2016 Concert Series Messiah | Page 11

BIANCA ANDREW, mezzo-soprano Born in Wellington, Bianca Andrew is considered one of New Zealand’s most promising young singers to emerge in recent years. She is currently continuing her vocal studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London under the tutelage of Yvonne Kenny, where she is a full scholarship awardee on the Opera Studies programme for 2015/16. Bianca studied with Margaret Medlyn and Bruce Greenfield at the New Zealand School of Music, graduating in 2011 with a Bachelor and Postgraduate Diploma of Music. She received further training at the New Zealand Opera School between 2010 and 2013 with Paul Farrington. Bianca went on to be appointed as a Freemasons Dame Malvina Major Emerging Artist with New Zealand Opera, with whom she made her mainstage debut in the role of Kate Pinkerton in Madam Butterfly . She completed her internship with New Zealand Opera in 2013, having understudied the roles of Suzuki and Zerlina for the company. In January 2015, Bianca appeared as a Guildhall School soloist with Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra in Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri. She has taken part In Guiladhall masterclasses with Graham Johnson, Dame Felicity Lott and Martin Kaz, and with Roger Vignoles at Wigmore Hall. Bianca was the recent winner of the Guildhall School’s coveted Chartered Surveyers vocal competition adjudicated by Sarah Walker and Stephen Loges, and was a finalist in the Susan Longfield Vocal Competition. She was awarded the Kiri Te Kanawa Scholarship for outstanding potential in the 2014 New Zealand Lexus Song Quest. 11