May 11, 2022

Glyndebourne announces Jerwood Young Artists 2022

Glyndebourne has run Jerwood Young Artists since 2010, a programme focused on nurturing talented opera singers. It offers aspiring soloists from the chorus career-changing support and professional development over a full Glyndebourne Festival season.

Singers selected for the programme work with leading conductors, directors, choreographers, theatre specialists and vocal coaches to enhance their skills and experience. All of the artists will be performing as debuts in Glyndebourne productions later this year.

The 2022 Jerwood Young Artists are:

Charlotte Bowden – Soprano. Performing as Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro.

Currently in her final year at RCM Opera Studio studying with Rosa Mannion, she is generously supported as an H F Music Award holder, Martin Harris Scholar, Drake Calleja Trust Scholar, Countess of Munster Musical Trust Award holder, and by the Sussex Opera and Ballet Society and the Josephine Baker Trust. She is an alumna of the Verbier Festival Atelier Lyrique, OHP, Britten-Pears, and Philip and Dorothy Green young artist programmes. She received first prize in the Marjorie Thomas Art of Song Prize and the Michael Head Prize, and second prize and the Audience Prize in the Maureen Lehane Vocal Awards. She has performed as a soloist at Royal Albert Hall, Cadogan Hall, Snape Maltings, and Aldeburgh Festival, and as Bridesmaid/Der Freischütz with Sir Mark Elder and the OAE. She made her Wigmore Hall debut as Orfeo/Parnasso in festa for the London Handel Festival.

Patrick Alexander Keefe – Baritone. Performing as Notary in Don Pasquale (Donizetti).

After beginning singing as a choirboy and choral scholar, he studied at RAM, GSMD and the University of Oxford. He was the recipient of first prize in the 2021 Richard Lewis/Jean Shanks Award, and second prize in the 2021 Pavarotti Prize. He is grateful to be supported by The Countess of Munster Musical Trust, the Help Musicians Sybil Tutton Awards, Opera Prelude, and the John Baker Award for Opera, and very thankful for the support of Mark Wildman and Robert Dean, his teachers for many years. Patrick has completed a Masters with Distinction in Composition at Oxford and begun doctoral studies. He continues to compose in his spare time and also enjoys cycling, rowing and sailing.

Cleo Lee-McGowan – Soprano. Performing as First Bridesmaid in Le nozze di Figaro.

The Australian soprano is currently in her final year of the Guildhall School Opera Course studying with Susan Waters. She made her solo debut with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 2020 in East Land Symphony, and with Sydney Symphony Orchestra as Niece 2/Peter Grimes in 2019. In 2018 she sang Gretel in Victorian Opera’s Hänsel und Gretel, and was a soloist in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. She is an alumna of the Melba Opera Trust where she was awarded the Joseph Sambrook Opera Scholarship. Winner of the Sydney Eisteddfod Opera Scholarship, and a finalist of the Australian Singing Competition and Bel Canto Award, Cleo is supported by the Australian Music Foundation, Help Musicians, the Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge Foundation and the Tait Memorial Trust.

Jack Sandison – Bass Baritone. Performing as The Bearded Man in Les mamelles de Tirésias.

The British bass-baritone graduated with a first class honours degree in 2017 from RCS where he studied under the tutelage of Professor Stephen Robertson. A recipient of a full scholarship from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and RCS Trust, he also won first prize in the Scott’s Song Competition. He received the Helen Clarke Award from Garsington Opera for his work as an Alvarez Young Artist, and was second prize winner in the Joaninha Award. He is winner of both the Wessex prize, and the Miriam Trevaux Award for his work at Glyndebourne.

Find out more:

Read about Glyndebourne’s Jerwood Young Artists 2022

Jerwood Arts’ Development Programme Fund

The Yellow Sofa, 2012. Photo: Robert Workman, Glyndebourne Productions