TOMOS LAVERY

Tenor

24 years old, Tomos is a dentist, singer and founder of Sing2Smile. He qualified from King’s College London and attended Tonbridge School as a Music Scholar. As a Tenor, Tomos receives vocal training at The Royal Academy of Music.

As a soloist, guest performances include Handel’s Messiah with the Chelsea Baroque Players, the Croydon Male Voice Choir, and in 2002, opening the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall for the BBC. Tomos recently put on a concert, an Evening of Song, at Guy’s Chapel London in aid of Operation Smile – a charity supporting operations for children with cleft lip and palate in developing countries. Tomos is excited to now be working closely alongside SmileTrain to provide the same much needed surgeries to help change lives in 85 countries across the world.

FFION LAVERY

Soprano

Ffion Lavery is 18 years old, a student in Sixth Form at  Coloma Convent Girls’ School, Croydon. Since the age of 7 she has been trained as a classical soloist and over the years has achieved considerable success at all the local music festivals in Bromley, Croydon, Beckenham and Blackheath reaching the finals to decide the respective Musicians of the Year.

Ffion has a passion for singing and would one day love to be an operatic soloist.

Currently Ffion is trained by Yvette Bonner, with guidance from Elizabeth Ritchie of the Royal Academy of Music.

Recent solo performances include an invitation to perform in a SIMG production of emerging musical artists in the West End at the Crazy Coqs Venue, as well as the Fairfield Halls in Croydon, and at Guy’s Chapel for ‘An Evening of Song’ in aid of Operation Smile.

In December Ffion was awarded a Distinction at Grade 8 Voice by the ABRSM.

TOM ALDREN

Violinist

Thomas Aldren is a Master’s student on a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music where he learns with Mateja Marinkovic. He has won numberous awards and prizes over the past two years, including the Winifred Small Violin Prize at RAM, the York International Chamber Music Festival Competition and the Kenneth Page Foundation Competition. He led the National Youth Orchestra in 2011 and is in high demand as an orchestral leader and recitalist. He is also very active as a director and soloist with various ensembles in London. He plays on a violin by Antonio Gragnani made in Livorno, 1779.

ALL THE KING’S MEN

A CAPPELLA

Established in September 2009 at King’s College London, All the King’s Men has always been more than just a student group. After 4 sell-out Edinburgh Fringe Festival appearances and countless sensational international tours, All the King’s Men reached the final of the Voice Festival UK for the 4th year running in 2014 as well as being the only British group to reach the ICCA Finals in New York earlier this year. This multi-award winning group have quickly conquered the UK a cappella scene with their tight vocal harmonies and original arrangements. A diverse selection of music and entertaining choreography, seasoned with humour and mischief, creates a regal performance fit for a king!

KATIE SMITH

Trumpet

Katie is a London born Trumpet player currently in her third year on a scholarship at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying with Paul Beniston, Chris Deacon, Will O’Sullivan and baroque trumpet with Steve Keavy. During her musical education Katie also attended the Centre for Young Musicians and the Junior Department of the Royal College of Music. Katie has played principal trumpet with the Britten-Pears Orchestra, Musica Donum Dei, Young Musician’s Symphony Orchestra, Orpheus Sinfonia and undertaken educational projects with the London Symphony Orchestra. Katie is also an active chamber musician and is a member of Milton Brass Dectet and Tetra trumpet quartet.

Angus McPhee

Baritone

Angus began his musical education as a chorister at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle where he spent the next 5 years. He was fortunate to sing with a number of prestigious ensembles, though services for the Royal Family were always particularly special.

He went on to hold a musical scholarship at Oakham School, before spending a gap year as a Choral Scholar at York Minster and subsequently studying for his BMus degree at King’s College, London. Whilst at KCL, he also sang in the all-male a capella group All the King’s Men and was fortunate enough to extensively America, Asia, Edinburgh and the sunny tropics of the Isle of Man.

Angus is now studying for an MA in vocal studies at the Royal Academy of Music, whilst singing with various professional choirs such as The Sixteen, St Paul’s Cathedral and The Temple Church. He sings in the vocal quintet Eo Nomine which he helped found with colleagues from The Sixteen’s training course Genesis Sixteen, and were recently delighted to have been signed the by artist management agency Hazard Chase. Angus has also been bass/baritone vocal coach to the National Youth Training Choir for the last two years.

Richard Hall

Accompanist

Richard Hall is the Director of Music at Christ Church, Wimbledon. He holds a first-class honours degree in Music from King’s College London, where he was Organ Scholar and worked with the internationally acclaimed Chapel Choir.

Richard maintains a busy freelance career as an accompanist. He recently played in a recording with The Opera Group and has accompanied vocal masterclasses given by Andrew Watts, Susanna Stranders, and Felicity Lott.

An experienced teacher, Richard greatly enjoys working with children and young people. He currently maintains a portfolio of private pupils, teaches on behalf of the Merton Music Foundation and helps to run three London children’s choirs.

DEBORAH HAWKSLEY

Compere

Deborah Hawksley was born in Singapore. She studied at the Royal Northern College and the Guildhall School of Music. She has sung principal roles with many of the leading UK opera companies – including English National Opera, Glyndebourne Touring Opera and The D’Oyly Carte. For many years she was a regular Promenade soloist with the City of London Sinfonia appearing with them in Promenade Concerts in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Cologne. It never failed to amaze her that she sang ‘Rule Britannia’ and ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ countless times to large crowds of cheering German people. She is now in demand as a singing teacher, and is delighted to compère tonight’s concert of exciting young musical talent.

Smile Train’s mission is to provide a child born with a cleft the same opportunities in life as a child born without.

Feature: Rwanda Smiles – SmileTrain

Kigali, Rwanda — A unique collaboration, Rwanda Smiles is a joint effort to create the first “cleft-free” country in Africa within three years.

Each year, 250-300 babies are born with clefts in Rwanda. Those affected with these birth defects often can’t eat or speak properly. Many times, they are shunned and ostracized from their communities. Rwanda Smiles is designed to treat all Rwandans who are living with unrepaired clefts.

Smile Train and the organizations behind Rwanda Smiles will treat the estimated backlog of approximately 4,000 Rwandans suffering with unrepaired clefts and build local capacity to provide free, ongoing cleft care to every baby born with a cleft.

The Rwandan Ministry of Health has appointed three of Rwanda’s hospitals to be transformed into treatment facilities for the provision of ongoing cleft surgery and care. The collaboration will also create and provide medical education and training programs tailored to develop the skill levels of medical professionals in Rwanda in the area of cleft care, anesthesia, and nursing.

Find out more at www.smiletrain.org.uk

Covers the costs of an overnight hospital stay.

Half the cost of one surgery.

Can provide cleft surgery for one child.

Can provide cleft surgery for two children.