Born in Plymouth in 1993, Charlotte Badham initiated her classical vocal training with Jeffery Lawton whilst studying for her A-Levels at Devonport High School for Girls. Charlotte is currently in her third year of the BMus undergraduate programme at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), where she continues her studies with Ann Taylor.
During her time at the RNCM she has appeared in the college’s Opera Gala concerts and the chorus of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore. Charlotte is a regular performer of choral music; she has sung Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Academy of Ancient Music at the Barbican in London, and Tippett’s A Child of Our Time at the Bridgewater Hall. Her choral performance has taken her abroad to sing at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris with the Ukrainian choir, The Bulava Chorus, to sing the Divine Liturgy conducted by international opera singer, Pavlo Hunka. Charlotte’s most recent engagement has been her debut operatic role as Hippolyta in the RNCM production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, conducted by Andrew Greenwood.
Charlotte takes an active role in music within the community and is involved in a range of projects from music in hospitals to outreach programmes in schools. For the past two years she has been a music practitioner and singer with CHANT productions, where she has sung on BBC Radio Sport at Media City (Manchester); conducted choirs at sporting fixtures for the Rugby League World Cup (RLWC) and performed in the choir at the RLWC final, alongside classical cross-over star, Russell Watson.
Prior to gaining her place at the RNCM, Charlotte received ten years tuition in singing, acting, musical theatre and piano, she attained Grade 8 with distinction in the former three and merit in the latter. Charlotte created and recorded the role of Mary Magdalene in the première of Seven Last Words for Notre Dame School, Plymouth; which was performed in venues across Devon including Exeter and Plymouth Cathedral and Buckfast Abbey.
Rachel Fright is currently a Junior Fellow in Accompaniment at the Royal Northern College of Music, a role that she started in September 2017. Previously, she studied at the RNCM as a postgraduate student, after having completed a degree in Music at Pembroke College, Oxford, where she held the Instrumental Scholarship. During the course of her studies, Rachel was supported by the Helen Mackaness Award and studied with Stephen Savage and David Jones. Whilst at the RNCM, she won several prizes for accompaniment; the Stella Bradshaw Memorial Award, the Frost/Brownson Award for Accompaniment, the Clifton Helliwell Memorial Award, the Brodsky Prize, the Alexander Young Prize and the James Martin Oncken Song prize.
Rachel has a particular interest in vocal accompaniment, and has received regular song duo coaching from Julius Drake and performed with singers in venues across the country, including the Bridgewater Hall ‘Introducing’ series, the Leeds Lieder Festival, Buxton International Festival, the Stoller Hall, Didsbury Coffee Concerts, and the Sowerby Music concert series. In May 2015, she performed live on BBC Radio 3 as part of a Young Artists’ Day concert, and in October 2016 she was chosen to represent the RNCM at the prestigious Gerald Moore Award at the Henry Wood Hall, London. Rachel is an alumna of the Oxford Lieder Festival Mastercourse, which she attended in October 2015, receiving tuition from Roger Vignoles and Imogen Cooper. In 2018, Rachel was selected as a Leeds Lieder Young Artist. Rachel also enjoys choral accompaniment, and is currently the accompanist for Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, amongst other choirs. She is also a musician for Live Music Now with duo partner Charlotte Badham (mezzo-soprano) and a deputy tutor for Yorkshire Young Musicians.
