Sam Cobb is a British Soprano. Originally from Birmingham, Sam completed an undergraduate degree in Music at Royal Holloway, University of London, followed by a master’s degree in Musicology at the University of Birmingham.

Sam performs regularly with The Monteverdi Choir and Sir John Eliot Gardiner since being awarded a place on their Apprentice programme in 2018/19. Recent step-out solos with the group include Second Elf in Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Salzburg Festival and Festival Berlioz at La Côte-Saint-André in August 2021, and Second Woman in excerpts from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in August 2020 at Springhead, Dorset.

‘Echo’ vocal ensemble is another central aspect to Sam’s work: both singing for the group and acting as Co-Artistic Director alongside conductor Sarah Latto. Echo have established a reputation for their unique creative voice and imaginative programming, and through this Sam has been able to pursue their interest in cross-genre collaboration with artists in other fields.

Sam works with a number of other ensembles, including The Sixteen conducted by Harry Christophers: joining the group for their Choral Pilgrimage 2021 to sing the high soprano solo in Allegri’s Miserere. 

As a soloist, Sam’s recent engagements include: performing in artist Ragnar Kjartansson's The Sky in a Room, (June/July 2022); Michal in Handel’s Saul with Exeter Bach Society (April 2022); a staged version of Handel's Messiah, directed by Tom Guthrie, Paragon Singers, (March 2022); a collaboration with artist Oliver Beer (April 2021), Handel’s Messiah with The Choir and Orchestra of Buckfast Abbey (Dec 2019); and Handel’s Dixit Dominus, Paragon Singers (Nov 2019). Sam is particularly interested in the vocal repertoire of J.S. Bach, and was able to pursue this after being awarded a Choral Scholarship with the Oxford Bach Soloists 2019-2020, regularly performing step-out solos with the group. 

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Selected by BBC Music Magazine as a Rising Star of 2022, Hilary Cronin won both First Prize and the Audience Prize at the 2021 London Handel International Singing Competition.

Hilary trained at Trinity Laban Conservatoire and at Royal Holloway University of London where she was awarded the Dame Felicity Lott Bursary and the Driver Prize for Excellence in Performance.

Since then, she has established a reputation as an outstanding performer of Baroque music, gaining engagements with ensembles including Academy of Ancient Music, Arcangelo, English Baroque Soloists, The English Concert, Florilegium, Irish Baroque Orchestra, London Handel Players, La Nuova Musica, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Polyphony, The Sixteen, English
Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, and Scottish Chamber Orchestra, as well as making her
debut at the Handel Festival, Halle for Handel’s Diva, at Teatro la Fenice for Fauré Requiem and at
Carnegie Hall for Handel L’Allegro with the Monteverdi Choir.

Hilary's operatic engagements have included Poppea Agrippina with English Touring Opera, Mother
Hansel and Gretel for Silent Opera at Opera Holland Park, Céphise Pygmalion for Dunedin Consort,
Télaïre Castor et Pollux with The Rameau Project and Mrs Waters The Boatswain’s Mate for
Grimeborne Festival.

Her current engagements include the title role in Arianna in Creta with La Nuova Musica, Virtú /
Damigella L’Incoronazione di Poppea with The English Concert, Piacere Il trionfo di tempo e del
disinganno with Early Opera Company at Buxton International Festival, Silete Venti with the King’s
Consort, St John Passion with BBC Philharmonic, Haydn Nelson Mass for Newbury Festival, Handel
Brockes Passion with The English Concert, Class of 1685 Bach/Handel/Scarlatti with Solomon’s Knot,
Messiah at Winchester Cathedral, Arundel Cathedral and Cadogan Hall and a recital tour for
Concerts in the West.

Her recordings include Second Lady Dido and Aeneas with La Nuova Musica, now available on
Pentatone SACD.New Paragraph

Tristram has a Masters in Performance from the Royal Academy of Music where he studied with Glenville Hargreaves and Michael Chance, and graduated with Distinction. He is now a Lay Vicar at Westminster Abbey, and sings with several a cappella groups; he was a member of Genesis Sixteen, The Sixteen's young artists' scheme, led by Harry Christophers and Eamonn Dougan 2015-2016.

Recent recordings include Sir James MacMillan's 5th Symphony with the Sixteen, and discs with the Choir of Westminster Abbey and Gabrieli Consort. Older recordings include Siglo de Oro’s debut album, works by Vivanco for De Profundis, and Pelham Humphrey Verse Anthems with Edward Higginbottom. He has appeared on live broadcasts from Westminster Abbey for television and radio, including as a soloist, as well as the BBC Proms.

Recent solo repertoire includes Purcell’s "Fairy Queen" and "Come, ye sons of Art", Buxtehude's "Membra Jesu nostri", Handel’s "Athalia", "Messiah" and "Israel in Egypt", Schumann’s Liederkreis Op.39, both Bach Passions, cantata BWV 170 (Vergnügte Ruh), BWV 82 (Ich habe genug), Mass in B Minor and "Christmas Oratorio". He is a member of the Bach Collective, regularly singing Bach Vespers at St Mary-at-Hill.

