The Academy

“Praised for her ‘outstanding vocal dexterity’, ‘virtuosic freshness and radiance’ and ‘character of compelling presence’” (Daily Info Review), Cheshire-born soprano Sophie Akka is the 2025 Winner of Clonter Opera’s ‘Betty Bannerman Award for French Song’ and of the ‘Sir David Maddison Opera Prize’.

Passionate about blending performance with academically informed context and practice, she read music at The Queen’s College, University of Oxford, before completing her master’s this year at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM). She is thrilled to be continuing her studies at the RNCM for her PGDip as a new member of Amanda Roocroft’s studio, generously supported by the Drake Calleja Award, the Dame Eva Turner Award (2025/6 & 2026/7), and an RNCM scholarship Award.

Operatically, Sophie has performed as Susanna Le Nozze di Figaro (Oxford Opera Society), Nicolette L’Amour des Trois Oranges (RNCM Opera), Fiordiligi Così Fan Tutte (The Opera Collective), Donna Anna Don Giovanni (Oxford Student Opera Society), Poussette Manon (Preston Opera), Violetta in a Brindisi performance for China State TV and this summer as a member of the chorus in British Youth Opera’s (BYO) 2026 production of The Rake’s Progress. She has also participated in two residencies with Opera North and performed as Santuzza La Finta Gardiniera, Columbina Le Donne Curiose, Nella Gianni Schicchi and Pauline La Vie Parisienne in various RNCM scenes.

In concert, she has recently sung as soprano soloist in Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater in the Basilica di Santa Trinita (Florence) and Bach’s B minor Mass at Shrewsbury Abbey, as well as for Mozart’s Requiem with Leeds Festival Chorus and with Guernsey’s Choral and Orchestral Society, for Beethoven’s Mass in C and Matthew Coleridge’s Requiem with Altrincham Choral Society and in Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine with Michael Chance’s SienAgosto in Sienna. She is also a member of RNCM Songsters, with whom she recently performed at Buxton Opera.

Sophie opens this season with a French Song recital with Clonter Opera at Clonterbrook House and by joining the 2026/27 cohort of the National Opera Studio (NOS) Academy.

Dorset-born soprano Lucy Breakwell is currently studying for a MA in Vocal Performance at the Royal Academy of Music, where she is taught by Mary Nelson and coached by Joseph Middleton. She is a recent graduate from the Graduate Diploma of the RNCM programme from which she gained upper and first-class degrees from the Royal Northern College of Music and the University of Manchester, respectively. Her studies this year are generously supported by the Fishmongers’ Company Award, Help Musicians’ Dick Maidment & Peggy Cooper Award, and the Luxon Amit Bursary Award.

Her operatic roles include premiering Eliza Patterson in Kate Pearson’s The Water Mark (RNCM Community Opera), Frog/Frog’s Grandson The Cunning Little Vixen (RNCM Opera), First Alms Sister Suor Angelica (Dorset Opera Festival), Eurydice Orphée aux enfers (MUMS Opera), Bastienne Bastien et Bastienne (Bread and Bus Stop), and scenes as Countess, Clorinda (Clonter Opera), Sifare, and Zerlina (RNCM Opera). Recent concert highlights include Mozart’s Requiem and Haydn’s Little Organ Mass with City of London Sinfonia for their Come and Sing! series at Holy Sepulchre Church in London, and Libby Larsen’s Missa Gaia: Mass for the Earth, and Schubert’s Mass No. 2 in G major with Preston Cecilian Choral Society.

Lucy is also a passionate recitalist. She most recently gave a recital with harpist Megan Humphries at Jane Austen’s House for their Persuasion Festival. She has also performed a programme of vocal music arranged for harp and guitar at the Whitworth Art Gallery with RNCM Songsters, a recital featuring Ravel’s Shéhérazade with chamber orchestra for the Coffee Concert series at St James & Emmanuel Church in Didsbury, and Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with chamber orchestra for a conducting masterclass in the RNCM Concert Hall. She was a finalist at the Dean Chadlington Singing Competition and won the Procter-Gregg Prize for Performance for highest third year recital mark from the University of Manchester.

