Here we give brief details and photos of some of the many singers who have contributed to Scottish Voices over the years. Some of these have their own websites with more extensive details:
Alison McNeill, Anne Lewis, Beth Taylor, Dorcas Owen, Frances Morrison-Allen, Grace Wain, Julia Daramy-Williams, Laura Margaret Smith, Lynn Bellamy, Taylor Wilson, as well the octet of mixed voices who recorded Graham Hair’s Lament for Hagia Sophia in April 2018. The latter included Rachel Thomas, Sally Carr, Lynn Bellamy, Ruth Kiang, Liam Bonthrone, Ted Black, Pedro Davoli Ometo and Will Forrest.
Alison McNeill, Soprano
Alison McNeill graduated with a Masters in Performance from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and subsequently won the Andres Segovia-Morales Prize for Spanish Music in Santigo de Compostela (Spain), and was a finalist in several major singing competitions.
She has performed throughout the UK, Holland, Austria, Spain, America and Mexico as a soloist with prestigious groups including the RSNO, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Glasgow Chamber Orchestra, Ditirambo Baroque Ensemble, La Camaraderia Ensemble and the Celtic Folk Band Reely Jiggered. She has broadcast on Spanish and Mexican National Radio and TV, BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio 3 and a special programme on BBC Classics Unwrapped performing at the Big Guitar Weekend with duo partner Sasha Savaloni.
More information: www.alisonmcneill.com
Anne Lewis, Mezzo-Soprano
Anne studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and has performed as a soloist in all the main oratorio repertoire, including ‘The Creation’, with both Sir Charles MacKerras and Sir Roger Norrington. She has performed and recorded with Cappella Nova, Scottish Voices, Dunedin Consort and Canty. Recordings include music by James MacMillan and other leading contemporary composers. With Scottish Voices she has toured America, and with Dunedin Consort performed ‘Messiah’ at the Noirlac and Chaise Dieu Festivals. In 2016, she toured Scotland with Cappella Nova in Lorimer production’s ‘Echoes and Traces’, which was reprised at the 2017 Edinburgh Fringe. With harpist Bill Taylor, she performs Scottish songs and airs for voice and harps. She enjoys teaching, directing and arranging for community choirs, and teaches classes in singing for health and wellbeing for Strathclyde University.
More information: annelewis.co.uk
Beth Taylor, Mezzo-soprano
Beth is a Scottish Mezzo-Soprano studied at the Royal Conservatoire and continued her studies on the Postgraduate programme with Iain Paton, as well as in masterclasses with Susan Graham, Sarah Connolly and Malcolm Martineau, supported by a Help Musicians UK Fleming award and the Stirlingshire Educational Trust.
She has collaborated with many of the UK’s foremost professional musicians, including Dunedin Consort, Genesis Sixteen and Kellie Consort. Operatic performances have included appearances in L’Isola Disabitata, Carmen, Eugene Onegin, La Traviata, Giulio Cesare, Handel). Beth has taken part in many festivals and competitions over the years and accolades have included winning the RCS Governor’s Recital Prize and high commendations in Scottish Song and Lieder Prizes.
Frances Morrison-Allen, Soprano
Frances Morrison-Allen was born in Aberdeen and studied at Chetham’s School of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Frances joined Scottish Opera in 1994 and has performed various roles with the company. She has also worked with Welsh National Opera Opera North and the BBC Singers. Frances works regularly with Scottish Voices with whom she has travelled to the USA and New Zealand.
Within the Education department of Scottish Opera Frances has performed in BabyO and SensoryO (opera for babies and toddlers) travelling to Abu Dhabi, London with plans for New York and New Zealand later in the year. Frances has a busy teaching and coaching schedule and is Music Director of the Killin Community Choir and the Scottish Opera Community Choir.
Katrina Williams, Soprano
Katrina Williams has been performing with Scottish Voices since 2012, when a performance project of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire brought together the MMus Performance students at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the expertise of Graham Hair, composer and director of the Scottish Voices ensemble and co-director of the Science and Music Research Group at the University of Glasgow.
Since then, Katrina gained her MMus Vocal Performance at the RCS, and an MOpera at the RWCMD.
An unexpected sidestep took her from the world of pure performance to a ten-year career in the Band Service of His Majesty’s Royal Marines, where she served as the first Vocalist hired in 351 years.
She performed engagements at home and abroad both as a vocalist, interpreter and clarinettist (in that order of expertise). Career highlights include several solo performances at the Royal Albert Hall, and marching ahead of the coffin of HM Queen Elizabeth II. She was also fully rifle trained and took part in several military exercises and operations during her time in Service. A sort of Batttle Soprano.
Since leaving the Royal Marines, Katrina has rediscovered her love of teaching and performing, working with Clackmannanshire Council and Military Wives Choirs designing and delivering workshops.