He is frequently involved with concerts and tours with professional ensembles including the Choir of the Age of Enlightenment, Arcangelo, the Gabrieli Consort and the Tallis Scholars.

Gabriella Liandu is a Zambian-Scottish singer and creative, passionate about versatility and malleability of the voice. Being raised in the Middle East, her vibrant cultural upbringing and eclectic background is reflected through her artistry and style as a writer and performer. She enjoys exploring the art of storytelling through her own words and music. 

The Mezzo-Soprano takes her roots in performing within the Opera world. She completed her Vocal and Operatic studies, graduating with First Class Honours in Music, followed by a Masters (with Distinction) in Jazz, from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, winning the B:Music Jazz Prize (prev. known as the Jazzlines THSH Final Year Prize for Overall Excellence in Performance and Leadership) and the award of Leverhulme Arts Scholar. Her experience covers a wide range of genres, which can be seen in her work in various fields of the music industry.

Her wide-ranging ensemble work also includes working with choirs. In 2020 she joined Lichfield Gospel Choir as the associate music director and they have since been shortlisted for a Royal Philharmonic Society Award. As well as running her own choir, she has been singing with Ex Cathedra since 2018, working as a Student Scholar, Graduate Scholar and, as of January 2023, the Young Person Representative on the choir’s board.

Gabriella has also forged her own way in the music world off-stage, building her off-stage presence through delivering workshops and singing lessons, as well as working with Birmingham Opera Company, English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Vache Baroque and Music of Life in music making and opera taster sessions, focusing her efforts on the budding talent in Birmingham, through community outreach in the West-Midlands and beyond.

Cathy is humbled to work as a singer across classical, folk, pop, jazz and beyond with incredible musicians and artists. Her singing career has taken her worldwide in performance and broadcast as a soloist, in consorts, vocal ensembles, choirs, shows and opera companies. She is passionate about ensemble in all forms, and enjoys pushing perceived boundaries and rules in genre and style.

Cathy is a mezzo with an extended range and full tone. She trained in Cardiff and London with classical and choral specialists. She has over 15 years professional vocal experience and continues to match her freelance singing alongside her arts consultancy work in Scotland, across the UK and internationally.

Selected highlights: The Rolling Stones; Duran Duran; Gareth Malone and Gareth Malone Voices; Schlomo; KT Tunstall; Katherine Jenkins; Liane La Havas; Pete Churchill; Ganda Boys; Charlotte Church; Fyfe Dangerfield; BBC National Orchestra of Wales; Roddy Williams; Elin Manahan Thomas. Conductors: Richard Hickox; Paul McCreesh; Ed Garner; Thierry Fischer

With his warm timbre and stylish lyricism, Irish tenor Graham Cooper is already drawing international attention as an accomplished soloist. Graham enjoys a wide range of repertoire ranging from the renaissance and baroque to classical, romantic and the present day. Highlights from the current 2022/23 season include performing the role of Ferrando in Escales Lyriques’ Cosi Fan Tutte in Théâtre Les Cytises, jumping in as DUP Soloist in Abomination - A DUP Opera in Theatre Royal Brighton, singing Bach’s Cantata BWV 99 “Erschüttre Dich, Nur Nicht” with Philippe Herreweghe in the Concertgebouw Brugge and premiering James Wood’s Apokalypsis in, amongst other venues, St Bavo Kathedrale Gent and Muziekgebouw Amsterdam.

Daniel Marles is a high tenor studying at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in the West Midlands where he regularly performs early music, both in choral and soloistic contexts. He sings high tenor and haute-contre repertoire, and has a love of the music of Montiverdi, Bach and Handel, particularly enjoying singing the music of French Baroque composers.

He sings under Jeffrey Skidmore in Ex Cathedra, performing under a scholarship with their main choir and professional consort, and will appear on their next albumm as a soloist; Daniel is also a member of the 23/34 Genesis 16 cohort, singing under Harry Christophers and Eamonn Dougan.

He sings regularly with the Birmingham Oratory choir, and supports the CBSO chorus in a professional capacity, singing with them recently at the BBC proms and on their tour to Monte Carlo

Freddie was a member of the 2019-20 NYCGB Fellowship programme, and the 2018-19 Genesis Sixteen cohort. He enjoys frequent singing engagements in churches around London, and has recently performed with groups including Philharmonia Voices, Echo, and the Oxford Bach Soloists. Freddie graduated in 2018 from Merton College, Oxford, where he read Music with a choral scholarship, while also making frequent stage appearances, and singing in jazz a cappella group The Oxford Gargoyles. Having grown up in rural Devon as an Exeter Cathedral chorister, Freddie has more recently appeared as a soloist with several choral societies across the West Country.