25/02/2025 The Frederic Cox Award for Singing

Ingrid Surgenor, born in Belfast, studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London, and with the legendary piano accompanist Gerald Moore. She began her opera career at the Glyndebourne Festival, followed by a long association with Welsh National Opera. She has performed at prestigious venues including the Vienna, Taormina, Wexford, Buxton, and Hong Kong Festivals, as well as the Staatsoper Stuttgart and the Bayreuth Festival. Ingrid is a senior coach at the Jette Parker Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Formerly the principal coach at the Royal Academy of Music for 20 years, she is also a visiting coach at institutions such as the RNCM, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Ingrid has been a jury member for international competitions, including the Kathleen Ferrier and Richard Lewis Prizes, and is part of the first selection panel for the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. 

Rory Macdonald is a dynamic conductor, known for his intellectual rigor and passionate engagement in both opera and concert settings. With a broad repertoire ranging from Dowland to MacMillan, his collaborative approach has fostered successful partnerships with top artists and production teams. Recent highlights include his acclaimed performance of La Bohème at Glyndebourne, leading to an immediate re-invitation, as well as returns to Oper Frankfurt (Le nozze di Figaro) and Opera Theater of Saint Louis (The Magic Flute). He has worked regularly with esteemed ensembles such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, and Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Notable debuts include the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, and Peter Grimes at the Brisbane Festival. Passionate about new music, Rory has conducted premieres by composers like Sally Beamish, Sir James 

MacMillan, Geoffrey Gordon, and Carl Vine. He will make several symphonic debuts in the US in the 2024/2025 season. 

Professor Lynne Dawson is Head of the School of Vocal Studies and Opera. Before becoming a singer she trained as a translator and interpreter and spent several years in industry. She worked with many conductors and ensembles at the forefront of the Historical Performance movement making recordings for many major recording labels. Her career developed to encompass opera, concerts and recordings at the highest international level; her discography numbers more than 80. She has worked with major symphony orchestras all over the world and particularly with conductors Daniel Barenboim, Frans Brüggen, Marc Minkowski, Zubin Mehta, John Eliot Gardiner and Carl Maria Giulini. Operatic roles include Mozart’s Pamina, Zaïde, Donna Elvira, Countess Almaviva, Queen of the Night, Constanze, Aspasia and Vitellia, as well as Amenaïde in Rossini’s Tancredi, leading roles in Handel’s Orlando, Giulio Cesare, Hercules and Ariodante, Marzelline in Beethoven’s Fidelio, the title-role in Gluck’s Iphigenie en Aulide, Mimì in La Bohème, Zdenka in Strauss’s Arabella, and Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata. Lynne has performed in opera houses including Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Berlin Staatsoper, and Salzburg and Aix-en-Provence Festivals. Her concert repertoire encompasses Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs, Ravel’s Shéhérezade, Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’Été, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven concert arias and Berg’s Seven Early Songs, but she has never lost her love of the Baroque repertoire. She was appointed Head of Vocal Studies in 2010 and of Vocal Studies and Opera in 2017. 

Esther is pursuing a Master’s degree with Elizabeth Ritchie, supported by the Dame Eva Turner Award and the LHR Charitable Foundation. Recent and upcoming roles include Mrs Coyle (Owen Wingrave, RNCM), Dido (Dido and Aeneas, Bedfordshire Youth Opera), and Youka (L’étoile, RNCM). As a concert soloist, she has performed Mozart’s C Minor Mass, Mendelssohn’s Second Symphony, and Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, with Bach’s B Minor Mass upcoming. Esther was a finalist in the 2024 Frederic Cox Award. 

Jemima Gray is a mezzo-soprano currently pursuing a master’s in vocal performance at the RNCM, studying with Mary Plazas. Her operatic roles include The Abbess in Suor Angelica (Berlin Opera Academy), Hänsel cover in Hänsel & Gretel (Berlin Opera Academy), The Attendant in A Trip to the Moon (Garsington Opera), Dorabella in Così fan tutte (National Opera Studio), Laetitia in The Old Maid and the Thief (RNCM Opera scenes), and Mrs Ford in Sir John in Love (RNCM). She looks forward to performing as Kate in Owen Wingrave and as a Young Artist at Buxton Opera Festival. Jemima is supported by several prestigious awards. 

Scottish soprano Ellie Forrester is a first-year master’s student at the RNCM, studying with Mary Plazas. Recent and upcoming roles include Britten’s Miss Wingrave (Owen Wingrave, RNCM), Chabrier’s Asphodéle (L’Étoile, RNCM), and Mozart’s La Contessa (Le nozze di Figaro, Independent). She has performed Elettra, Venere, Penelope Rich, and Aunt Norris in RNCM opera scenes. Ellie was awarded second place in The Joyce and Michael Kennedy Award for the Singing of Strauss, is an RNCM Songster, and a finalist in the Williams-Howard Competition. She will perform Mahler’s Second Symphony as soprano soloist in June. 

