Guest Artists
CHRISTINA DUNWOODIE - SOPRANO
Christina studied at the RSAMD. She sang At Scottish Opera for two seasons prior to founding Opera on a Shoestring becoming it's Artistic Director and Principal Soprano. Christina performed in several critically acclaimed productions in the following roles: Lucia Lucia di Lammermoor, Mimi La Boheme, Violetta La Traviata (winner of the Scotland on Sunday 'Paper Boat' Award), the title role in Tosca (winner of the Herald 'Spirit of Mayfest' Award), Fiordiligi Cosi fan Tutte and Donna Anna Don Giovanni. She has performed these and other roles for other UK opera companies including Rosmene Imeneo, Countess Le Nozze di Figaro, Lauretta Gianni Schicchi, Micaela Carmen and La Femme Le Pauvre Matelot. In Oratorio she has sung Handel’s Messiah, Pulenc Gloria and Vivaldi Gloria, Haydn’s Nelson Mass and The Seasons, Rossini’s Stabat Mater and Pucinni’s Petit Messe Solennell. Christina performs at prestigious events in the UK and has given concert recitals throughout Europe, notably in Moscow, St Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, Prague, Nurmberg, Saint Malo, Santo Domingo and has broadcast regularly on BBC Radio Scotland. Christina sings with Clare Shearer in the acclaimed duo Casta Divas.
It is a beautiful voice, unwaveringly rich and smooth...she resembles the young Sutherland.’
Opera Magazine
‘Tosca sang with a rich sensuous tone... “Vissi d’arte” came over as an exquisite recital piece...she was the first Tosca in my experience who looked truly young and beautiful.’
Opera Magazine
‘Christina Dunwoodie in the glorious role of Donna Anna emerged as the Diva, her expressive range quite stunning’
The Herald
Francisco Garcia Fernandez was born in Spain and studied at the Academia Villa - Lobos, the Juventudes Musicales followed by 5 years at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, where he trained with Stephen Robertson. Roles include Happy La Fanciulla del West and Ford (cover) Falstaff both for Grange Park Opera, Colas Bastian und Batsienne with Centro de Arte Lirico and Pinelino Gianni Schicchi. In 2003 he sang with the Joven Orquesta del Norte de Portugal, and in 2004 with the Scottish Opera Orchestra at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow and at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh.
In 2005 he won the Mirna Lacambra competition in Barcelona and went on to sing Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro. Other roles include Dulcamara, Count Almaviva, Zurga, and Le Dancaïre.
Future engagements: Fran will sing the role of Cavaliere Marullo in the "Rising Stars" production of Rigoletto for Grange Park Opera at both Neville Holt in summer 2009 and on tour with Pimlico Opera in autumn 2009
Clare Shearer was born in Hamilton and studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. She received several scholarships and in 1985 won the John Noble Bursary. She was the first recipient of an English Speaking Union Scholarship to study at the Banff Centre in Canada where she sang the roles of Madam Popova The Bear, Miranda L’Ormindo, Nancy Albert Herring and Lucretia The Rape of Lucretia.
Clare was a member of Scottish Opera from 1987 to 1990 where her roles included Tzeitel Fiddler on the Roof, Kate Pinkerton Madama Butterfly, Jennie Hildebrand Street Scene, Wellgunde Das Rheingold, Flora La Traviata, Second Lady The Magic Flute, Mercedes Carmen, Olga Eugene Onegin, Cherubino The Marriage of Figaro, Preziosilla La Forza del Destino, Mary Wollstonecraft in Sally Beamish’s Monster; and Dorabella Cosi fan Tutte. More recently she has sung Siegrune for their acclaimed new production of Der Ring.
In 1994/95 she made her debut with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden as Siegrune in their new production of Der Ring des Nibelungen and she returned as Grimgerde, Mary The Flying Dutchman, Wowkle Fanciulla del West, Albine Thias and Sosostris A Midsummer Marriage. She made her debut with Welsh National Opera as Fenena in the new production of Nabucco followed by Madam Butterfly and Lola in their 50th anniversary production of Cavalleria Rusticana, returning as the title role in Carmen and La Frugola Il Tabarro.
She recently performed Marta Iolanta for their theatre and BBC London Promenade concert performances. Her roles with other companies have included Mercedes and Rosina The Barber of Seville with Opera North; Maurya Riders to the Sea for Buxton Festival; Mahler’s Rückert Lieder for Scottish Ballet; Dorabella and Suzuki Madam Butterfly with English National Opera; Dorabella with CAPAB, South Africa; title role Carmen with Central Festival Opera; and Larina Eugene Onegin for English Touring Opera. She also returned to Scottish Opera as Preziosilla.
Clare also has an important concert and recital career, which has included performances of Mahler’s Rückert Lieder and Brahms Opus 91 Songs with the Scottish Ballet, concerts in the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, and London’s Wigmore Hall and for the BBC. Most recently she has performed in gala concerts with Dennis O’Neill and Montserrat Caballé; Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony in the Queen Elizabeth Hall; and Verdi’s Requiem for the Montreux Festival and in Geneva and Le Sentier. Her recordings include Neris in extracts from Cherubini’s Medea for Decca.
