MONTEVERDI APPRENTICES PROGRAMME

2023–24

We are delighted to welcome our 2023-24 Choral Apprentices: Billie Robson, Theano Papadaki, Claire Ward, Lorna Price, Avalon Summerfield, Matthias Daehling, Joseph Taylor, Jack Harberd, Henry Saywell and George Vines. These ten young singers were selected from over a hundred applicants, and all appear alongside the Monteverdi Choir in this project. Their year-long programme began in earnest at the end of March when they travelled to the Springhead Trust in Dorset – formerly John Eliot’s childhood home – for four days of intense rehearsals and coaching with Maestro Gardiner. Interspersed with replenishing yoga classes; home cooked meals and country walks, these workshops culminated in an informal, intimate recital to a warm, invited audience of MCO supporters and local friends. This rigorous training was a taste of things to come: just two days later they were sitting amongst the ranks of Monteverdi Choir rehearsing Bach’s Mass in B Minor with the English Baroque Soloists before heading off on our two-week tour of Europe. We wish them the best of luck for what promises to be an incredibly exciting twelve months.