Apprentices

The Monteverdi Apprenticeship Scheme was set up in 2007 to address the problems faced by young singers attempting to embark on a professional career. The aim of the programme is to give the most promising young musicians, on the verge of entering the profession, direct experience of the musical tradition of the Monteverdi ensembles and the working practices of John Eliot Gardiner during a year-long apprenticeship scheme.

After an extremely successful first two years, the Apprenticeship Scheme was opened to instrumentalists for the first time in 2009/10. This year has seen an intake of eight vocalists and one keyboard player.

About the Scheme

The Monteverdi Apprenticeship Scheme is the only scheme in the UK which offers such opportunities to young singers.  The young musicians’ experience of music making at a world-class level within a high-powered and multi-national group of colleagues leaves them exceptionally well-equipped to perform and teach at the highest level and to take up international professional careers.

This year, selected apprentices will take part in all the major projects of The Monteverdi Choir and The English Baroque Soloists, under the direction of their founding conductor, John Eliot Gardiner. An individual mentor is appointed for each Apprentice and they will receive personal musical tuition from John Eliot Gardiner and from regular professional members of the ensembles, as well as specialized training in historically informed performance practice and guidance in devising educational projects and in working with children. 

The musicians selected will:

-        Receive an excellent preparation for a performing career, learning at an early stage of development about the exacting demands and working practices of an internationally renowned ensemble,

-        Receive additional educational benefits ranging from vocal and instrumental coaching to audition technique seminars,

-        Learn to work in a team within the multi-national environment of the Choir and orchestras,

-        Learn to relate to children and to communicate their enthusiasm for classical music to those who have had no experience of it, by participating in MCO educational projects.

Apprentice Scheme supporters

We are most grateful to the following individuals, companies and charitable foundations for their generous support of the Apprenticeship scheme:

The Kohn Foundation
Reed Elsevier
The ESG Robinson Charitable Trust
Morny and Ian Hay Davison

How to apply to the Scheme

Apprentices for the year 2010/11 have already been selected. Auditions for 2011/12 will be held in the Spring (date to be confirmed) and will be open to singers.

If you are interested in taking part, you can get in touch with us for more information or send us your CV to info@monteverdi.org.uk from January 2011.

Participants 2010/11

Stephanie Guidera, mezzo-soprano

Liverpool Voice of the Year 2009 and top female voice in Merseyside Young Singer of the Year 2010, Stephanie is a first year undergraduate at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying with Susan McCulloch.

Stephanie performs regularly as a concert soloist, appearing with Liverpool Italian Opera Company, Wigan Choral Society, New Tyneside Orchestra and the National Youth Choir of Great Britain. Recent engagements include Mozart Requiem, Handel Messiah and Second Witch (Dido and Aeneas) with the Yorke Trust. On Christmas Day 2009, BBC Radio Merseyside broadcast Stephanie's performance of Handel’s ‘O Thou that tellest’ live from the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral.

Gwendolen Martin, soprano

Gwendolen was brought up in Wiltshire and won a silver medal for singing from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music in 2002. She went on to study music as a choral scholar at Worcester College, Oxford, and sang as a soloist with Ensemble Isis, Oxford Sinfonietta and New Chamber Opera. Gwendolen completed a Postgraduate Diploma at Trinity College of Music, and whilst there she took part in a mentoring scheme with The Sixteen for a year and sang as a soloist with the Early Music Vocal Ensemble. She is a member of the Marian Consort and is also on the Philharmonia Chorus Professional Singers Scheme. Gwendolen currently studies with Hazel Wood and Robert Aldwinckle.

Roryy McCleery, countertenor

Rory began his musical career as a chorister at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh under Timothy Byram-Wigfield and Matthew Owens. He studied music at Oxford University as both Organ and Domus Academic Scholar of St Peter’s College, obtaining a 1st Class degree, and completed a Master of Studies in Musicology with Distinction at the Queen’s College in 2008-09. He is currently pursuing doctoral research at Oxford in the music of French Renaissance composer Jean Mouton. Recent solo repertoire has included the Monteverdi Vespers, and JS Bach Magnificat and St John Passion. Rory is also the musical director of The Marian Consort, and was a finalist in the 2009 YEMF Young Artists’ Competition.

Raffaele Pé, countertenor 

Raffaele, aged 25, studied singing and organ as a chorister in Lodi Cathedral, Milan from the age of seven under Maestro don Pietro Panzetti, musical director of the Cappella Musicale della Cattedrale di Lodi. In 2004 Raffaele continued his vocal studies with the Romanian male soprano Cezar Florin Ouatu, then in London with Colin Baldy. Raffaele has participated in masterclasses with Marco Beasley and Sarah Walker. In 2008 he was cast in the principal role in the UK premiere of Cefalo e Procride by G.Bononcini. He has also received critical acclaim in his alto solo performaces of Handel's Messiah and Mozart's Requiem in December 2009.

James Priest, baritone

James began his path as a solo singer aged 17 with Andrew Yeats at Bishop’s Stortford College.  He then studied voice with Gordon Sandison at the Birmingham Conservatoire while completing a BMus at the University of Birmingham. James is now undertaking a Masters in voice at Trinity College of Music, where he has been awarded a scholarship for his second year of study. His experience as a concert soloist includes Fauré’s Requiem and Haydn’s The Creation, and as an operatic singer James has sung the roles of Count Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro) and Demetrius (Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream), among others. He is a member of the European Vocal Soloists, the Cambridge Voices, and the New London Chamber Choir.

Edmund Saddington, baritone

Edmund began his musical career as a chorister in the cathedral choir of Southwell Minster, Nottinghamshire. He is currently in his final year of study for a BMus from London’s Trinity College of Music, taught by Linda Hirst and Martyn Hill. Edmund balances study with a busy professional consort, session music, solo, church and operatic career, singing recently with Philharmonia Voices, Musica Contexta, the National Chamber Choir of Ireland, Opera Ireland and Greenwich Baroque Orchestra. An experienced church musician, Edmund is currently a permanent member of the chapel choir of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea and is active as a singer throughout London's churches and cathedrals.

Sung-Eun Seo, soprano 

25-year-old Samling Scholar Sung Eun has recently completed her Master of Opera at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. During her studies, she has appeared in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites, Prokofiev’s The Love of Three Oranges (Theatre Royal, Glasgow and Edinburgh Festival Theatre with Scottish Opera), Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos and Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann. She has also taken part in the 2010 Edinburgh International Festival Opera Mozart's Idomeneo as Cretan Woman and Chorus with Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Sung Eun’s study was generously supported by the RSAMD Trust, the Chevron Excellence Award and the Seohee Scholarship.

Gareth Treseder, tenor 

Gareth read for his Masters in Musical Performance at the University of Bristol before his Postgraduate Diploma studies at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, under Eric Roberts and Jeffrey Howard. He has taken part in master classes led by such esteemed singers as Dame Emma Kirkby, Janet Price, Miriam Bowen and Adrian Thompson.

He won several awards whilst at the RWCMD, including two consecutive student scholarships to perform with the BBC National Chorus of Wales led by Adrian Partington and the Manning Prize for Tenors. He is currently a member of the BBC Singers Ad Hoc List, Polyphony and London Voices.