In addition to the tutors listed, our team of staff coaches and accompanists also include:
Avishka Edirisinghe
Avishka Edirisinghe was born in Sri Lanka and completed a Masters in Collaborative Piano with Roger Vignoles, Nigel Clayton, Simon Lepper and Caroline Dowdle (first-study) and a second-study in Conducting with Howard Williams (second study) from the Royal College of Music. He is also the English National Opera’s current Assistant Chorus Director.
As a pianist, Avishka has a special interest in working with singers in song and opera repertoire. His work with singers at RCM has led him to win pianist prizes in all RCM vocal competitions, the Pianist’s Prize at the 2020 Kourtney Kenny Awards, the Leeds Lieder-Schubert Institute young artist prize for 2020/2021 with mezzo-soprano Esme Bronwen-Smith, and the Pianist’s Prize at the 2022 Kathleen Ferrier Awards at Wigmore Hall.
Avishka’s first experience in Opera was with Pegasus Opera Company, where he was the Répétiteur for their double-bill of Debussy’s “L’enfant Prodigue” and Philip Hagemann’s “Poison, Passion and Petrifaction”. Since then, he was the Répétiteur and Assistant Conductor for their production of “The Aspern Papers”. As well as within Pegasus Opera Company’s shows, Avishka has also played for many of their concerts, includcing their 2021 “Arise: Hope and Legacy” concert and their “Caribbean Jubilee Celebration”.
Margaret Marinkovic
Margaret Marinkovic studied piano and cello prior to accompaniment at GSMD with Paul Hamburger and Peter Gellhorn. As a student, she participated in masterclasses with Hugues Cuenod, Geoffrey Parsons, and Roger Vignoles.
Margaret has coached, répétiteured and performed worldwide, and has been fortunate to work with Peter Pears, Richard Bonynge, Laura Sarti, Janis Kelly, Marianne Cornetti and Nelly Miricioiu.
Paul McKenzie
Paul McKenzie lives in London, and works as a repetiteur for opera: most recently with English Touring Opera, Grange Park Opera and Opera Up Close. Paul was the holder of the Adami Award for Piano Accompanists Junior Fellowship at the Royal College of Music 2014-2015: and has continued to work there since. Previously, Paul completed a Masters in Piano Accompaniment at the RCM, studying with Simon Lepper. Paul has also performed many concertos, and enjoys working as an orchestral pianist, a song accompanist and jazz pianist.
Ella O’Neill
Ella O’Neill is in demand across the UK as a pianist for song, chamber music and opera. In April 2019, she won the Help Musicians UK Accompanist’s Prize in the Kathleen Ferrier Awards at Wigmore Hall. She recently returned there for the final of the Wigmore
Hall/Bollinger International Song Competition with tenor Laurence Kilsby, who was awarded first prize. Last year, Ella spent a week in New York with Laurence participating in the
Carnegie SongStudio, where she made her debut in two out of Carnegie Hall’s three performance spaces- the Zankel and Weill Recital Halls.
Other venues and festival appearances for Ella have included Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Cadogan Hall, the Royal Opera House Crush Room, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Sage Gateshead, Cedars Hall, Oxford Lieder Festival, Buxton International Festival, Leeds Town Hall for Leeds Lieder and Brighton Dome for Brighton Festival with Roderick Williams and guests. Ella reunited with Roderick last summer to perform Schubert’s Winterreise, in an English translation by Jeremy Sams, at Opera Holland Park for their Opera in Song recital series. Ella has performed live on BBC Radio 3 InTune with both Roderick Williams and Mark Padmore.
