Making Music Partnership - Singers

Louise Alder - Soprano                                                   Ian Fleming Charitable Trust Award

Soprano Louise Alder was born in London and read music at Edinburgh University. She graduated a Bucher-Fraser scholar with First Class Honours in 2010 before joining the Royal College of Music where she has won first prize in both the Lieder and English song competitions and studies with Janis Kelly on a full scholarship. She is a Britten-Pears Young Artist and over two years has been awarded both an Ian Fleming Award and a Maidment Scholarship administered by the Musicians Benevolent Fund, a Dewar Arts Award, and scholarships from the Countess of Munster, AHRC and Hope Scott Trust. Solo concert performances include Carmina Burana (Philharmonia Chorus), Diana Cacciatrice/Handel (London Handel Festival), Jauchzet Gott/Bach (Tilford Bach Society), Exsultate Jubilate/Mozart (Concerto Competition winner, Edinburgh University), The Red Cockatoo and Other Songs/Britten (Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, Aldeburgh Festival) and Creation/Haydn (St. Magnus Festival, Orkney).

Eleanor Laugharne - Soprano                                        Maggie Teyte Prize and Miriam Licette Scholarship

Ellie from Bideford, North Devon completed her studies on the Artist Masters Programme at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama under the tutelage of John Evans. After completing a music degree at Birmingham University, she studied at the Birmingham Conservatoire with Catherine Benson. During her year at the Conservatoire, Ellie was awarded the Singing Prize and the overall interdepartmental performance prize. She was also awarded the postgraduate course prize for overall excellence. Ellie was delighted to be part of the Glyndebourne Chorus for the 2010 Summer Festival season and was selected to perform the role of Gretel, Hänsel und Gretel, for Glyndebourne's educational workshops both at the Opera House and at Somerset House, London. Ellie recently won the Musicians Benevolent Fund Maggie Teyte Prize and Miriam Licette Scholarship and performed a recital in the Crush Room at the Royal Opera House in June as part of the prize. 

Monica McGhee - Soprano                         
Ian Fleming Charitable Trust Award

Scottish soprano Monica McGhee is in her second year at the Royal College of Music with a scholarship for the Masters of Performance course where she studies with Rosa Mannion. This year she holds a Simon Fletcher Charitable Trust Award, an Ian Fleming Award administered by the Musicians Benevolent Fund and a Robertson Trust Award. Whilst studying for her undergraduate at the RSAMD she enjoyed numerous competition, concert and operatic success. In 2008 she won the Jean Highgate Scholarship award for undergraduate singing and 2nd place in the Hugh S Robertson Scots Song prize 2009. Soloist concert performances include Bach Magnificat with the RSAMD Chamber choir and RCM Baroque Orchestra, Vivaldi’s Magnificat, Rossini’s Petite Messe Sollennele and the Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny in the Edinburgh International Festival. This summer Monica participated on the Les Azuriales Young Artists Programme. Future engagements include recitals of the complete songs of Duparc in Edinburgh and Newcastle in autumn 2011. 

Alison Rose - Soprano     
Maidment Scholarship

Alison Rose is currently on the Masters programme at the Royal Academy of Music where she studies with Ryland Davies and Audrey Hyland. She graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music with First Class Honours.
At RNCM she was awarded the Brigitte Fassbaender Award for Lieder and the Claire Croiza Prize for French Song and was awarded the 2011 Elena Gerhardt Lieder Prize at the Academy. Operatic roles have included Servilia- La Clemenza Di Titio, Barbarina- Le Nozze Di Figaro (cover) and La Princesse- L’Enfant et les Sortilege (cover), all for RNCM Opera. Concert engagements have included Bach’s Cantata 151 with the RNCM Chamber Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Kraemer, Handel’s Messiah and Samson, Saint- Saëns Oratorio de Noël and Haydn’s Harmoniemesse. She has performed several times for the Yorke Trust including performances of Handel’s Dixit Dominus and Israel in Egypt and Bach’s Magnificat. Recent and forthcoming engagements include Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Manchester Camerata conducted by Douglas Boyd, a performance of Handel’s Gloria, Mahler Symphony No 4 at the Two Moors Festival, Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri with the Irish World Academy in Limerick and a recital of French mélodie at the Institut français. Alison’s studies are generously supported by a Maidment Scholarship administered by the Musicians Benevolent Fund, the William Gibbs Religious and Educational Trust and the Josephine Baker Trust.

Deborah Rudden - Soprano                    
Ian Fleming Charitable Trust Award

Deborah is currently a final year Vocal Studies student at the RSAMD where she studies with Margaret Izatt. Deborah has been singing from an early age, firstly with the RSNO Junior Chorus and then with the National Youth Choir of Scotland. She also attended the RSAMD Junior Academy for 3 years before being offered a full scholarship to study at the RSAMD as a full time student. Deborah was one of two students selected to represent the Academy at the 2008 Kathleen Ferrier Award for Young Singers. Future engagements include Donizetti’s Lucia di Lamermoor with Opera Bohemia, a Song Studio concert in Perth with members of the RSAMD opera school and a recital, staged opera scenes and a public masterclass with Lisa Milne at the Aberdeen Music Festival. Deborah will undertake a place on the Master of Music Performance course at the RSAMD in September this year. Her studies are generously supported by an Ian Fleming Award administered by the Musicians Benevolent Fund and an RSAMD scholarship.

Hannah Sandison - Soprano                          
Maidment Scholarship

Hannah Sandison is currently in her first year of the Masters in Performance course at the Royal College of Music on a full scholarship, under the tuition of Russell Smythe. In July last year Hannah obtained a First Class Degree with Honours from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Productions included Les Contes D’Hoffman, Offenbach, Dialogues des Carmelites, Poulenc, and Cosi Fan Tutti, Mozart. In March of last year, Hannah premiered the role of ‘Hanneline’ in a new opera by Rory Boyle: Kaspar Hauser – Child of Europe. In her final year of the undergraduate course, Hannah won the prestigious Governors Recital Prize for singing and a live broadcast and interview on BBC Radio Scotland. She also came 2nd in The Frank Spedding Lieder Prize in February 2008, was highly commended in The Jean Highgate Scholarship competition in June 2008, and was selected by the RSAMD to take part in the junior Kathleen Ferrier Award in 2007. Hannah is currently being generously supported by the Ian Fleming Charitable Trust (2010/2011) and Maidement Scholarship (2011/2012) both administered by the Musicians Benevolent Fund, The Countess of Munster Musical Trust, and as well as a full scholarship from the Royal College of Music, was awarded a two year Post-graduate Performance Scholarship from the Arts and Human Research Council. 

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