Amy Strachan

Peterhead born soprano Amy Strachan is in her first year at the Alexander Gibson Opera School at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. In 2018 she was selected for a year long fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music, having graduated with a distinction in her Masters under the tutelage of Mary Nelson and Iain Ledingham. Amy was a Royal Academy of Music Bach Cantata/Kohn Foundation scholar and was awarded first prize in the Marjorie Thomas Art of Song Prize. She previously read music at The University of Edinburgh and was the recipient of the Donald Tovey Memorial Prize – awarded to the student who shows the greatest promise in composition or performance.

Amy has featured as a soloist in the Edinburgh International Festival as part of their Songlines series, in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games Cultural Programme and was recently invited to perform a solo recital at the Wigmore Hall in April 2019. Operatic and Oratorio engagements have included Micaela Carmen, Rosalinda Die Fledermaus, Pamina Die Zauberflöte, Mendelssohn Elijah, Poulenc Gloria, HaydnThe Creation, Rameau Grands Motet – In Convertendo, and Handel Dixit Dominus.

Amy is delighted to be returning to sing with HHCOS, having begun her singing journey with the choir when she was sixteen.

Amy’s studies are generously supported by the ABRSM, the Robertson Trust and the Cross Trust.

Lauren Young

Stirling-born mezzo Lauren completed a Bachelor of Education (Music) at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. After two years working as a secondary school classroom music teacher, she returned to RCS to study for a Master of Music (Vocal Studies). She is now studying at the RCS Alexander Gibson Opera School under the tutelage of Linda Ormiston.

Operatic experience includes Baba The Turk (Cover)/Chorus The Rake’s Progress (British Youth Opera); Chorus Un Ballo in Maschera/Romeo et Juliette (Grange Park Opera); Marcellina The Marriage of Figaro (Magnetic Opera); Erste Mägde Elektra (Edinburgh Players Opera Group) Dorabella Cosi fan tutte; Giovanna Anna Bolena; Romeo I Capuleti e i Montecchi; Kate Julian Owen Wingrave (RCS Opera Scenes); Sorceress Dido and Aeneas; Cherubino Le nozze di Figaro; Jade Boucher (UK Staged Premiere) Dead Man Walking (RCS Opera School). Upcoming engagements include Cenerentola (Cover) La Cenerentola with British Youth Opera, Flosshilde Das Rheingold with Edinburgh Players Opera Group, Lucretia The Rape of Lucretia and Madame de Croissy Les Dialogues des Carmelites at RCS in 2020.

Concert experience includes Handel Messiah, Samson, Dixie Dominus, Israel in Egypt, Durufle Requiem, Mozart Requiem, Bach St. John Passion, Magnificat and B Minor Mass and Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle.

Lauren is a recipient of an Independent Opera Voice Scholarship and Fellowship, the John Mather Rising Star Award and the Stirlingshire Educational Trust Scholarship. She was runner-up in the prestigious Ye Cronies Opera Award 2019 and the winner of the Elgar-Spedding Memorial Lieder Prize 2019 at RCS with her duo partner Jose Javier Ucendo.

Liam Bonthrone

Perth-born tenor Liam Bonthrone is in his second year of Postgraduate Study at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, under the tutelage of Robert Dean and Adrian Thompson. Last year he won First Prize in the GSMD English Song Competition.

Liam gained a First Class BMus degree from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he studied with Scott Johnson and won the Hugh S. Roberton Prize for Scottish Singing, the Leonie Kayser Prize and the Elgar/Spedding Lieder Duo Prize.

At the RCS, Liam was a chorister in Opera School productions including Weill Street Scene, J. Strauss Die Fledermaus, Dove The Day After, and Vaughan Williams Sir John in Love.

He has sung in Masterclasses for Malcolm Martineau, Ann Murray, John Treleaven, Tobias Truniger, Roger Vignoles and John Mark Ainsley.

On the concert platform, performances have included Handel Messiah, Mendelssohn Elijah, Mozart Requiem and Mass in C minor, Haydn The Creation, Finzi For St. Cecilia and Narrator the Scottish premiere of Joubert’s St. Mark Passion. He also appeared in a number of small roles in Bernstein’s Candide, with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Marin Alsop, last December.

Liam is in high demand as a recitalist, this year performing as a ‘Side-by-Side’ artist with the Prince Consort at the Wigmore Hall. He participated in Graham Johnson’s Song Guild Concert Series, and most recently in a BBC SO Total Immersion lunchtime recital at Milton Court, featuring songs by Nadia Boulanger, later broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

This summer he was an Alvarez Young Artist at Garsington Opera Festival, and then performed his solo operatic debut in the role of Ramiro in La Cenerentola, with British Youth Opera.

Liam is thankful for the generous support of the Caird Trust, Cross Trust, Help Musicians UK, Jimmie Cairncross Charitable Trust, Guildry Incorporation of Perth and the Thomson Trust.

Arthur Bruce

Originally from Leith, baritone Arthur Bruce is a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Alexander Gibson Opera School, the Royal Northern College of Music, English National Opera’s ‘Opera Works‘ programme and Scottish Opera’s ‘Connect‘ Ensemble.

Operatic engagements include the title role in Gianni Schicchi (RCS Opera School); Papageno Die Zauberflöte (Berlin Opera Academy); Zurga Les pêcheurs de perles (Edinburgh Grand Opera); Artidoro in Stephen Storace’s Gli sposi malcontenti (Bampton Classical Opera); Kuligin Káťa Kabanová (Fulham Opera Workshops); Pierre Lafitte in the European première of Amy Beach’s opera Cabildo; Guglielmo Così fan tutte (Bedford Park Festival, London & Chez Cartier, France); Wolfram Tannhäuser (Edinburgh Players Opera Group); Alfio Cavelleria Rusticana (Edinburgh Grand Opera); Harlekin Ariadne auf Naxos (RCS Opera Scenes); Henry Davis Street Scene (RCS Opera School); Sam Trouble in Tahiti (RNCM Chamber Opera & RCS Opera School); Prince Yamadori Madama Butterfly (Bowdon Festival Opera); Bobinet La Vie Parisienne (Ferrier Operatic Society).

Arthur is a Scottish Opera Emerging Artist for the 2019/20 season and a Britten- Pears Young Artist.