She is also a yoga teacher and a mother to an exuberant toddler, Daphne.
Julia Daramy-Williams, Soprano
Born in Singapore of African and Asian heritage, lyric soprano Julia Daramy-Williams trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland under the tutelage of Kathleen McKellar Ferguson, also taking masterclasses with Malcolm Martineau, Lisa Milne, Rachel Nicholls and Christoph Prégardien. Prizes have included the Norma Greig French Song Prize, and a subsequent performance of Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death in the Sosnowiec Music Festival, Poland.
After completing her Bachelors and Masters degrees, Julia studied at the Alexander Gibson Opera School with Stephen Robertson and Elizabeth McCormack, and the support of the RCS and Thomas & Margaret Roddan Trusts. Partial opera roles have included the Countess (Le nozze di Figaro), Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare), Miss Jessel (Turn of the Screw), Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte) and Donna Anna (Don Giovanni). Operatic engagements have included engagements with Scottish Opera, Edinburgh Opera Players, Cromarty Youth Opera) and the RCS/ENO. Concert engagements have included: Debussy’s Cinq Chansons de Baudelaire and Mozart’s Mass in C minor.
Laura Margaret Smith, Mezzo-soprano
Scottish mezzo-soprano Laura Margaret Smith is a versatile performer who enjoys a varied international career.
A member of Scottish Voices since 2012, Laura is a keen interpreter of contemporary music and has also collaborated with Hamburg State Opera at PODIUM Festival, Red Note Ensemble, RSNO, Dunedin Consort, Psappha Ensemble, Opera Mahogany, NOISE at Celtic Connections, Wallace Ensemble and Byre Opera.
In concert, Laura has performed in the USA, Melbourne, Portugal, Monaco and toured Germany. In the UK, she has sung at Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Usher Hall, Queen’s Hall, Glasgow City Halls, Caird Hall and live on BBC Radio 3.
A member of the acclaimed Bayreuth Festival Chorus for ten years, she has performed with companies including Scottish Opera, Wexford Festival Opera, Opera North, Opera Holland Park, Edinburgh International Festival Discover Opera, Opera Bohemia, Mahler Players, Paisley Opera, Edinburgh Players Opera Group and Retrospect Opera.
Laura is a former Scottish Opera Emerging Artist, a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and alumna of the Georg Solti Accademia, Samling Institute, Britten Pears Arts and Live Music Now.
She is a vocal coach for NYCOS and RSNO Youth Choruses and Performing Artist with Edinburgh International Festival Discovery & Participation Team.
Myrna Tennant, Mezzo-soprano
Originally from the Netherlands, Myrna studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with Helen Lawson, graduating with First Class Honours.
Myrna has sung with RCS Voices at the St Magnus International Festival, the Aberdeen international Youth Festival, and the Edinburgh Fringe, and participated in the Genesis Sixteen programme with Harry Christophers and Eamonn Dougan. Opera work has included the roles of ‘le petit vieillard’ in (L’enfant et les Sortilèges) Sandman (Hansel and Gretel), Dido (Dido and Aeneas), and Galatea (Acis and Galatea) and the title role in Massenet’s Cinderella.
Myrna also enjoys performing in community settings, including placements at dementia wards in and around Glasgow, a workshop with primary school children, an intensive week course with Drake Music Scotland, and work with music, all aiming to increase opportunities in music settings for people with Additional Support Needs.
Taylor Wilson, Mezzo-soprano
Taylor Wilson, Scottish mezzo-soprano, has worked with Scottish Opera, music festivals of Salzburg, Hong Kong, Christchurch, and the Edinburgh International Festival, as well as the Berlin Philharmonic, NDR, and the BBC Philharmonic orchestras.
Her interest from a young age in contemporary classical music has developed into a lifelong passion, and she is the founding member of Scottish Voices vocal ensemble.
Taylor has explored avant-garde music and drama in Berlin and appeared in the role of Madame Giri in the Hamburg production of Phantom of the Opera.
She has created many operatic/music theatre roles, including Silent Jack, a solo work written for her; the character of ‘Spitfire’ Irene in Flightpaths; and Lady Brannoch in Madame X.
As chanteuse and actress with her one-woman shows, most of which Taylor has co-written and directed, she has performed at the Hong Kong International Festival; Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival; various fringe festivals; London’s Tête-à-Tête Festival; the Glasgow West End Festival and more recently, at Zédels in London.
Taylor has made numerous appearances on BBC TV and radio, including live performances, TV documentaries, as well as on various soundtracks.
She has always enjoyed a hybrid career as performer and voice teacher/coach. As a result of conducting rigorous, studious research into the anatomy and physiology of the voice, she has become, in her own words, a voice ‘geek,’ who is passionate about enabling voices, both spoken and singing. She is undertaking further studies to become a trauma-informed voice professional.
