British-Sri Lankan musician Avishka Edirisinghe is a recent graduate of the Royal College of Music doing a first-study in Collaborative Piano with Simon Lepper, Caroline Dowdle, Roger Vignoles and Nigel Clayton, and a second-study in Conducting with Howard Williams.

As a pianist, Avishka has a special interest in working with singers in song and opera repertoire. His work with singers at RCM has led him to win pianist prizes in all RCM vocal competitions, the Leeds Lieder-Schubert Institute young artist prize for 2020/2021 with mezzo-soprano Esme Bronwen-Smith, and the Pianist’s Prize at the 2022 Kathleen Ferrier Awards at Wigmore Hall.

For the 2022/23 season, Avishka was the English National Opera’s Assistant Chorus Director Fellow. Avishka was also ENO’s Acting Chorus Master on Carmen, Akhnaten and The Dead City during the season. Avishka also works closely with Pegasus Opera Company, where in April, he conducted their contemporary double bill at the Royal Academy of Music theatre. Avishka recently finished at Opera Holland Park as their Young Artist Repetiteur on Hansel and Gretel, and has now moved to Glyndebourne to work as their Assistant Chorus Master on Semele and The Rake’s Progress.

Apart from the piano, Avishka also plays the violin, and during his school years, Avishka was the leader of the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra, which gave him the opportunity to perform concerto movements on tours abroad in Italy and the Czech Republic. Avishka also took singing lessons at school and was a choral scholar with Leicestershire Chorale.

Born in 1998, Sarah Hakobyan is a mezzo-soprano born and raised in Armenia. Miss Hakobyan has been honing her musical talent from a young age, which led her to pursue higher education in Performing Arts with a focus on Vocal Arts (namely "Opera Singing"). In 2022, she graduated from Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan with a Master of Arts degree in Performing Arts - achieving academic excellence under the mentorship of Professor Gayane Geghamyan.

Throughout her academic years, Sarah has participated in numerous competitions and was awarded first place in IV "Daina Miestui" and III "21st Century Art" international vocal competitions. To hone her artistic skillset further, Sarah Hakobyan pursued training in Italy and graduated from Accademia Lirica Osimo. During her time in the academy, she performed multiple concerts and participated in masterclasses held by Ernesto Palacio, Raina Kabaivanska, Vincenzo De Vivo, William Matteuzzi, and Anna Vandi.

In September of 2023, Sarah will make her operatic debut on the stage of Teatro delle Muse as Zweite Dame in “Die Zauberflöte”.

Japanese pianist Megumi Hata completed her piano solo studies at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and postgraduate studies. As an Aoyama Foundation Scholar, she performed Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 26 'Coronation' with the Tokyo University of the Arts Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Ken Takaseki.
Upon completion of her postgraduate studies, she was awarded the Acanthus Prize of the Graduate School and the Piano Prize of the University of the Arts.
From 2019, Megumi has been accompanist at the Department of Voice at the FRANZ LISZT University of Music in Weimar, Germany. She participated in projects such as „Le nozze di Figaro”,“Die Fledermaus” within the university and has accompanied numerous masterclasses.
In 2022, she took part in a project at the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar in Germany, performing Peter Maxwell Davies' Eight Songs for the Mad King. In March 2023, she completed the National Performer Certificate Programme (Konzertexamen), Song Accompaniment, at the FRANZ LISZT University of Music in Weimar, Germany.
She worked as a Gastkorrepetitorin “Don Giovanni” at the Theatre in Altenburg Gera in Germany. She also studied piano with Setsuko Koike, piano duo with Yu Kakuno and
chamber music with Yuya Tsuda and Hiroki Kadowaki; opera repétitore with H.C. Steinhöfel and song accompaniment with K.P. Kammerlander.

Bass Hovhannes Karapetyan studied opera at Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan,
Armenia, during that time he took part in a number of concerts and opera productions, including performing the title role in “Don Pasquale” by Donizetti and Leporello in “Don Giovanni” by Mozart.
Competition successes include winning the Special Prize in the Tatevik Sazandaryan Vocal Competition, second prize in the Nodar Andguladze Vocal Competition in Tbilisi, Georgia, and first prize in the inaugural Lusine Zakaryan National Competition.
He has performed in concerts in Italy, Austria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Georgia and Russia. He studied Opera at the Royal Academy of Music. With Royal Academy Opera, he sung the roles of Argenio in “Imeneo”, Interrogator 1 in the world premiere of “WITCH”, Father Trulove in “The Rake’s Progress” by Stravinsky and Figaro in “The Marriage of Figaro” by Mozart.
Other highlights include Bach’s Coffee Cantata BWV 211, directed by Sedrak Yerkanyan, and Mozart’s Requiem and Mass in C Minor K.427, directed by Marine Mesropyan and Nina Grigoryan.

The German Bass Gabriel Fortunas Klitzing studied his bachelor and master at the HMDK Stuttgart with Teru Yoshihara.
Since September 2023 he is a Member of the Mascarade Opera Studio
His operatic roles include Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte) for Stadttheater Bad Hall, Bartolo (Le Nozze di Figaro) for Kammeroper München and Theater Heilbronn, Eremit (Der Freischütz), Dottore (La Traviata), Komtur/Masetto (Don Giovanni), Capellio (i Capuleti e i Montechi) and Snug (a Midsummer Nights Dream).
In 2022 Gabriel made his debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper as Diener in (Capriccio)
He has taken masterclasses with Margreet Honig, Elly Ameling, Noelle Turner, Emilio Pons and Anne Margrethe Dahl.
Furthermore he was awarded the third Prize at August everding Gesangswettbewerb and also the third Prize at the Lions GesangsWettbewerb.

