Opera classics Archives - Classical Musicians Scotland

Soprano Catriona Clark studied at the Royal College of Music and Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Opera School, where she won all the major singing prizes. Career highlights include Adèle in Die Fledermaus alongside Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, José Carreras and Bryn Terfel, at the Royal Albert Hall and performances for Opera North, London Festival Opera, The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (Linbury Theatre) and at festivals including Les Azuriales in Cap Ferrat, Festival de Vézère and the Edinburgh International Festival.Catriona has toured Europe with Diva Opera, singing Marie (La Fille du Régiment), Musetta (La Bohème), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) and Euridice (Orphée aux enfers). For Opera Bohemia, she has performed the roles of Violetta (La Traviata), Hanna Glawari (the Merry Widow), Cio-Cio-San (Madama Butterfly), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Tatyana (Eugene Onegin) and Mimi (La Bohème). Performances also include the world premier of Demimondaine by John Frederick Hudson and the title role in the British premier of Ethelinda by Mildred Jessup (née Bowes Lyon).
Catriona has performed extensively as an oratorio soloist, including performances of Verdi’s Requiem, Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Creation, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Mozart’s C minor Mass and Requiem, Bach’s Magnificat, Poulenc’s Gloria, Tippett’s Child of our Time and Handel’s Messiah (at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh).
A regular chorister with the freelance chorus of Scottish Opera, Catriona has also performed the role of Madame Mao (Nixon in China Unwrapped) and covered the roles of Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte) Gianetta (The Gondoliers), Princess Zara (Utopia) and Musetta (La Bohème).

Mezzo soprano Sarah Shorter trained in opera at the Royal Academy of Music in London, before moving to Glasgow. A versatile singer, she excels in operatic, barbershop and classical repertoire. She appears regularly as a freelance chorister with Scottish Opera. On the concert platform she has performed as Daniel in the Thomas Coats Memorial Choral Society’s performance of Handel’s Belshazzar in Paisley Abbey, as the alto soloist in Greenock Philharmonic Choir’s performance of the Mozart Requiem, and in Helensburgh Oratorio Choir’s performance of Breathing Place in Glasgow City Halls. She sings frequently with the Dunedin Consort, appearing in their Christmas tour of Messiah and on their recording of Mozart’s Mass in C Minor. As the Musical Director of The Close Shave Chorus, she delights in bringing close harmony to the unsuspecting public all over Scotland. She is a founder member of The All Sorts ladies’ a cappella quartet and performs across Scotland with performances of Celebrating Jerome Kern, alongside tenor Christian Schneeberger and pianist Derek Clark.

Tenor Christian Schneeberger has appeared throughout the UK as a recitalist, oratorio soloist and opera singer. Born in Glasgow, he was a prizewinning graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland where he graduated with BMus (Hons) in Vocal Performance in 2013, before completing his Masters of Music in Performance.
As a professional performer, Christian has sung the tenor solo in oratorios including Mozart’s Requiem, Mozart’s Mass in C major, Handel’s Messiah, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Haydn’s Nelson Mass, Bach’s Magnificat, Stainer’s Crucifixion, Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb, Bach’s St John Passion and Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music and is also a regular guest artist at charity functions.
His opera career has grown from being a founding member of À La Canto, touring with Opera Bohemia in La Traviata, Eugene Onegin and The Pearl Fishers to becoming a regular member of Scottish Opera’s freelance chorus.
Between performances, Christian is a vocal coach at Hutchesons’ Grammar School and St Andrews University. He also appears regularly across Scotland with male vocal quartet, Scozzesi, and in the Celebrating…. series of concerts featuring Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and Jerome Kern.

Baritone Steven Faughey was born in the North East of England and studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama with Bill McCue and Jeff Nielson Taylor. He has sung with D’Oyly Carte Opera Company and Garsington Festival Opera, and was a member of the full-time chorus of Scottish Opera where he is now employed as a freelance chorister. He also works regularly with Scottish Opera’s Education Department. His operatic roles include Antonio/ The Marriage of Figaro, Papageno /The Magic Flute, Mustafa /Italian Girl in Algiers, Enrico / Lucia di Lammermoor, Falke /Die Fledermaus, Ford /Falstaff and Talbot /Maria Stuarda. For Scottish Opera, he has performed and covered many roles including Second Priest /The Magic Flute, Alcindoro /Tosca, the Official Registrar /Madama Butterfly and Ambrogio /Il Barbiere de Siviglia. He performed the role of Jake Wallace in a concert performance of La Fanciulla del West in the Usher Hall as part of Edinburgh Festival. Steven’s solo oratorio work includes Handel’s Messiah, Judas Maccabeus, Israel in Egypt, Fauré’s Requiem, Haydn’s Creation, Stainer’s Crucifixion, Mozart’s Requiem, Puccini’s Messa di Gloria and Carmina Burana. Steven also performs with the Antonine Trio, and is a founder member of Opera Alba. He also plays and teaches flute, clarinet, recorder and saxophone and has recently becoming the musical director for the Milngavie Choir.

