=============
Bahiya Cassidy
Soprano
Bahiya Cassidy grew up
and was educated in England. She has extensive experience in opera and as
a concert and oratorio performer. She also derives great pleasure from
performing lighter music, which she does regularly, both in England and abroad.
She began her vocal training at Trinity College of Music, London during which
time she performed her first professional engagement, the role of Baroness
Aspasia in Rossini’s
La Pietra del Paragone
under the direction of the internationally renowned conductor, Charles Farncombe
CBE. Bahiya then toured England with the Unicorn Arts Theatre singing
Queen of the Night and First Lady in Joanna Macgregor’s arrangement of Mozart’s
Magic Flute.
This included performances at the City of London Festival, The Unicorn Arts
Theatre and the Cheltenham Festival, followed by a run at the Liverpool
Playhouse, again singing Queen of the Night and First Lady.
Bahiya completed the two year Master of Music Advanced Opera course at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, under the tuition of Patricia MacMahon and was then awarded a scholarship to the Britten Pears School in Aldeburgh where she studied with Sir Thomas Allen.
This was followed by a series of international concerts, one of which was Handel’s Messiah, performed in Oman in the presence of His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales.
Recently Bahiya has performed the roles of Serpina in Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona and Bastienne in Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne, numerous concerts and oratorios including The Messiah, Jauchzet Gott in Allen Landen, Mozart’s C Minor Mass and The Vespers plus Scarlatti cantatas for Soprano and Counter-Tenor.
Karine Raymond
Mezzo Soprano
Karine, from Beziers in the
South-West of France, has been singing in public since the age of sixteen, when
she was a chorist at several French music festivals.
Later she studied Music and Drama at the Conservatoire de Toulouse and the Conservatoire de Paris where she was tutored by Ms Marie-Thérèse Cahn and Gabriel Bacquier. There she performed Cherubino (The Marriage of Figaro), Siebel (Faust), Dorabella (Così Fan Tutte) and the French repertoire of Fauré.
She has performed at numerous French music festivals as a soloist (medieval songs, traditional songs, sacred music and operatic arias) and at many recitals in her hometown.
Karine moved to London 7 years ago and was tutored by Angela Hickey (ARCM). She was soon singing with City Opera, Opera Workout and Opera Festa. She then created Opera Dreams, a musical entertainment company that entertained audiences in the UK, France and Spain.
Karine now sings for charity events and is trained by the internationally renowned vocal coach Tina Ruta.
Nigel Cassidy
Baritone
Nigel studied Music at Royal
Holloway College and went on to study voice at Trinity College of Music and the
Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
On stage his roles have included Pantalon in The Love for Three Oranges (Prokoviev), Marco in Gianni Schicchi (Puccini), Gloster Heming in The Mother of Us All (Virgil Thompson), The Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe, and Robin in Ruddigore (Arthur Sullivan and WS Gilbert).
In the concert hall Nigel has performed Stanford’s Songs of the Fleet, Handel’s Messiah with the Cologne Bach Choir, Stravinsky’s Mass with the Philharmonia Chorus and a concert performance of Copland’s opera The Second Hurricane with Leonard Slatkin and the BBC Concert Orchestra.
Recently, Nigel qualified as a Music Teacher and will be taking up a post at Prior’s Field School in September.
Louisa Ridgway
Accompanist
Louisa began studying the piano at the age of 3 and attended Trinity College of Music (TCM) junior department for 7 years before embarking upon a degree course at TCM. She studied for 4 years under Roger Green. Since leaving college, Louisa has embarked on a successful career as a freelance accompanist and repetiteur.
Louisa specialises in working with singers. She is the repetiteur for the University of Greenwich, conducted by Nicholas Jenkins, and for Voices in Partnership and the Cavendish Singers (choirs run by the John Lewis PLC and conducted by Manvinder Rattan). From 1997 - 2004 Louisa also worked for TCM junior department as the official accompanist and accompanist coordinator. She has performed in many of the country's leading concert venues, including the Royal Albert Hall, the Barbican, Purcell Room, and even Wembley!
Since 2000, Louisa has been a regular tutor on the Workers' Music Association Summer School, initially as an accompanist, now also as a vocal coach, Ceilidh band tutor and conductor of the Summer School Chorus.
Nicholas Morrell
Organist
From
1995 - 2000, Nicholas was a chorister at Westminster Cathedral Choir School,
recording several discs, including the 1998 Gramophone Award (Hyperion).
He was Head Chorister in his final year and won a music scholarship to Downside
School. In addition to completing his A Levels at
Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School, he gained his
Grade 8 in Violin, Piano and Voice. Nicholas is reading for a degree in Music at
Clare College, Cambridge. He won a choral scholarship to Clare and at
Easter sang Tenor solo in Stainer’s
Crucifixion.
Nicholas has just returned from the Salzburg Music Festival, where he was
touring with the Choir. He hopes eventually to direct his own choral ensemble.