Live Uprising Fri 28 – Sat 29 March

Ellie Slorach is the RSNO’s Engagement Conductor.

Alongside her work at the RSNO, Ellie is the Founder and Artistic Director of Kantos Chamber Choir and works across the UK and internationally with orchestras and choirs.

In the 2023-24 season, Ellie makes her debut with the Royal Northern Sinfonia at Sage Gateshead and with New Adventures’ production of Edward Scissorhands at Sadler’s Wells. She returns to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Singers, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Orchestra of Opera North and Manchester Camerata.

Specialising in concerts for schools and young people, Ellie has worked with orchestras including The Hallé and the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, where she was the Assistant Conductor to Gergely Madaras in 2021-22. She is often invited to work with youth and student orchestras and choirs, including having been Musical Director of the Hallé Youth Orchestra. 

Ellie regularly works on opera productions; she conducted Northern Opera Group’s production of Handel’s ‘Silla’ in 2022 and returns as Musical Director for their headline production of ‘Sherlock’ in 2024 at the Leeds Opera Festival. She was co-Musical Director for the Royal Opera House’s production of Lost & Found at St Pancras International station in 2022 and was the Assistant Conductor for Opera Holland Park’s Rigoletto in June 2023.

In 2015, Ellie founded Kantos Chamber Choir; this trailblazing vocal ensemble is at the cutting edge of choral singing in the UK. Kantos performs unique and innovative concerts, devised by Ellie, to sell-out audiences, in venues ranging from nightclubs to concert halls. The choir regularly perform and record with orchestras including the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic, on labels including Decca Classics.

Ellie studied Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music having previously studied Music at the University of Manchester. 

London based Welsh Soprano Ffion Edwards was a Young Artist with the National Opera Studio 21/22. She is a Master of Performance graduate at the Royal College of Music, and is an alumna of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Ffion recently played the role of Cunegonde in Bernstein’s Candide and covered Queen of the Night in Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Bronwen in Hackbridge Johnson’s Blaze of Glory! with the Welsh National Opera. Ffion has also recently played the role of Gianetta in Donizetti’s L’Elisir D’Amore at Glyndebourne.

Ffion made debuts at Glyndebourne Festival Opera giving two performances of Oberto in Handel’s Alcina, Glyndebourne Touring Opera as First Bridesmaid and cover Barbarina in Mozart’s Le Nozze Di Figaro, Opéra National de Lorraine in the role of Kristin in Julie by Belgian composer Boesmans, English National Opera in the role of Frantik and Jay in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen.

Other operatic performances include Ffion covering the roles of Oriana Amadigi with English Touring Opera and Zerlina Don Giovanni with Nevill Holt Opera. Earlier performances include Clarice Il Mondo Della Luna, 1st Trio Member Trouble in Tahiti, Zerbinetta Ariadne auf Naxos, Elisa Il Re Pastore at the Royal College of Music. She has also performed a number of times with Welsh National Youth Opera in small roles and as a chorus member. In 2019, Ffion sang in the Chorus in a Royal Opera House production of Tosca with Sir Bryn Terfel, Vittorio Grigolo and Kristine Opolais in the Abu Dhabi Festival.

As a soloist, Ffion has worked with ENO Orchestra, WNO Orchestra, performed Bach Ascension Oratorio (RCM), Bach B Minor Mass (Tilford Bach Festival), Messiah (Bristol Cathedral), Eternal Light (Gloucester Cathedral) and debuted at the Royal Albert Hall. Ffion was the winner of the Handel Prize in The Maureen Lehane Virtual Vocal Awards 2021. She has also given private recitals accompanied by maestro Carlo Rizzi and performed for HRH King Charles at his home in Wales.

Ffion is grateful to have been supported by The Carne Trust, Help Musicians UK, and The Countess of Munster Musical Trust.

Award winning Colombian soprano Julieth Lozano Rolong wowed audiences worldwide scooping the coveted Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Audience Prize at the 2023 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition and was recently named as one of Opera Wire’s 2023 Top Ten Rising Stars.

This season, Julieth returned to Welsh National Opera to revisit the role of Nuria in Ainadamar. She made her debut with the company at the delayed Dubai Expo 2020 in the new production of Al Wasl as Zayed/Young Mary under the direction of Sir David Pountney and baton of Justin Brown. Also, this season, she will make her English National Opera debut as Jano in Jenufa.

