Miles Horner, Donna Lennard, Sue Pettitt and Ralph Woodward are the quartet bringing Cracked Voices to life.
Miles Horner – Baritone
Miles Horner was born in Lichfield and studied at Leeds College of Music, working with international Soprano Lynne Dawson. His performance in Don Giovanni, (Focus Opera), at Buxton Opera Festival was described by Sir Peter Maxwell Davis as “One of my favourite Don Giovanni’s.” Other engagements have included Fauré Requiem with the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Messiah with the Philharmonia Chorus in Valencia, Spain. Amonst his more recent roles are Morales, Carmen, (Opera Brava), Basillio, Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Benoit/Alcindoro, La Boheme (OperaUpClose), Aeneas, Dido and Aeneas (Opera Lyrica) and he created the role of Hughie Mann in the world premiere of Marcos Fernandez’s opera, Miracle! An Opera of Two Halves. In between the two Cracked Voices concerts, he will be resuming the title role of Don Giovanni in Kuwait City.
For more information on Miles, please see www.mileshorner.com
Donna Lennard – Soprano
Donna Lennard grew up in Bedford, and trained at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, attaining an MPerf with Distinction, and on ENO’s ‘Opera Works’ programme. Her operatic roles include Frog in How the Whale Became (ROH), Selene in Tycho’s Dream (Glyndebourne), Alice in Airborne (Nova Music Opera), Despina in Così fan tutte (Cooper Hall Emerging Artists), Yellow in The Anatomy of Melancholy (bodycorps), Catfish in The Catfish Conundrum (The Music Troupe for Tête à Tête), Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Frasquita in Carmen, and Pamina in The Magic Flute (Opera Loki). Other stage work includes performing in the UK tour of May Contain Food with dance company, Protein, and the role of Madame Viardot in Salon Musical, a project initiated by pianist Marc Verter that recreates French salon concerts from the late 19th Century.
For more information on Donna, please see www.donnalennard.co.uk
Sue Pettitt – Clarinet
Sue came down from Lancashire in 1987 to study clarinet under John Stenhouse and Nick Bucknall at Trinity College of Music. After graduating with an FTCL in 1991 she started to work for Hertfordshire Music Service which she does to this day. Sue is the head of Royston Music School and conducts the North Herts and Stevenage Windband. She is also in great demand as an orchestral and pit musician across the whole of the South East. When not involved in the musical world she can be found chasing her young puppy around the garden trying to stop it from digging up the lawn!
Ralph Woodward – Piano
Ralph Woodward grew up in Durham, and studied Music as Organ Scholar at Queens’ College, Cambridge. He is now Musical Director of the Fairhaven Singers, Full Score and Orchestral Score. He has played concertos on three instruments, worked in over 25 countries, and conducted the London Mozart Players, City of London Sinfonia, The Parley of Instruments, English Chamber Orchestra, and Britten Sinfonia. He carries out a wide range of editorial tasks for Oxford University Press. Past projects have included work with Vladimir Ashkenazy, Emma Johnson, Iestyn Davies and Cradle of Filth, and an appearance on ITV’s Grantchester. Ralph also manages a cricket team and is a keen badminton player and a good steady drinker.
For more information on Ralph, please see www.ralphwoodward.com