Russian-American soprano, Erika Baikoff, is currently in her second year of the Lyon National Opera Studio. This season, she will appear in the roles of Le Feu/ La Princesse/ Le Rossignol in Ravel‘s L‘Enfant et les Sortiléges, Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro and sing the soprano solo in Mahler‘s 4th Symphony, conducted by Daniele Rustioni. Last season, she was heard in the roles of Juliet in Boris Blacher‘s Romeo and Juliet and Anna in Verdi‘s Nabucco. Ms. Baikoff is the recipient of the 2019 Career Bridges Grant, 2019 Best Russian Aria in the Galina Vishnevskaya Opera Competition, 2018 Mondavi Young Artist Competition Founders‘ Prize, 2018 Art Song Preservation Society Competition Audience Award, 2018 Paul Hamburger Prize, awarded by Graham Johnson at the Guildhall School of Music, and the 2013 Bouchaine Young Artist Scholarship. She has been featured in masterclasses with world-class musicians such as Dalton Baldwin, Julius Drake, Margo Garrett, Graham Johnson, Malcolm Martineau, and Ann Murray. She has participated in summer courses such as the Internationale Meistersinger Akademie, led by Edith Wiens, Chautauqua Institute, and Songfest as a Schubert Fellow. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in French Studies from Princeton University and a Master of Music from The Guildhall School of Music, under the tutelage of Prof. Rudolf Piernay.
Irish pianist Gary Beecher enjoys a varied musical life, performing as a vocal accompanist, chamber musician and solo pianist. Gary has just completed a Masters in Performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He was a scholarship student and studied with Julius Drake and Charles Owen. Gary has just recently been awarded a Fellowship at the Guildhall School of Music for next year, where he will also join the faculty as a staff accompanist.
Gary graduated with a BMUS degree and the ‘Best Overall Student Award’ from the CIT Cork School of Music Ireland where he studied with Jan Cáp and Dr. Gabriela Mayer. Gary’s other past teachers include Jacques Rouvier and Dr. John O’Conor. He was the winner of the Oxford Lieder Young Artist Platform with Ema Nikolovska. Previous to this, Gary was awarded the Guildhall Piano Accompaniment Prize, Graham Johnson’s Song Guild Paul Hamburger Prize, the Prince Consort Side-by-side Recital at Wigmore Hall and the Guildhall Franz Schubert Institute Lieder Prize.
As a solo pianist, Gary was the winner of the ‘Irish Freemason’s Young Musician of the Year’ and had his solo debut with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and conductor John Wilson in the National Concert Hall. In February 2019, he returned as a concerto soloist to the NCH, to perform with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra and conductor José Serebrier.
He is now a Samling Artist, a Britten-Pears Young Artist and an Oxford Lieder Young Artist.