Julieth’s 2022/23 season commenced in her native Colombia as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro at Teatro Mayor under the baton of Martin Haselböck. Following this, Julieth returned to the UK to make her debut at Scottish Opera in a new production of Ainadamar as Nuria under the baton of Stuart Stratford, before spending the rest of the season at Grand Théâtre Genève as part of their Jeune ensemble. Roles there will include Blumenmädchen in Parsifal, Melanto in Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria, La Doctoresse in Voyage vers l’espoir and Aksinia in Lady Macbeth of Mtsenk.

Previous engagements include Vixen (The Cunning Little Vixen) for Longborough Festival Opera, Zerlina (Don Giovanni) at the Verbier Festival, Tytania (Midsummer Night’s Dream) for Opera al Parque, Colombia, Despina (Cosi Fan Tutte) at the International Music Festival at Cartagena, Colombia, Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro) at RCM and Norina (Don Pasquale) for Random Opera.

A 2020 Kathleen Ferrier competition finalist, and 2018 recipient of the President’s award given by The Prince of Wales, Julieth appeared in the BBC documentary Queen Victoria: My Musical Britain recorded in 2019 at Buckingham and Kensington palaces. In 2016 she participated in Georg Solti’s Academy and Verbier Festival’s Project Opera, where she was awarded the Prix Thierry Mermod. She has performed at the Royal Albert Hall, V&A Museum and many other venues around the globe.

Julieth graduated with a Masters in Vocal Performance and an Artist Diploma in Opera from the Royal College of Music, under the tutelage of Dinah Harris. An Irene Hanson and Independent Opera at Sadler’s Wells scholar, Julieth was a 2019/20 Young Artist at the National Opera Studio in London.

Mezzo soprano Madeleine Shaw is a former member of the Young Singer’s Programme at English National Opera and she continues to enjoy great success on the opera and concert stages. It was in the role of the Beggar Woman in Deborah Warner’s acclaimed production of Death in Venice that Madeleine made her debut at English National Opera, Madeleine went on to reprise this role at La Monnaie, Brussels; Dutch National Opera and La Scala, Milan.

This season, Madeleine Shaw makes her debut at the Staatsoper Hamburg as Aksinya Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk; she returns to Welsh National Opera as Annina Der Rosenkavalier; English National Opera as Rita The Handmaid’s Tale and the Longborough Festival as Fricka Das Ring des Nibelungen. She will make her debut with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra as the Aufseherin in concert performances of Elektraconducted by Kirill Petrenko in Bergen and Stockholm.

In the 2022/23 Season, Madeleine returned to English National Opera as Fricka Das Rheingold directed by Richard Jones; to Glyndebourne for her role debut as Marcellina Le nozze di Figaro and to Welsh National Opera as the Old Lady in a new production of Candide. Madeleine returned to the BBC Proms in 2022 as the Sorceress Dido and Aeneas with La Nuova Musica, and she has recently appeared with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Recent operatic appearances include her debut at the Opéra national de Paris as Aufseherin Elektra conducted by Semyon Bychkov; she returned to ENO as Rita The Handmaid’s Tale and at Welsh National Opera she created title role of Elena Langer’s Rhondda Rips It Up! and appeared as Annina Der Rosenkavalier; elsewhere she has appeared as The Forrester’s Wife The Cunning Little Vixen and Roßweise Die Walküre for the Royal Opera and as Maddalena Rigoletto for Glyndebourne and ENO.

British bass-baritone Dingle Yandell studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio. He was one of the inaugural ‘Rising Stars’ of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and was a founder member of the award-winning British vocal ensemble Voces8, with whom he toured internationally for ten years.

In the 2023/24 season he sings Zuniga Carmen and Sprecher Die Zauberflöte both for Glyndebourne Opera. He also sings Richard Strauss’ wistful one-act opera Daphne on the concert platform with The Orchestra of Scottish Opera, Bach’s Matthäus-Passion with Collegium Vocale Gent on a tour that includes significant concert halls.

Recent operatic engagements include André Thorel Thérèse (Scottish Opera), Theseus A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Glyndebourne Opera), Don Pizarro Fidelio (Glyndebourne tour); Colline La bohème (Nevill Holt Opera); Snug A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Scottish Opera); Commendatore Don Giovanni (Nevill Holt Opera, Oxford Sinfonia); his role debut as Fafner Das Rheingold (Grimeborn); Angelotti Tosca, Sarastro and Speaker of the Temple Die Zauberflöte, Count Ceprano and cover Sparafucile Rigoletto, and Immigration Officer Flight (Scottish Opera); The Doctor Pelléas et Mélisande, cover Don Geronio Il turco in Italia, and cover La Roche Capriccio (Garsington Opera); Plutone in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (L’Arpeggiata); Seneca L’incoronazione di Poppea (Bach Collegium Japan); and The Cold Genius and Aeolus King Arthur (Gabrieli Consort).