This summer, Lucy was a Young Artist at Waterperry Opera Festival where she performed in a 5-person chorus for their production of La bohème, along with scenes for their Young Artist Gala.

Anh Thu ‘Anna’ Nguyen is a Vietnamese-New Zealand soprano from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, working across operatic, choral and sacred repertoire. She is currently studying for a Master of Performance at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama under the tutelage of Marie Vassiliou and joins the National Opera Studio as a member of the 2026/27 NOS Academy cohort.

She holds a Bachelor of Music (Honours) in Classical Voice with First Class Honours from the University of Auckland, studying with Dr Morag Atchison, having completed her undergraduate degree with Dr Te Oti Rakena alongside a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. Her awards include the Taurus Charitable Trust Postgraduate Scholarship, the Ramon Opie and Corrine Bridge Vocal Scholarship, and the Kate Edger Foundation’s Vinka Marinovich Award in Music.

In 2026 she was named a Dame Malvina Major Young Artist with the inaugural National Youth Opera Aotearoa programme, for whom her roles include La Contessa Le nozze di Figaro (Toitoi Opera House, Hastings) and the Witch Hänsel und Gretel (Napier Municipal Theatre), the latter opera in concert conducted by Lada Valešová. In 2025 she joined the Freemasons Foundation New Zealand Opera Chorus for La bohème (New Zealand Opera, Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre). A member of the New Zealand Youth Choir from 2023 to 2025, she toured Europe and Singapore, the ensemble being named Choir of the World at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod.

Anh Thu is especially passionate about continuing to diversify the operatic community as a queer, neurodivergent performer. In her time away from music, she enjoys perusing second-hand bookstores despite never finishing the one she is currently reading.

Rachel Wheatley is a soprano from Hull, currently studying at the Royal Northern College of Music with Hilary Summers. Recent operatic engagements at the RNCM include chorus performances in Chabrier’s L’étoile and Britten’s Owen Wingrave, as well as appearing as Rozenn in Le Roi d’Ys as part of RNCM Opera Scenes. Alongside her stage work, Rachel has taken part in several singing competitions. She was awarded the Norma Proctor Song Prize, was a finalist in the 2024 Kathleen Ferrier Awards Junior Bursary Competition and received the Avril Coleridge-Taylor Second Prize in the Williams-Howard Competition at the RNCM, resulting in a prize-winners performance at Buxton International Festival. She looks forward greatly to her time with the National Opera Studio and is excited to see where this new opportunity takes her.

Irish soprano Sophie Whelan recently completed her Bachelor’s degree in Vocal Studies at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with First-Class Honours and has now commenced her Master of Performance, continuing her studies with Professor David Pollard.

During her time at Guildhall, Sophie performed multiple roles in Opera scenes including Fiordiligi Così fan tutte, Alice Ford Falstaff, Female Chorus The Rape of Lucretia and Leonore Fidelio. Other operatic scenes experience includes Suor Angelica Suor Angelica (Vox Integra); Norina Don Pasquale, Gilda Rigoletto and Mary Crawford Mansfield Park (Glasslight Opera).

Sophie is a Sybil Tutton Opera Award holder with Help Musicians and was a member of the 2025 Glyndebourne Academy. She recently took part in the Developing Dramatic Voices short course at the National Opera Studio and is currently a member of the 2026/27 Wexford Factory at Wexford Festival Opera.

On the concert platform, Sophie has appeared as soprano soloist in Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Her ensemble work includes performances of Boulanger’s Psalm 130 at the Barbican Hall and Holst’s The Planets with the Guildhall Symphony Orchestra. She has also performed at Wigmore Hall as a finalist in the Irish Heritage Bursary competition and has appeared with The Celtic Tenors in Ireland.

Sophie won the Song Prize at the Junior Charles Wood Song Competition in 2024 and has participated in masterclasses with Sir Thomas Allen, Dame Ann Murray, Ernesto Palacio, Serena Gamberoni, Tobias Truniger and Sophia Muñoz.

Alongside her postgraduate studies and work with the Wexford Factory, Sophie is looking forward to joining the 2026/27 National Opera Studio Academy.

