Introducing our 2025/26 Young Artists

Mathilda Goike is a Swedish mezzo-soprano, currently completing her Master’s degree at the Oslo Opera Academy, graduating in June 2025. She is the recipient of The Swedish Wagner Society’s Bayreuth Scholarship 2025.

During her studies at the Opera Academy, Mathilda made her debut as Olga Eugene Onegin and Kastrubai Satyagraha (Norwegian National Opera and Ballet). Other operatic roles include the title role Rinaldo, Jo Little Women by Mark Adamo, La Reine Hamlet by Thomas, Polina Pikovaya dama, Fidalma Il matrimonio segreto, Sesto Giulio Cesare, Giovanna Anna Bolena, and Dalila Samson et Dalila.

She received her Bachelor’s degree in classical singing from the School of Music in Piteå, Sweden, where she was awarded The Royal Skyttean Society Prize 2022 for outstanding artistic promise.

Recent concert highlights include performances at the Oslo Operaball, Røykenvik Opera Festival and Oslo Opera Festival. In spring 2025, she will perform with the Oslo Philharmonic, sing Charlotte Werther, and participate in both the Belvedere Singing Competition and the Elizabeth Connell Prize International Singing Competition.

Lily Mo Browne is a British mezzo-soprano and the most recent winner of the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Awards. She studies under Ben Johnson and Caroline Dowdle at the Royal College of Music and is supported by the Drake Calleja Trust. Lily is also a Robert Lancaster and Helen Marjorie Tonks Scholar and is excited to join the National Opera Studio (NOS) as a Young Artist in 2025.

Upcoming role debuts include Dido Dido and Aeneas at the Northern Chords Festival and Flippyevna Eugene Onegin with the Verbier Festival Academy’s Atelier Lyrique later this season. Other roles include Second Witch Dido and Aeneas (Hurn Court Opera), Old Lady Candide (Southgate Youth Opera), Zweite and Dreite Dame Die Zauberflöte, La Regina La bella dormente nel bosco, and Marie Airtime with the RCM International Opera Studio.

Oratorio highlights include Handel Messiah, Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle, Mahler 2nd Symphony, Mozart Requiem, and Michael Tippett A Child of Our Time.

Lily won the Somerset Song and Audience Prize, 1st in the AESS Senior Song Prize, and the Sarah Harrison Prize in HCO’s Singer of the Year competition. She also placed 2nd and 3rd in both the RCM’s Brook van der Pump English Song Prize and Joan Chissell Schumann Competition.

Carmen Lázaro is a Spanish mezzo-soprano. In 2024, she completed a Master’s in Operatic Performance at the Conservatorio Superior de Música “Joaquín Rodrigo” de Valencia. She previously graduated with First Class Honours in singing and also holds an undergraduate degree in viola from the same institution. She is currently completing her postgraduate studies at the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg.

Carmen has received masterclasses from renowned artists including Elīna Garanča, Mariella Devia, Dolora Zajick, Elena Pankratova, Ramón Vargas, Ernesto Palacio, Laura Polverelli, and Solveig Kringleborn.

Operatic roles include Nicklausse Les contes d’Hoffmann (Offenbach), L’enfant L’enfant et les sortilèges (Ravel), Contessa Melibea Il viaggio a Reims (Rossini), Enrico Elisabetta, regina d’Inghilterra (Rossini, Den Norske Opera & Ballet), Rosina Il barbiere di Siviglia (Teatro de la Maestranza), and Armelinde Cendrillon (Viardot, El Palau de Les Arts).

In 2023, Carmen was selected by Teatro Real (Madrid) to join its “Crescendo” programme, performing at the venue’s main stage for the presentation of the 2023/24 season.

Mkhanyiseli Dyantyi is a South African tenor born in the Eastern Cape. He completed both his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at Opera UCT in Cape Town, graduating with distinction in 2025 with a Postgraduate Diploma in Music.

Operatic experience includes Alfredo La traviata (Opera UCT in collaboration with Cape Town Opera), Ildemaro Dalinda (Opera UCT), and Natanaël Les contes d’Hoffmann (Opera UCT). In September 2024, he was cast in the lead role for the world stage premiere of Donizetti’s long-lost opera Dalinda.

Recent concert highlights include performing Rodolfo in scenes from La bohème (Opera UCT). He has also appeared at major South African events such as the Starlight Classics and Suidoosterfees.

