David Butt Philip masterclass

Abbie Ward is a mezzo-soprano from Essex and a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, having previously trained at the Royal Academy of Music. She studies with John Evans. Most recently Abbie was a 2025 Alvarez Young Artist at Garsington Opera, covering Flávio in Rodelinda and performing in the choruses of L’elisir d’amore and The Queen of Spades. Other operatic roles include Carmen (St Paul’s Opera) and Third Lady (The Magic Flute, Wild Arts). Concert highlights include solo performances in the Bach in Leipzig series under Dame Jane Glover, Peter Whelan, and Iain Ledingham, and Elijah at the Barbican under Sir Antonio Pappano. She recently performed her first trouser role as Nerone in L’incoronazione di Poppea with HGO, directed by SPO colleague Ashley Pearson.

Edvard Adde is an Anglo-Norse Award holder supported by the Maria Björnson Memorial Fund Award. Edvard got his bachelor's degree at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and is currently doing his master's at the Royal College of Music where he studies with the bass Jonathan Lemalu and Gary Matthewman. Edvard just performed the role of Beppe in the opera Pagliacci by Leoncavallo with North Wales Opera Studio. Earlier this March he played the role of Don Curzio in Le Nozze di Figaro by Mozart in the Royal College of musics production. Last summer he covered the role of Ernesto in Don Pasquale by Donizetti for Scherzo Ensemble at Longhope Opera. In 2021 he was awarded second place in the junior Kathleen Ferrier competition. The same year he made his operatic debut as Rinuccio in the opera Gianni Schicchi by Puccini for Opera Rogaland in Norway. In 2022 he reprised the role in Palermo, Italy.

Mezzo-Soprano Hannah Morley recently graduated from The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire with distinction from the Advanced Postgraduate Diploma in Vocal and Operatic Studies. 

 Hannah is a Britten Pears Young Artist, French song and Mélodie (2024-2025), a Tosti International Singing Academy Artist (2025), a Leeds Lieder Young Artist (2022), an Emerging Artist for Clonter Opera Theatre (2022) and she has recently sung with the Savonlinna Opera Festival Chorus in Finland for the 2025 summer season. 

Notable operatic roles include Annio in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito for The Beaumaris Festival,Martin in Coleridge Taylor’s Dream Lovers for Stanley Arts London,  Filipyevna in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin  for Hampstead Garden Opera which recently won an OFFIE award for best performance, Madre in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly with The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra,  Madame de la Haltière in Massenet’s Cendrillon RBC, Mercédès in Bizet’s Carmen St.Pauls Opera.

Ted Day is an emerging artist who has just graduated from postgraduate study at the Royal College of Music, where he studied with Tim Evans-Jones and Bryan Evans MBE and held the Douglas and Hilda Simmonds scholarship. His recent performances include Courtier in Hampstead Garden Opera’s production of La Cenorentola, Baritone in Song Queen: A Pidgin Opera at the Royal Albert Hall and Wilton’s Music Hall, and HE in Cupboard Love at the Royal College of Music. Ted’s opera credits also include Fanny in Fanny and Stella’s Last Day Out and Kromow in The Merry Widow, both with the Royal College of Music’s Opera Studio; Harašta in The Cunning Little Vixen and Ariodate in Serse, with Byre Opera. Ted has appeared frequently as a soloist, and has worked with many prominent groups, including the Charles Wood Singers, Collegium Warwick, the Lloyd Singers, St Albans Chamber Choir, Putney Choral Society and Fulham Camerata. Ted made his role and SPO company debut as Belcore in last year’s summer opera, L’elisir d’amore.

Adrian Salinero is a London-based Basque Spanish pianist working as répétiteur, music director and coach. Recent operatic engagements include Simon Boccanegra (Verdi) with Grange Park Opera, The Rape of Lucretia (Britten) and L’elisir d’amore (Donizetti) with English Touring Opera, and Acis and Galatea (Handel) with Opera Holland Park. He has served as Music Director for St Paul’s Opera’s productions of L’elisir d’amore and Little Red Riding Hood (Cesar Cui).

In 2026, Adrian will join Thames Opera Company as Assistant Music Director, return to St Paul’s Opera as Music Director for La traviata (Verdi), and make his Spanish debut as répétiteur in Calixto Bieito’s semi-staged production of Shostakovich’s Fourteenth Symphony at Teatro Arriaga.

In the 2022–23 season, he was a Young Artist at the National Opera Studio.