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We are proud to be joined by three phenomenal solosists for the War Requiem.

Our soprano is Alla Kravchuk, tenor is Philip O'Brien and baritone Gareth John (sponsored by the Josephine Baker Trust).

 

Alla Kravchuk

Alla Kravchuk trained at the Kiev Conservatory in her native Ukraine before finishing her studies in London with Vera Rosza. In 1995 she was a prize winner at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod and for ten years she was a lyric soprano soloist employed, for the most part, in Germany, initially in Hannover and latterly in Stuttgart. Her roles included Pamina, Susanna, Cleopatra, Mimi, Liu, Antonia, Nedda, Micaela, Marie in “The Bartered Bride” and Hanna Glawari in “The Merry Widow”.   She also sang Euridice in Gluck’s “Orfeo” and one of the title roles in Debussy’s “Pelléas et Mélisande”. The latter production was taken to both the Wiener Festwochen and later the Edinburgh Festival. In 2008 Alla made her debut as Susanna in “Le nozze di Figaro” at the Semperoper In Dresden and has appeared as a guest in opera houses all over Germany.

She has maintained her passion for recital and oratorio performance throughout her opera career appearing at the Queen Elizabeth and Westminster Halls in London, the Sheldonian theatre, Oxford and many concert venues in Germany, the most recent being an appearance with the Bochum Symphoniker conducted by Steven Sloane. 

Her recital work has included the recent World Premier of “Einzige Tage” by Francis Pott as well as programmes of more traditional German lieder and art song from England, France, Russian and her native Ukraine. She has recorded songs by Nicolai Medtner as well as a CD of music by Glinka, Tchaikovsky and Schumann’s “Frauenliebe und Leben”.
Philip O’Brien

Philip O’Brien studied on the Graduate and Opera courses at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, becoming a Wolfson Scholar and winning the Patrick Libby prize for Acting. He was a finalist in the Wagner Society Competition, London and a finalist at the Seattle Opera International Wagner Competition. Philip O’Brien has sung principal roles at Glyndebourne Festival, Savonlinna Festival.

He made his debut at English National Opera as Danilo with Amanda Roocroft in a new production of The Merry Widow. He also appeared in the role of Ismaele Nabucco for the Nationale ReisOpera in the Netherlands, as Sergei in Paradise Moscow by Shostakovich with Opera North, and as Jenik in The Bartered Bride at the Schloss Hallwyl Festival, Switzerland.

Philip O’Brien sang the first tenor in Weill's Seven Deadly Sins for the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Gerard in Lakmé for Opera Holland Park, Heinrich in Tannhauser in a concert performance conducted by Richard Hickox at the St Endellion Festival. He performed leading roles in the Montepulciano Festival and with the Northern Wagner Orchestra. For Scottish Opera, he sang  Don Jose in Carmen, a role he subsequently sang at Clonter Opera Farm and at the Britten Theatre, London.
Gareth Brynmor John
Winner of the 2011 Thomas Armstrong Award and runner up in the 2011 Richard Lewis Competition, baritone Gareth Brynmor John held a choral scholarship at St John's College, Cambridge, before taking a place at London's Royal Academy of Music where he is the Reizenstein Scholar. He will complete the Royal Academy Opera course in 2013.

Gareth's operatic roles with the RAO include Claudio Béatrice et Bénédict with Sir Colin Davis, The Ferryman Curlew River, Sprecher Die Zauberflöte, and Sir Thomas Bertram Mansfield Park (Jonathan Dove). Other roles include Eugene Onegin Eugene Onegin, Papageno The Magic Flute at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Gianni Schicchi Gianni Schicchi, Sid Albert Herring, Gendarme Les Mamelles de Tirésias, Theseus A Midsummer Night's Dream, Escamillo Carmen, Eliab Samuel Hogarth's David and Goliath, and Il Conte Le nozze di Figaro with Iain Ledingham at the Amersham Festival.

Gareth has performed with a number of the UK's leading orchestras and ensembles including The Philharmonia, the London Mozart Players, The Brandenburg Sinfonia, and Charivari Agréable. Concert highlights include Bach's St Matthew and St John Passions; Mozart, Fauré, Brahms and Duruflé Requiems; Handel's Messiah, Judas Maccabeus and Alexander's Feast; Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs, Fantasia on Christmas Carols, Hodie and Sea Symphony; Dvořák Te Deum and Rachmaninoff The Bells.

Gareth is taught by Mark Wildman, coached by Iain Ledingham and gratefully acknowledges the support of the Sybil Tutton Award administered by the Musicians Benevolent Fund, the Norman McCann Scholarship, Alec Rowley Award, the Philip Hattey Prize, the Josephine Baker Trust, the EMI Sound Foundation, the St John's College Choir Association and the Countess of Munster Trust.