Scholars
Gabriella Liandu is a Zambian-Scottish mezzo soprano, studying on the Jazz Masters course at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. She continues to study with Yvonne Sandison, after graduating with first-class degree on the Vocal and Operatic course. Gabriella’s repertoire reaches from bossa nova, to choral, jazz and more. As well as leading her own jazz ensembles, she performs in the Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra and RBC Chamber Choir. In 2020, she joined Lichfield Gospel Choir as Assistant Musical Director. Gabriella delivers outreach projects for Birmingham Opera Company, Welsh National Opera and SoundLab. She was a Student Scholar with Ex Cathedra in 2018-19 and a graduate Scholar in 2020-21.
Anna Semple is a mezzo soprano and composer based in London. Having finished her Masters in Composition at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 2021, she currently freelances alongside her position in the choir of All Saints, Margaret Street, and as a Teacher-Singer with Pimlico Musical Foundation, where she also teaches violin and music theory. Anna has sung for a number of groups including SANSARA, Echo, The Corvus Consort, Recordare and Vox Luna, and is an alumna of Genesis 16 and the Choir of Jesus College, Cambridge. As a composer, she has recently been commission by the Royal Opera House, The Marian Consort, Wells Cathedral and the Wax Chandlers Guild.
Sebastian Hill is a tenor currently based in Oxford. At school he sang with the Trinity Boys’ Choir before taking a pre-university gap year at Worcester Cathedral, during which he performed at the Three Choirs Festival. He recently graduated from the University of Oxford with a first-class degree in Music, having sung as an Academical Clerk in Magdalen College Choir and studied with Giles Underwood. Now a lay clerk at Magdalen and a scholar with the Oxford Bach Soloists, Seb is looking forward to working with Ex Cathedra over the coming year.
Jonty Ward, bass, began his singing career at the age of six as a founding Chorister under Stephen Clarke at Radley College. He went on to sing as a chorister at New College, Oxford becoming head chorister in 2011. In 2019 Jonty graduated with a first-class honours degree in music and has recently completed his postgraduate studies at the University of York. He currently sings as a Bass Songman at York Minster having taken up the position earlier this year. Jonty was a member of the Genesis Sixteen 2019-20 programme and a graduate Scholar with Ex Cathedra in 2020-21. He is director of music at St Lawrence Parish Church, York and founder-director of the White Rose Consort.
Student Scholars
Isabella Abbot Parker is in her fourth year at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire where she studies with Christopher Turner. A former Head Chorister at the Collegiate Church of St Mary Warwick, Isabella is now a Choral Scholar at Birmingham Cathedral. She also deputises at St Chad’s Cathedral and Birmingham Oratory. Isabella has toured, recorded and taken part in live BBC broadcasts with the RSCM Millennium Youth Choir, the Rodolfus Choir and the Choirs of St Mary’s Warwick, and has sung at St John’s Smith Square, St Martin-in-the-Fields and the Three Choirs Festival. With the Rodolfus Choir, she has sung at the Royal Festival Hall alongside the Philharmonia Orchestra and Philharmonia Voices and performed as a backing singer at Katherine Jenkins’ 2019 Christmas concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
Hope Pugh is mezzo soprano from rural Herefordshire. She is currently in her final year studying for her BMus (hons) with a scholarship at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire specialising in Vocal and Operatic studies with Amanda Roocroft. Hope was the first female alto Choral Scholar at Worcester Cathedral in 2019-20 and is now alto Lay-clerk at St Philip’s Cathedral, Birmingham. As well as live performances Hope has been involved with many CD recordings and has featured on television and radio with choirs such as the National Youth Choir of Great Britain and the Rodolfus Choir. Hope appeared on international television in filmed parts of ‘Canta Al Mar’ Choral Festival in Spain (2017) where she won an award for ‘Best Soloist’ of the competition.
Daniel Marles is a tenor based in Birmingham. He started singing at age 7 in his local parish choir, where he first discovered choral and classical music, and went on to accompany services under tuition of the organist. Daniel has sung in various choirs including giving performances at Leeds Town Hall, and as a soloist in Carlisle Cathedral. He was a also a member of semi-professional group Leeds Guild of Singers, who gave a well-received performance of his own music in Leeds Minster, Daniel now studies at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, pursuing his love of Baroque and classical music, especially under the direction of Jeffrey Skidmore in the Chamber Choir.
Henry Saywell, bass, started singing at school in Kingston with the Tiffin Boys’ Choir, introducing him to choral music and providing opportunities to sing in major London venues and cathedrals across Europe. Having recently graduated from the University of Birmingham, reading music, he is now studying postgraduate vocal performance at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. As well as singing with various university choirs, he is currently a member of the Cathedral Choir at St Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham and was accepted onto the 2020-21 cohort of the Genesis Sixteen course. With a focus on early music and consort singing Henry has attended courses with Stile Antico and taken part in early vocal projects at the University of Birmingham including solos in Carissimi’s Jephte in the University’s Barber Institute of Fine Arts.