We are pleased to announce the internationally renowned guest soloists performing with our orchestra and chorus at the upcoming ‘The Rite of Spring’ concert. Taking to the stage are:
Jenny Stafford Soprano
Dominic Bevan Tenor
Trevor Eliot Bowes Bass
Conducted by our Music Director Harry Sever.
West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge
Saturday 9 November, 4pm (until 5.40pm)
Limited tickets are available and further information including booking links can be found HERE
Jenny Stafford
Jenny Stafford is now firmly established as one of the brightest young talents on the UK opera stage.
In March 2018, she made her major house debut, with Dutch National Opera, as Sarah in James MacMillan’s Clemency. Bachtrack.com praised how her ‘soprano soared in Sarah’s ecstatic music with dramatic intensity’.
Jenny Stafford trained at King’s College, London and the Royal Academy of Music, winning the Isabel Jay Operatic Prize and the Dame Eva Turner Award, and at ENO Opera Works and the Georg Solti Accademia di Bel Canto.
In the UK, Jenny Stafford has appeared: with Bampton Classical Opera as Tisbé (Cendrillon) and as Eginia (Gli Sposi Malcontenti); with the Buxton International Festival as Prima Donna (Viva la diva); at the Cadogan Hall as Vitellia (La clemenza di Tito); with English Touring Opera as Despina (Così fan tutte), title role Manon Lescaut, Melissa (Amadigi), Musetta (La Boheme), and Soprano Soloist (St John Passion); with Nevil Holt Opera as Musetta; with Opera North as the Piper (The Pied Piper of Hamelin); with Welsh National
Opera as Pamina and Papagena (The Magic Flute); with West Green House Opera as Nedda (Pagliacci), title role Suor Angelica, and Tatyana (Eugene Onegin); and Wild Arts as Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte). In season 2023/24, she recorded Elettra for Brunswick Vocal Arts, covered Magda for Opera North, and covered and sang Miss Jessel at the Theatre Royal, Bath.
Rupert Christiansen wrote in The Daily Telegraph that: ‘Jenny Stafford Shines as Manon Lescaut. It was Jenny Stafford as Manon who really commanded the stage, with impressive ringing top Cs for declarations of undying passion, and interestingly subtle moments when you could feel a dawning, regretful awareness of her own flightiness.’
Upcoming engagements include her debut with English National Opera as Mary Seton (cover Mary Stewart) in Thea Musgrave’s Mary Queen of Scots.
Trevor Eliot Bowes
Lyric Bass Trevor Eliot Bowes was born in Victoria, Canada and studied at the University of Toronto and Royal Conservatoire of Scotland before being selected as one of Barbara Hannigan’s Equilibrium Young Artists. Based in London, Trevor has frequently performed at English National Opera, notably as Ben Benny in Paul Bunyan, Jose Castro in The Girl of the Golden West, and most recently as Benoit in their Drive-in La Boheme, which was broadcast live on SKY arts.
Recent opera performances have included Bartolo / Le Nozze di Figaro with The Mozartists, Father Trulove / The Rake’s Progress, Seneca / L’incoronazione di Poppea, Colline / La Boheme with English Touring Opera, Alidoro / La Cenerentola with Nevill Holt Opera, Basilio / Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Bartolo / Le Nozze di Figaro at West Green House Opera, Sergeant of Police / The Pirates of Penzance with Opera Holland Park, and Father Trulove / The Rake’s Progress with the Munich Philharmonic. Trevor also understudied his first Wagner role, Hunding in Die Walküre at ENO.
In concert, Trevor has sung Handel’s Messiah with the London Handel Festival, Mozart’s Requiem with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and The Hallé, Polifemo / Aci, Galatea e Polifemo and Purcell Odes with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas carols with the orchestra and chorus of ENO. He has also sung a wide range of oratorio repertoire including Verdi’s Requiem, Brahms’ Requiem, Elijah, The Dream of Gerontius, Monteverdi’s vespers and Bach’s passions.
Upcoming performances include Antonio / The Marriage of Figaro at ENO, Basilio / Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Longborough Festival Opera and Haydn’s Paukenmesse with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski.
Dominic Bevan
Dominic Bevan is a graduate of the Royal College of Music where he was awarded a Sir Gordon Palmer scholarship. Dominic’s undergraduate degree was in English and French Law, part of which he studied at the Sorbonne in Paris where he lived for many years. After five years working in financial services, Dominic embraced a career as a tenor soloist in 2015.
Dominic has been the featured tenor soloist in many notable oratorio performances such as the Mozart Requiem, Beethoven Missa Solemnis, Verdi Requiem, Britten St Nicolas, at venues such as St John’s Smith Square, Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore hall and many others.
Recent opera roles include Tamino in Zauberflöte for Westminster Opera and Lenski for The People’s Opera in 2019, Conrad for Tête à Tête Opera directed by Bill Bankes-Jones, and Rodolfo in La Bohème for Westminster Opera. Dominic was a finalist of the 2019 Wagner Society competition at the Wigmore Hall . Most recent roles include the cover of Turiddu (Cavalleria Rusticana, Mascagni) for Opera North in April, and is the lead role for Opera North’s “Big Opera Adventure” currently showing. Dominic lives near Thame with his wife Helen, a junior doctor, and three young children.