Roderick Williams is one of this country’s most sought after baritones and is constantly in demand on the concert platform and in recital, encompassing a repertoire from the baroque to world premieres. In 2016 he won the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Singer of the year award.

Opera engagements have included major roles at leading opera houses worldwide including the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, English National Opera, Dutch National Opera, Dallas Opera, Opera North, Scottish Opera, Florida Grand Opera, the Bregenz Festival and Oper Köln. He has been involved in many world premieres including, Lord Byron in the world premiere of Sally Beamish’s Monster, Alexander Knaifel’s Alice in Wonderland and Michel van der Aa’s After Life, the title role in Robert Saxton’s The Wandering Jew with the BBC Symphony , which has been released on NMC to considerable critical acclaim.

Yuliya Shkvarko is a multilingual Soprano, who has been generously supported by the Lady Maria Fisher Opera Scholarship, Helen Rachael Mackaness Charitable Trust and Peter Heath Scholarship at the Royal Northern College of Music.

While studying with Lyudmila Lukas, Yuliya’s passion for Opera from a young age led her to become a laureate of the International Vocal Competition ‘Little Opera’ in Kohtla-Järve and of the International Vocal Competition in Velikiye Luki. In Brisbane, under the guidance of Geoffrey Ashenden, Yuliya became a recipient of the Brisbane City Council Junior Championship Trophy (2011). In 2016 Yuliya graduated from the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University with a Bachelor of Music degree, getting into the top 5% of students. In January 2015 Yuliya was awarded the Cuskelly Summer School Scholarship. That month, she also sang the role of Yuliya Pachulskaya in the 4MBS Premier of Sean Ross’ Opera ‘Tchaikovsky: Angel of Music’.

At the Royal Northern College of Music, Yuliya was taught by Hilary Summers and Lynne Dawson. She performed regularly with the RNCM Songsters in a number of prestigious concerts such as ‘Revolution Retrospective’ at The Stoller Hall, Leeds Lieder International Concerts Season, Maggie’s Center Opera Gala, Manchester Cathedral Solo Recital and Rachmaninov Festival in London. Yuliya’s recent Opera roles include Blanche de la Force in Poulenc’s ‘Dialogues des Carmélites’, Lauretta in Puccini’s ‘Gianni Schicchi’, Geraldine in Barber’s ‘A Hand of Bridge’ and Giulia in Rossini’s ‘La Scala di Seta’.

Being a native Ukrainian, Russian and English speaker, Yuliya has been developing her Italian, German and French skills. Her enthusiasm towards Italian language excellence has been encouraged by the Società Dante Aligieri Scholarship twice (2016, 2017).

Yuliya has performed in Master Classes for the renowned professionals across the World: Sir John Tomlinson (UK), Carlos Montané (Indiana, USA), Janice Chapman AUA (Australia), Dennis O’Neill (UK), Andrew Shore (UK), Janice Watson (UK). She has also been privileged to be selected four times for the Opera North Residency Programme in Leeds.

Yuliya is the youngest RNCM Opera graduate of Master of Music (Intensive) and Advanced Post-Graduate Diploma, both of which, she completed with Distinction. The time before the Covid-19 Crisis has been particularly fruitful for Yuliya. She received an opportunity to perform with recitals in four Baltic countries – Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Finland (July 2019 Alion Baltic Scholarship), and was a Gold Medal Opera Prize winner at the VI Alion Baltic International Music Competition 2019.

In 2020 Yuliya graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music with the most prestigious music college degree – International Artist Diploma, to which only six musicians are accepted each year. That year Yuliya has also been studying privately with the world-renowned mezzo-soprano, Isabel Leonard.

Despite the challenges that Covid-19 has brought upon everyone, including the Arts world, Yuliya is very grateful to British Youth Opera for giving her an opportunity to continue her music journey during this complex time. From 2020 to 2021, Yuliya was a member of BYO’s new program for young artists – Serena Fenwick.