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Richard Strivens (Artistic Director) is a singing teacher based in the North West, at the University of Manchester, Junior RNCM and teaches privately in Manchester. He studied at RNCM and NOS and now dedicates his work to teaching singing. He coaches on the Vocal Ensemble and the Vocal Composition modules at University of Manchester having also co-directed the Singing-Actor module.

His formative professional years were at Glyndebourne. Over his 15 years as a singer, he has worked with all the major British opera companies and many of the touring companies as both a soloist and education workshop leader. Roles included Nick Shadow (The Rake’s Progress), Mozart’s Count, Don Giovanni, Vermeer (The Second Mrs Kong, Birtwistle), Håkon (The Martyrdom of St Magnus, Maxwell Davies), Handel and Rossini bass roles.

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Nina Whiteman (Artistic Director) is a composer with a record of commissions from amateur and professional ensembles alike, including the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, and Ealing Youth Orchestra. Her music has been commissioned and broadcast by BBC Radio 3, and featured in the World Music Days festival. As a singer, she collaborates with composers as a soloist and as co-director of the ensemble Trio Atem as well as being active as a free improviser. Nina is Lecturer in Composition and Director of Composition at Royal Holloway, University of London.

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The Vonnegut Collective is a chamber ensemble based in Manchester. It was formed in 2014 by two members of the BBC Philharmonic with the aim of exploring new music and making it more relevant and accessible to all. Our carefully crafted recitals and education work facilitate creative music-making, story-telling and free expression through structured and improvised sound, giving everyone the chance to experience new music, their music, either made by them or for them.

 

Gary Farr (trumpet) studied at the Royal Northern College of Music gaining a BA degree and professional performance diploma before joining the internationally recognised contemporary music group Remix Ensemble in 2000. He has performed solo works by Berio, Henze, Turnage, Jolivet, Rebecca Saunders, and gave the first performances of Olga Neuwirth’s solo trumpet work ‘Laki’ in Paris, Vienna, Strasbourg, and Porto. Gary holds the position of Sub-Principal Trumpet of the BBC Philharmonic and is also a trumpet tutor at Manchester University and at the Junior Royal Northern College of Music.

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Gemma Bass (violin) completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Manchester, during which time she studied composition with Camden Reeves and Philip Grange, and performed regularly with Kairos electroacoustic ensemble. From there she went on to spend two years at the Royal Northern College of Music learning with Ben Holland, graduating with Distinction in 2009. Gemma is now a member of the BBC Philharmonic and the Manchester Camerata. Also interested in the use of music as a therapeutic and educative tool, she regularly leads and assists on education and outreach projects for organisations such as Special Virtuosi, BlueSci and as part of her job with the Camerata.

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http://vonnegutcollective.co.uk/

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PLEASE NOTE THAT WE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF CONFIRMING MENTORS FOR MCYO 2019. BELOW IS A LIST OF MENTORS FROM THE 2017 AND 2018 PROJECTS BY WAY OF EXAMPLE.

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Lliam Paterson (Repetiteur and Mentor to MCYO17 Music Director) from Ellon, Aberdeenshire is a composer, repetiteur and piano accompanist. He was appointed Composer-in-Residence with Scottish Opera in 2014. His companion opera to Bluebeard’s Castle - The 8th Door - was commissioned by Scottish Opera and premiered in a co-production with Vanishing Point in March 2017, directed by Matthew Lenton and conducted by Sian Edwards. BambinO, an opera for babies, was commissioned by the Manchester International Festival, Scottish Opera and Improbable, and opened at MIF17 in July in a production by Phelim McDermott. 

Lliam gained a First in Music from the University of Cambridge, and graduated with a Masters (Distinction) in Piano Accompaniment and Repetiteur Studies from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. While at the Guildhall, he studied privately with Judith Weir. As a repetiteur, he specialises in contemporary opera, and has worked for Scottish Opera, the Brighton Festival, the Music Co-OPERAtive Scotland and NOISE Opera.

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Rebecca Meltzer (Movement Director and Mentor to MCYO17 and 18 Stage Director) is based in London. Having undertaken a Masters in Movement: Directing and Teaching at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (RCSSD), her current practice spans both theatre and opera. Rebecca recently was Movement Director for Mike Bartlett's 13 at RCSSD, Paws and Padlocks with Blackheath Halls Opera and Monteverdi's Poppea at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. She is currently undertaking research concerning the physical training of opera singers in UK conservatoires. Rebecca has previously taught at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and has trained and worked in companies including the Royal Opera House, British Youth Opera, National Opera Studios at Welsh National Opera, Dorset Opera Festival, Blackheath Halls Opera and Edinburgh Studio Opera.

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Sarah Castle (Mezzo-soprano, Integrating Singing and Acting Coach, 2017) was born in New Zealand. She made her Royal Opera debut in 2001 as Tisbe (La Cenerentola) where she has since sung Flosshilde and Siegrune (Der Ring des Nibelungen), Dryad (Ariadne auf Naxos), Page (Salome), Mademoiselle Dangeville (Adriana Lecouvreur) and Flora Bervoix (La traviata). In the 2016/17 Season she sings Portia (The Merchant of Venice) for Welsh National Opera.

