Five former students performed in the prestigious singing competition, with Claire Barnett-Jones winning the Audience Prize (pictured above)
International vocal competition Cardiff Singer of the World returned this year. Broadcast on the BBC, the televised rounds featured 16 singers, five of whom studied at the Academy.
Competing from our community of alumni were soprano Christina Gansch, mezzo Claire Barnett-Jones, baritone Michael Arivony, soprano Sarah Gilford and mezzo-soprano Stephanie Wake-Edwards, with Christina and Claire making it through to the final five.
Claire Barnett-Jones, who graduated from the Royal Academy Opera course in 2016, won the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize which was voted for by viewers. You can watch Claire’s performance of We'll Gather Lilacs by Ivor Novello on the BBC iPlayer.
The Academy’s Principal, Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, said:
“The Academy is proud to have trained almost a third of the competitors for Cardiff Singer of the World this year. These are all astonishingly fine artists already and they all gave such inspiring performances over the last few days. Thanks, as always, go to our renowned professors and coaches in our Vocal and Opera Departments who play such a critical role in preparing our talented students for the world stage, such as this.”
The Academy teaches vocal music at undergraduate and postgraduate level, with many of our alumni graduating on to exciting careers in art song performance and opera. You can find out more about the courses we offer, and how we support our students during their time with us, by visiting ram.ac.uk/study.
