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ALEXANDRA STANDING
Piano
Alex is a London-
Her time at the Academy was marked by several prestigious awards, including the Marjorie Thomas Art of Song prize, the Nielsen Prize for French Song, and a highly commended in the Gerhardt Award for Lieder. In 2020, she became a finalist in the Richard Lewis Competition and received generous funding from the Richard Lewis Trust. Upon graduation, Alex was honoured with the Arthur Hervey Award, cementing her status as a rising freelance pianist.
Alex has freelanced professionally with ensembles including the BBC Singers, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Chorus, Hampstead Garden Opera, Waterperry Opera, Leeds Lieder, the Rodolfus Foundation, Royal Academy Opera, British Sinfonietta, the London Film Music Orchestra. She is the official pianist for singer Laura Wright and has worked alongside musicians such as Trevor Pinnock.
Now based in London, Alex thrives in a diverse career that balances performance and teaching. Formerly, she held the Head of Keyboard position at King Edward VI School and currently freelances across a range of institutions, from the Royal Academy of Music Junior Department to their Widening Participation scheme, inspiring the next generation of musicians with her passion and expertise.
Alexandra Standing
Tenor William Searle has appeared at Scottish Opera, Garsington Opera, Opera Holland Park, Buxton International Festival, Vache Baroque and Wexford Festival Opera with roles ranging from Tamino in The Magic Flute to Lensky in Eugene Onegin and from Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro to Gastone in La traviata. William enjoys an international concert career, appearing in J. S. Bach’s Magnificat with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Cadogan Hall, in a world premiere at Carnegie Hall in New York and in Handel’s Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall, as well as in Haydn’s Nelson Mass with the Orquestra do Algarve, Handel’s Israel in Egypt for the Semana de Musica Religiosa Cuenca, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the Festival de Torroella and evangelising J. S. Bach’s St John Passion at the Festival Lyrique-
Upcoming operas include a return to the role of Basilio with Wild Arts and the world premiere of Rosalind by Peter Hugh White, alongside both the St Matthew and St John Passions by J. S. Bach, Britten’s Serenade for tenor, horn and strings and Haydn’s The Creation.
WILLIAM SEARLE
Tenor
William Searle
Ellie Neate trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Opera roles include Lisette La Rondine (which was her studio opera recording debut and was also performed at the Barbican with Opera Rara and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Carlo Rizzi), Zerlina Don Giovanni at Teatro Lorenzo da Ponte and Waterperry Opera Festival, Papagena The Magic Flute Lite and cover Tytania A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Opera North, Celia Iolanthe, First Daughter Akhnaten, cover Mabel The Pirates of Penzance, cover Elsie Maynard The Yeomen of the Guard for English National Opera, Elisa Il Re Pastore, Lisa La Sonnambula, and Cleopatra Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra at Buxton International Festival, Galatea Acis and Galatea, Milica Svadba, and Maria Bertram Mansfield Park at Waterperry Opera, Cunegonde Candide for Blackheath Halls Opera and Gretel Hansel and Gretel for British Youth Opera.
In concert she has performed at Oxford Lieder Festival, Barbican Hall, Wigmore Hall, for Opera Rara at the Italian Embassy and in a salon recital at World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens, for ENO Does Eurovision to an audience of 5000 and for the King, and recorded the soundtrack for Disney+ Rivals series 1 and 2.
Upcoming projects include Rosmene in Handel’s Imeneo with the Cambridge Handel Opera Company, and Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro for Wild Arts, which will be touring the UK.
ELLIE NEATE
Soprano
Ellie Neate