Debra Skeen 

On leaving the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow with a BA in Musical Performance and a diploma in Operatic Studies, Debra was invited to sing with the Ambrosian Opera Chorus in London recording the great works with leading conductors and orchestras of the day. There were many appearances on Friday Night is Music Night on BBC Radio Two with the Ambrosian Singers, the Nigel Brooks Singers, the John McCarthy singers and the Maida Vale Singers.

Extensive work abroad has included Operas and Concerts in Dortmund, Zurich, Munich, Berlin, Luxembourg, Venice, Japan and Jerusalem. Debra also appeared in the opera, The Blackened Man, by Will Todd at the Buxton Festival.

As a renowned oratorio specialist her repertoire includes The Creation (Haydn), The Messiah (Handel), Nelson Mass (Haydn), Petite Messe Solenelle (Rossini), Carmina Burana (Orff) and the requiems of Faure, Brahms and Mozart. Her operatic roles include Susanna (Marriage of Figaro),  Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Queen of the Night (Magic Flute), Norina (Don Pasquale), Olympia (Tales of Hoffman), Despina (Cosi fan tutte) and Micaela (Carmen).

With the professional Anglo-Spanish choir, Coro Cervantes, Debra has performed in Spain, Mexico and Russia. She was featured soloist on a number of their CDs including O Crux (which was voted Gramophone's Critics' Choice of the Year). The choir celebrated its 10th anniversary in June 2006 by giving a concert at the Wigmore Hall and in 2008 she was featured soloist with the choir at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.  Coro Cervantes' most recent album, Espana: A Choral Postcard from Spain, has received rave reviews.  As a session singer, Debra has recorded vocals for film soundtracks, CD library music, launch music for car companies, an Ice Show for Alton towers and radio jingles.  She was featured soloist during the opening and closing ceremonies for the Commonwealth Games in Manchester with music especially written by Julian Scott for the occasion. She also recorded the vocals for the Beijing Olympic Torch Ceremony in London. 

Maria Jagusz

Prior to embarking on a career in singing Maria trained as a dancer at the Marian Jepson School of Dance then, as a mezzo-soprano, she studied at the Royal Northern College of Music (where she won the Ricardi Prize for Opera) and subsequently at the National Opera Studio.

She has sung in principal roles for most of the major opera companies in the UK including the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Opera North, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Scottish Opera, Opera Northern Ireland, New Sadlers Wells Opera and Travelling Opera.  Outside the UK Maria has sung for Opera de Lyon and Opera Montpelier, Teatro Nacional Sao Carlos, Lisbon, the Singapore Lyric Theatre and the Manael Theatre, Malta.  Maria has sung with many international artists including Carreras, Domingo, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Mirella Freni. Her numerous operatic roles have included Carmen (Carmen), Cherubino (Figaro), Dimitri (Fedora), Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus), Hansel (Hansel & Gretel), Puck (Oberon), and Smeraldina (Love of Three Oranges).

As well as an international career as a singer, Maria has also taught movement at the Royal Northern College of Music, has been a singing tutor at London College of Music, a guest tutor at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and an adjudicator at the Birmingham Conservatoire.

More recently Maria has undertaken educational projects for most of the leading UK opera companies and has had considerable success in coaching young singers prior to their auditions for music colleges and conservatoires.

She has been a chorus director for a number of Longborough Festival Opera productions and has directed numerous community opera and music theatre productions. In 2009 she directed La Boheme for Longborough Festival Opera.

Rosalind Plowright OBE

Amongst the country's operatic elite, Rosalind Plowright is known for her intelligent musicianship, versatile acting ability and compelling stage presence. Having conquered most of the leading soprano roles in Italian opera in the 1980s, she gravitated towards the dramatic mezzo-soprano repertoire, in which she similarly excels.

Her career spans 35 years of performing in virtually every major opera house in the world. Recent appearances have brought her to Covent Garden, The Metropolitan Opera, Paris, Japan and the Proms. On TV she appeared in two episodes of "House of Elliott" and "The Man who made Husband's Jealous," the adaptation of Gilly Coopers novel. She helped develop and starred in "Two's a Crowd" a musical comedy which received five star reviews and in 2009 joined with the Monty Python team in Eric Idle and John Du Prez oratorio based on "Life of Brian" Not the Messiah - He's a Very Naughty Boy.

Rosalind Plowright has performed with "The Three Tenors." Her American debut was alongside Jose Carreras and they also sang Andrea Chenier at Covent Garden and recorded La Forza del Destino for Deutsche Grammophon (which won best opera recording from Gramophone). With Placido Domingo she has performed II Trovatore at Covent Garden and recorded the opera with him for Deutsche Grammophon for which she was personally awarded the Prix Fondation Fanny Heldy. With Luciano Pavarotti she performed Aida at Covent Garden and a gala concert for 25,000 at the Arena of Verona.

Other recordings include Mary Stuart, Otello, Aida and Hansel & Gretel (which won the Grammy for best recording) all for the Opera in English series for Chandos; Elijah for Chandos, La Vestale for Orfeo, Contes d'Hoffmann for EMI and Mahler 2nd Symphony for Deutsche Grammophon. Her DVD's include her performances of Il Trovatore from Verona, Suor Angelica from La Scala and Hansel & Gretel from the Metropolitan Opera.

Among the many conductors with whom she has worked are Carlo Maria Giulini, Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, Zubin Mehta, Giuseppi Sinopli, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Bernard Haitink, Antonio Pappano, Michael Gielen, Sylvain Cambreling, Mark Elder, Roger Norrington, Gustav Kuhn, Seiji Ozawa and Giuseppi Patane.

Rosalind Plowright has performed with all the major orchestras and has given many recitals with the late Geoffrey Parsons in over 20 international festivals.

Over the next two years Rosalind Plowright will perform in Stuttgart, Amsterdam, Montpellier, Bregenz, Madrid, Paris and Covent Garden.   Rosalind Plowright was awarded the OBE in 2007 for her services to music.