Future engagements include performing Manrico in Il trovatore (Opera UCT in collaboration with the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra).

Welsh tenor and composer Tomos Owen Jones previously graduated from the David Seligman Opera School and completed the MMus Composer-Performer course at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (RWCMD).

Operatic roles include Don Ottavio Don Giovanni, Lysander A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Il Principe La bella dormente nel bosco (Respighi), and L’Aumonier Dialogues des Carmélites (RWCMD). He also covered Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus and Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi (RWCMD). In summer 2025, Tomos will perform The Spirit Dido and Aeneas (Longborough Festival Opera / Barokksolistene).

He has premiered roles including Y in Plaut’s The Y Knot (RWCMD), Gwydion the Magician in Stephen McNeff’s 2117/Hedd Wyn (WNO Young Company), and the Data Collector in Richard Barnard’s Nonsensus (Tête-à-Tête Opera Festival). He is a recipient of the Janet Price Opera Prize and the Adelina Patti Bel Canto Prize at RWCMD.

As a composer, Tomos has had works premiered by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, The National Eisteddfod, Atmospheres Festival Cardiff, and Leeds Lieder. He was an ORA Singers Graduate Composer for 2024 and won the WNO-RWCMD Composition Competition (2021) and Welsh Guards March Competition (2024).

Ambrose Connolly is a British baritone and graduate of University College London, where he studied Russian and French. He went on to train at the Kazan State Conservatoire under Ekaterina Laider, and later completed a Master’s in Advanced Vocal Studies at the Wales International Academy of Voice in Cardiff under Dennis O’Neill. He was the winner of the 2020 Serebranie Rosi International Opera Singing Prize and was one of eight singers selected for the Glyndebourne Academy in 2021.

Notable roles include Guglielmo Così fan tutte (Cardiff Opera), Germont La traviata (North Wales Opera Studio), Eugene Onegin Eugene Onegin (Bath Opera), and most recently the title role in Eugene Onegin (HGO, London). In 2024, he performed the roles of Fiorello and Baron Duphol with Diva Opera. In 2025, he will return to Diva Opera as the Notary in Don Pasquale and Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro on their European tour.

Ambrose is currently taught by Russell Smythe.

Jack Sandison is a British bass-baritone who graduated with First Class Honours from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2017. In the 2023/24 season, he performed the title role in Leonard (Birmingham Opera Company), Theseus in Ciphers (Tête à Tête Opera Festival), and made his debut at the Oslo Opera Festival as Bernard in The Waves (Louis Mander). Jack was a Jerwood Young Artist at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 2022, where he has been involved in several productions since 2019. In 2021, he sang the role of Keeper of the Madhouse in The Rake’s Progress (Glyndebourne Tour).

Other engagements include Wexford Festival Opera, Birmingham Opera Company, and Garsington Opera, where he covered roles such as Speaker in Die Zauberflöte, Haushofmeister in Capriccio, and Cadmus and Somnus in Semele as an Alvarez Young Artist. Jack has received the Helen Clarke Award from Garsington, the Wessex and Miriam Trevaux Awards from Glyndebourne, and was a runner-up in the Joaninah Award competition, representing Glyndebourne.

Future engagements include Ufficiale in Il barbiere di Siviglia (Longborough Festival Opera).

Peter Lidbetter is an international British-Irish bass from London, joining the National Opera Studio as a Young Artist for the 2025/26 season. Recent operatic roles include Dottore Grenvil La traviata (Grange Festival Opera), Sarastro Die Zauberflöte (Charles Court Opera), The Producer Buster’s Trip by Ed Lambert (Tête-à-Tête Festival), Bartolo and Antonio Le nozze di Figaro, Kecal Prodaná nevěsta, Basilio Il barbiere di Siviglia (all Garsington Festival Opera), as well as Simone Gianni Schicchi and Haly L’italiana in Algeri (both Wexford Festival Opera).

Internationally, Peter performs regularly with Bergen Nasjonale Opera and is a Principal Guest Artist with the Edvard Grieg Vokalensemble in Bergen, Norway. He made his Royal Albert Hall solo debut with them as part of the BBC Proms 2023 during their UK tour.

Peter holds an MMus and PGDip from the Royal Northern College of Music, both with distinction. At the RNCM, he was a Gold Medal finalist and recipient of the Elizabeth Harwood Memorial Award and the Brigitte Fassbaender Prize for Lieder. He also holds a BA in Music from the University of Cambridge, where he was a choral scholar at Jesus College and later a lay clerk at St John’s College.

