 Melissa Alder - Soprano
Melissa was educated at the Arts Educational School Tring Park and continued her studies at the Royal Academy of Music. Whilst an undergraduate she won the Mezzo-Soprano Competition and was awarded the Laura Ashley Scholarship for post-graduate studies.
Melissa began her professional career with Opera d’Lyon in 1994 and joined the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus and Glyndebourne Touring Opera in 1995. She appeared at Glyndebourne for seven consecutive seasons, during which time she also made the transition from mezzo-soprano to soprano. In 2000 she made her solo Glyndebourne debut as Barena in Janacek's Jenufa. Melissa appeared in many of Raymond Gubbay’s “Operas in the Round” at the Royal Albert Hall and undertook the role of Kate Pinkerton in the UK tour of their acclaimed production of Madam Butterfly.
In 1999 she performed at the Salzburg Festival with European Voices in a production of Rameau’s Les Boreades conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. In 2002, also with European Voices, Melissa performed with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle in Bernstein’s Wonderful Town, a New Year’s Eve concert released on DVD to huge acclaim. Other professional engagements have included performances at Garsington Festival Opera and the Ryedale Festival as well as appearing regularly in concerts and recitals in London and nationwide.
Melissa joined the chorus of The Royal Opera House Covent Garden in 2002 and made her solo debut in 2003 as Iris in Handel’s Semele conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras. In addition to her busy performance schedule, she also runs Over the Rainbow Singing; weekly singing workshops that encourage children to make singing part of their world.
 Henry Moss - Tenor
After working as a solicitor Henry Moss joined the Royal Academy of Music where he studied from 1993 to 1997 with Kenneth Bowen.
His concert repertoire includes the popular oratorios of Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Elgar, Rossini and Verdi, as well as Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte and many other Lieder and songs of the English, French and Russian repertoire.
In 1997, he made his Royal Opera debut as The Western Union Boy and Hot Biscuit Slim in Britten's Paul Bunyan at the Snape Maltings. Other roles have included Tchaplitzky in Pique Dame at the Royal Opera House, First Spirit/Echo in Orfeo for English National Opera, General Konovnitsin/Gerard/1st Russian Staff Officer in Prokofiev's War and Peace for the Spoleto Festival,Moser in Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg for Theatre de Geneve, Flamand in Capriccio at the Opera de Nantes, Goro in Madama Butterfly, Cecco in Il Mondo della Luna and Gonzalve in L’Heure Espagnole, all with Opera Zuid in the Netherlands, Flute in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Copenhagen, Fracasso in Mozart's La Finta Semplice at the Buxton Festival, Varo in Arminio for the London Handel Society, Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro for Iford Arts and the leading roles in two American one-acters I can't stand Wagnerand The Music Shop for Jigsaw Opera. He sang Second Jew in Salome under Zubin Mehta in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and several roles in the world premiere of Casken’s God’s Liar for the Almeida Theatre in London and the Theatre de la Monnaie, Brussels.
Other work has included the title role in Albert Herring, Marco in The Gondoliers and Slender in Sir John in Love all for British Youth Opera, of which he has been a director.
 Patrick Ardagh-Walter
- Bass
Patrick Ardagh-Walter left his former life as a violinist in 1985 and sang in many guises while at Oxford University before returning to London. After a few years performing with prestigious ensembles such as The Taverner Consort, Electric Phoenix and I Fagiolini he moved to Paris.
Following a spell in the Groupe Vocal de France he studied French baroque opera in Versailles and subsequently sang roles at the Opéra Comique and Opéra de Metz, also participating in recordings of sacred music and opera with some of France’s foremost baroque ensembles and developing a concert career in France.
Patrick’s interest in contemporary music continued through the ’90s as he worked with the Ensemble Intercontemporain and sang roles at the Opéra de Lyon, in Nice and Strasbourg, and as soloist and ensemblist in broadcasts for BBC Radio 3, Radio France and Swiss Radio and with the London Sinfonietta.
As bass of the Swingle Singers he toured worldwide, performing in operas by composers including Luciano Berio and Azio Corghi at La Scala Milan, in Tel Aviv and at the Châtelet in Paris, whilst also fulfilling a busy calendar of international concerts and recording. He now lives in Oxfordshire, working in concert and opera and is also in demand as a voice teacher. He can be heard on more than 60 CDs and somewhere in the background of numerous films. He studies with David Jones in New York and Cathy Pope in England. |
