Vocal Summer School

Miranda Wright has over two decades of experience teaching young and maturing voices. Her pupils have gone on to professional careers and successful study across the UK and abroad. Former students have won multiple scholarships at leading Conservatoires and have since gone on to young artist programmes at international opera companies. 

Miranda has established a reputation as a specialist in healthy singing and performance. She is passionate about supporting students as they build foundations for a successful career. She is especially interested in how an emotional connection with text informs students’ own individual vocal development, rooting their work in a good understanding of the body in their singing. 

Miranda’s work with Samling Institute for Young Artists in North-East England has seen a flourishing of classical singing in the region and she has led masterclasses for Samling Academy for many years.  She has directed opera productions for Samling Academy including Ravel L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, Britten Albert Herring, and Blow Venus and Adonis (with the Dunedin Consort and John Butt). With accompanists Ian Tindale, Jo Ramadan and Leo Nicholson, she has staged programmes of art-song and spoken word for Samling Academy, as well as putting on concerts for her own private pupils, including at Ryedale Festival. Miranda is Head of Classical Voice at Newcastle University and teaches at Durham University.

After early study with Ann Lampard, Miranda went on to be a Peter Moores Scholar and multiple prize-winner at the RNCM, including the Joaninha Prize for students from all the British Conservatoires. She studied with Caroline Crawshaw and subsequently Paul Farrington. She appeared on Jonathan Miller’s BBC2 ‘Opera Works’ and her professional roles included Governess (Turn of the Screw), Countess (Figaro), Romilda (Xerxes), and Lucia (Rape of Lucretia). 

After graduating with a Masters in French Language and Literature at the University Paris 7 Denis Diderot, I furthered my studies as a classical soprano and graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Through the RCS, I’ve benefited from the rich mentoring of Prof. Chris Underwood, keeping a vital and direct link to the poets and composers of the late French 19th Century.

Through my musical training I’ve been fortunate to work with specialists of the French Mélodie Repertoire (Helen Abbott, Roy Howat in the UK). As a singer, I participated in masterclasses with Véronique Gens, Michel Piquemal, François Leroux and Michelle Command.

I’ve been teaching the French Language class for singers and the French Repertoire classes for the Vocal Department at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland since 2018. Since 2021, I also give French Repertoire and Phonetic workshops to the Vocal students Royal Northern Conservatoire of Music, Manchester.

As French Coach for the Gibson Opera School at the RCS, I’ve worked on the recent productions of “Les Mamelles de Tirésias” , “Le Dialogue des Carmélites” and the acclaimed production of “L’étoile”, by Chabrier, and for Grange Park Opera’s Werther for the 2023 season.

Ava is a recent graduate of the BA Acting course at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. As an actress, she has worked for The National Theatre of Scotland, Perth Theatre, Wonder Fools and BBC/Netflix. Ava is also a facilitator, writer and co-founded The Showmen's Theatre Company. She was a member of the Scottish Opera Young Company from 2020-2022. 

Helen Lawson was born in Northumberland and studied singing at the Royal College of Music and the National Opera Studio in London. The award of several scholarships enabled her to pursue further studies in German Lied repertoire with Prof. Erik Werba in Munich, and Prof. Konrad Richter in Stuttgart.

Helen has appeared as soloist in opera houses at home and abroad, including English National Opera; City of Birmingham Touring Opera; English Touring Opera and De Vlaamse Opera Antwerpen. Among the roles she has sung are Butterfly (Puccini: Madama Butterfly), Countess Almaviva (Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro), Pamina (Mozart: Die Zauberflöte); Tatiana (Tchaikovsky: Eugen Onegin), and Senta (Wagner: Der Fliegende Holländer). She was a member of the Bayreuther Festspielchor from 1989 to 2001.

She has appeared as soloist in concerts and oratorio, including performances of Britten’s ‘War Requiem’ and Verdi’s ‘Requiem’ at the Royal Albert Hall, conducted by Sir David Willcocks. She has given song recitals in the UK and abroad.

Helen trained as a breathing pedagogue (Osenberg/Parow) in Germany and for several years attended Richard Miller’s Institute of Vocal Performance Pedagogy at Oberlin College, Ohio, USA. She is a certified CoreSinging teacher (Meribeth Dayme) and in 2011 she was awarded a scholarship by the English Speaking Union which enabled her to travel the United States to observe vocal teaching at other American institutions.

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). Alongside individual vocal coaching at post-graduate and under-graduate levels, Helen teaches classes in phonetics and Italian and German repertoire. Helen is also a visiting voice coach at the University of Aveiro in Portugal.