North London Festival of Music, Speech & Drama

Jacqueline Barron

Jacqueline Barron is a graduate of the Royal College of Music and began her professional career with The Swingle Singers. She performed Christine in The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre and in Ken Hill’s (original) Phantom at the Shaftesbury Theatre. She created the role of the Princess in the musical Moses and played Mrs Joe in Great Expectations (Shaw Theatre). She has made many solo broadcasts for BBC Radio, including Friday Night is Music Night. Her busy concert schedule ranges from performances of Bach’s St Matthew Passion in Spain to the BBC Proms with the John Wilson Orchestra. Concert highlights include Game of Thrones concerts at Wembley, performances of Stockhausen’s Stimmung, ‘Keep the home fires burning’ with the Opus One Big Band and Maria in ‘Let’s sing The Sound of Music’ at Snape Maltings. Over the years Jacqueline has worked with artists such as Michael Ball, Michael Crawford, Marc Almond, Gary Barlow and Bonnie Tyler and has supported both Lesley Garrett and Russell Watson on their UK tours. In 2021 she released the jazz album Fascinating Rhythms with Michael Dore and the Geoff Eales Trio.

Jacqueline is much in demand recording incidental music for TV, adverts as well as more than 300 Hollywood movies (including the Harry Potter films, Barbie, Paddington in Peru). She recorded Troy in Los Angeles and sang on Nine (directed by Rob Marshall). She has recorded backing vocals for many artists, including Bjork, Tony Bennett, Mika, Sarah Brightman, Kylie, Sam Smith and Robbie Williams. She has recorded songs for James Horner, Eric Levi, Ennio Morricone, Colin Towns and Debbie Wiseman. Her many TV credits include Poirot, Taggart, Innocents, Pepys, and Midsomer Murders. She sang in Queen Elizabeth II’s 90th birthday concert. In 2019 she featured in the BBC D Day 75 event, Portsmouth, performing in the presence of royalty, world leaders and war veterans.

Jacqueline teaches at Mountview Academy of Performing Arts, London and at Ithaca College, New York (London Centre). Many of her pupils’ star in West End and Broadway shows and undertake major international and UK tours. She is a consultant and mentor for the Royal College of Music’s Creative Careers Centre, has worked as a vocal coach for the RSC and is an experienced adjudicator.

Website: www.jacquelinebarron.com

Melanie Marshall

Melanie Marshall won a Foundation Scholarship to study Singing and Piano at The Royal College of Music. Theatre Credits include: Mrs Obookoo in Only Fools and Horses the musical ( Haymarket Theatre ), A Pupil (Park Theatre), Unexpected Joy (Southwark Playhouse ), Bertha in Jane Eyre (Bristol Old Vic; NT & International Tour 2016; UK Tour 2017), General Cartwright in Guys
& Dolls (UK Tour; Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre), Muna in The Infidel (Theatre Royal Stratford East), Vocalist in Monty Python Live at the O2, Funmilayo in FELA! (National Theatre, Broadway & World Tour), The Mikado in Hot Mikado (Watermill Theatre / UK Tour), Maria in Porgy and Bess (Glyndebourne & Savoy Theatre Directed by Sir Trevor Nunn), Miss Sherman in Fame (Aldwych Theatre), Featured Vocalist in Elsa Canesta & L’Eveil (Rambert Dance Co.), The Diva in The Fat Lady Sings (Kit & The Widow), Madam Butler & Miss Mamie in Simply Heavenly (Young Vic & Trafalgar Studios), Carmen Jones ( Sheffield Crucible and Old Vic Theatres), Kiss Me Kate (Old Vic and Savoy
Theatres).
Recording and concerts: Clement Ishmael’s Poetry in Song; Feel The Spirit, A Christmas Festival, Messiah and Distant Land, all conducted by John Rutter, solo Jazz album Cocktail. The RPO, conducted by John Rutter. Guest soloist with the Halle Orchestra, The Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and all of the BBC Orchestras. Melanie also performed Feel The Spirit & Distant Land at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Christmas 2020, Melanie performed a Christmas Celebration conducted by John Rutter and the RPO in St Albans Cathedral.
Melanie is a Singing Professor RADA .

David Pollard (Senior Accompanists)

Lynda Russell

Lynda Russell studied singing at the Royal College of Music gaining several major singing prizes.

After College she won the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Prize which led to her singing with Glyndebourne Opera for three seasons performing Marzellina in Fidelio,  the Queen of the Night with Glyndebourne Touring Opera, and concerts and recitals for BBC Radio 3.

Lynda sang in many of the world’s leading Opera houses such as La Fenice, Lisbon, Strasbourg, The Metropolitan, New York,  Covent Garden and English National Opera.

Concert performances took her all around the world and for many years she was a soloist for Harry Christophers and The Sixteen making many recordings.

In the UK engagements included solo performances with the LSO and Rostropovich, the CBSO with Simon Rattle, the Halle Orchestra under Mark Elder and the Liverpool Philharmonic with Libor Pesek at the BBC Proms.

Lynda now teaches singing privately.

Philip Sheffield

Philip Sheffield’s singing development began as a choral scholar at Trinity College , Cambridge. After post graduate studies at the Guildhall he joined the “Swingle Singers” with whom he toured the world. On leaving the group he spent two years on the Opera Course of the RCM. His varied career has seen him perform as a soloist  all over the world including la Scala, Teatro Colon ( Buenos Aires ), Tokyo, ROH, ENO, Vlaamse Opera, Netherlands Opera and La Monnaie (Brussels). Roles performed include: Pelléas in Paris under Georges Prêtre and Tom Rakewell at La Monnaie. In 2022/ 3, Philip was engaged to sing the leading role of Zivny in Janacek’s “Osud” in Brno as part of the Janacek Festival directed by Robert Carsen. He recently gave the Slovakian premiere of Vaughan Williams “On Wenlock Edge” with the Czech Philharmonic Quartet. This year he has been performing Winterreise throughout Europe. Philip is the artistic director of “Opera Prelude”  and HGO, North London’s Leading Opera Company which aims to  advance young singers. Philip is also a session singing vocalist having recorded multiple sound tracks for The London Voices including “Lord of the Rings “, “Harry Potter”, “Troy” and many others. He recently was a featured soloist for the sound track of the Netflix film of Leonard Bernstein “Maestro”.