Three new young singers have joined Glyndebourne’s Jerwood Young Artists Programme (JYAP) this year, the Sussex-based opera house has announced.
The JYAP started in 2010 and is supported by the Jerwood Developing Artists Fund, which provides grants for arts organisations to deliver development programmes for early career artists in all artforms.
The programme offers aspiring soloists from the Glyndebourne Chorus career-changing support and professional development over a full Glyndebourne Festival season. The Jerwood Young Artists work with leading conductors, directors, choreographers, theatre specialists and vocal coaches to improve their skills and experience.
The three Jerwood Young Artists for 2023 are mezzo-soprano Annabel Kennedy, bass baritone Michael Ronan and bass Jamie Woollard.
Hailing from Devon, Kennedy is a member of the Royal College of Music’s International Opera Studio (RCMIOS) as a Siow-Furniss Scholar, supported by the Sir Gordon Palmer Scholarship, under the tutelage of Amanda Roocroft and Caroline Dowdle.
She is also supported by the Josephine Baker Trust, The Drake Calleja Trust, The Munster Trust Award and the Sybil Tutton Opera Awards. She is a Samling Artist and a Britten Pears Young Artist for 2022-23.
Kennedy has performed in many roles in a variety of RCMIOS productions. She was Second Lady in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute, 1791), Hänsel in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel (1893), Minskwoman in Jonathan Dove’s Flight (1998), Public Opinion in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld (1858) and L’enfant in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges (The Child and the Spells, 1925).
She performed as a Garsington Young Artist in the chorus and cover of Noble Orphan 2 for their production of Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier (The Knight of the Rose, 1911). She performed her first-ever principal role debut as Flora in Verdi’s La traviata (The Fallen Woman, 1853) for Nevill Holt Opera, as well as singing in the chorus of Mozart’s Don Giovanni (1787).
Northumbrian Ronan is a member of Royal Academy Opera (RAO), where he is a recipient of the Sainsbury Award and is supported by The Countess of Munster Musical Trust.
Roles he has performed for RAO include Nick Shadow in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress (1951), Don Inigo Gomez in Ravel’s L’heure espagnole (Spanish Time, 1911), Don Alfonso in Mozart’s Così fan tutte (Women Are Like That, 1790) and Quince in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1960).
He has sung Polyphemus in Handel’s Acis and Galatea (1718) with Ensemble OrQuesta, and John Proctor in Robert Ward’s The Crucible (1961) at OPERNFEST, Berlin. He has recently finished a season at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, performing the role of Monsieur Barbu in Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias (The Breasts of Tiresias, 1947) and covering the roles of Colline in Puccini’s La bohème (The Bohemians, 1896) and Harvey in Smyth’s The Wreckers (1906).
Woollard is currently studying at the Royal College of Music Opera Studio, where he is taught by Graeme Broadbent; he will graduate in July 2023.
He is a Samling Artist, as well as the Stephen Catto Memorial Scholar at the RCM, supported by the Fishmongers’ Company Scholarship. He has also been supported by the Josephine Baker Trust and Sussex Opera and Ballet Society during his time at RCM.
At the RCM, Woollard has performed roles including Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, Jupiter in Orpheus in the Underworld, and the Immigration Officer in Flight; he will sing Il Re in Respighi’s La bella dormente nel bosco (The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods, 1922) in March 2023.
He performed in the premiere of three opera scenes at the Royal Opera House, including the bass aria ‘Detritus’ by Laura Reid for the Jette Parker Programme (Lost and Found, March 2022). He will also be covering Segeste and Tullio in Handel’s Arminio (1737) at the Linbury Theatre in April 2023.
All three singers will be at Glyndebourne this summer for the 2023 festival. Ronan can be seen as The Keeper of the Madhouse in The Rake’s Progress and the 2nd Commissioner in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites (1956).
Read the full biographies of all three Jerwood Young Artists.
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Glyndebourne has revealed three new Jerwood Young Artists for 2023 (from left): Michael Ronan, Annabel Kennedy and Jamie Woollard.