Latvian baritone Daniils Kuzmins graduated from the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music. In 2023 he made his operatic debut on the stage of Latvian National Opera as Masetto in Don Giovanni, he was also a member of the opera choir for two years.

In the beginning of 2022, Daniils became a prize winner of JVLMA and LMT Annual Award for Young Musician, highest award of Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music. During the same year he participated in the prestigious International competition Operalia.

His repertoire includes Malatesta in Don Pasquale, Gilfen in Eugene d'Alembert's Die Abreise and Silvio/Tonio in Pagliacci.
Daniils also enjoys working on chamber music of different styles and languages, and baroque opera roles, while collaborating with the Riga Early Music Centre.

Daniils participated in masterclasses with Benjamin Appl, Ekhart Wycik, Irina Dolzhenko and Renee Fleming; he studied with Krišjānis Norvelis, Māris Skūja, Mikhail Lanskoi.

Italian soprano Caterina Meldolesi was born in Rome in1996. She completed the Bachelor's and Master’s Degree courses in Singing with honourable mention at the "Santa Cecilia" Conservatory in Rome under the guidance of Sara Mingardo.
She was part of the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino YAP 2020-2022. She was awarded with the role of Verdi’s Luisa Miller at the AsLiCo International Singing Competition in January 2023.
She won the Extraordinary prize offered by Internationale OpernWerkstatt at the Tenor Vinas International Singing Competition 2022. She won the Second prize and two prize concerts (Krasnoyarsk Opera House; Parma in Lirica) at the “Salice d’Oro Special Edition” International Singing Competition 2019. She won the Second prize at the "Elsa Respighi" International Lied-Duo Competition 2019.
In 2021, she debuted the role of “La Fanciulla” in Giordano’s Siberia at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Gianandrea Noseda, Roberto Andò). In August, she sang the role of “Cabri” in Mozart’s Betulia liberata at Teatro Olimpico di Vicenza. Then she sang “Annina” in Verdi’s La Traviata at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Zubin Mehta, Davide Livermore). Later on, she sang “Mimì” in Puccini’s La Bohème under the direction of Manu Lalli (production of Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino). She also sang “Fiordiligi” in Mozart’s Così fan tutte with the same Director at Teatro Goldoni in Florence.
In 2022, she sang “Caterina” in Mascagni’s L’amico Fritz at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Rosetta Cucchi, Riccardo Frizza). Then, she debuted in the Symphonic Season of the theatre as a soloist in the contemporary piece Per lo corpo luce by Luca Francesconi under the baton of Ingo Metzmacher.
Later on, she covered the role of “Anna” in Puccini’s Le Villi at Festival Toscanini in Parma with the conduction of Omer Meir Wellber, debuted the title role of Verdi’s Aida at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Alessandro D’Agostini conductor, Manu Lalli director) and jumped in with short notice as “Lidia” in Scarlatti’s Il Cambise at Theater Kiel (Alessandro Quarta conductor).
Then she joined the prestigious belcanto course Georg Solti.
Later on, she sang “Ines” in Verdi’s Il Trovatore at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Zubin Mehta, Cesare Lievi). Finally, she joined the Internationale OpernWerkstatt in Switzerland, performing in different opera scenes from Die Walküre, Il Trovatore, Elisabetta and Aida, in Bern, Zürich, Basel and Wiesbaden, working with Andreas Kriegenburg and Roland Böer.
She will be part of Mascarade YAP 2023-2024. She will debut the role of “Luisa” in Verdi’s Luisa Miller with the AsLiCo circuit in October (Como) and December (Pavia) 2023.

Yuchen Pan is Originally from Xi'an, China, he attended Towson High School in Maryland as a high school exchange student in 2011. After graduating, he pursued a Voice major at Temple University in Philadelphia, where he received his Bachelor of Music degree in 2019.
Yuchen continued his studies at the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music under the guidance of Maestro Jack Livigni. During his time in Philadelphia, he performed the roles of Lensky and Chekalinsky in The Russian Opera Workshop's productions of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades.
In 2022, Yuchen made his debut as Rodolfo in La bohème and Duca in Rigoletto at the Mediterranean Opera Summer Festival. He also had the privilege of studying with Italian tenor Gianluca Terranova, preparing for the roles of Edgardo in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, Alfredo in Verdi's La Traviata, and Manrico in Verdi's Il trovatore.
Yuchen Pan is proud to continue the study with the Chinese soprano Hui He for the vocal and artistic guiandance. Additionally, he has been selected to join the Mascarade Opera Studio for the 2023/2024 season, marking an exciting milestone in his career.

Brazilian soprano Luiza Willert recently graduated from the Royal Academy of Music’s Opera course, where she was a recipient of the Bicentenary Scholarship and had lessons with soprano Nuccia Focile and coach Ingrid Surgenor. Before coming to London, Luiza was a part of the São Paulo Municipal Theatre Opera Studio.

While in London, she sung the roles of Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress, Fanny in La Cambiale Di Matrimonio, Rosmene in Imeneo, Zerbinetta in the prologue to Ariadne auf Naxos, Sarah/Sun Witch in WITCH and La Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi. In Brazil, she has sung First Child-Spirit and First Lady in Die Zauberflöte, Bastienne in Bastien und Bastienne, Annina in La traviata, and was part of the Fairy Choir in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She has taken part in masterclasses with Eliane Coelho, Barbara Frittoli, Ann Murray and Richard Bonynge.
Luiza won the Best Soprano award in the 18th Maria Callas Brazilian Singing Competition, and has twice been a prizewinner at the Linus Lerner International Singing Competition. In the summer of 2022, she was one of the young singers of the Georg Solti Accademia di Bel Canto in Italy, coming back to sing for the Solti-Peretti Repetiteurs Course that same year and in 2023.
Luiza is excited to join the Mascarade Emerging Artists programme in Florence in September 2023.