Away from the concert platform, Ella has also worked as a répétiteur for companies including Grange Park Opera, English Touring Opera, Mid Wales Opera, Tête à Tête Festival, Operasonic and Barefoot Opera. She also works regularly as a staff pianist for Samling Institute for Young Artists, having been a Samling Artist since 2019. She is the 2022-23 Lord and Lady Lurgan Collaborative Piano Fellow at the Royal College of Music, her alma mater. Ella graduated with distinction from the Royal College of Music in July 2019, where she studied postgraduate piano accompaniment with Simon Lepper, Kathron Sturrock and Roger Vignoles. During her time there she won the Alasdair Graham Pianist Prize in the RCM Lieder Competition and second prize in the Brooks van der Pump English Song Competition.
Mark Rogers
Mark Rogers is an American pianist specializing in vocal and chamber music. He was a 2020 Britten-Pears Young Artist, a 2021 Leeds Lieder Young Artist, and has three times won the Hester Dickson Lieder prize at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he has recently finished his undergraduate studies with Graeme McNaught. He also recently won first prize from the Royal Philharmonic Society for his article on Samuel Barber in their new Young Classical Writers competition. Mark is currently studying for a masters in piano accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music with James Baillieu and Michael Dussek.
Nicola Rose
Originally from London, Nicola began her musical training as one of the founding girl choristers at Salisbury Cathedral. She studied piano at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama where she was the recipient of numerous awards and she continued working there as a Junior Fellow before completing her studies at the National Opera Studio in London.
Nicola has a passion for education, outreach and community work and has worked as a pianist and workshop leader for Welsh National Opera, The Royal Opera House, Garsington Opera, English National Opera, Longborough Festival Opera and Opera Holland Park.
Based in Cardiff, Nicola is a member of the teaching staff at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and in 2018, Nicola received notable acclaim for her work as Musical Director for Welsh National Opera’s production of Rhondda Rips it Up!, a newly commissioned work by Elena Langer and Emma Jenkins. Written for the Ladies’ chorus at WNO, Lesley Garrett and 50 female members of the Community Chorus, this powerful piece tells the story of Margaret Mackworth, one of Wales’ most prominent suffragettes.
Leanne Singh-Levett
Leanne Singh-Levett has extensive experience playing for classical singers and choirs and is currently working at English National Opera as Music Staff Fellow for the 2022-23 season.. In recent years she has also developed her skills preparing and coaching choruses, working as chorus-master for Le nozze di Figaro (directed by Thomas Allen) and Offenbach’s Robinson Crusoé at the Royal College of Music, and for Holst’s The Planets under Andrew Gourlay at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Concert highlights include collaborations with award-winning singers including Mary Bevan, David Butt Philip, Lauren Fagan, Marcus Farnsworth, Jeremy White, Jennifer Witton, Gareth Brynmor John, Nick Pritchard and Julien van Mellaerts.
As well as playing for RCM opera scenes and vocal classes over a number of years, Leanne has worked as répétiteur on several RCM opera productions under Michael Rosewell, and for opera scenes directed by Kasper Holten. She has coached and accompanied the Jette Parker Young Artists at The Royal Opera, and worked on opera productions for various companies. From 2013-18 she worked in the RCM Junior Department, where she accompanied choirs and the Singers’ Repertoire Class and also coached chamber music.
Leanne accompanied Kingston Choral Society for 12 years with Graham Ross and Andrew Griffiths. She performed widely with Imperial Male Voice Choir and has accompanied Londinium, Dulwich Choral Society and choirs at the John Lewis Partnership. Following a recent move to Cambridgeshire, Leanne is enjoying working with Peterborough Voices and Peterborough Male Voice Choir in addition to continuing her work at the RCM, most recently on Die Zauberflöte and Hänsel und Gretel.
Chad Vindin
Chad Vindin won the accompanist prize at the Royal Overseas League Competition, the Ludmilla Andrew Russian Song Accompanist Prize at the Royal Academy of Music, and the Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards Accompanist’s Prize at the Wigmore Hall.
Born in Australia, Chad first studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music before moving to London. He now maintains a full workload as a staff pianist and vocal coach at both the Royal College and Royal Academy of Music, London, and performs regularly across the UK and internationally. http://www.chadvindin.com/