Allan Clayton (tenor) is established as one of the most exciting and sought-after singers of his generation. He studied at St John’s College, Cambridge and at the Royal Academy of Music in London. In 2007 he became an Associate Artist of Classical Opera and a BBC New Generation Artist, and his numerous awards include ‘The Queen’s Commendation for Excellence’ at the Royal Academy of Music, the John Christie Award for his Glyndebourne Festival début as Albert Herring, and a Borletti- Buitoni Trust Fellowship.

His opera roles have included Ferrando (Così fan tutte) for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Opera North, Tamino (Die Zauberflöte) for Welsh National Opera, English National Opera and the Komische Oper, Berlin, Castor (Castor et Pollux), Lysander (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and Cassio (Otello) for English National Opera, and Third Angel/ John in George Benjamin’s award-winning opera Written on Skin at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, The Royal Opera, Netherlands Opera and the Bayerische Staatsoper.

He is equally in demand on the concert platform, and recent engagements have included Britten’s Spring Symphony with both the Philharmonia and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the title role in Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex at the BBC Proms, and the Salzburg première of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius. A consummate recitalist, Allan has worked with many outstanding pianists, including Paul Lewis, Malcolm Martineau, Roger Vignoles and Julius Drake. His recordings have included Handel’s Messiah with both the Academy of Ancient Music (EMI) and the Britten Sinfonia (Hyperion), Belshazzar with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie, Britten’s St Nicolas with the City of London Sinfonia (Hyperion), Cassio in Verdi’s Otello (LSO Live), and ‘The A-Z of Mozart Opera’ and Der Christ in Mozart’s Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots with Classical Opera and Ian Page (Signum Classics).

Classical Opera was founded in 1997 by conductor Ian Page. It specialises in the music of Mozart and his contemporaries, performing with its own acclaimed period-instrument orchestra, and has emerged as one of the leading exponents in its field. The company has attracted considerable critical and public recognition, not only for the high quality and vibrancy of its performances but also for its imaginative programming and its outstanding track-record in discovering and nurturing world-class young singers.

Classical Opera has mounted staged productions of Mozart’s Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots, Apollo et Hyacinthus, La finta semplice, Bastien und Bastienne, Mitridate, re di Ponto, Il re pastore, Zaide, Le nozze di Figaro and Così fan tutte, and in 2009 it was invited to present The Royal Opera’s new production of Thomas Arne’s Artaxerxes. The company also appears frequently on the concert platform, and its repertoire ranges from cantatas by Handel and Pergolesi to symphonies by Beethoven and Schubert. It enjoys a particularly close relationship with Wigmore Hall, where it has presented several themed concert series, including a Mozart Travelogue series, a ‘Haydn at Esterhaza’ series, retrospectives of Handel, J. C. Bach, Haydn and Gluck, and solo programmes with Miah Persson, Sandrine Piau and Ann Hallenberg.

The company’s discography includes ‘The A-Z of Mozart Opera’ (re-launched on Signum Classics in 2014), ‘Blessed Spirit – a Gluck retrospective’ (Wigmore Hall Live, 2010) and Arne’s Artaxerxes (Linn Records, 2011). In 2012 it embarked on a major new recording cycle of the complete Mozart operas, and the first four releases in this series – Apollo et Hyacinthus (2012), Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots (2013), Mitridate, re di Ponto (2014) and Il re pastore (2015) – have all attracted widespread critical acclaim. In 2015 Ian Page and Classical Opera launched MOZART 250, a ground- breaking 27-year project following the chronological trajectory of Mozart’s life, works and influences.

Ian Page (conductor) is the founder, conductor and artistic director of Classical Opera, and is emerging as one of the leading British conductors of his generation. He began his musical education as a chorister at Westminster Abbey, and studied English Literature at the University of York before completing his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. At the start of his career he worked on the music staff at Scottish Opera, Opera Factory, Glyndebourne and the Drottningholm Slottsteater in Sweden, working with such conductors as Sir Alexander Gibson, Nicholas McGegan, Mark Wigglesworth, Ivor Bolton and Sir Charles Mackerras.

With Classical Opera he has conducted most of Mozart’s early operas, including the world première of the ‘original’ version of Mitridate, re di Ponto and a new completion of Zaide, as well as Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte and La clemenza di Tito. He has also conducted the UK premières of Gluck’s La clemenza di Tito, Telemann’s Orpheus and Jommelli’s Il Vologeso, as well as the first new staging for 250 years of Johann Christian Bach’s Adriano in Siria. In 2009 he made his Royal Opera House début conducting Arne’s Artaxerxes at the Linbury Studio Theatre, and his studio recording of the work was released in 2011 on Linn Records.

He devised and conducted Classical Opera’s recordings of ‘The A-Z of Mozart Opera’ (Signum Classics) and ‘Blessed Spirit – a Gluck retrospective’ (Wigmore Hall Live), both of which were selected for Gramophone magazine’s annual Critic’s Choice, and he recently embarked on an acclaimed new complete cycle of Mozart opera recordings with Classical Opera. He has also created and devised MOZART 250, Classical Opera’s ambitious 27-year journey through Mozart’s music and influences, which was launched in London in 2015.

Mary Bevan appears with leading opera houses, orchestras and ensembles worldwide. For the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden she sang Morgana in a new Richard Jones Alcina, Lila in David Bruce The Firework-Maker’s Daughter, performed the title roles of Rossi Orpheus at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse and of Turnage Coraline at the Barbican, and made her main stage debut as Barbarina Le nozze di Figaro. For English National Opera, roles include Susanna Le nozze di Figaro, Eurydice in Offenbach Orpheus in the Underworld and Zerlina Don Giovanni. She made her debut with Opera di Roma as Cleopatra Giulio Cesare, returning as Morgana, also debuting for the Zurich Opera House (La Folie Platée) and Bayerische Staatsoper (title role La Calisto). Opera highlights elsewhere have included appearances with Opera de Monte Carlo, Teatro Real Madrid, Teatro La Fenice, Royal Danish Opera, and the Bolshoi Theatre.

Bevan’s concert performances include her Carnegie Hall debut as Dalinda Ariodante with the English Concert (Harry Bicket), Creation at the Barbican with the Academy of Ancient Music, Sally Beamish The Judas Passion with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, orchestrated Schubert songs with the CBSO (Edward Gardner) and appearances with the Handel and Haydn Society Boston, Philharmonia Baroque, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Barokksolistine, LPO and at the BBC Proms. She has toured extensively across Europe, Australia, Asia and the US with the Kammerorchester Basel, Australian Chamber Orchestra and English Concert, and she appears regularly in recital at Wigmore Hall.

Bevan’s wide-ranging discography includes numerous releases on Signum Records: a recording of orchestral French song entitled Visions Illuminées, art song albums Voyages and Divine Muse with pianist Joseph Middleton, and Handel’s Queens. Other albums include Handel's The Triumph of Time and Truth and Ode for St Cecilia’s Day, Vaughan Williams Symphony No.3 and Schubert Rosamunde with the BBC Philharmonic, Arthur Sullivan songs (Chandos), Vaughan Williams folk songs (Albion), Brahms Liebesliederwaltzer (Resonus), and more.

Bevan is a winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist award and UK Critics’ Circle Award for Exceptional Young Talent in music. She was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list in 2019 and was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in 2025.