When and where was your first experience of music / singing?

I started Suzuki violin lessons when I was four, but I didn’t start singing lessons until I was a chorister at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh. I began singing as a pre-probationer there when I was about six or seven and spent a long time pretending to sight-sing before I really figured it out!

Where did you grow up? Did you have access to classical music?

I’m from Edinburgh, so there was a lot of classical music in my childhood – I remember my parents taking me to see Nicola Benedetti in my first year of primary school. When I was eight, I started attending St Mary’s Music School, picking up the clarsach alongside my violin and voice lessons. I’ve been really lucky to have lots of access to classical music even after St Mary’s, attending Saturday classes at RCS Juniors where I sang in Andrew Nunn’s choirs.

What would your dream performance be?

My dream concert programme is probably completely unperformable. It’d be a mixture of all my grandfather’s choral favourites and my friends’ favourites: Howells’s Take Him Earth, Leighton’s Drop Drop Slow Tears… and then the entirety of Britten’s War Requiem. It’s the first classical music that ever made me cry.

What are you looking forward to with Genesis Sixteen?

I’m really excited to meet and work alongside other young singers who are as passionate about choral music as I am, as well as learning from the incredible conductors and musicians on the courses.

Are you still in education?

I’ve (hopefully) just finished my first year of an English Literature degree at UCL, where I’m one of the first recipients of the UCL Music Scholarship.

Outside of singing, what do you like to do in your spare time?

I love to read fiction and poetry, and when I have the urge to, I really enjoy writing poetry of my own! I’ve also really been enjoying exploring London in my first year here, although I definitely don’t feel like a Londoner yet…