Members of Armonico Consort who are regular soloists

Elin Manahan Thomas - Soprano

Born and bred in Swansea, Elin Manahan Thomas graduated from Clare College, Cambridge, in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, and studied as a post-graduate at the Royal College of Music. Last year she made her debut at the Royal Opera House as Papagena, as well as making her

first appearances at the Lincoln Center New York and the San Francisco Symphony Hall, in Mozart’s Requiem. She received critical acclaim for her interpretation of the ‘Pie Jesu’ on the recording of John Rutter’s Requiem, and for her interpretation of the solos in Bach’s St. Matthew

Passion, in Leipzig, under Sir John Eliot Gardiner. She has recently been signed to Universal Classics, which has just issued her first solo album, Eternal Light which went straight to number 2 in the classical charts. She has taken a wide range of operatic roles including Night/Nymph in Armonico Consort’s production of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen.

Anna Sandstrom - Soprano

Anna was the Soprano soloist for a concert of Italian Baroque music with the Sirius Ensemble in the Barossa Music Festival 2003. She was also privileged to appear as the soprano soloist with the Australian Baroque Brass in November of 2004. She currently holds a soprano position with the highly acclaimed Choir of St James King St Sydney She toured Britain with the Newcastle University Chamber Choir in 2000 to sing part of a solo mass for the opening ceremony for the Guild of Church musicians in Canterbury Cathedral, and is featured on the C.D of the tour. “Journey of Celebration”. She has sung with Armonico Consort at the Henley Festival, and future engagements include performances alongside Dame Emma Kirkby.

Belinda Morley - Mezzo Soprano

Belinda Morley: "a Mezzo with a magical voice" (Birmingham Post). An Artist in Opera, Oratorio and Recital. Training: Leeds University, Royal Northern College of Music. Worked throughout UK and Europe in TV, Radio, live broadcasts and studio recordings, and in Concert Hall. Rôles include Cherubino in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro; The Sorceress in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas; Angelina in Gilbert and Sullivan's Trial by Jury. Other recent solo engagements include: Rachmaninov Vespers; Vivaldi Gloria; Haydn Nelson Mass and Jugendmesse; Bach Magnificat; Mozart Requiem

William Towers - Countertenor

William Towers read English at Cambridge University and was a postgraduate scholar at the Royal Academy of Music where he won several prizes for singing and acting, and graduated with Distinction, the Dip.RAM and the Clifton prize for the best Final Recital. In his first year after leaving the Academy he appeared extensively as a soloist in Sir John Eliot Gardiner's Bach Cantata Pilgrimage, including appearances in the Berlin Philharmonie, the Dijon Auditorium, the Metz Arsenal, Buckingham Palace and the final concerts in New York. His performances in the complete Bach Cantata series are being issued on CD.

His opera engagements have included Medoro (Handel Orlando) and Farnace (Mozart Mitridate Re di Ponto) for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Oberon (Britten A Midsummer Night's Dream) with John Eliot Gardiner and David Pountney for Teatro La Fenice Venice, with Richard Hickox at the Royal Opera House's Linbury Theatre and for the Aldeburgh Festival, Ottone (Handel Ottone) at the Casa da Musica Porto, Orfeo (Gluck Orfeo) with Opera North in Monte-Carlo, Ottone (Monteverdi L'incoronazione di Poppea) for Opera Theatre Company Dublin, Lotario (Handel Lotario) for the London Handel Festival, Eustazio (Handel Rinaldo) for Grange Park Opera, Sorceress (Purcell Dido and Aeneas) with Paul McCreesh and Lance in the premiere of Paul Frehner's Sirius on Earth for the Almeida Festival.

William Towers' oratorio and recital schedule has featured appearances in many major venues and festivals in the UK and abroad, including Symphony Hall Birmingham, Barbican Hall, Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms, Konzerthaus Vienna, National Auditorium Madrid, Three Choirs Festival, Ravenna Festival, Flanders Early Music Festival, the Festivale de Musique Ancienne de Lyon and La Chaise Dieu with distinguished conductors such as Sir Roger Norrington, Paul McCreesh, Robert King, Emmanuelle Haïm, Barry Wordsworth, Stephen Layton and Jeffrey Skidmore. Orchestras he has worked with include the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, The King's Consort, Gabrieli Consort and Players, Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, Birmingham Royal Ballet, English Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Bach Society, Concordia and Abendmusik. His recordings include Handel's Messiah, Purcell's Fairy Queen, Bach's St. Mark Passion and Orff's Carmina Burana for BBC television

Future plans include Poro (title role) at the Goettingen Handel Festival with Konrad Junhänel, Death in Venice directed by Keith Warner for Frankfurt Opera and at the Aldeburgh and Bregenz Festivals, La Guidetta at the Casa da Musica, Porto, L'incoronazione di Poppea for Opera Theatre Company at the Buxton Festival and Playing Away at the Bregenz Festival. Concert appearances include Death in Venice with Richard Hickox and the Philharmonia, Belshazzar in the US with Nicholas McGegan and Philharmonia Baaroque, Gabrieli Consort in Moscow and with the English Chamber Orchestra.

