Vocal Performance Department (Undergraduate)

A keen advocate of contemporary music, Michael Bawtree has conducted world premieres of operatic, symphonic and choral works by Judith Bingham, Paul Mealor, Cecilia McDowall, Richard Peat and Rory Boyle; he works regularly with Scotland’s foremost composers including the late Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Sir James MacMillan, Thea Musgrave and Sally Beamish.

Born in Malta, Geoffrey Tanti studied piano with Cynthia Turner before moving to Glasgow to study at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he graduated with a Masters in Piano Performance with Distinction and a Masters in Répétiteur Studies. He studied with Jonathan Plowright and Julia Lynch and worked for a year as a Junior Fellow accompanist at the RCS. During his studies, Geoffrey won many solo and accompaniment prizes.

Widely respected as an accompanist and chamber musician, pianist Ingrid Sawers has performed throughout the UK, Europe and Canada. Ingrid also has a long-standing commitment to new music, and has released 2 critically acclaimed CDs on Delphian Records. As well as teaching at RCS, Ingrid is one of a hand-picked group of staff pianists and tutors for the Oxenfoord International Summer School directed by Malcolm Martineau.  

Born and raised in Krakow, Poland, Michał Gajzler is a pianist, repetiteur and vocal coach. He graduated with a Masters in Repetiteurship from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (2015), Masters in Piano Performance from the Krakow Academy of Music (2010) and an MA in Musicology from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow (2009).

Michał has been working for the RCS since 2018. He has also worked for Scottish Opera and Berlin Opera Academy.

Apart from working with singers Michał enjoys playing for ballet classes at The Dance School of Scotland. He is also a composer creating music for theatre and commercials.

Claire comes from Glasgow, where she studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now RCS) with Jean Hutchison. There, she won prizes for Solo and Chamber music, including the Peter Morrison Prize for All Round Excellence, and represented the Academy in recital tours of Iceland and Russia. She then completed the Advanced Solo Studies course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying with Paul Roberts.

Claire is active both as an instrumental and song accompanist, playing chamber music recitals for music societies throughout Scotland, performing regularly as a member of Trio Ecossaise and the Kilnaish Duo, as well as collaborating in a duo with baritone Phil Gault.

Claire has been a staff repetiteur at Scottish Opera, a Vocal Coach on the ‘Vocal Inspiration’ and ‘Art of Song’ courses, is a staff accompanist & coach for the Scottish International Flute Summer School, and accompanies for NYCoS residential courses and concerts.

Héloïse Bernard has been a French Coach and Lecturer of French Language for Singers at the RCS since 2018 for the Vocal Performance Department. Héloïse has also been involved in the recent Opera productions of the Alexander Gibson Opera School of Les Mamelles de Tiresias, L’étoile, Cendrillon.

Born in Malta, Geoffrey Tanti studied piano with Cynthia Turner before moving to Glasgow to study at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he graduated with a Masters in Piano Performance with Distinction and a Masters in Répétiteur Studies. He studied with Jonathan Plowright and Julia Lynch and worked for a year as a Junior Fellow accompanist at the RCS. During his studies, Geoffrey won many solo and accompaniment prizes.

Dr Svetlana Zvereva is a musicologist, editor, choral conductor, lecturer, and language coach. She is well-known internationally as a specialist in Russian music, both through her publications and through many years of participating in international conferences, seminars, and lectures, and also as an organiser of music festivals and exhibitions. She has participated over the years in several Russian and international projects related to the editing, popularising, and performing of Russian music, as well as the strengthening of the Russian cultural heritage. 

Helen Lawson was born in Northumberland and studied singing at the Royal College of Music and the National Opera Studio in London. Helen has appeared as soloist in opera houses at home and abroad, including English National Opera; City of Birmingham Touring Opera; English Touring Opera; De Vlaamse Opera Antwerpen and Landestheater Thüringen. Having taught singing in German universities (Bayreuth and Bamberg), Helen moved to Glasgow in 2002 to take up the post of Lecturer in Vocal Studies at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland).

Scott Johnson was previously a tutor at the Conservatoire du Kremlin-Bicetre, Parisandalso at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD), London. He studied voice at the GSMD under David Pollard, graduating in 1997 and subsequently completed a PGCE and MA (graduating with Distinction) at London University, Institute of Education. He taught music in a secondary school for several years, and for 11 years was also organist and Director of Music at a parish church in Essex.

Wilma MacDougall has worked as a vocal lecturer at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland for seventeen years. Her students have sung at many of the world’s top opera houses and concert halls. She is recognised for her technical expertise, extensive repertoire knowledge and dedication to her students. 

Elizabeth McCormack was born in Fife, Scotland and studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now RCS) and the National Opera Studio, London. She is a past winner of the Scottish Opera, John Noble Bursary, the Decca-Kathleen Ferrier Prize, the Royal Overseas League Music Competition, the Isobel Baillie Performance Award, Scotland’s representative in Cardiff Singer of the World 1993 and a recipient of the Countess of Munster and Caird Scholarships.

DIP MUS ED (RSAMD), DRSAMD (Piano & Singing), LRAM, PG DIP (RCM)

A graduate of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), in both piano (with Lawrence Glover) and singing (with Elizabeth Izatt), mezzo-soprano, Kathleen McKellar Ferguson, then qualified with honours as a class teacher before pursuing post-graduate studies in singing (with Marion Studholme) at the Royal College of Music in London. Whilst there she won several awards including a Countess of Munster Scholarship. She then studied with Margaret Hyde and pursued a highly successful professional singing career in both opera and on the concert platform before becoming a very sought-after singing teacher and vocal coach both at home and abroad.

OBE

Linda has an honorary Doctorate of Music from St. Andrews University and was awarded an OBE for her services to opera.

Iain retired from professional singing in 2015 to concentrate on his teaching commitments. Iain has taught with Scottish Opera and Opera North. Worked with the Tokyo National Opera School, coaching in a production of Albert Herring. He has also taught for two years at the Dance School of Scotland’s music theatre department.

Professor Stephen Robertson is a vocal pedagogue who is much in demand both nationally and internationally. Having retired from his long-term role as head of department, he now devotes his time to voice teaching and research.

MA (Oxon), MLitt

Lorna has taught in some form or other for more than 20 years, in schools, masterclasses, summer courses, and at the RWCMD for more than a decade before moving back to Scotland, and teaching at the RCS where it all began.

Mhairi Lawson is a teacher in the Vocal Performance Department at the RCS and also runs a Performance Practice Clinic designed to help students of all abilities and voice types with stylistic aspects of repertoire.

Andrew McTaggart is a Singing Teacher within the Vocal Department, Opera School and BEd course. Andrew always aims to promote a keen and active love of singing and the repertoire whist building technical assurance and confidence.

Andrew’s favourite concert since graduating was his Edinburgh International Festival debut singing Vaughan Williams’s Five Mystical Songs in the Usher Hall in 2019.

Singer, Teacher, Examiner, Researcher: Currently a PhD candidate at RCS (supported by a Carnegie Trust PhD Scholarship) — Exploring the notions of identity, status, and value in outreach from the perspective of the professional opera singer.