Introducing British Barihunk Dan Shelvey

Daniel Alfred Shelvey

Liverpool native Dan Shelvey was nominated by a reader on Facebook to be in our "Barihunks in Bed" calendar and we couldn't agree more. He is currently studying opera course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD) where he is supported by the GSMD, the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and Musicians Benevolent.  Before attending the GSMD, Shelvey graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music with a first-class degree.

He is winner of the Richard Van Allan prize 2015, the Robin Kay 2013 Memorial Prize for Opera and the 2012 Frederick Cox Award for Singing, and was awarded second place in the Elizabeth Harwood Memorial Prize for Singers 2013.

Soprano Renée Fleming leads a masterclass with Daniel Shelvey:

A 2014 Glyndebourne Jerwood Young Artist, Dan has performed Flora’s Servant in Verdi's La traviata, covered Morales in Bizet's Carmen for Glyndebourne Festival Opera and will perform the role of the Marchese d’Obigny in their 2017 production of La traviata.  Other roles include Junius in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia  at the GSMD, Ulisse in Monteverdi's  Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, Sid in Britten's Albert Herring, Boris in Shostakovich's Paradise Moscow at the Royal Northern College of Music, and Aeneas in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas for Silk Opera.

Shelvey has sung as a soloist in many of the UK’s leading concert venues including the Royal Festival Hall, Colston Hall and the Bridgewater Hall.  Recent solo concert highlights include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Hallé and at the Royal Festival Hall for the BBC, an Oxford Lieder Festival recital, and a recital for the Glyndebourne Jerwood Young Artist recital series at Brighton Pavilion.

Introducing Bertie Watson; Performing Guildhall Hall recital

Bertie Watson

British Bass-Barihunk is recently graduated from the Guildhall School of Music, where he has performed Figaro in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and Belcore in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore. He will join the Opera Studies course in September.

At Guildhall, he has performed Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at the Milton Court Concert Hall, as well as Marcello, Puck and Jupiter in Offenbach's Orphée aux enfers. He was the bass soloist in Handel's Messiah at the Christ Church in Radyr, Wales earlier this year.

On Tuesday,  June 21st at 1:00 pm, he will be joined by pianist Dylan Perez in a program of songs based on Walt Whitman’s poetry. The recital includes composer Clint Borzoni's gorgeous song, "I dreamed in a dream," as well as selections by Rorem, Hoiby, Bernstein, Ruth Schönthal and James H. Rogers. The recital is in the Guildhall lecture hall and admission is free.

He is also finalist in the 2016 Dean & Chadlington Festival Singing Competition along with fellow barihunk Morgan Pearse. The competition will be held from June 23-26.

James Quilligan as photographed by Bertie Watson

He is also a photographer, who specializes in head shots using natural light. One of his subjects was fellow barihunk James Quilligan. You can check out his work HERE.

David Shipley named Jette Parker Young Artist

David Shipley

British bass-barihunk David Shipley was one of five applicants out of 370, who were chosen to join the prestigious Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Applicants from 59 countries competed for the coveted slots in a process that started back in August 2014. A shortlist of just twelve singers auditioned in the final round on the Royal Opera House’s main stage, in front of a panel including Royal Opera House Music Director Antonio Pappano and Director of Opera Kasper Holten.

The other four who were selected are a Russian soprano Vlada Borovko, Irish soprano Jennifer Davis, Australian mezzo-soprano Emily Edmonds and Korean tenor David Junghoon Kim. 

As a Jette Parker Young Artist, from September 2015 Shipley will spend two years at the Royal Opera House, performing in a variety of main-stage productions, concerts and recitals; covering lead roles; and receiving world-class coaching in all opera disciplines including languages, stagecraft and role interpretation.

David Shipley is currently a scholar on the opera course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying with Janice Chapman. He previously studied at the Royal Academy of Music.