André Bertoncini is a Brazilian collaborative pianist specialising in opera and chamber music. He completed his Master of Arts in Piano Accompaniment with Distinction (DipRAM) at the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied with Michael Dussek and James Baillieu.

In 2024, he worked as repetiteur for Die Zauberflöte (Nevill Holt Festival) and for Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park (Cardiff Cotswold Opera). He made his Wigmore Hall debut in 2023 with the Academy Song Circle and was awarded the Accompanist Prize at the Bampton Young Singer Competition.

Prior to moving to the UK, André was Assistant Collaborative Pianist at UEM (State University of Maringá), accompanying and coaching vocal and instrumental students, teaching piano, and supporting outreach initiatives through the University’s project PIN. He also worked as accompanist and repetiteur for FEMUSC (Music Festival of Santa Catarina). He holds a Bachelor’s degree from UNESPAR/EMBAP (Brazil), where he studied with Russian pianist Olga Kiun, supported by the Dieuwertje Meijer Project.

Su Choung is a pianist and repetiteur from Sydney, Australia. She was most recently Children’s Chorus Master and repetiteur on Opera Australia’s 2024 national tour of La bohème. Other recent engagements include Il tabarro (Victorian Opera & Sydney Festival), Aida (Opera Australia), and Il barbiere di Siviglia for Opera Australia’s national tour. In 2023, Su joined the artistic team at Victorian Opera for the world premieres of Richard Mills’ The Butterfly Lovers and Graeme Koehne’s A Christmas Carol.

As a Young Artist with Melba Opera Trust, Su received the Margaret Schofield Opera Scholarship and the Mel and Nina Waters Award. She was also awarded the Megan Evans OAM Encouragement Award through the Joan Sutherland & Richard Bonynge Foundation in 2022.

Su holds a Bachelor of Music Performance and a Graduate Diploma in Collaborative Piano from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

In 2024/25, Su joined the National Opera Studio in London as a Young Artist, and she will return for a second year in 2025/26. Upcoming engagements include projects with Waterperry Opera Festival, Opera Holland Park and the Glyndebourne Festival this summer.

Henry Reavey is a British repetiteur currently in his second year at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He completed an undergraduate music degree at the University of Birmingham with First Class Honours before pursuing a Master’s in Piano Performance at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where he graduated with distinction. Henry furthered his studies with an Advanced Postgraduate Diploma as a repetiteur at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, also graduating with distinction. He received multiple awards including the Anthony Cross Memorial Prize for outstanding contribution to the APD course, the Edward Brooks Lieder Accompanist’s Prize, the Gordon Clinton Prize for accompanying English song, and the John Ireland Prize.

Operatic experience includes working as assistant conductor, chorus master, and repetiteur for Dido and Aeneas and Die Fledermaus (GSMD). Henry has been a repetiteur for La Straniera (Chelsea Opera Group), Le Roi d’Ys (Chelsea Opera Group), Alcina (Handel), A Star Next to the Moon (GSMD), The Enchanted Pig (Jonathan Dove), The Cunning Little Vixen (Janáček), Mesdames de la Halle (Offenbach), and Banished (Stephen McNeff, RBC). He has also accompanied Opera Scenes productions at GSMD and RBC.

Alfonso Sánchez Pérez is a Spanish pianist, conductor, and repetiteur. He studied piano at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin and completed a Master’s degree in Piano Performance at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz, Austria. He is currently pursuing a diploma in Conducting and Collaborative Piano at the same institution.

Alfonso has worked as repetiteur and orchestral pianist with the Bruckner Orchester Linz on productions including Die tote Stadt (Korngold), Die heilige Ente (Hans Gál), and the world premiere of Il Viaggio (Alois Bröder, Landestheater Linz). He has recently participated in rehearsals for Lulu (Berg) and Lohengrin (Wagner) at Stadttheater Passau, Germany. As a conductor, he has collaborated with numerous ensembles and premiered a new work by Michael Wahlmüller at the 2024 Balduin Sulzer Composition Prize.

Alfonso has also performed as a tenor in the chorus for the world premiere of Adam and Eve by Mike Svoboda (Schwetzingen Festival, Germany). A committed collaborator, he has prepared singers for productions including Aida and La bohème, and was Music Director of the Trinity College Orchestra in Dublin.