Anthony Almeida was the winner of the European Opera Directing Prize in 2022 and he was nominated in the Rising Star category at the International Opera Awards. He will direct a new production of The Turn of the Screw for the Royal Danish Opera at the start of the 2023/24 season. In 2022, Anthony made his debut at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, directing a double bill of Stravinsky's Mavra and Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire - between 2017-19, Anthony was the inaugural "Link Artist: Stage Director" at the Royal Opera House. Anthony was awarded the 2021 Genesis Kickstart Fund Grant, nominated by Almeida Theatre - where he has a new production in development - and he was announced as the winner of the Sir Peter Hall Director Award in 2019, and he went on to direct Tennessee William's Cat On A Hot Tin Roof at Curve, Leicester in a co-production between Curve, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse and English Touring Theatre.
Birmingham born Alpesh was Principal Cello with the CBSO Youth Orchestra. He entered the Royal Northern College of Music in 2008 to study the cello before pursuing the prestigious Master’s Conducting Course. Highlights of Chauhan’s career include a subscription concert with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre and his BBC Proms debut with the BBC Philharmonic, a production of Turandot in Valencia at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía as well as regular appearances with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra where until 2016 he was Assistant Conductor. For the past five years Alpesh has enjoyed a fruitful relationship with the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini in Parma, who awarded him the title of Principal Conductor and with whom he has performed and recorded staples of the great symphonic repertoire, including a complete cycle of Brahms’ symphonies. He regularly appears as a guest with acclaimed British orchestras including across the UK and further afield internationally. Chauhan made his UK opera debut in 2019 with Birmingham Opera Company, the CBSO and director Graham Vick for Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, which won a Royal Philharmonic Society Award. He was the winner of the Newcomer Award, International Opera Awards 2020. Most recently he conducted our Wagner's RhineGold to great critical acclaim.
A keen advocate of music education for young people, Alpesh has worked with ensembles such as the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and the symphony orchestras of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the Royal Northern College of Music. He is a patron of Awards for Young Musicians, a UK charity supporting talented young people from disadvantaged backgrounds on their musical journeys. Alpesh was awarded an OBE in the Queen's New Years Honours List 2022.
Claudia is a set and spatial designer whose work spans theatre, dance, music, exhibition, installation, film and VR. Her work has spanned internationally over Europe, the Middle East, and the US. Claudia has worked with 59 Productions in a Senior Designer role for several years.
Claudia studied architecture at Cambridge University and the Royal College of Art, and qualified as an architect in 2020. Prior to working as a set designer, Claudia worked in architecture offices based in London, Berlin and New York.
Credits include: Kan Yama Kan (Global Theatre Riyadh), New Jibla (SJACC), Black & White (SJACC), Má Vlast (Czech Philharmonic), Stones of Venice VR (New Vision Arts Festival HK)
Associate Credits include: One Woman Show (West End), Moments of Silence (Imperial War Museum), Invisible Cities (Manchester International Festival), Shadow Factory (NST City Southampton), City of Glass (HOME Manchester/Lyric Hammersmith), Brigadoon (NYCC), Five Truths (Festival d’Avignon)
Aimee is an actor and writer from the West Midlands. Most recently she played Tina in My Name is Leon (BBC2) & appears in Ebay’s latest commercial - The Magpies. Theatre work includes: Bright Places (Birmingham REP), Home Theatre (Birmingham REP), My Big Fat Cowpat Wedding (Kali/BCT). As a voiceover artist she has worked on projects for RSPCA, Chanel & Aston Martin. She is a founding member of Running With Scissors, a new collective who explore ways to retain talent and make work accessible to artists who are parents/carers. She is currently composing and writing the book for MAMA - a piece of gig theatre.
Paksie Vernon trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Theatre credits include NETWORK, ANGELS IN AMERICA and JEKYLL & HYDE for the National Theatre; THE WATSONS and THE NARCISSIST for Chichester Festival Theatre; MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM and OUR COUNTRY'S GOOD for Tobacco Factory Theatre and JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH for Leeds Playhouse.
Therese career has been wide and varied, including work as an actor: rural touring with Pentabus, rep touring with Anita and Me, she is an Associate Artist With Gazebo theatre as a writer and mentor and the Fetch Theatre as an Actress and puppeteer. Therese recently made a brief appearance alongside Amy in My Name is Leon and occasionally pops in to Ambridge as Paula.
Therese has had a long career as a writer despite her Dyslexia, and her show Os Cachos do Meu Cabelo is currently touring with Teatro do Montemuro.
Mezzo-soprano Wendy Dawn Thompson has performed principal roles with many of the world’s leading opera companies, including the Royal Opera House, Opera Australia and Teatro Nacional de São Carlos. She made her theatre as Teresa Salieri in Amadeus at London’s National Theatre.
Wendy studied singing at Victoria University of Wellington and won New Zealand Young Performer of the Year Award in 1998. She was a Dame Malvina Major Emerging Artist at New Zealand Opera before completing studies at the Royal Northern College of Music and Royal College of Music. In her final year of study Wendy won the 2003 Kathleen Ferrier Prize.
She is equally at home on the song recital and concert circuit. Recital appearances have seen her performing at the Wigmore Hall, Aldeburgh Festival, BBC Proms, Edinburgh International Festival and Bridgewater Hall. Wendy was proud to represent New Zealand in the final of the 2005 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition.