One of the world’s leading accompanists for decades, Roger Vignoles has performed and recorded with many of the great singers and instrumentalists of our time, appearing at leading concert halls worldwide. In addition, he has devised and directed series and festivals, as well as bringing his own experience and expertise over a vast range of repertoire to younger generations of singers and accompanists.

Dominic Felts

​Dominic Felts graduated from the Master of Music programme at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance with Distinction in July 2023. A budding recitalist, he won both the Trinity Laban English Song and Lillian Ash French Song competitions with duo partner, Pietro Iacopini. He maintains a keen interest in ensemble performance, singing regularly with London-based groups such as the Philharmonia Chorus, Exodus and Opera Rara Chorus. Since September 2023, he has been a member of the VOCES8 UK Scholars and the Emerging Artists Scheme at St Martin-in-the-Fields. When he is not performing, he enjoys assisting on music outreach and education programmes, most recently working with Gabrieli ROAR for a performance of Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius. This academic year, he returns to Trinity Laban part-time for the Artist Diploma course, generously supported by the Morag Noble, Kathleen Roberts and Elliot Rosenblatt Memorial Scholarships, while continuing to build his freelance career.

Pietro Iacopini

Pietro Iacopini is a pianist from Florence, Italy, who recently graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano performance from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Although he has always played in chamber groups and with singers, art song repertoire has only recently become his focus thanks to a new partnership with Dominic Felts. Together, they were Song Easel Young Artists in May 2023, and were selected for the Oxford International Song Festival Mastercourse in October of this year. As a soloist, he has performed with the Florence Chamber Orchestra, playing Mozart's Piano Concerto K488 in 2019 and triple concertos by Bach in 2020. Away from the piano, he is a member of Florence-based percussion group Pulsar which focuses on the music of Latin America using recycled instruments.

Charlotte Jane Kennedy

​Soprano Charlotte Jane Kennedy is in the second year of her Master of Performance degree at the Royal College of Music, studying with Janis Kelly and Simon Lepper. She is a Leverhulme Arts Scholar supported by the Robert McFadzean Whyte Award, the Munster Trust, and the Josephine Baker Trust. Alongside her duo partner Frasier Hickland, she is a 2023 Leeds Lieder Young Artist, and she has had recent competition success in the AESS Patricia Routledge English Song Competition, as well as taking part in masterclasses with Sir Thomas Allen at the Gŵyl Machynlleth Schubertiade. Highlights at RCM include Jenny Lind (cover) in LibbyLarsen’s Barnum’s Bird, La Bergère and La Chouette in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges, and Venus in Offenbach’s Orphée aux enfers, and masterclasses with Sumi Jo and Jonathan Lemalu. This summer,she  performed the roles of Malice, Shining One and Branch-Bearer in Vaughan Williams’s The Pilgrim’s Progress with British Youth Opera.

Paul Mnatsakanov

​Paul Mnatsakanov is an emerging young pianist, collaborative pianist, fortepianist, clavichordist and harpsichordist. Currently, he is studying at the Royal College of Music, where he is an RCM scholar, as a Joint Principal Study student with the Head of Piano, Vanessa Latarche and fortepiano professor, Geoffrey Govier. He also studies piano with Philippe Raskin in Vienna. He is a laureate of 11 competitions, most recent of which is the ‘Città di Cantù International Piano and Orchestra Competition’ winning First Prize and a special prize for the best performance of a Beethoven piano concerto. He has performed in numerous festivals in the UK, Italy, Russia, Armenia, France, and the USA. He has performed as a soloist with many orchestras around the world, and has collaborated with singers on various song and operatic repertoire.

Ellen Mawhinney

​Ellen Mawhinney is a soprano studying with Kate Paterson and Ingrid Surgenor at the Royal Academy of Music Opera School. She is the winner of Northern Ireland Opera’s Young Opera Voice of the Year award, the Deborah Voigt Prize at Northern Ireland Opera’s Festival of Voice, and the inaugural Charles Wood Song Competition. She has been a featured artist live on In Tune and a spotlight recitalist for Classical Connections with BBC Northern Ireland. She is a Leeds Lieder Young Artist and a member of the Academy Song Circle. 

Operatic performances include Falsirena in Salieri’s La fiera di Venezia with Bampton Opera, Annina in Verdi’s LaTraviata with Northern Ireland Opera and Chorus in Strauss’s Die Fledermaus with Northern Ireland Opera, Will Todd and Maggie Gottlieb’s Alice in Wonderland with Opera Collective Ireland, Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel, and Jonathan Dove’s The Day After with Scottish Opera. She is the grateful recipient of the John Talbot Collender Award.

Mark Rogers

​Mark Rogers is an American pianist specialising in vocal and chamber music. He has been a Young Artist at the International Lied Festival Zeist, Leeds Lieder, and the Ludlow English Song Weekend, and has played for masterclasses with Christian Gerhaher, Martin Fröst, Dame Felicity Lott, and Lawrence Power.

He is an alumnus of the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied with James Baillieu, Malcolm Martineau, and Michael Dussek. He was recently awarded the first prize in Art Song accompaniment at the Academy and has previously been awarded the Alex Menzies Memorial prize and the Hester Dickson Lieder prize at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he completed his undergraduate studies with Graeme McNaught in 2021.

He performs recitals regularly with musicians on the Countess of Munster and Philharmonia schemes, and has played concerts at Scottish Parliament, the Malmö Radhuset, and a series of recitals at Atelier Ferrandou in the south of France with cellist Kristian Chojecki.

Alexandra Achillea Pouta

Alexandra Achillea Pouta is a Greek mezzo-soprano, winner of the 2023 Guildhall Gold Medal Award, and a two-time finalist of the Maria Callas Foundation Competition. She is a Samling Artist and was a 2022 Snape Artist in Residence at Britten-Pears Arts. Recent performance highlights include a European tour with Martha Argerich and the Peace Orchestra; her debut at Carnegie Hall with pianist Elisabeth Pion; Harawi by Messiaen at Milton Court; and Lili Boulanger’s Psalm 130 at the Barbican. She is a co-director of Idrîsî Ensemble, and her opera roles include Sister Helen in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, Ottavia in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, and Signora Guidotti in Rota’s I due timidi.

She studied Musicology at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Historical Performance at the Early Music Centre of the Athens Conservatoire, and Vocal and Opera Studies at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. She was a member of the 2023 Glyndebourne Chorus and is currently a Guildhall Junior Fellow. 

Edward Picton-Turbervill

​Edward Picton-Turbervill is a Junior Fellow in the Keyboard Department at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, having recently completed a Master’s in piano accompaniment, studying with Caroline Palmer. He was the Organ Scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge, where he read Music as an undergraduate, and then read for a Master’s in Environmental Policy. His first book, Talking Through Trees, was published in 2017 by the Old Stile Press, and from 2018-2021 he was Head of Music at Atlantic College.

He has premièred works written for him by Michael Finnissy, Nico Muhly, Francis Pott and Daniel Saleeb, and is a successful composer in his own right. In June 2023 he took up a place as a Young Artist at Leeds Lieder, and won the accompanist’s prize in the AESS English Song Prize. He performs regularly on BBC Radio 3, most recently with Carolyn Sampson, Esther Abrami and Eldbjørg Hemsing.