Iain Burnside is a pianist who has appeared in recital with many of the world’s leading singers. He is also an insightful programmer with an instinct for the telling juxtaposition. His recordings straddle an exuberantly eclectic repertoire ranging from Beethoven and Schubert to the cutting edge. Burnside’s passion for English Song is reflected in acclaimed albums of Britten, Finzi, Ireland, Butterworth and Vaughan Williams, many with baritone Roderick Williams.
Away from the piano Burnside is active as a writer and broadcaster. For Guildhall School of Music & Drama Burnside has devised a number of singular theatre pieces. A Soldier and a Maker, based on the life of Ivor Gurney, was performed at the Barbican Centre and the Cheltenham Festival, and later broadcast by BBC R3 on Armistice Day. Iain Burnside is Artistic Director of the Ludlow English Song Weekend and Artistic Consultant to Grange Park Opera.

Andrew Kennedy studied at King’s College, Cambridge and the Royal College of Music in London. He was a member of the Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden where he performed many solo principal roles. Andrew has won numerous prizes and awards including the 2005 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Rosenblatt Recital Prize. He is a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award winner and won the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artists’ Award in 2006. He was also a member of BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists Scheme. Operatic roles include Tamino The Magic Flute (English National Opera); Flute A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Royal Opera Covent Garden); Jaquino Fidelio (Glyndebourne Festival) and Ferrando Così fan tutte (Glyndebourne Touring Opera); Nemorino L’elisir d’amore (Opera North) and Tom Rakewell The Rake’s Progress (La Scala). Concert engagements include Jaquino Fidelio, Francesco Benvenuto Cellini and Mozart Requiem for the LSO/Sir Colin Davis (all recorded for the LSO Live CD label) and Novice Billy Budd (LSO/Harding, recorded on EMI/Virgin Classics). Equally passionate about song repertoire, Andrew gives numerous recitals in Europe and the UK and appears regularly with the pianists Julius Drake, Roger Vignoles Iain Burnside and Malcolm Martineau. Andrew’s fast growing discography includes four solo albums (‘Strauss Songs’ with Roger Vignoles for Hyperion; ‘On Wenlock Edge’ with the Dante Quartet/Simon Crawford Philips for Signum Classics; ‘The Dark Pastoral’ with Julius Drake and Simon Russell Beale for Altara Classics and ‘The Curlew’ with Simon Lepper for Landor Records) and two shared recital discs (‘On Buying A Horse’ and a recording of Liszt songs both with Iain Burnside for Signum Classics). Andrew has recently released his first orchestral album of Gluck, Berlioz and Mozart arias for Signum Classics

Susan Bickley is firmly established as one of the most accomplished mezzo-sopranos of her generation, with a wide repertory encompassing the Baroque, the great 19th and 20th century dramatic roles, as well as contemporary repertoire. Her operatic highlights include Matron (The Nose) and Aksinya (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk) at the Royal Opera House, Herodias (Salome) at Dallas Opera and San Francisco Opera and Baba the Turk (The Rake’s Progress) and Mrs Grose (The Turn of the Screw) at Glyndebourne.
Bickley has a busy concert schedule with orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Residentie Orkest, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Les Arts Florissants and the Ensemble InterContemporain and has given recitals with the Allegri and Brodsky Quartets and Fretwork.
Bickley frequently records for BBC radio. Her recorded repertoire includes Handel’s Serse, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, George Benjamin’s Upon Silence and Thomas Adès’s America: A Prophecy.