Hannah Andrusier, soprano, studies with Elizabeth Ritchie at the RNCM, supported by the Eva Turner Award for Sopranos and a Sybil Tutton Opera Award. This season, Hannah makes two role debuts at the RNCM: Aloès in Chabrier’s L’étoile and Mrs Julian in Britten’s Owen Wingrave. She will also join the Buxton International Festival as a Young Artist this summer. Professionally, Hannah regularly performs at the Royal Albert Hall (My Great Orchestral Adventure concert series) and collaborates with the CBSO and Hallé Orchestra. This season, she returns to the LSO as presenter and soloist for Discovery concerts at the Barbican. 

Sophie is a Cheshire-born soprano currently pursuing a Master of Music at the RNCM under the tutelage of Linda Richardson. She previously studied Music at The Queen’s College, University of Oxford, where she held the Hildburg Williams Lieder Scholarship and was an active member of the college’s renowned choir. Sophie performed in the Oxford Lieder Festival, for BBC Radio 3, on CD, and in concerts, including oratorio performances of The Messiah, St. Matthew’s Passion, and St. John’s Passion. Recently, she participated in the Smallwood Lecture Masterclass and Recital with Professor David Owen Norris, and took part in a residency with Opera North in English Operatic Repertoire with David Cowan and James Hurley. On the operatic stage, Sophie has performed as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford), and Violetta in a performance of the Brindisi (China State TV). 

Jay Broadhurst is a Manchester-born lyric tenor studying with Mark Wildman. In the 2023/24 season, he created the role of Stephen in the world premiere of Bicarregui’s Capsule and was an Alvarez Young Artist at the Garsington Opera Festival. His operatic roles include Lensky in Eugene Onegin (Preston Opera), Don Curzio in Le nozze di Figaro (Garsington OperaFirst), Un Chef in Le roi de Lahore (Dorset Opera Festival), Tsar Berendeyi in The Snow Maiden, King Ouf in L’étoile (both RNCM Opera), Spoletta in Tosca (NPO), Preacher in Bernstein’s Mass (RNCM), and Alfredo Germont in La Traviata. In the coming season, Jay will debut at Glyndebourne, performing in the choruses of Parsifal and Il barbiere di Siviglia. He is generously supported by the Drapers’ de Turckheim Scholarship and the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation. Outside of music, Jay is an avid Manchester United supporter. 

David Jones was born on the Wirral and completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Wales, Bangor, specialising in performance and studying piano with Jana Frenklova. He graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, with a Postgraduate Diploma in Piano Accompaniment and the degree of Master of Music in Performance. After a year as Junior Fellow in Repetiteur Studies at the RNCM, David lectured for three years at University College, Salford. He joined the School of Keyboard Studies at the RNCM as a staff pianist in 1996 and was appointed Accompaniment Co-ordinator, now Head of Accompaniment, in September 2001. He held the post of Deputy Head (Performance) for Junior RNCM between 1998 and 2023 and was for four years Chorus Master of the RNCM Chamber Choir. David is pianist for the Hallé Choir, and founder and Musical Director of Altèri, the Manchester-based chamber choir. He completed his PhD at the University of Manchester in 2011, researching the music of Jeffrey Lewis, and has so far released three discs of Lewis’s piano, chamber and vocal works, on ASC, Campion Cameo – ‘Gramophone’ described it as ‘…a disc not to be missed by anyone who cares about communicative 20th-century music’ – and Metier/Divine Art, with RNCM alumni Caroline MacPhie (soprano) and Zheng Yu Wu (violin). 

Jonathan Fisher is a highly accomplished and sought-after collaborative pianist, known for his performances at prestigious festivals such as Leeds Lieder, Oxford Lieder Festival, Ryedale Festival, Harrogate Festival, and The Richard Strauss Society, as well as recitals for music societies across the UK. He has performed in renowned venues including The Purcell Room, The Wigmore Hall, The Bridgewater Hall, and Philharmonic Hall Liverpool. With a career focused on collaboration, Jonathan has worked with internationally recognized singers like Roderick Williams, Benjamin Appl, Sir John Tomlinson, Rachel Nichols, Kathryn Rudge, Anna Stéphany, Lynne Dawson, Linda Richardson, Paul Nilon, and Louise Winter. He has also performed and toured with young saxophonist Jess Gillam, and collaborated with Phillipe Tondre (principal oboe of the Philadelphia Orchestra), Józef Bazsinka (tuba, Budapest Festival Orchestra), and soloists from the Halle Orchestra. Recent recordings include a recital disc of songs by Julian Dawes and The Soldier’s Legacy for Retrospect Opera. In addition to his active performance schedule, Jonathan is dedicated to nurturing the next generation of musicians, serving as a Staff Pianist and Coach at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), where he is also co-founder and Artistic Director of the RNCM Songsters.