Lucy Anderson, Soprano
Lucy Anderson is an Edinburgh-born soprano who enjoys a varied career across opera and concert platforms. She is a former Scottish Opera Emerging Artist and graduate of the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Lucy has sung principal roles with Opera North, Opera Holland Park, Bampton Classical Opera, Scottish Opera, and the Grimeborn Festival at Hackney Empire. As an Emerging Artist, roles included First Lady (The Magic Flute) and Countess Ceprano (Rigoletto), and touring with Opera Highlights, from Durness to Dunblane.
She performed the soprano solos in Stravinsky’s Les Noces with English National Ballet, and covered the Strauss Four Last Songs in collaboration with choreographer David Dawson.
Lucy is a Britten-Pears Young Artist and first prize winner of the Bampton Classical Opera Young Singers’ Competition, and has performed as a soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Chorus and London Schools Symphony Orchestra. Performance highlights include the première of Samuel Bordoli’s Le Trésor des Humbles with the Orchestra of Scottish Opera, excerpts of Eugene Onegin for the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s Beloved Friend: Tchaikovsky Project, and a recital of songs by Strauss at Barbican Hall.
Lucy is also passionate about education and engagement, and currently works with over 500 children in Lewisham through Grange Park Opera’s Primary Robins scheme, and with OHP Inspire and the Songhaven recital series. Projects include Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte: Re-imagined at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, and Opera for Thought with Resonate Arts, a workshop series for people living with dementia.
Grace Wain, Mezzo-soprano
Dorcas Owen, Mezzo-soprano
Dorcas Owen was born in West Yorkshire and studied at Huddersfield Technical College School of Music and then the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. After graduating, she worked as a drugs counsellor in Glasgow before eventually returning to her musical career.
She has been a member of Scottish Voices for many years. Dorcas has also sung with several of Scotland’s professional vocal ensembles, including Cappella Nova, Crafty Musick, NOISE and Dunedin Consort.
As a soloist, she has performed with many of Scotland’s finest musical ensembles, including Scottish Ensemble, Edinburgh Bach Society, Edinburgh Royal Choral Union, Glasgow Chamber Choir, Scottish Opera and the Edinburgh Quartet, among others.
Based (2026) in Edinburgh, Dorcas is the full-time singing teacher at George Watson’s College School of Music, where she coaches individual students and directs several choirs and ensembles, including the Pop Collective. Her previous experience in training young vocal groups includes founding and serving as Musical Director of the Edinburgh Youth Choir from 2019. She is also the director of Gael Force, an ad hoc group of young female singers formed for specific events.
In addition, Dorcas regularly leads vocal workshops and adjudicates singing competitions. In 2010, she made her debut as an opera director with a performance of Venus and Adonis, and in 2019 she directed Dido and Aeneas.
Lynn Bellamy, Mezzo-soprano
Lynn Bellamy is a graduate of the Alexander Gibson Opera School at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where she studied under Margaret Izatt. This summer, Lynn was an Emerging Artist with the Opera in the City Festival at the Bridewell Theatre in London, where she performed in Gluck’s Orpheo ed Eurydice, and took part in a public masterclass delivered by James Clutton. In 2019, Lynn looks forward to performing in Manon Lescaut and Un Ballo in Maschera with Opera Holland Park, and to touring the Canary Islands with Music Festivals at Sea.
Lynn regularly performs in concert, recently including Mozart’s Requiѐm Mass in D minor with St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh, Vivaldi’s Gloria and Durufle’s Requiem with Strathaven Choral Society, Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music with Bridge of Weir Choral Society and the Pergolesi Stabat Mater with Galloway Voices.
Stephanie Strachan, Soprano
Paisley born Soprano Stephanie Strachan is based in Glasgow, working under the tutelage of Clare Shearer. Her postgraduate studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland will culminate this Spring, by performing the role of Controller in the Alexander Gibson Opera School’s production of Dove’s Opera, Flight.
Stephanie has performed internationally in many of Scotland’s most prestigious ensembles; notable audiences include Chicago, Wyoming, Prague, Vienna, and Slovakia. She also enjoys performing more contemporary music, premiering Scottish composer Aileen Sweeney’s ‘Mare Nostrum’ with the Edinburgh Quartet last year as part of Refugee Festival Scotland, singing in the UK tours of Rick Wakeman’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth, and regularly recording as a session vocalist for Scottish based bands and projects.
Stephanie is Musical Director of the Scottish Police & Community Choir, and maintains a fierce passion for inclusivity within the arts. Alongside this work she is also a professional face & body painter, and airbrush artist. Previous clients include Scottish Opera, TRNSMT Festival, Harley Davidson, and the Edinburgh Festival Theatre.
Stephanie Strachan
Soprano, Voice Leader & Educator
www.stephaniestrachan.com
+447760386817
Sally Carr, Soprano
Sally is a soprano from East Lothian with a strong interest in collaborative and interdisciplinary work.