Minduli is a Sri-Lankan born British Mezzo-soprano from Manchester, currently in the penultimate year of her BMus (Hons) degree at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM). She is under the tutelage of Raymond Connell and Libby Burgess.

Before joining the Academy, she attended the Junior Department of the Royal Northern College of Music (JRNCM) for two years, studying flute and singing as joint first studies. She has performed with the National Youth Choir of Great Britain’s Training Choir at the Royal Albert Hall. She has also taken to the stage as a soloist with the Salford Symphony Orchestra and in regional concerts including the Middlewich and Didsbury Concert Series.

Her achievements have been recognised through numerous awards and prizes at competitions and festivals across the North-West of England. Most notably, Minduli placed 1st in the Intermediate Voice Recital and was adjudged ‘Most Promising Female Singer Between the Age of 15 and 25 In any appropriate Class’ at the David Clover Festival of Singing (Festival Weekend 2022) and was selected as a finalist at the Charles Wood Song Competition (2025).

Her development has been enriched by programmes such as the Glyndebourne Youth Academy (2022-2023) where she was 1 of 10 finalists chosen to attend a residential with Mary King and Yolanda Grant-Thompson. She has also benefitted from masterclasses from Prof. Julie Kennard, Dr Carl DuPont, Prof. Christopher Underwood and most recently with The Association of Teachers of Singing (AOTOS) led by Raymond Connell and Barbara Houseman. Minduli’s upcoming engagements include The Academy Voices: Autumn Leaves concert and Ada in Gilbert & Sullivan’s Princess Ida (Royal Academy of Music).

In addition to her studies, Minduli is enthusiastic about widening participation in Opera and Classical Music. She is passionate about introducing Opera to more diverse audiences especially young persons and those with South Asian heritage like herself. She recently delivered an Interactive Opera workshop for 12–13-year-olds at her previous state school.

During her spare time, she is a keen baker and cake decorator and compiles economical and healthy cooking videos for students.

Rebecca West is a Scottish Mezzo Soprano. She recently graduated from the Royal College of Music (RCM) under the tutelage of Ben Johnson and Gamal Khamis. She performed in the RCM’s 2026 spring and summer opera scenes as Orphée Orphée et Eurydice, Bianca The Rape of Lucretia and Mrs Kneebone in Berkeley’s A Dinner Engagement. She performed as Alcesta in Cavalli’s Erismena as part of BMus 3 opera scenes. She was a member of the chorus in the RCM International Opera Studio’s 2025 production of Le nozze di Figaro and sung in the chorus of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the BBC Proms 2023. She was a part of Scottish Opera’s Young Company and performed in their critically acclaimed production of modern opera Rubble by Gareth Williams and Johnny McKnight and has sung as part of the Edinburgh International Festival across multiple years with the National Youth Choir of Scotland, highlighted works being Durufle’s Requiem, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius and Golijov’s La Pasión según San Marcos. Upcoming engagements include being a member of the National Opera Studio’s Academy 26/27.

Hong Kong-born tenor Ambrose Chiu, of Chinese and Indonesian heritage, recently completed his Bachelor of Music (Honours) at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where he studied under John Evans as a scholarship recipient. During his studies, he was a finalist for the Guildhall Schubert Institute Prize and the Charter Surveyor Vocal Prize. Previously trained at Wells Cathedral School, Ambrose relocated to the UK in 2018.

Recent concert highlights include Bach’s St John Passion and Cantata BWV 147, Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, Fauré’s Requiem, Mozart’s Spatzenmesse, and Bruckner’s Mass in F minor and Te Deum, performed as a soloist at venues including the Royal Albert Hall and St John’s Smith Square. He is currently a Tenor Choral Scholar at St Pancras Church, and has previously held positions as a Choral Scholar at St Mary Newington under Edwin Hiller and a Tenor Scholar with the Christopher Wood Choral Foundation under David Guest. He is also a selected singer of the Josephine Baker Trust.

Recent operatic highlights include Candide and Vanley in Windrush Migrations (Pegasus Opera Company), Piangi in The Phantom of the Opera (Guildhall School), and Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus. He has also performed multiple roles throughout The Old Maid and the Thief, Die Zauberflöte, La fille du régiment, and Don Pasquale, alongside chorus work in Respighi’s Maria Egiziaca and La bella dormente nel bosco.