Sarah studied at the Royal Northern College of Music. Operatic engagements include the title role in Tan Dan’s Marco Polo, Elektra (Trojahn’s Orest) and Magdalene (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg) for Dutch National Opera, Fox (The Cunning Little Vixen) for WNO and Israeli Opera, Nerone (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Sesto (Giulio Cesare) and Melibea (Il viaggio a Reims) for Israeli Opera, Oberto (Alcina) for San Francisco Opera and Stuttgart State Opera, Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro) for Seattle Opera, New Zealand Opera and in San Diego, Lola (Cavalleria rusticana), Stéphano (Roméo et Juliette) and Siébel (Faust) in San Diego, Hänsel for Opera Australia, Nicklausse (Les Contes d’Hoffmann) for Teatreo Real, Madrid, the Composer (Ariadne auf Naxos) and Andronico (Tamerlano) for the Spoleto Festival and Olga (Eugene Onegin) for La Monnaie, Brussels. Her Wagner performances include Flosshilde and Grimgerde (Die Walküre) for the Bayreuth Festival and Flosshilde for Opera North and in Munich.

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Michael Bennett (Tenor, Integrating Singing and Acting Coach, 2017 and 2018) sang as a chorister at Westminster Abbey, continuing his studies at Durham University, and at the RNCM in Manchester. In 1998 he sang the role of the Madwoman in Yoshi Oida's production of Britten's Curlew River in Aix-en-Provence, as well as performances in Vienna, Brussels and New York, returning to Aix to sing Mercurio in L'incoronazione di Poppea conducted by Mark Minkowski.

Recently he has sung Don Basilio/Don Curzio in Le Nozze di Figaro for the Winteroper in Potsdam, the Male Chorus in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia for Opéra de Tours, Goro in Madama Butterfly and the First Witch/Spirit in Sasha Waltz’s production of Dido and Aeneas at the Staatsoper in Berlin, Remandado in Carmen in Leipzig, Stravinsky's Renard in Helsinki and at the Chatelet, and Peter Quint in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw in Tel Aviv. 

Known for his performances of contemporary music, he has premiered works by many composers including Marc Monnet, Param Vir, Ahmed Essyad and Giovanni Verrando. He sang the role of Arlecchino in the world premiere of Signor Goldoni by Luca Mosca at Teatro La Fenice, the title role in the European premiere of The Tyrant by Paul Drescher in Bolzano, and the role of the servant in the acclaimed UK premiere production of Sciarrino’s opera Luci mie traditrici for Music Theatre Wales, for whom he also sang the role of The Visitor in From the Penal Colony by Philip Glass, a work he has recorded on the composer’s own label. He sang in the premiere stage version of Glass's Hydrogen Jukebox for Opera de Nantes, and most recently the roles of Block and Franz in the world premiere production of Glass's latest opera, The Trial.

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Emma Bell (Soprano, Integrating Singing and Acting Coach, 2018) From a prestigious early career built predominantly on Mozart’s leading ladies, former Kathleen Ferrier Award-winner Emma Bell has in recent years debuted a number of jugendlich-dramatisch roles including Eva (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Elsa (Lohengrin) and Elisabeth (Tannhäuser). Recent seasons have seen her debut at Bayerische Staatsoper as Eva (Kirill Petrenko), performances as Madame Lidoine at Staatsoper Hamburg (Kent Nagano), Freia (Das Rheingold) in concert with Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé Orchestra, and her debut as Leonore (Fidelio) which led to several other productions, most recently at Oper Köln.

Emma Bell’s 2018/19 season includes performances of Britten’s War Requiem staged by Daniel Kramer at English National Opera under the baton of Martyn Brabbins, Venus and Elisabeth (Tannhäuser) at Deutsche Oper Berlin under Sebastian Weigle and Matilde in semi-staged concert performances of Mascagni’s Silvano for Scottish Opera under Stuart Stratford. In concert she sings Leonore with the Orquesta Sinfonica de RTVE and Wesendonck Lieder with Malta Philharmonic Orchestra under Lawrence Renes.

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Adam Davies, Artistic Director of Animikii Theatre (Movement workshops for composers, 2018) Adam Davies is a Pontefract-born actor/practitioner who trained in both Manchester and London. His theatre practice has led him to tour nationally with international physical theatre and street theatre companies such as Tmesis Theatre, Artizani Theatre and Avanti Display.

Adam works extensively in the teaching of physical theatre practices at a host of drama schools and universities including ALRA North, Bolton University, Liverpool Theatre School and Buckinghamshire University. His main teachings centre around the assimilation of the Stanislavsky system into a robust and rigorous process of physical training and practice that is pragmatic in its approach.

Adam's formal actor training began in 2006 where he attended the three-year Acting (BA Hons) programme at The Arden School of Theatre, Manchester. In 2012 Adam resumed actor training at postgraduate level on the MA Theatre Lab at RADA; a course designed to nurture and enable future leading theatre creators and practitioners.

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Jeff Wallcook (Theatre practitioner and storyteller, 2017 course) has been developing his vibrant approach to facilitating arts projects for over 15 years. Centred on creating spaces where groups can collaborate to tell their own stories in their own words, his work has helped create new and authentic stories, narratives and libretti for contemporary and local audiences.

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