Nicholas Mulroy - Tenor

Born in Liverpool, Nicholas Mulroy studied Modern Languages at Clare College, Cambridge, before attending the Royal Academy of Music. He made his Glyndebourne Festival debut in Prokofiev’s Betrothal in a Monastery, and has appeared in a variety of roles in this country, as well as in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites in Poland. He is in increasing demand as a concert artist, has a large recital repertoire and is particularly in demand for performances of contemporary music. His discography includes Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, Handel’s Messiah and a series dedicated to Monteverdi’s secular music with I Fagiolini.

NIcholas Drew - Tenor

Nick is a sought-after soloist, choral singer and recitalist, working across the West Midlands and beyond. He has been a member of the Soloists ensemble since its inception and also performs regularly with a number of other Midlands-based choirs and choral societies. He specialises in oratorio solo work, recently performing in Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Coleridge-Taylor’s Hiawatha and the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, among others. Recent recital engagements have included Britten’s Serenade for tenor, horn and strings at Birmingham Conservatoire and Finzi’s Farewell to Arms in Birmingham Cathedral. Nick works full-time as a civil servant and supports Sheffield Wednesday Football Club.

Mark Wilde - Tenor

Mark Wilde was born in Scotland and was a chorister at Dundee Cathedral before going on to study at the University of East Anglia and the Royal College of Music. He has worked at Glyndebourne Festival Opera and English National Opera, while other recent appearances include Glyndebourne Touring Opera, Welsh National Opera, Opera North, the Edinburgh Festival and as Don Ottavio/Don Giovanni for the Mostly Mozart Festival here at the Barbican, as well as with City of Birmingham Opera (for which he also took the title-role in Candide). He has taken major roles with many leading opera companies throughout the world and makes regular appearances on the concert platform, both in recital and as soloist in orchestral performances, in the UK and abroad.

Sam Evans - Bass

A finalist in the 2007 Kathleen Ferrier Competition, Samuel Evans studied at King’s College, Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music. His operatic roles include Traveller/Curlew River (Mahogany Opera), Leporello/Don Giovanni (Opera-by-Defintion/Trinity Theatre, Tunbridge Wells), Judge Turpin/Sweeney Todd (Shawford Mill / dir. Kim Begley) and Sarastro/The Magic Flute (Palestinian National Theatre/ dir. Sam West). At the RAM he performed excerpts, in the title roles, from Billy Budd, Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro, and participated in masterclasses with Dennis O’Niell and Thomas Quasthoff.

His concert engagements have included the role of Le Grand Pretre in Rameau’s Castor et Pollux at the Salle Pleyel, Paris under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the roles of Centurion and Nicodemus in the British premier of Francis Greer’s The Passion of Jesus of Nazareth, broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, as well as numerous concerts in venues throughout the British Isles and abroad.

Reuben Thomas - Baritone

Reuben Thomas began his career at St John's College, Cambridge, where was a chorister and, later, choral student, studying with David Lowe. As well as the Armonico Consort, he has worked with the Monteverdi Choir, the Cambridge Singers and English Voices, making over thirty recordings, and touring to five continents. After Cambridge he spent two years in Paris, singing at the Théâtre du Châtelet, and with La Chapelle du Hainault; he is now based in London. Recent solo performances include Carmina Burana and the Brahms Requiem at the Sawston Festival, and Vaughan Williams's Five Mystical Songs with the Académie Vocale de Paris. He currently studies with Stuart MacIntyre.

Nathan Vale - Tenor

Nathan made his London debut in September 2003 at St John’s Smith Square singing Benjamin Britten’s Les Illuminations. Since then Nathan has made regular appearances on the concert platform. Performances include, Evangelist in Bach’s St John Passion in St Paul’s Cathedral,Lichfield Cathedral and St Martin in the Fields, Handel’s Messiah for the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra in Denmark, and for the Tudeley Early Music Festival. Monteverdi Vespers in St Martin In The Fields, Mozart’s Requiem with the London Mozart Players in Leicester‘s deMontfort Hall, Bach’s Mass in B Minor in Wells Cathedral, Beethoven’s Mass in C with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in the Usher Hall Edinburgh, and Haydn’s Creation with Stephen Cleobury and the Philharmonia Choir and Orchestra in the Royal Albert Hall. Nathan was also the tenor soloist in the newly commissioned The Prodigal Son by Jonathan Girling, written for and performed by Evelyn Glennie and the Armonico Consort.

Operatic engagements include, Pedrillo in Die Enfürung Aus Dem Serail for Surrey Opera, roles in a fully staged production of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen for the Warwick Early Music Festival, and the role of Nencio in Haydn’s Le Infidelta Deluza for Bampton Cassical Opera. A finalist in the Young Song Makers Almanac and recent winner of the AESS English Song Competition, Nathan is increasingly in demand as a recitalist. He has given song recitals for the Three Choirs Festival in Hereford, for the Housman and Gurney Society, a recital to celebrate the life of Eric Sams alongside Dame Felicitty Lott and pianist Graham Johnson, and a performance of Tippet’s The Heart’s Assurance with pianist Jonathan Beatty for the Bath Festival. Future plans include a recording of English Songs with pianist Paul Plummer on the SOMM label, Handel’s Messiah in the Royal Albert Hall, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio for the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, and Finzi’s Dies Natalis with the Westminster Philharmonic Orchestra. Nathan studies with Ryland Davies at the Royal College of Music where he has been awarded the Peter Pears Scholarship. He is very grateful to the Elmley Foundation,the Countess of Munster Trust and the Musicians Benevolant Fund for their continuing support.