The Silk Street Award

The Silk Street Award was inaugurated in 2000. Each year the generous support of a large number of individual donors enables a remarkable singer to continue their studies on the Opera Course at the Guldhall School of Music & Drama. The cost of one year's study on the Opera Course for 2009/10 is £8,000. It is our aim to cover the fee in full each year with the Silk Street Award.

The 2009/10 Silk Street Award recipient is soprano Elena Sancho Pereg. Elena has recently performed the role of the Queen of England in the School's production of Donizetti's L'assedio di Calais and will be performing the role of L'Ensoleillad in Massenet's Chérubin in the Spring.

Last year's recipient, Sara González Saavedra, has now completed her studies at the Guildhall School. Sara reports:

"I have participated in three wonderful and innovative productions during the year and I have had the chance to explore several different roles. I've felt privileged to be part of such a talented company of singers, stage managers and orchestral musicians.

"I am also delighted because I have recently obtained a place at the National Opera Studio. I will be a trainee next year and I am so excited about this challenging project. It is a very demanding course and I really need to devote myself to it. I believe the next 12 months are going to be very busy and rewarding."

Biographies

Sara González Saavedra was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and discovered her musical vocation relatively late when she was studying to be a Telecommunications Engineer at The Polytechnic University of Las Palmas. She subsequently obtained a Professional Degree in Singing at Tarragona Conservatory (Spain) with Merce Obiol where she studied for 3 years on a Cabildo of Gran Canaria scholarship. She obtained a BMus honours in 2006 and MMus with distinction in 2007, and is currently completing a two-year full-time Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, studying with Professor Jane Highfield. Sara has made many solo concert and oratorio appearances including Vivaldi's Gloria, Mozart's Coronation Mass, Cherubini's Missa Solemnis, Haendel's Messiah and Bach´s Johannes Passion. Her solo recital repertoire is wide, including El Amor Brujo at Saint John Smith´s Square, the Siete Canciones Populares of Manuel de Falla and Mahler's Rückert Lieder at the Barbican Hall. Operatic roles and scenes include Dardané (La rencontre imprévue), Dido (Dido and Aeneas), Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro), The Third Lady (Die Zauberflöte), Carmen (Carmen), Charlotte (Werther) and very recently she understudied "La hija del cielo", opening the 2007/08 Las Palmas Opera Season. She has also sung Bianca in Kiss me, Kate by Cole Porter at the Metropol and Fortuny Theatres in Catalonia; Cavalleria Rusticana in the Barbican Hall and in Italy conducted by Paolo Olmi, and Italian Opera scenes (Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri and Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea) at the Bridewell Theatre.

Elena Sancho-Pereg was born in San Sebastian. She studied with Ramon Regidor at Madrid's Escuela Superior de Canto, and is now studying opera at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. On stage she has performed operatic roles such as Bastienne (Bastian und Bastienne), Blonde (Die Entführung aus dem Serrail), Marie (Cendrillon), Madame Hertz and Madame Silberklang (Der Schauspieldirektor), Euridice (La Fabula d´Orfeo), Louise (La Vie Parisienne), and First Lady (Die Zauberflöte). Much in demand as an oratorio soloist, Elena has performed many Classical and Baroque works including Mozart's Requiem, Coronation Mass, and Laetanie Venerabile Sacramento, Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, Michael Haydn's Vespers in F, and Handel's Messiah. She recently made her debut at the Barbican with the London Symphony Orchestra in Alasdair Nicholson's Two Sisters, A Rose, A Flood and Snow: Four Tales of Enchantment. She has also performed several times on the well-known Spanish TV musical show El Conciertazo introduced by Fernando Argenta. Elena has twice been awarded prizes by the Juventudes Musicales de Madrid. Other competition wins include the "Hispánica Constructora Accésit Prize" and "The Operatic Role Prize" in the Luis Mariano Competition XI Edition.