CONCERT PERFORMERS

Scottish soprano Eve Pearson Maxwell studied her undergraduate at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and is now studying her Postgraduate at the Royal College of Music with Amanda Roocroft as a Leverhulme Scholar. While at the RCS Eve participated and placed in several competitions, her most recent, winning 2nd prize at the International Mozart Competition, Vienna.

She has performed with the RCS Choir as a soloist in Vivaldi’s Gloria and as Second Witch/Dido cover in Dido & Aeneas. Under Karen Cargill’s Associate Artist programme Eve performed Brahms Liebeslieder-Walzer at the Cumnock Tryst, The Stevenson Hall, and Drumlanrig Castle. Eve has recorded backing vocals for the short film, Fire and Lace and performed First Swan Maiden for Retrospect Opera’s recording of Kennedy-Fraser’s The Seal Woman with the Scottish Opera orchestra.

Her recent engagements include joining the chorus of Mozart’s Idomeneo with the Alexander Gibson Opera School and Donna Anna in Clyde Opera’s production of Don Giovanni. On BOA’s December concert, Eve performed Verdi’s Caro Nome and Arnold Schoenberg’s Gigerlette from his early 20th Century cabaret songs.

*****

ANASTASIA KOORN, MEZZO-SOPRANO

American mezzo-soprano, Anastasia Koorn, is currently studying at the Royal College of Music’s International Opera Studio as an Andrea Bocelli Foundation - Community Jameel Scholar supported by the H F Music Award, under the tutelage of Professor Tim Evans-Jones. Anastasia’s notable performances with RCM include Concepción (L’heure espagnol), Maman / La Tasse Chinoise / La Libellule (L’enfant et les sortilèges), and Praskowia (Die lustige Witwe). Alongside RCM she debuted Hänsel with Miami Music Festival in 2023. Anastasia recently featured as a soloist in recital with the Andrea Bocelli Foundation as part of the Macerata Opera Festival in August 2024. Her future engagements include the role of Cherubino in RCM’s Le Nozze di Figaro in March 2025. This December 1st’s BOA concert, Anastasia performed “O mio Fernando” from Gaetano Donizetti’s La Favorita and “Smanie implacabili” from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Così fan tutte.

ALISTAIR SUTHERLAND, BASS-BARITONE

Alistair Sutherland Baritone A graduate from The Royal Academy of Music, Alistair has enjoyed regularly working with The Music Mind Spirit Trust recently performing in The Best of Broadway at The Cranleigh Arts Centre. He was selected as a 2012 young artist with Opera Holland Park and continues to work with OHP as a chorister and comprimario performing roles such as Pinellino (Gianni Schicchi) or Crébillion (La rondine). He has worked with a number of smaller touring companies, creating roles for OperaUpClose such as Schaunard in their Olivier Award winning La bohème, Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) and Dulcamara (L’elisir d’amore) in critically acclaimed productions. Other roles include Silvio (Pagliacci), Smirnov (The Bear), Michele (Il Tabarro), Scarpia (Tosca) and Bluebeard (Bluebeard’s Castle). He regularly performs at fringe venues in London including The Arcola Theatre and The King’s Head Theatre, and he has toured to a number of venues across the UK including St David’s Hall, The Severn Theatre and The Belgrade Theatre As a chorister Alistair has worked for many companies including The Philharmonia Chorus and Opera Rara, performing in venues including The Royal Festival Hall and Cadogan Hall. He has worked with a number of conductors including Vladimir Yurowski and Sir Mark Elder. Alistair really enjoys leading community music workshops and performing for a number of care-home groups, leading dementia aware songgroups, and leads a folk- music ensemble in South London.

*****

JUSTIN SORIANO, BASS

At the age of 17, Justin Soriano performed his first Messiah as a soloist with the Downside School orchestra. His other soloist highlights include: Bach’s John Passion (St Martin’s Chamber Orchestra and St Paul’s Knightsbridge Festival Orchestra); Saint-Saens’ Christmas Oratorio and Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music (Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields); and Mozart’s Requiem (Chelmsford Cathedral). Justin is engaged regularly with many professional choirs in London such as: London Voices, Westminster Cathedral, Temple Church and others. He studies with Richard Berkeley-Steele and Iain Ledingham. In RAM opera scenes, Justin has performed: Arturo from Lucia di Lammermoor; Antonin in Ciboulette; Alfred in Die Fledermaus and Count Belfiore in La Finta Giardiniera.

