Polish up your G & S! workshop presenters

Stephen Anthony Brown Stephen Anthony Brown studied at Trinity College, London and then at the Benjamin Britten International Opera School at the Royal College of Music. His career has led to roles with companies such as Almeida Opera, Kent Opera, Opera Della Luna, Castleward Opera, Raymond Gubbay at the Albert Hall, Garsington Festival, Carl Rosa Opera and the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. Stephen's opera roles readfile Nemorino L'Elisir d'Amore, Don Ramiro La Cenerentola, Ernesto Don Pasquale and Tom Rakewell The Rake's Progress. For Glyndebourne he has sung Pedro in Prokofiev's Betrothal in a Monastery, Peter Quint (cover) in The Turn of the Screw and Lysander (cover) in A Midsummer Night's Dream. More recently, Elder Hayes Susannah for English Touring Opera, Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail for Opera de Baugé in France, Lt Pinkerton in Madama Butterflyand Alfredo in La Traviata. On the concert platform, Stephen has sung in all of the UK's major Concert Halls and Cathedrals. He has sung most of the major concert repertoire. He regularly sings Bach's Evangelists and Elgar's Gerontius. Some highlights readfile Verdi's Requiem at London's Barbican, Handel's Messiah in Romania, Rossini's Stabat Mater in Norway, Stradella's San Giovanni Battista in Jerusalem, Beethoven's 9th Symphony in Spain and Bach's Matthäus Passion in Iceland and in London with Peter Schreier. Stephen is recognised as a world specialist in the works of Gilbert and Sullivan and has sung many roles in productions of their operas, as well as in numerous G&S recitals and concerts. Recently he appeared in The Very Best of Gilbert&Sullivan on 2 January 2009 at the Barbican in London. Just before his visit to Canberra, Stephen completed a season for The Really Authentic Gilbert and Sullivan Performance Trust in Dunedin, New Zealand, as Colonel Fairfax in The Yeomen of the Guard.

Colin Forbes On graduating from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Colin Forbes became Lecturer in Piano at the Conservatorium as well as pianist and percussionist with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He later joined the Australian Opera as a repetiteur and has also worked with other leading concert organisations including the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Synergy and the Australia Ensemble. A study tour of Germany took Colin to the Essen Hochschule to study piano with Paul Badura Skoda. Colin subsequently taught and performed in Germany. On returning to Australia he became Head of Keyboard at Ascham School in Sydney, later moving to Canberra in 1992 to take up the position of repetiteur at the Canberra School of Music. Colin gave sonata recitals with the violinist Erich Binder (Concert Master of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra) on both of Binder's visits to Australia. In 1997 Colin helped to establish the Canberra Academy of Music and Related Arts, where he is currently Artistic Director and principal piano teacher. Colin has given many concerts in Canberra as both soloist and accompanist. Under CAMRA's auspices, Colin has performed the complete piano sonatas of Mozart, prepared the music and staging of award winning productions of several Gilbert and Sullivan operas, The Beggar's Opera, the liturgical opera Ordo Virtutum by Hildegard von Bingen, and Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. Colin has also prepared and conducted numerous orchestral masses and directed performances of Handel's Messiah and Bach's St John Passion.