Gala Concert to Welcome the New Year

Milly Forrest studied at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music. She was awarded the Ferrier-Loveday song prize in the 2020 Kathleen Ferrier singing competition and the singer’s prize in the Royal Over-Seas League annual music competition in September 2021. Milly is a Samling Young Artist, a Britten Pears Young Artist and an Opera Prelude Young Artist. In October 2022 she made her TV debut in The Gods of the Game - a Football Opera on Sky Arts in association with Grange Park Opera, playing the lead role of Eva, a female football champion who leads the way in tackling corruption in the international game.

Lauren Joyanne Morris is an alumna of the Royal College of Music International Opera Studio, having completed her Master of Vocal Performance (Distinction) at the Royal College of Music. Performance highlights include singing Proserpina in Orfeo for Garsington Opera, Alcina in La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina for Longborough Festival Opera and covering Mezzo Angel in the recent run of It’s a Wonderful Life for English National Opera at the London Coliseum. Future engagements include Chorus in L'elisir d'amore and Les dialogues des Carmélites (in the ensemble of Nuns) at Glyndebourne this summer.

Ryan Vaughan Davies is currently a student of the Royal Academy of Music’s Opera School, where he is a Bicentenary Scholar, having previously received his Masters of Music degree from the Royal College of Music and Bachelor of Music from the Royal Northern College of Music. He has sung at the Garsington Opera Festival, the Grange Festival, Longborough Opera and Buxton Opera Festivals. In concert Ryan recently made a number of acclaimed debuts, including at the BBC Proms as the Lover Il Tabarro with the Hallé and Sir Mark Elder, and with the Ulster Orchestra in performances of Messiah with conductor Nicholas Chalmers.

Jo Ramadan began his music studies as a chorister at the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace. After graduating from Durham University, he studied at the Royal College of Music with John Blakely and Roger Vignoles. He performs as accompanist for many masterclasses, including those of opera stars such as Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Angela Gheorghiu, Gerald Finley, Simon Keenlyside and Dame Sarah Connolly. He is Director of Music at St Vedast Foster Lane, accompanist and professor of vocal repertoire at the Royal College of Music and conductor and tutor at Oxenfoord International Summer School.