*****

TADASHI IMAI, PIANO

The pianist Tadashi Imai combines a career as concert soloist, chamber musician and sought-after accompanist. He studied at the Toho Gakuen College of Music in Tokyo with Hiroshi Tajika, Hidemitsu Hayashi and Shuku Iwasaki, as a scholar at Texas Christian University with Tamas Ungar and at the Royal Academy of Music with Christopher Elton, Michael Dussek and Clifford Benson. He has won several international competitions and performed throughout Europe, the United States and Asia, in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall and Wigmore Hall. Concerto performances have included appearances with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in Texas, the Osaka Symphoniker and the State of Sibiu Philharmonic in Romania. Tadashi Imai was a Junior Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music for four years and was appointed an ARAM in 2008. He has been accompanist for Gyorgy Pauk’s violin class at the Royal Academy of Music for several years as well as official accompanist for many international competitions and master-class series, notably the Menuhin International Violin Competition, the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and the London Masterclasses. Leading string players with whom he has collaborated in recital include Maurice Hasson and the late Lydia Mordkovitch. He is a staff pianist at the Junior Academy, Royal Academy of Music.

YOUNG ARTIST MUSICAL AMBASSADORS (YAMA) of the Music Mind Spirit Trust

YAMA soloists Joe Netley (violin), Alicia Li-Yan-Hui (clarinet and violin), Mayuchi Ono (cello), and YAMA violins/violas Sapphie Johnson, Elizabeth Kirov, Jem Mossman, Annabelle Wang, Emma Wang, Libi Winterstein and YAMA Mentor Rebecca Sewell,

BRITISH OPERA ADADEMY FACULTY

MARK ROSS CLARK, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, BRITISH OPERA ACADEMY; TRUSTEE, MMST.

Professor Emeritus Mark Ross Clark has recently moved to the UK, where he continues to present workshops at leading conservatoires and directs operas internationally, currently in Chicago and Italy. Author of several books including Singing, Acting, and Movement in Opera and Guide to the Aria Repertoire (Indiana University Press) and The Broadway Song (Oxford University Press), his second volume of Guide to the Aria Repertoire is being released by IU Press this Spring.

He is a well-known adjudicator of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, with directing credits throughout the US and abroad, particularly in Italy, England, Mexico, Brazil and the Far East, as an award-winning director of well over 100 operas, operettas, musicals, and plays.

Dr Clark’s popular Singer-getics workshops bring together and “synergise” his vast background experience in the Arts, integrating essential principles as a singer, director and certified international Alexander Technique teacher.

Dr Clark began his career as a singer, studying with the legendary singer/actor/director Giorgio Tozzi. His versatile experience ranges from singing internationally as a soloist with the acclaimed Roger Wagner Chorale and for several major symphony orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic with Ethel Merman at the Hollywood Bowl, to singing background with the Carpenters for recordings and TV, and as a full-time contract singer with the Giessen Stadttheater for 3 years in Germany. He studied opera directing with Wesley Balk and earned his doctorate in Opera Production (Music and Theatre) at the University of Washington.

As Head of Opera at the renowned Indiana University for 10 years, where he directed over 50 operas, he taught and directed numerous students (including Jaimie Barton, Lawrence Brownlee, Kyle Ketelsen, Ailyn Perez, Kate Lindsey) who have sung at the Metropolitan Opera and other leading opera houses, as well as many graduates who are now leading their own opera programmes throughout the US, Canada, Mexico and Europe.

*****

DR CHIKA ROBERTSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BRITISH OPERA ACADEMY; CEO, MMST.

Dr Chika Robertson, CEO and co-founder of the Music Mind Spirit Trust, is a professor of violin at the Royal Academy of Music, JA and for many years international Diploma Examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. She is much in demand as a music adjudicator, masterclass and workshop presenter, project director and conference speaker in the UK, USA and Europe.

Chika has premiered numerous seminal works for eminent musicians and recorded as both soloist and chamber musician with world-class ensembles including the London Sinfonietta & Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, performed in a piano trio with Tchaikovsky Competition winner Peter Donohoe, and in many diverse styles with artists such as Shirley Bassey and Ella Fitzgerald. Her violin pupils regularly achieve Distinctions in their violin diploma exams and in festivals, and many are enjoying successful solo, chamber, orchestral and teaching positions internationally.

Chika is passionate about using innovative interdisciplinary methods to benefit music, science and competitions medicine. Her work in health, wellbeing and recovery forges new career paths by training Young Artist Musical Ambassadors (YAMA) from the Royal Academy of Music to reinvigorate latent musicianship in care homes and other protected community settings. She and her husband are currently creating an exciting intergenerational music and health mentorship programme to benefit musicians, families and diverse communities.

With grateful thanks to our partners: Colet House, London & The Royal Academy of Music, Junior Academy

“I love playing the violin because it has the power to bring everyone together.”

(Emma Wang, Young Artist Musical Ambassador & student at the Primary Academy, Royal Academy of Music, age 10)

This concert was recorded by Martin Redfern and dedicated to the late Dr Peter Fenwick.