The Accompanists
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There are three official accompanists for the BBC Singer of the World Rosenblatt Recital Song Prize.
Competitors are able to bring their own accompanist at their own expense if they wish. |
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Simon Lepper
Simon Lepper was educated at King's College Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music, London where he studied with Michael Dussek. He obtained a Dip RAM, the highest award for postgraduate study, and was subsequently awarded the Hodgson Fellowship. He later studied with Ruben Lifschitz.
Competition successes include the 2000 Gerald Moore Award and the accompanist prizes in the 2002 Kathleen Ferrier Competition, 2000 Maggie Teyte Song Competition and the 1999 Royal Overseas League Competition.
Simon works with many of the leading young singers of his generation including the 2002 Ferrier Prizewinner Karen Cargill, Jared Holt, Rachel Nicholls, James Rutherford and Vilar Young Artists Sally Matthews, Gweneth-Ann Jeffers (who represented England at the 2001 Competition) and Ailish Tynan (representing Ireland at this Competition).
Performances have included recitals in festivals throughout Britain. Simon has appeared extensively on radio and television, frequently performing on BBC Radio 3. Recent broadcasts have included a recital with New Generations Artist Sally Matthews, a performance of Die Schöne Müllerin from Gresford Church, Wales and an English song recital with Roderick Williams. Simon has recorded a CD of Debussy's early songs with Gillian Keith on the Deux-Elles label.
Future plans include recitals at the Wigmore Hall with Karen Cargill, Martene Grimson and Olivia Keen and throughout Great Britain with the saxophonist Sarah Field and cellist Gemma Rosefield.
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Phillip Thomas
Phillip Thomas was born in Cilfrew and educated at Neath Boys Grammar School. His Welsh upbringing ensured a wealth of early musical experiences from local Eisteddofdau. He was a triple National Eisteddfod winner and a soloist with the National Youth Orchestra of Wales.
As a student at the Royal Academy of Music in London, Phillip Thomas was awarded numerous prizes and a Countess of Munster Scholarship for advanced study. He immediately joined the music staff of English National Opera and has become one of the most outstanding vocal coaches and accompanists of his generation.
Phillip has worked with many distinguished singers including Dame Josephine Barstow, Susan Bullock, Jane Eaglen, Dame Anne Evans, Gwynne Howell, Sergei Leiferkus, Felicity Palmer, Larissa Scheuchenko and John Tomlinson in major venues throughout the United Kingdom, USA and the Far East. He has appeared at festivals in Barbados, Bayreuth, Llangollen, Ravinia and Sydney. He has worked as record producer with Lesley Garrett on her classical albums and with 1993 Cardiff Singer of the World finalist Tito Beltran.
Phillip has been an official accompanist for the Competition since 1995 and has worked for extended periods with the Danish Royal Opera, the Victorian State Opera (Melbourne), Welsh National Opera and Opera North. He has been resident coach on English National Opera's Jerwood Young Singers Programme since its inception in 1999 where, in addition to holding regular coaching sessions, he advises on repertoire and casting.
In 2004 Phillip Thomas makes his debut as conductor in Verdi's Ernani for English National Opera.
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Llyr Williams
Born in 1976 in Pentrebychan, North Wales, Llyr Williams read music at Queen's College, Oxford and left in 1998 with a first class degree. He went on to take up a postgraduate scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music where his teachers included Michael Dussek, Iain Ledingham, Hamish Milne, Julius Drake and the late Irina Zaritskaya. During his studies Llyr won every prize, graduating in 2000 with a Dip RAM, the Academy's highest award.
From 2000 to 2002 Llyr was a Shinn Fellow at the RAM, coaching singers and studying conducting and in May 2002 he was selected for representation by YCAT.
A versatile artist, Llyr is equally at home in the role of soloist, accompanist or chamber musician. His concert work has included recitals at the ROH Linbury Studio Theatre, St. Martin-in-the-Fields and St David's Hall, Cardiff. He has given over 50 concerts for the Live Music Now scheme.
As a concerto soloist Llyr's work has included performances of Mozart's Concerto, K456 at the Amersham Festival, Beethoven's 4th Concerto in Wasserburg-am-Inn in Bavaria, Schumann's Concerto in Valencia and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford.
Llyr's engagements during the 2002/03 season include his debut recital at the Edinburgh International Festival, recitals in London, Cambridge, Guernsey, Swansea, Newbury and King's Lynn. In June 2004 he makes his debut with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
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