orchestral version of Four Sisters, an opera by prominent British composer Elena Langer.

Lada was an Assistant Conductor to Oksana Lyniv on production of Tosca at the Royal Opera House, to Stuart Stratford at the Scottish Opera on the instrumental version of Janáček’s Diary of One Who Disappeared produced for the Lammermuir Festival, and assisted Sian Edwards on Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta for Opera Holland Park.

Lucy is a director working in the UK and Europe in settings ranging from large scale Opera houses and regional theatres to site specific locations and drama schools. Lucy trained in Drama at Middlesex University, graduating with a degree specialising in Directing. Lucy will begin work as the first Resident DIrector at National Opera Studios in Autumn 2024.
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Lucy is currently enjoying her debut at San Francisco Opera – as associate Director on  ​The Handmaid’s Tale.
Previous credits include:  Garsington Gala (Summer 2024), The Flying Dutchman (OperaUpClose, Summer 2023), The Promise (Handpicked Productions, Summer tour 2023),  Voices of the Sands (Deal & Tete a Tete Festivals, Summer 2022), Her Day  (Coventry City of Culture March 2022),   Trouser Power (Royal Opera House, Participation), Sophie (Tete a Tete),  No Sound Ever Dies, (Surrey Arts at Brooklands Museum), Eugene Onegin (Arcola Theatre), Belongings (Glyndebourne), The Finding (Mahogany Opera), Recital 1 (British Museum and Gemäldagalerie, Berlin), Found and Lost (Corinthia Hotel), Blank Canvas (Opera Up Close),  Tycho’s Dream and Into the Harbour (Glyndebourne Education), The Last Pearly (Rich Mix), The Wind in the Willows and Grimm Tales (ALRA), An Ode to My Sisters (Regional Tour), The Onomatopoeia Society (Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh).

Lucy has worked regularly as an Associate Director. In 2023 Lucy was Associate Director to John Fulljames on Nixon in China by John Adams at Teatro Real, Madrid and in 2022 on The Handmaid’s Tale by Poul Ruders, at The Royal Danish Opera. In 2018 Lucy was Associate Director on the highly acclaimed Street Scene, at Teatro Real, Madrid; she went on to revive the production in Köln in 2019 and Monte Carlo in 2020.

In 2022 and 2024 Lucy revived Jonathan Kent’s production of Tosca for The Royal Opera House, London.

Lucy has worked extensively as an Assistant Director and Staff Director, regularly for The Royal Opera House where she has worked on Agrippina, Don Carlos, Orphee et Euridice, The Queen of Spades, Tosca, Rusalka, The Lost Thing and How the Whale Became.  At Glyndebourne Festival, Lucy has worked as assistant director on Fidelio, La Finta GIardiniera, The Marriage of Figaro, Rusalka and Billy Budd and on Nothing and The Knight Crew for Glyndebourne Education.  For Opera North Lucy has assisted on Giulio Cesare, From the House of The Dead and The Queen of Spades.  For Garsington Opera Festival, Lucy assisted Louisa Muller on Platée in Summer 2024.

In Europe Lucy has worked as an assistant director at Teatro alla Scala, Teatro Real Madrid and Den Jyske Oper, Denmark.  As an Assistant Director in theatre Lucy has worked for The Young Vic, The South Bank Centre, Rifco Arts, and Mahogany Opera Group.

As a practitioner, Lucy has often worked with marginalised or hard to reach groups; she has led projects for pupil referral units and with refugee groups; she has worked with vulnerable young people and those at risk of exclusion. Inclusion and empowerment are at the heart of Lucy’s work.

Seb originally read music at London university but changed direction to study acting at RADA, winning the Robert Donat prize for classical acting on graduation. After 15 year of performing with major UK companies (including RSC and National Theatre), he became a director and teacher. He has been Head of Acting at RADA and Drama Centre London. Recent UK productions as director include A Waste of Time (Proust), After Troy (Glyn Maxwell), Therese Raquin (Zola), The Illusion (Corneille), A Bright Room Called Day (Kushner), Billy Budd (Melville), Ladybird (Sigarev), La Dispute, (Marivaux), Electra (Sophocles/Payne) , Bloody Poetry (Brenton), and the operas La Voix Humane, Eugene Onegin and Idomeneo. Seb was made a UNESCO theatre ambassador in 2013, directing an all-male version of Richard the Third in Beijing (in Cantonese). He is also Artistic Director of Secret / Heart Ensemble

Bence Kalo is a Cardiff-based Hungarian opera & theatre director, movement director and actor. ​

He was recently Young Artist Director at Opera Holland Park, directing a production of Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel & Gretel, and his credits include Acis & Galatea by George Frederic Händel (Dorset Opera Festival), A Dozen Things I Would Rather Be by Nick Ishmael-Perkins (Streatham Space Project) and Ya’Akobi & Leidental by Hanoch Levin (Etcetera Theatre, UK & The Cameri Theatre, Israel). He has worked as an Assistant Director at Opera Holland Park and Dorset Opera Festival and has completed observerships at the Royal Opera House and in the West End.  

He has developed movement and acting workshops for the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, British Youth Opera, Waterperry Opera Festival & Dorset Opera Festival.​ Bence trained at the University of Kent (MA Theatre Directing) and École Jacques Lecoq (Two-year professional course & LEM – Laboratory of Movement Study) in Paris. He has also worked with Ariane Mnouchkine as a student of her travelling school, the École Nomade.

​In 2023 Bence was a semi-finalist for the 13th European Opera Directing Prize.​

Kate is an actress, writer and teacher. She trained at RADA and works in Theatre, Television and Film. She has co-written scripts for theatre, the BBC and Channel 4 and teaches on a weekly basis at The Actors Centre and at her own practice in Exmouth Market.

In 1997 Kate met Scott Williams and discovered the Meisner Technique and embarked on an ongoing practice and exploration of the work. She began teaching the Technique in 2000 and teaches in the UK and internationally.

With the work firmly rooted in and focused on the Meisner Technique, Kate has been inspired by her explorations into the work of Gabrielle Roth’s 5 Rhythms Dance; Kath Burlinson, Authentic Artist Collective; Paul Oertel, Discipline of Freedom; Paula Shaw, The Max and others, to widen and continuously develop her approach.

Rebecca Meitlis is a Feldenkrais Practitioner, her practice focuses on performers, building on her professional experience in Opera and Creative Learning.

As well as teaching at The National Opera Studio, she is a visiting professor at the Opera Academy Teatr Wielki Warsaw, teaches at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, ALRA and the Opéra National de Bordeaux. She collaborated with Sally Burgess on a research project, The Creative Singer, at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and has been invited to teach at Exzellenz-Labor Gesang with Hedwig Fassbender

Her career in opera began when she was awarded an ACE Director’s bursary at Scottish Opera. She was a staff director at English National Opera and co-directed the Baylis Programme with David Sulkin. She has worked for many arts and education organisations including Youth Music, Creative Partnerships and The Britten Pears Foundation.

Rebecca has published an article about her work with singers in the Journal of Theatre, Dance and Performance Training, entitled Connecting through the breath towards expressive communication in performance; an enquiry into the training of Opera singers.