PERFORMERS

Dominique Thiebaud, who will sing the part of Claudia, Alban's wife in the community opera Alban, to be staged in St Albans Cathedral in May 2009.

BIOGRAPHIES

Philip Salmon (playing ALBAN)

Philip Salmon comes from Kent, lives in St. Albans, and started musical life as a boy chorister at St. Paul's Cathedral. An Exhibition Scholar at the Royal College of Music, his career began recording madrigals for the BBC with Emma Kirkby and the Consort of Musicke, and as soloist with the Monteverdi Choir, performing and recording under Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

He has sung roles with all the major British opera companies including the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, and in France, Italy, Germany, New Zealand, and for New York City Opera. He has a wide concert repertoire, singing with many of the principal orchestras of Britain and Europe, and in the U.S.A., Singapore, Argentina, Israel, Japan and Australia, conducted by, among others, Sir Colin Davies, Sir Yehudi Menuhin and Sir Charles Mackerras.

Recent recordings include A Strolling Player in Britten's Death in Venice on Chandos, conducted by Sir Richard Hickox, and Paul Spicer's Easter Oratorio (a Gramophone CD of the Month).

Philip has led master classes in Britain, Rome and Buenos Aires, and is vocal coach to the St. Albans Bach Choir and the choir of St. George's Cathedral, Southwark.

Current engagements include Judith Weir's comedy A Night at the Chinese Opera for Scottish Opera, Offenbach's La Belle Hélène with José Carreras and Diva Opera, and Dido and Aeneas in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, directed by Jonathan Miller.

Dominique Thiébaud (playing CLAUDIA)

Dominique Thiébaud, born in Switzerland and raised in Hertfordshire, studied in London and Paris, and at the Britten/Pears School in Aldeburgh with Gérard Souzay and Peter Pears. Competition successes in Paris led to critically acclaimed recitals there and in London, and she made her London concert debut alongside Janet Baker in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, conducted by Richard Hickox.

Dominique has performed many roles with Diva Opera, Opera East, Abbey Opera, Pavilion Opera and St. Albans Chamber Opera, in Britain, Europe, the U.S.A. and Japan, and appears on Diva Opera's CD Diva One.

With concert performances in Britain (including St. John's, Smith Square, The Maltings, Snape, St. James' Palace, and Spencer House, in the presence of the late Princess Diana) she has also broadcast from the Edinburgh Festival and on BBC radio's Friday Night is Music Night and Melodies for You. European appearances have included the Arezzo Festival, the Les Azuriales Opera Festival, recitals in France and Switzerland, and Die Fledermaus in Lausanne with José Carreras.

She was language coach to the St. Albans Abbey Girls' Choir for their recent recording of Poulenc's Litanies à la Vièrge.

Engagements this season include a performance at London's Purcell Room, co-leading workshops for the Classical Music Company, and an opera gala in Portofino, Italy (scene of Wayne Rooney's wedding!).

Des Turner (playing LUCIUS - Governor)

Des Turner has sung in operas, musical theatre and concerts in and around Hertfordshire for over 25 years. Covering works by Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi and Sondheim amongst many others, his roles have included tyrants (Mustafa, Mikado); noblemen (Gremin, Pooh-Bah); soldiers (Collatinus, Sulpice); buffoons (Falstaff, Uberto); a charlatan (Dulcamara); a statue (Commendatore); a eunuch (Osmin), and a supplier to the meat pie industry (Sweeney Todd). Des has also performed in straight theatre, most recently with The Shattered Windscreen Theatre Company in The True Story of Martin Guerre at the Minack Theatre, Cornwall.

On the concert platform, Des has sung solo parts in performances of choral and concert works including Beethoven's Choral Symphony, The Messiah, The Creation, and Requiems by Mozart, Fauré and Verdi; he is also a member of local choral group Voix de Vivre. When not learning new works with his teacher, Jeremy White, Des works in the finance industry.

Paul Sheehan (playing the PRIEST)

Paul Sheehan was born in Kingston-upon-Thames, and went on to graduate in music from Exeter University, was a choral scholar in Exeter Cathedral Choir, then trained as a postgraduate at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and now studies privately with Robert Dean.

Paul has appeared at Glyndebourne as Peter in the much-discussed staging of Bach's St Matthew Passion, and for Glyndebourne on Tour he went on for four performances as Don Alfonso. He has also appeared on Channel 4 as Eecom (Mission Control) in Jonathan Dove's television opera Man on The Moon, having had the privilege first to workshop the opera with the composer himself as the central character Buzz Aldrin, and has performed at the Albert Hall as the Customs Officer (la bohème) for Raymond Gubbay.

He has performed with St Alban's Chamber Opera as Marcello (la bohème) and Cecil (Mary Stuart) and other principal roles have included Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), Papageno, Schaunard, Hobson (Peter Grimes) and Ko-Ko (The Mikado) for Surrey Opera, Belcore for Bel Canto Opera and Nick Shadow. He has also sung in the chorus for Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Glyndebourne on Tour, Raymond Gubbay and as an extra chorus member with ENO.

Paul's oratorio engagements range from Bach's B Minor Mass, through Handel's Messiah (with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment), Haydn's Creation, and the Requiems of Mozart, Brahms and Verdi, to Tippett's A Child of Our Time.

Other projects for 2009 include bass soloist in Vaughan-Williams' A Sea Symphony and Ceprano (Rigoletto) for Grange Park Opera.