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The Royal Opera House has announced five additions to the Jette Parker programme, which trains young singers and pays them a salary for two years.
The five are a Russian soprano Vlada Borovko, Irish soprano Jennifer Davis, Australian mezzo-soprano Emily Edmonds, Korean tenor David Junghoon Kim and a British bass David Shipley (pictured). They were picked from some 370 applicants from 59 countries.
- See more at: http://slippedisc.com/2015/02/just-one-brit-among-five-covent-garden-trainees/#sthash.IhTduqVW.dpuf

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The Royal Opera House has announced five additions to the Jette Parker programme, which trains young singers and pays them a salary for two years.
The five are a Russian soprano Vlada Borovko, Irish soprano Jennifer Davis, Australian mezzo-soprano Emily Edmonds, Korean tenor David Junghoon Kim and a British bass David Shipley (pictured). They were picked from some 370 applicants from 59 countries.
- See more at: http://slippedisc.com/2015/02/just-one-brit-among-five-covent-garden-trainees/#sthash.IhTduqVW.dpuf

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The Royal Opera House has announced five additions to the Jette Parker programme, which trains young singers and pays them a salary for two years.
The five are a Russian soprano Vlada Borovko, Irish soprano Jennifer Davis, Australian mezzo-soprano Emily Edmonds, Korean tenor David Junghoon Kim and a British bass David Shipley (pictured). They were picked from some 370 applicants from 59 countries.
- See more at: http://slippedisc.com/2015/02/just-one-brit-among-five-covent-garden-trainees/#sthash.IhTduqVW.dpuf

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The Royal Opera House has announced five additions to the Jette Parker programme, which trains young singers and pays them a salary for two years.
The five are a Russian soprano Vlada Borovko, Irish soprano Jennifer Davis, Australian mezzo-soprano Emily Edmonds, Korean tenor David Junghoon Kim and a British bass David Shipley (pictured). They were picked from some 370 applicants from 59 countries.
- See more at: http://slippedisc.com/2015/02/just-one-brit-among-five-covent-garden-trainees/#sthash.IhTduqVW.dpuf

Edward Laurenson says farewell to New Zealand with two concerts

Edward Laurenson

New Zealand barihunk Edward Laurenson, who we just introduced to readers last month, is featured in two concerts on August 12 and 13 at the Auckland Grammar's Centennial Theatre. The concerts are both a fundraiser and his farewell as he travels to England to commence his Masters in Music studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. The money from the concerts will help him cover his living expenses while living in London.

This concerts will include performances by James Doy and the National Youth Theatre Company, Rebekkah Schoonbeek-Berridge and the Fusion Dance Studio, soprano Emma Sloman and his accompanist Rosemary Barnes.

In August 2013, Laurenson was the only New Zealand finalist in the prestigious IFAC Australian Singing Competition in Sydney. Among the prizes he won for gaining second place was a scholarship for a year of study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, which begins in September.

Edward Laurenson

In March 2013 he received rave reviews for his role in sold-out performances of The Factory at Auckland’s Q Theatre as part of the Auckland Festival. At the end of 2013 Edward sang to over 200,000 people in the Auckland Domain at the Coca-Cola Christmas in the Park. This year Edward won the Becroft Grand Opera Aria at the North Shore Competitions and was named the recipient of the Circle 100 Scholarship and was a finalist in the 2014 Lexus Song Quest.

Tickets for both concerts are available online.

Introducing British Barihunk Toby Girling

Toby Girling in Zatopek! (left) and Winterreise (right)

Some singers just seem to inspire directors to get them into various states of undress and British barihunk seems to be one of them. We originally saw the picture of him from Zatopek! (above left) when we were posting about his castmate Peter Brathwaite and then the picture of him on the right from a Bluebeard's Castle/Winterreise double bill showed up in our messages. Girling is the sole vocal performer in Schubert's Winterreise with the Vlaamse Opera, which will run in Antwerp through May 10th. Tickets are available online.

Toby Girling is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He was a member of the Glyndebourne Opera Festival Chorus in the Michael Grandage production of Britten's Billy Budd, in which he also sang the role of Arthur Jones and covered the role of Donald. Regular readers may recall that Glyndebourne's Billy Budd also featured barihunks Jacques Imbrailo and Duncan Rock. 

Toby Girling sings Der Lindenbaum from Schubert's 'Die Winterreise:

He has sung at a number of major festivals other than Glyndebourne. These include a 2011 performance of Ben in Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti at the Wexford Festival, Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte and the Sorceress in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas at the Verbier Festival, and Ceprano in Verdi's Rigoletto at the Iford Festival. He also performed in both Guglielmo in Così fan tutte and Fiorello in Rossini's the Barber of Seville to great acclaim with the English Touring Company.

He is currenlty a Studio Artist at Oper Frankfurt, where he performed as the Flemish Deputy in a revival of Verdi's Don Carlo.  Other appearances with the company include Ein Steuermann in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Manuel in de Falla's La Vida Breve and Mann in Sallinen's Kullervo.