She has performed with a number of notable ensembles, including Echo Vocal Ensemble, with whom she has trained in collaborative improvisation and contributed to a wide range of projects. Selections from these include: Broken Chord, a staged dance work by Gregory Maqoma presented at Sadler’s Wells; a contemporary artwork presented at the Helsinki Biennal; and Echo’s debut album Innocence (Resonus Classics), launched at Wigmore Hall.
Alongside this, she works regularly as a choral singer in London, performing in settings that include church services, concerts, and recording projects for film and television.
As a chamber musician, she collaborates with clarinettist Calum Robertson, giving performances across Scotland. Their work together has led to new works by composers including Rory Boyle, Sheena Phillips, and John Hearne, with a focus on contemporary Scottish repertoire for voice and clarinet, as well as trio projects with piano.
She also appears occasionally in opera. Most recently, she performed the lead role in a community opera written for the people of Lewisham, in which she sang while operating a large puppet, an experience that added an unexpected and memorable dimension to her performing practice.
Alongside her performing work, Sally is involved in projects that aim to widen access to music education. She currently works with organisations including London Youth Choirs, Pimlico Music Foundation, Pembroke Academy of Music, Vocalise! and Sing Education, on a mixture of regular and project-based work.
Ensemble April 2018
British soprano Rachel Thomas is currently studying for a Masters in Vocal Performance at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Prior to this, she read Music at the University of Cambridge, where she was also a choral scholar. In addition to her studies, she works as a freelance soloist and ensemble singer for groups in London and Scotland, and is a member of Glasgow Cathedral Choir.
Soprano Sally Carr was educated at St Mary’s Music School and is in her final year of the BMus degree at the University of Edinburgh. She studies singing with Susan Hamilton, and is the soprano choral scholar at Old Saint Paul’s. She has sung with a number of Scottish choirs and ensembles and is an alumna of the renowned UK young artist programme, Genesis Sixteen. She was recently awarded the Tovey Memorial Prize for the undergraduate student showing the highest potential in performance, promoted annually by the Reid School of Music.
Lynn Bellamy is a mezzo soprano and recent graduate of the Alexander Gibson Opera School at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She has participated in masterclasses given by Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau, Rachel Nicholls, Patricia McMahon and Lisa Milne. Recent operatic roles include Prince Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus), Filipyevna (Onegin) and Kate Julian (Owen Wingrave). Lynn has also recently taken part in a touring production of The Pearl Fishers with Opera Bohemia.
Mezzo-soprano, Ruth Kiang studied in Durham and was a choral scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge. Based in London, she has a busy freelance career. She works with a wide variety of professional vocal ensembles, including: BBC Singers, Gabrieli Consort, Choir of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Polyphony, The Clerks and Sonoro. In addition, she is a session singer,
Scottish tenor Liam Bonthrone studied a BMus at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland under the tutelage of Scott Johnson, and will take up postgraduate study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in September 2018. At the RCS, Liam won the Leonie Kayser Prize for Singing and the Hugh S. Roberton Prize for Scottish Singing. Liam is the Kenneth McKellar Choral Scholar at Paisley Abbey, a member of RCS Voices, and frequently a guest member of the Edinburgh Festival Chorus. He was the Evangelist in the recent Scottish Premier of Joubert’s St Mark Passion, and appears regularly as a recitalist in Scotland and beyond
Born and raised in London, tenor Ted Black is currently in his final year of undergraduate study at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. While at RCS, Ted has enjoyed numerous competition successes, including first place in the Governors’ Recital Prizes in both singing and chamber music, and in the Jean Highgate Scholarship for Singing. Recent concert work includes the solos in Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms at the Edinburgh International Festival, under the baton of distinguished conductor Marin Alsop. In September, Ted will begin his postgraduate study on a full scholarship at the Royal College of Music, London.
Brazilian bass-baritone Pedro Ometto did his undergraduate studies at the São Paulo State University. He is currently studying at the Alexander Gibson Opera School at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He has performed Opera and Oratorio at most of the important Brazilian venues, including the Theatro Municipal de São Paulo, Teatro Castro Alves, Palácio das Artes and the Sala São Paulo.
Hailing from West Yorkshire, bass baritone Will Frost (20) is on his way to finishing his third year undergrad. Singing in Opera Norths Tosca, BYO’s Don Giovanni and LYO Elise d’amor (Belcore) and Hansel und Gretel (Father) in the past. Most recently covering the bass role for RSNO’s Mozart Requiem, competing in the Junior Kathleen Ferrier and winning the Governors Chamber music prize in RCS. Currently projects include performing the bass role in a new Opera “Dirt” by Juta Pranulytė and Adonis in GOS’ production of John Blows Venus and Adonis.