Most recently, Ambrose performed as Tenor 1 in the Quintet Chorus in L’elisir d’amore (Waterperry Opera Festival/Charles Court Opera). Upcoming engagements include Joebel in David and Jonathan.

Ben Ryan is a 23-year-old tenor from Darlington, England. He is currently in his 4th undergraduate year at the Royal College of Music, studying under Ben Johnson and Bryan Evans, generously supported by the Stephen Stuart-Smith Vocal Award. He is a former member of the Samling academy where he sang the role of Sailor Dido and Aneas in 2025. In concert, he has performed as the tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah, Dvořák Mass in D and Mozart Requiem. Previous opera roles have included Grimoaldo Rodelinda, Goffredo Rinaldo, Basilio Le Nozze di Figaro and Chorus Acis and Galatea. He will be performing the role of Odoardo in the RCM Opera Studio’s upcoming production of Handel’s Ariodante.

William Swinnerton is a 21 year-old English baritone, currently in his fourth year of undergraduate studies at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, under the tutelage of Christopher Turner.

His operatic highlights include Mr Gedge Albert Herring (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (RBC)), Pierrot in Ethel Smyth’s Fête Galante (RBC), Bob in Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief (RBC and Mayfield Festival), Jupiter Orphée aux enfers (RBC), Trojan Man and Chorus Idomeneo (Chelsea Opera Group), and most recently, as the Jailor in the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s semi-staged concert production of Tosca in Birmingham’s Symphony Hall. William’s opera scenes work includes Alidoro La Cenerentola, Musiklehre Ariadne auf Naxos, Demetrius in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Il Conte Le Nozze di Figaro, and upcoming scenes include Guglielmo Così fan tutte, and Don Pizarro Fidelio.

Supported by the Josephine Baker Trust, William is an in-demand soloist across the Midlands and beyond for Oratorio Performances. Recent soloist appearances include Handel’s Messiah with Northampton Bach Choir, Saint-Saëns Christmas Oratorio and Mendelsohn’s Vom Himmel Hoch with Winchester City Festival Choir, and performances of Handel’s Messiah, Faure’s Requiem and Mozart’s Requiem at RBC. Upcoming oratorio performances include Durufle’s Requiem with Northampton Bach Choir, Handel’s Messiah with Daventry Choral Society and Godiva Ensemble, and singing the role of Christus in Bach’s St Matthew Passion in Birmingham’s Symphony Hall with ExCathedra.

William is also a keen choral singer, currently singing as a bass lay-clerk at St Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham, as well as an Enhanced Scholar with ExCathedra. He was Head Chorister at Romsey Abbey between 2015 and 2018, where his love for singing began, before joining the choir of Beaulieu Abbey as a choral scholar, as well as the National Youth Choir of Great Britain between 2019 and 2023.

Recent awards include highly commended for the Adrian Clarke Vocal Award at Grasmere Song 2026, runner up in the RBC Doris Newton Prize, winner of the RBC Singing Prize, and winning the Birmingham Festival Choral Society Oratorio Prize in 2025.

Scottish-Russian bass Alex White is in his final year of undergraduate studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, under the tutelage of Professor Stephen Robertson. He began his musical training as a chorister in Oxford before to moving to Scotland. Alex’s operatic experience flourished at a chorus internship at Hamburg Staatsoper during their production of Shostakovich’s Die Nase.

His operatic and concert roles include Le Arbre in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (Royal Scottish National Orchestra), Pilate/Peter in J.S. Bach’s St John Passion (Paisley Abbey), Judas/Peter/Pontifex in J.S. Bach’s St Matthew Passion (Scottish Chamber Orchestra), and The Raja in Kenneth Tay’s Redhill Passion.

Alex was recently a member of Genesis Sixteen’s 15th cohort as well as one of the Borders Music Festival Emerging Artists this year, he is also a regular soloist with the Glasgow Bach Cantata Project since 2023.

Upcoming performances include singing the role of the King in the world premiere of Savourna Stevenson’s Song of Stars Cantata.