Hello, from Opera at Bearwood. Welcome to our website with information for audiences, friends and members. We bring good quality opera to the local community and hope to see you at one of our productions very soon.
MEET THE TEAM....
Meet the people who make up our current creative team at Opera at Bearwood ...
Serena Kay
Music Director - Concerts and main opera
2018
Serena is a London born mezzo who specialises in the Bel Canto repertoire. She was a Choral Scholar at Royal Holloway College, University of London, where she graduated from with a BMus (Hons Lond). She won a scholarship to study at the Opera School at Royal College of Music. After achieving a Distinction and being awarded a RCM Junior Fellowship, she went on to make her Opera North debut as Second Lady (Magic Flute); her English National Opera debut as Nancy T'Ang (Nixon in China) and her Welsh National Opera debut as Tisbe (Cenerentola).
She has performed many roles including Hermia (Midsummer Night's Dream); the title role of Cenerentola over 50 times for both Mid Wales Opera and Garden Opera, including a tour of Kenya; Hansel (Hansel and Gretel) for Opera TheatreCompany, Ireland and Dorabella (Cosí fan tutte) for Mananan Opera, Isle of Man. Concert work includes Wesendonck Lieder (Wagner) with the Metropolitan Orchestra in Lisbon; Les nuits d'été (Berlioz) for Kew and Oxford Sinfonias and the Berlioz Society and the B Minor Mass (Bach) for Singapore Choral Society in Singapore, as well as many concerts with the BBC Concert Orchestra, the LPO on the South Bank and oratorios throughout the UK.
Serena is a respected Music Director, working with opera groups across the home countries
Jo Miller-Shepherd
Répétiteur
Jo has been playing the piano from 7 years old and had achieved grade 8 distinction by the age of 12. Her talent lead her on to study at Trinity College of Music, London, where she studied Piano with Valda Aveling and Voice with James Gaddarn. Her musical career has seen Jo playing in a range of diverse settings from the Savoy Hotel with the Puccini society and Thorpe Park with Vangelis to the top of Tower Bridge and numerous tours of Europe.
Jo began working with Opera at Bearwood in our 1995 production of Bizet’s Carmen. Since then her astounding contributions never cease to bring out the best in the company, contributions which have rightly earned her the title of ‘The Jo Philharmonic’. Jo also currently works as an AIMS house pianist and with Park Opera, Kennet Opera and Spotlights Musical Theatre Group. In addition she is a Piano teacher and vocal coach and has recently begun working with a new company entitled Project Opera.
Not a rehearsal with Jo goes by without great appreciation from Opera at Bearwood. She is a much-loved member of the company.