Soon to be released is the inaugural recording of Sir Edward Elgar’s Crown of India with Sir Andrew Davis and the BBC Philharmonic for Chandos.
Iain Stuart Hunter studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow attaining Master of Music in Opera and is a company member of the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin. Roles include the Commendatore Don Giovanni, Snug Midsummer Night's Dream, Colline La Bohème at the New Athenaeum Theatre, Glasgow, Doctor Grenvil La Traviata and Doctor Bartolo Le Nozze di Figaro for Wexford Festival Opera, Alcade La Forza del Destino, Geharnischtermann and Sarastro Die Zauberflöte and Angelotti Tosca for Volkstheatre Rostock.
Recent roles include Ramfis Aida and Guglielmo at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre, The Mayor Maskaya Noch' (cover) for Garsington Opera and The General Evita with Norddeutsche Philharmonie and Rostock Volkstheater.
Concert repertoire includes Rocco Fidelio, Father Truelove The Rake's Progress, Herod L'enfance du Christ, Friar Lawrence Romeo and Juliet (Berlioz) and as Bass soloist in Laborintus II Berio (live broadcast for BBC), Child of Our Time Tippett, Verdi Requiem, Mozart and Haydn Masses
Ivor Klayman was born and brought up in Edinburgh. While at Edinburgh University studying Law, he studied singing with John and Marie Tainsh.
Principal roles in Gilbert & Sullivan with the Edinburgh University Savoy Opera Group led to principal roles with Edinburgh Opera Company, Edinburgh University Opera Club, Opera Camerata and Edinburgh Grand Opera, with whom he has sung most of the major baritone roles in the 19th and 20th Century operatic repertoire, including Gerard (Andrea Chenier), William Tell (William Tell), Herod (Herodiade), “Don Marco”(“The Saint of Bleecker Street”) by Gian Carlo Menotti, all Scottish Premieres, Captain Balstrode (Peter Grimes), Zurga (The Pearl Fishers), Tomsky (The Queen of Spades) and the title roles in Nabucco, Macbeth, Tell, The Pilgrim's Progress and Prince Igor, Publio in Clemenza di Tito (concert), Amonasro (Aida), and most recently Mephistopheles in Faust (Gounod).
With Opera on a Shoestring he was Baron Douphol in their award-winning La Traviata in Glasgow Mayfest, Malatesta (Don Pasquale), The Sacristan (Tosca), a "Spirit of Mayfest" award winner, and Dr. Grenville (La Traviata).
At the same time, he has built up a wide repertoire in oratorio and concert works, performing, with most of the major choral societies in the central belt and the North East of Scotland and North of England, works ranging from Bach to Walton, by way of Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms, Britten, Dvorak, Handel, Haydn, Mahler, Mozart, Orff, Rossini, Schutz, Vaughan Williams, Verdi and Vinter, and giving recitals of Mahler, Schubert, Schumann, Vaughan Williams and Wolf lieder cycles.
Recent engagements include Bach's St John Passion, Haydn's Creation and Nelson Mass, Handel’s Messiah, Rocco in Beethoven’s Fidelio, Dr Miracle in Tales of Hoffman by Offenbach, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Orff’s Carmina Burana, “Noye” in “Noye’s Fludde” by Britten, Faure’s Requiem, Elijah, Mozart’s Requiem, a critically acclaimed song recital, The Narrator in “Peter and the Wolf” by Prokofiev, song recitals “Die Schoene Muellerin” (Schubert) and “Dichterliebe” (Schumann), Polyphemus in Handel’s Acis and Galatea, Mephistopheles, a Purcell and Handel Concert, “Winterreise” (Schubert) Verdi’s Requiem, Nabucco (Concert in Shrewsbury) and Vaughan Williams’ 5 Mystical Songs. Future engagements include a song recital in Shrewsbury, Valens in Theodora by Handel and Scarpia in Tosca (Puccini).
Martin Quinn studied at the Royal Northern College of Music
with Anthony Roden and is currently learning with Justin Lavender.
As a concert soloist Martin has worked with choirs and orchestras throughout the UK & Europe. Recent concert engagements have included Beethoven Missa Solemnis (Reading Festival Chorus), Orff Carmina Burana (Grimsby Philharmonic Choir), Mozart Requiem (Oxford Philomusica), Bruckner Mass in F minor (Chippenham Cantata) and Puccini Messa di Gloria (Clacton Choral Society).
On the operatic stage Martin has worked extensively in chorus and as a principle artist. Most notably he has worked with Spoleto Festival Opera (Italy), Pavilion Opera (Ernesto- Don Pasquale), English Touring Opera (2002 Tour), Opera Box, Swansea City Opera, British Youth Opera and St. Alban’s Chamber Opera (Fenton- Merry Wives of Windsor).
Martin has recorded for Chandos, BBC Music Magazine, BBC Television and appeared at the Classical Brit Awards 2000, 2002 and 2003.
Future engagements include: Handel Messiah (West Sussex Philharmonic Choir), Finzi Dies Natalis (Akeman Voices, Oxon) & Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle ( St. James’ Singers, Warwick- Warriner Choral Society, Oxon).
