The Northern Aldborough Festival New Voices Singing Competition has unveiled its 2024 semi-finalists, showcasing exceptional classical singers, aged 18-32. With a nationwide search spanning concert halls, universities, agencies and conservatoires, this competition has become a beacon for emerging talent. The semi-finalists will compete for cash prizes of £7k, and perform in front of a distinguished judging panel featuring the great operatic bass Sir John Tomlinson, conductor Edward Gardner OBE and pianist and founder of the Oxford Lieder Festival Sholto Kynoch.
Join the excitement, and watch the semi-finalists go head-to-head LIVE in Aldborough on Monday 17 June at 12pm and 3.30pm at St Andrew’s Church.
The winner of the Final on Tuesday 18 June will receive The Seastock Trust Prize of £5,000 and a recital at Northern Aldborough Festival 2025, with a second prize of £1,500 from The Yorkshire Music Future Fund, and a third, Audience Prize of £500. You can see a snapshot of the semi-finalists below, and do look out for our upcoming newsletters, where we’ll be introducing each of the final acts in more detail, so you can hear their dreams, inspirations and what winning means to them!
Clara Orif (Soprano) & Jack Redman (Piano)
Clara and Jack have collaborated for over three years since meeting at the Royal Academy of Music. They have performed widely in the UK and France and were Oxford Song Young Artists. Clara took 1st Prize in the Richard Lewis Competition and has sung as soloist with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
Florian Stoertz (Bass-Baritone) & Aleksandra Myslek (Piano)Florian and Aleksandra form a captivating piano-voice duo. Notable collaborations include participation in the Britten/Pears Young Artist Programme and Renée Fleming’s SongStudio at Carnegie Hall in 2023. Florian won the 2023 London Handel Singing Competition, the 2023 Helmut Deutsch Song Competition and is a Rising Star with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Aleksandra recently gave her Wigmore Hall debut and is a recipient of the Edith Poulsen Accompanist Prize.
Caroline Taylor (Soprano) & George Ireland (Piano)
Caroline made her recital debut at the Royal Opera House in 2023. She graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music with Distinction, winning the Joyce and Michael Kennedy Strauss Award and the 2021 Emmy Destinn Award for Czech Opera and Song, and was recently a Young Artist with duo partner George Ireland at Oxford Song Festival. Pianist George has a thriving career as a recital partner with renowned singers. He is a self-taught pianist from a working-class, non-musical background and recently graduated with distinction from the Royal College of Music.
Rebecca Leggett (Mezzo-Soprano) & George Ireland (Piano)Rebecca and George both met at the Royal College of Music and have worked together for various recitals and competitions since. In 2022 they won the London Song Festival ‘British Art-Song Award’ and reached the final of the Kathleen Ferrier Award 2023. Rebecca studied at the Royal College of Music and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.
Annabel Kennedy (Mezzo-Soprano) & Daniel Peter Silcock (Piano)Hailing from Devon, Annabel honed her craft at the Royal College of Music and has recently won the Singers’ 1st Prize in the Royal Over-Seas League Competition. A Jerwood Young Artist, she has appeared at Glyndebourne and made her first principal role debut as Flora in Verdi’s La Traviata for Nevill Holt Opera. She is accompanied by pianist Daniel Peter Silcock, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, who has performed at Wigmore Hall and at international music festivals.
Ava Dodd (Soprano) & Firoze Madon (Piano)Ava, an Irish soprano, studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music, London. She was the winner of the Yves Paternot prize at the Verbier Festival 2023, won the Boston district round of The Met Opera Competition 2022 and recently sang Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress at Verbier Festival. Firoze Madon is currently a second-year undergraduate student at the Royal College of Music, studying piano with Professor Dmitri Alexeev. He was a piano finalist in the BBC Young Musician 2022.
Lauren Lodge-Campbell (Soprano) & Collin Shay (Harpsichord)Lauren is a British/Australian soprano and a former member of Le Jardin de Voix with Les Arts Florissants. Her performances as soloist have been with renowned ensembles including The English Concert, Les Arts Florissants, and more. Her accompanist Collin Shay is a French-American harpsichord player. They have performed at the Royal Opera, Wigmore Hall, the Barbican Concert Hall. Collaborations with Lauren Lodge-Campbell include a performance broadcast on Radio France Musique, and the upcoming Wigmore Hall/Bollinger International Song Competition. They were the Junior Fellow in Early Keyboards at the Guildhall School of Music from 2020-2021.
Samuel Stopford (Tenor) & Daniel Peter Silcock (Piano)British tenor Samuel is in his first year of Royal Academy Opera as a Bicentenary Scholar. He is an Opera Prelude Young Artist, winner of the Second Prize and the Song Prize in the Richard Lewis/Jean Shanks Award and is supported by the Josephine Baker and Countess of Munster Trusts. He recently made his Wigmore Hall debut and will join the Studio of the Bayerische Staatsoper for their 2024/2025 season. He will be accompanied on piano by Daniel Peter Silcock, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, who has performed at Wigmore Hall and at international music festivals.
We look forward to an exciting contest!