Conference Speakers

Elisabeth Bengtson-Opitz was born in Gothenburg in Sweden. After language studies (English, German, Spanish) in her native town she moved to Germany and studied voice and vocal pedagogy at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg . She has made a speciality of the song repertoire with a knowledge of approx. 500 songs, in ten different languages. She is a professor of voice and vocal pedagogy at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg.

David Carey is Acting Head of Voice at RADA and was previously Principal Lecturer of Voice Studies at Central School of Speech and Drama. He has worked internationally as a voice coach. Rebecca Clark Carey is a voice tutor at RADA. She has extensive theatre experience as an actor and voice coach in the US. They are joint authors of the recently published “Vocal Arts Workbook”.

Paul Deegan, Past Chairman of AOTOS, has had a life-time of teaching both in the classroom as a school teacher, and latterly in the singing studio, which he combined with building a reputation as a fine singer. He was Head of Vocal Studies at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and for many years directed Opera Studies and the Lieder Class there. Since his retirement he remains busy with vocal workshops and as an adjudicator and examiner.

George Hall’s career has encompassed the fields of performer (in repertory theatre, vaudeville and cabaret), of composer and pianist, of teacher and coach. He has worked for the Bristol Old Vic, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Manchester Royal Exchange and innumerable other theatre companies. He has been vocal coach on a number of West End musicals and for many individuals over the years, including such luminaries as Dame Edith Evans and Sir Laurence Olivier. For more than 20 years he was Director of the Acting Course at the Central School of Speech and Drama, and in recent years has been teaching on the post graduate Musical Theatre course at the Royal Academy of Music.

Linda Hutchison, after a career as soloist in opera, oratorio and recital, is now well known as a teacher. She has long been involved with inter-disciplinary voice teams at the Sidcup and Medway Voice Clinics and at Bart’s Hospital London. She designed and led a course on “The Art of Teaching Singing” at the London School of Music and Media, and is now leading “The Fundamentals of the Singing Voice”, a professional development course run jointly by the British Voice Association and City Lit.

Nigel Simeone is a musicologist and conductor who was appointed Professor of Historical Musicology in the Music Department at Sheffield University in October 2003. He was born in London in 1956 and is a graduate of Manchester University. He was appointed Special Lecturer at the University of Nottingham in 1994 and taught in the Music Department there full time from 1996 until taking up a post in 1998 at Bangor University, where he worked until moving to Sheffield. His fields of specialism are French music and the Broadway musical. Gordon Stewart , after a valuable education at Cambridge and the Royal College of Music, has had a life-time of performing, teaching and writing. He spent many years working at the BBC, producing programmes and writing hundreds of scripts, many of which he presented on air. He was Head of the Vocal Department at the Royal Scottish Academy. Since last year he has been a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. For the publisher Peters he has written performance notes on individual songs, and biographies of the four main Lieder composers, which can be seen on the Peters website. Two practical guides on the songs of Brahms and Fauré are in the process of being edited.

Graham Trew is well-known as a singer, teacher and adjudicator. He trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he was winner of the Gold Medal, and has worked extensively as a singer especially in oratorio and as a recitalist, and was for many years a Gentleman of Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal Choir at St. James’s Palace. He is Chairman of the Association of English Singers and Speakers.

Hazel Wood, after pursuing a busy career nationally and internationally in opera, oratorio, recital and ensemble singing, now devotes herself to teaching. In addition to her private studio, she teaches at Trinity College of Music and at Birkbeck College, where she is Director of the Diploma Course in Concert Singing. She is a past Chairman of AOTOS.

More Information

For any other information please contact the Conference Director:

• Christopher Jennings (Conference Director)
• AOTOS
• Hardwick House
• 58A Dial Hill Road
• Clevedon, North Somerset BS21 7EL
• E Mail: cg.jennings@yahoo.co.uk