English Touring Opera (ETO) has established a new Music Advisory Panel, the opera company has announced.
The panel will include two new appointees: Holly Mathieson and Jonathan Peter Kenny. They both become Artists in Association with ETO. The two new appointees stand alongside the recent appointment of conductor Gerry Cornelius as ETO’s music director.
Mathieson is a conductor, currently holding the posts of music director of Symphony Nova Scotia in Canada, artistic director of Rata Music Collective and co-artistic director of the Nevis Ensemble. Until recently she was assistant conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and resident conductor with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland Orchestras.
Countertenor Kenny is a distinguished singer, conductor and coach who has brought a special flavour to ETO’s baroque opera productions. He is music director of ETO’s partner period orchestra, the Old Street Band.
The two new members will be joined on the panel by two current ETO artists, Vocal Consultant Sergey Rybin and Orchestra Manager Philip Turbett.
Rybin is a pianist and vocal coach who has worked with many of the leading UK opera companies and academies. He helped create a filmed performance of Shostakovich’s song-cycle Michelangelo Suite (1974) with bass Edward Hawkins and ETO Director James Conway; the film is available to watch for free on ETO at Home.
Turbett is ETO’s long-standing orchestra manager and a founder of the Old Street Band. In addition to his teaching and his governance roles, he is a bassoonist in leading modern and period orchestras.
The Music Advisory Panel will ensure that English Touring Opera keeps a sharp focus on excellence and inclusivity in all musical practice, that it makes a habit of posing questions about relevance and that it keeps freelance artists, regional audiences and high standards at its heart.
Director James Conway commented: “I feel that English Touring Opera is renewing itself in some really exciting and hopeful ways at the moment – none more so than this appointment of a panel of questioning and thoughtful experts to help ETO to be as distinctive, excellent and clear sighted as possible as we get back to live performance.”
Image
Conductor Holly Mathieson joins countertenor Jonathan Peter Kenny, Vocal Consultant Sergey Rybin and Orchestra Manager Philip Turbett as part of English Touring Opera’s new Music Advisory Panel (Martin Stewart).