People Involved

Anna Pelly

Anna Pelly read Modern Languages at Oxford University, then, after a year of odd jobbing in various City locations, qualified as a lawyer. She left the City to bring up her two children and to develop her painting career, exhibiting in various exhibition spaces in the UK and working in conjunction with the innovative Banbury based dance troupe Anjali. To read more about Anna, see About Lippy Lyrics)

Louise Woodgate 

Louise graduated from Oxford Brookes University in 2000 and continued her vocal studies at Trinity College of Music, London. After several years of teaching Louise is now concentrating on her solo performance with Quentin Hayes principal baritone Covent Garden Opera 1999-2004.

Louise has given recitals at venues such as The Holywell music rooms and Jacqueline Du Pré Building, Oxford. She features regularly at the Royal Military College of Science proms, performing with the Central Band of the Royal Air Force, the Royal Marines, and the Scots Guards. Operatic roles include 2nd Lady Magic flute, Flora La Traviata and Tatiana Eugine Onegin with Oxford Touring Opera.

In 2001 soprano Louise Woodgate and Anna Pelly set up their own opera company Opera Soufflé. Their primary aim was to entertain; to show just how dramatic, how funny, how sexy Opera can be. After a successful run at the Edinburgh Festival in 2002 they went from strength to strength, performing extensively at home and abroad.

Recent solo performances have included Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs with orchestra; Eponine Les Miserables with Pimlico Opera's prison project. She is a regular member of ensemble with Grange Park Opera and is currently attending the English National Opera training course.

Amy Standish

Amy trained at Oxford School of Drama and since has enjoyed many different roles ranging from performing outdoor Shakespeare in beautiful gardens to Motion Capture for video games.

In the past couple of years, Amy has branched into Directing, after being asked by Abingdon Touring Theatre to direct a specailly written family version of 'Aesop's Fables'. After having thoroughly enjoyed the experience and having had great reveiws, she went on to direct 'Much Ado About Nothing' and has now just finished directing 'Teechers' by John Godber which is on tour till March.

She has just finshed touring a racial awareness show called 'The Glass Boy', which is an interactive show for children using puppets and music. Amy is a freelance workshop leader for Forte Theatre and teaches 7-18 year olds at SANDS Theatre Arts School in Oxford.

She also specialises in Improvisation and runs her own company, Oxford Impro, with whom she runs monthly workshops for adults and performs on a regualr basis. She is also a singer in the band, Dumber Than Chickens who play parties, weddings and similar events.

Lyndall Dawson

Lyndall Dawson trained at the Guildhall School of Music and the National Opera Studio. Prior to this she completed a BA in English Literature at the University of Sydney, followed by a Master’s in Music. She also trained as song accompanist and partnered numerous prize winners in major competitions, including the Maria Callas Grand Prix, Kathleen Ferrier Awards and UK Concert Artist Trust selections.

Lyndall works as a repetiteur and accompanist for many UK companies, including English Touring Opera, Opera Holland Park, European Chamber Opera, Grange Park Opera and Buxton Festival Opera.

In recent years Lyndall has received sponsorship and awards from the Friends of Covent Garden, the Brandenburg Sinfonia, Tillett Trust, Australian Musica Foundation, Ian Potter Cultural Trust, Australia Council for the Arts, Freedman Foundation and the Australian Opera & Arts Support Group.

Richard Shaw

Richard Shaw specialises in chamber music and accompaniment and has performed extensively in Britain and abroad. He is often heard on BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM and has appeared on British, Italian and Russian television on many occasions. Recent broadcasts for Radio 3 include live duo performances with sopranos Elizabeth Byrne, Majella Cullagh, Jennifer Smith and Eva Kallberg, mezzo-sopranos Alice Coote, Catherine Griffith and Jean Rigby, Anna Larsson (contralto), counter-tenors Robin Blaze and Michael Chance, tenors Paul Agnew, Hal Cazalet, John Hudson, Richard Margison and Kurt Streit, Jonathan Veira (bass baritone) and Robert Pomakov (bass). His playing has been praised for its “incisiveness and fluent sensitivity” (The Independent), “excellent support” (The Times) and for his “fervent, intensely moving performance” (The Strad). His current recordings include over forty for Deux-Elles and for Cramer Music. He is also Staff Accompanist at the Royal Academy of Music.

Swifty

Swifty provides the technical support without which the whole exercise would be a wasted one – the best show in the world tends to falter a little if the audience can’t hear it. Swifty knows about lighting, sound, computers, recording. He can change a set. He’s also pretty good at making people laugh: the best thing for pre-performance nerves.