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The career of the internationally admired soprano Roberta Alexander began in the Netherlands in 1975 in Cimarosa’s La Cambiale di Matrimonio; she would go on to become highly regarded in the Mozartian repertoire, as well as in roles by Puccini, Janáček and in contemporary opera, throughout Europe as well as at the Met, and as a song recitalist of distinction. Here she imparts her knowledge and experience to a new generation of singers.

Daniela Popescu
Daniela Popescu is a Karaviotis and Drake Calleja Trust scholar. She comes from a tiny village in Romania called Stejari and is currently completing her Masters at the Royal College of Music with internationally acclaimed soprano Sarah Tynan. This year she has made her concert hall debut at the Divadlo na Vinohradech in Prague, with Leonora’s aria 'Pace, pace mio Dio' from La forza del destino by Verdi. She has also played the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro and Blanche’s role in Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites, as part of opera scenes at the RCM. In July she participated in the prestigious Georg Solti Accademia Bel Canto Course in Italy, where she trained with Jonathan Papp, Stefano Baldasseroni, Roberto Frontali, Barbara Frittoli and Richard Bonynge.

Feride Büyükdenktas
The young Turkish mezzo-soprano’s path as one of Turkey’s top aspiring young opera singers seemed clear after winning one of the country‘s most important vocal competitions and being a well-connected member of Istanbul‘s music scene. Feride completed her master’s program with Ulf Bästlein and Holger Falk at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria.

Recent engagements have led her to the opera houses of Graz, Klagenfurt and Stuttgart as well as the Istanbul State Opera. Her roles include Cherubino in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Annio in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito, and Bradamante in Händel’s Alcina. She has had the privilege to work with many great conductors and directors, including David Hermann, Eva-Maria Höckmayr, Nicholas Carter, Keri-Lynn Wilson, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Christoph Eschenbach, Helmuth Rilling and Fazıl Say.

As an artist, her passion for art songs has also seen her give recitals with leading pianists such as Julius Drake and Charles Spencer, in venues such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Konzerthaus Wien. Masterclasses with Brigitte Fassbaender, Christoph Prégardien and Richard Stokes further enriched her understanding of and fascination with this genre.

Feride Büyükdenktas is a Britten-Pears Young Artist for 2017, a winner of the Nordfriesischen Liedpreis des Landes Schleswig-Holstein, and has been a scholar of the State of Styria.

Madison Horman
New Zealand soprano Madison Horman is currently studying on the Royal Academy of Music’s opera course under the tutelage of Nuccia Focile and Ingrid Surgenor. She attained her MMus and Postgraduate Diploma from the Royal Northern College of Music, where she studied with Eiddwen Harrhy.

This year she made her Bridgewater Hall debut as Cousin and ensemble in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly with the Hallé, conducted by Sir Mark Elder, and performed with the Philharmonia Voices in Beethoven’s Fidelio, conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles at the Edinburgh International Festival. Madison has performed Mrs Gobineau in Menotti's The Medium, sung Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes and excerpts of Mimì from La bohème with full orchestra. She has performed scenes from Arabella, Don Giovanni, Idomeneo, Così fan tutte, Peter Grimes and La rondine.

Madison won the 2022 Royal Over-Seas League Award for a New Zealand musician of promise at their overseas final. She won the Bessie Cronshaw/Frost Brownson Song Cycle Prize at the RNCM for her performance of Korngold's 3 Lieder Op. 22 and was awarded the Brigitte Fassbaender Award for the best singing of Lieder. She is sponsored by the RAM Bicentenary Scholarship, The O’Donnell Trust Grant and the International Opera Awards Bursary.

Chanté van der Westhuizen
Chanté van der Westhuizen is a 24-year-old soprano from Richard’s Bay, South Africa. Chanté completed her undergraduate in voice at Stellenbosch University, South Africa under the tutelage of Minette Du Toit-Pearce. Chanté is currently in her final year of a Master of Arts in Voice at the Royal Academy of Music, studying under Raymond Connell, Iain Ledingham and Chad Vindin. Since starting her studies at the Royal Academy of Music, she has performed in the Academy’s vocal faculty scenes as Lucia in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, Nannetta in Verdi’s Falstaff and currently as Tytania in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Chanté made her debut in Stellenbosch, South Africa singing Amore in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. Some of her achievements include being a finalist in the 2020 Voices of South Africa Opera Competition, winning the 2020 Stellenbosch University Mable Quick Song Competition, winning the Royal Academy of Music’s Michael Head Song Prize and recently coming third in the Isabel Jay Memorial Prize.