Equally in demand on the concert platform, his recent performances include Mozart Mass in C Minor with Royal Northern Sinfonia, Elgar The Apostles with The Hallé Orhestra, Bach Christmas Oratorio with Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra and Handel’s Messiah with Huddersfield Choral Society, Handel’s Messiah with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall; St Matthew Passion at the Valetta International Baroque Festival, Israel in Egypt with William Christie at the BBC Proms, The Creation cond. Adam Fischer, Harmoniemesse cond. Andras Schiff and the world premiere of Sally Beamish’s The Judas Passion (all with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment); Bach’s St John Passion (Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Moscow); Purcell’s Begin The Song (Arcangelo at Wigmore Hall). He sings regularly with the Early Opera Company, La Nuova Musica, Holland Baroque and Les Inventions, and is a soloist for the Bach, The Universe and Everything concert series at Kings Place, London. He also appears as a soloist on L’Arpeggiata’s recording Himmelsmusik.

His concert repertoire includes Handel’s Dixit Dominus with the Monteverdi Choir at the BBC Proms and the Berliner Philharmonie, Bach’s St John Passion with the Academy of Ancient Music at the Barbican, Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Mozart’s Requiem at the Wimbledon International Music Festival, B Minor Mass (Cadogan Hall); Christmas Oratorio and Messiah (Hitomi Hall, Tokyo and with the Orchestra of Opera North); Bach Wachet Auf and Erfreut Euch (Dijon Opera House); Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music (Royal Festival Hall, cond. John Wilson) and Fantasia on Christmas Carols (Isumi Hall, Osaka); Purcell O Sing Unto the Lord (Gabrieli Consort) and Phoebus Dido and Aeneas (L’Arpeggiata at Oudemuziek Festival, Utrecht); Beethoven Symphony No. 9, Theodora, Dvorak Stabat Mater, Rossini Stabat Mater and Verdi Requiem.

Nkululeko Innocent Masuku is a South African operatic tenor, born in Secunda, Mpumalanga on 13 May 1990. He has received various accolades including a Merit award in the 2019 SAMRO competition, a Drake Calleja trust award, sponsorship by The Tillet Trust fund, The Oppenheimer International Scholarship, and The Countess Of Munster Musica award.

He is a former studio member of the Cape Town opera where he made his first public performance in a production of Porgy and Bess in which he played Crabman. The production was set up in Argentina. He followed this up by playing Borsa in Rigoletto. He has played diverse roles such as Tamino in the Magic flute. Heperformed in master classes led by Maestro Kamal Khan and Willard White. He has also performed alongside Eric Owens and other top billed artists in a production of Porgy and Bess presented by a collaboration between the English National Opera and Dutch National Opera. He is currently working at Garsington.

Founded in 1978 by Jean Kidd, the RSNO Youth Chorus (formerly known as the RSNO Junior Chorus) is one of the leading children and youth choirs in the UK, with over 400 members aged seven to eighteen. It has built up a considerable reputation singing under some of the world’s most distinguished conductors and appearing on radio and television.

The RSNO Chorus performs in around six different programmes in up to twenty concerts across Scotland with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra each year. The RSNO Chorus has also had great success in recording with the Orchestra. Its recordings, amongst others, of Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky, conducted by Neeme Jӓrvi, and Holst’s The Planets, conducted by David Lloyd-Jones, have both attracted high critical acclaim.

In addition to its commitment to the Orchestra, the RSNO Chorus performs independently and has been invited to perform with orchestras in many parts of the world, establishing an international status and touring to Copenhagen, Hong Kong, Israel, Germany, Belfast, Australia, Trondheim and most recently, Amsterdam and Prague. In 2018 it performed Britten’s War Requiem with the RSNO at the BBC Proms.

The RSNO Chorus evolved from a choir formed in 1843 to sing the first full performance of Handel’s Messiah in Scotland. Today, it is one of the most successful choruses in the UK. In recent years, it has performed practically every work in the standard choral repertoire along with contemporary works by renowned composers, including John Adams, Magnus Lindberg, Howard Shore and James MacMillan.