Derek Clark was born in Glasgow and is an Honours graduate of the RSAMD and the University of Durham. He also studied at the London Opera Centre before joining Welsh National Opera as a repetiteur in 1977, making his professional conducting debut in 1981 with Handel’s Tamerlano.
He was Head of Music at Scottish Opera from 1997 before retiring in three years ago, and has conducted more than 30 operas for the company, including major works by Handel and Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Massenet, Puccini, and Gilbert & Sullivan.
He provided re-orchestrations for recent touring productions of Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Die Fledermaus, Carmen, Rodelinda and The Elixir of Love and has devised more than twenty-five Opera Highlight/Essential Scottish Opera programmes. His re-orchestration of ‘Hansel and Gretel’ has been used by other opera companies, including ENO and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and by colleges, both in the UK and in America.
He has also specialised in contemporary music, as conductor of all three seasons of Scottish Opera’s highly successful Five:15 project. He conducted the Scottish premieres of James MacMillan’s Clemency, Philip Glass’ The Trial and the world premieres of Craig Armstrong’s ‘The Lady from the Sea’ and Rory Boyle’s award-winning opera Kaspar Hauser: Child of Europe.
He has been the regular accompanist for Opera Alba for more than ten years, and also works as a Guest Coach and Examiner at the major conservatoires and colleges and at the National Opera Studio. He has also recently worked as assistant conductor for Melbourne Opera, Australia, and at Garsington. Though most of his professional life has been spent in the opera house, he has also found time to compose and arrange music for a wide variety of people and circumstances – his music has been performed in venues ranging from village halls to Westminster Abbey.
He was appointed Musical Director of Dundee Choral Union in 2011, and since 2014 has been Director of Music at Helensburgh Parish Church, where his annual ‘Come and Sing’ Christmas concerts, and concerto performances have raised many thousands of pounds for charities such as MacMillan Cancer Care and Christian Aid.
In May/June 2026, he and tenor Jamie MacDougall perform Lauder for three weeks in New York, courtesy of Scottish Opera and Loch Doune Productions.

Opera Alba: Background

Opera Alba was formed at the end of 2004 with the aim of bringing well sung, highly accessible opera to venues around Scotland in an entertaining and enjoyable manner. The highlight of their concerts is without doubt, the lack of “stuffiness” often associated with opera. However, that is not to say that their repertoire is not delivered with poise, panache, and eloquence!

Its founding members – Daisy Henderson/soprano, Jenny Wilson Best/soprano, John Carlo Bellotti/tenor and Steven Faughey/baritone, were very lucky to have Derek Clark as their regular accompanist, when he could spare time from his duties as Head of Music at Scottish Opera.

In addition to freelance opera work, members of Opera Alba also perform as soloists and with other ensembles at various events in and around Scotland. They have a wide experience of oratorio and concert work between them, as well as being asked to sing at weddings. Opera Alba also performs as Coro Alba, in a larger group of 8 – 20 professional singers with accompanist.

Their repertoire is wide and varied: operatic arias, duets, trios and quartets by Verdi, Puccini, Mozart, Donizetti, Offenbach, Bizet, Dvorak, etc with a lighter programme of operetta, Gilbert and Sullivan, songs from the shows, four-part Scottish songs arranged by Derek, and comedy numbers. A sample programme might include the Brindisi from Verdi’s La Traviata, the Quartet from Beethoven’s Fidelio, ‘Soave sia il vento’ from Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte, the ‘Flower Duet’ from Lakmé by Delibes, the ‘Song to the Moon’ from Dvorak’s Rusalka, Vissi d’art from Puccini’s Tosca, Lehar’s Merry Widow Waltz, some Gilbert and Sullivan, a medley from My Fair Lady or The King and I, A Word on my Ear’ by Flanders and Swann and many, many more.

Opera Alba has performed across Scotland for Aros Centre (Skye), Ayr Music Club, Beith Arts Guild, Brunton Theatre, Cally House (Blairgowrie), Cathcart, Cramond Kirk, Cromarty Arts Trust, Dumfries Theatre Royal, Dundee Repertory Theatre, Dunfermline Arts Guild, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Friends of Scottish Opera (Perth), Gatehouse of Fleet Music Society, Glasgow Hilton, Hawick Music Club, His Majesty’s at the Hilton (Aberdeen), Ingliston Country Club in Bishopton, Inverness Chamber Music, Linlithgow Arts Guild, Lockerbie Music Society, Moffat Music Society, Mugdock (Milngavie), Mull Theatre, Music in Lanark, Music Nairn, Newton Stewart and District Music Club, Paisley Arts Centre, Paisley Town Hall, Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Ross Priory (Gartocharn), Solsgirth House (Dollar), Stirling Tolbooth, Stranraer Music for All, Strathdee Music Club, Tarbert on Harris, Tasting Rooms (Dundee), Thurso Live Music Association, Torphichen Summer Nights and Williamwood Golf Club.