Rosenblatt Recitals

Artist Biographies

Vuyani Mlinde began his training with Wilhelm Theunissen at the Free State Musicon, South Africa. He won an eight month scholarship on the Opera Queensland Young Artists’ Programme, a full scholarship for 2004/2005 at the Royal College of Music, and a full scholarship for the Benjamin Britten International Opera School, RCM, from 2006. He was the 2007 recipient of the coveted Clonter Opera Prize, and finalist in the prestigious Neue Stimmen International Singing Competition in Germany and then was a member of the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden from 2007 - 2009.

While on the Jette Parker programme he sang the roles of Zaretsky in Eugene Onegin, Jake Wallace in La Fanciulla del West under Antonio Pappano, Cappadocian in Salome with Philippe Jordan, Tutor in Elektra under Mark Noble, Count Ceprano in Rigoletto with Daniel Orén, 4th Elder in Lohengrin with Semyon Bychkov and Tom in Un ballo un maschera with Maurizio Benini as well as Leporello in Don Giovanni .

Operatic roles for other companies have included Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Bonze in Madama Butterfly, Angelotti in Tosca, Leporello and Commendatore in Don Giovanni, Colline in La Bohème, Palemon in Thais, Prince Gremin in Eugene Onegin, Seneca in L’incoronazione di Poppea, Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro, Doctor in Pelléas et Mélisande and Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte.

His concert repertoire includes the Mozart Requiem, Bach St. Matthew Passion, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Beethoven Symphony No.9, the Verdi Requiem and Haydn Creation which he has performed at venues including the Royal Festival Hall and Cadogan Hall in London.

Engagements in the 2009-10 Season include Doctor in Macbeth with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at the Edinburgh International Festival, Haydn’s Creation with John-Eliot Gardiner Carnegie Hall New York, the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and Pisa Festival, Beethoven Symphony No.9 with the London Symphony Orchestra in London, Paris and Madrid, Creation with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons, Bach Magnificat at de Doelen, Rotterdam, with Concerto Copenhagen, Colline in La Bohème, 2nd Nazarene in Salome at the Royal Opera House and Tchelio in The Love for Three Oranges at Grange Park Opera.

He has received invitations from Opera Oviedo, Cincinnnati Opera and the Residentie Orkest and will join the ensemble of Oper Frankfurt for the 2010-11 Season.

Ingrid Surgenor studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London, and with the legendary accompanist Gerald Moore. She began her career at the Glyndebourne Festival and in addition to a long association with Welsh National Opera, has worked at the Hong Kong, Taormina and Vienna Festivals and with conductors including Carlo Maria Giulini, Sir Bernard Haitink, Christoph Von Dohnanyi, Pierre Boulez, Kisushi Ono , Sir Charles Mackerras and Maurizio Benini. She spent nine seasons at the Bayreuth Festival, four as head of music preparation for Parsifal, conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli and directed by Wolfgang Wagner.

As a recitalist she has performed at the Aix-en-Provence, Belfast, Corinthische Sommer, Edinburgh and Passau Festivals and at opera houses in Brussels, Marseille, Munich, Oslo, at the Teatro Amazonas, Brazil and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Ingrid’s television and radio performances have included career documentaries, song recitals and the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition where she enjoyed much acclaim as official accompanist for nearly twenty years. She has made many recordings including a series of the complete songs of Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi for the Naxos label.

Ingrid is principal opera coach and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, London and is a senior coach for the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, at Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the National Opera Studio.

Ingrid has been awarded Honorary Fellowships by the University of Wales and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and in June 2000 received an MBE for services to music.