Faculty
Justin Lavender Vocal Coach
Professor of Vocal studies at the Royal College of Music London
Justin Lavender was persuaded by Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten to abandon nuclear engineering for music. His international debut was as Nadir in Les Pêcheurs de Perles at Sydney Opera House. This success led to engagements with opera companies and orchestras throughout the world at the very highest levels. In 1990 he made debuts at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, singing the leading role of Arnold in Rossini’s spectacular masterpiece, Guillaume Tell, and at the Wiener Staatsoper as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte. His debut at La Scala, Milan, in the title role of Rossini’s Le Comte Ory came the following year, along with Demodokos in Dallapiccola’s Ulisse at the Salzburg Festival.
His operatic experience ranges throughout the repertoire, from baroque to Wagner. He has worked on the concert platform with leading conductors such as Solti, Giulini, Abbado, and Haitink, and he is particularly associated with Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius and Verdi’s Requiem which he sang for the tercentenary celebrations of the rebuilding of St Paul’s Cathedral. In 2006 he made a highly acclaimed recording of Gerontius with the City of Birmingham Symphony, also singing it at the Berlin Festival.
His many other recordings include solo CDs with the Bournemouth Symphony of Mozart, Rossini and Donizetti arias, three Britten song cycles; and many leading roles on complete opera CDs. For eight years Justin wrote a regular column for The Irish Examiner, and he has contributed articles and book reviews to newspapers and professional journals. He has given lectures and masterclasses all over the world, particularly in Chinese-speaking countries. A student of Mandarin, he has sung Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde in the original Tang Dynasty Chinese.
Justin Lavender’s vast experience, combined with a vocal technique which has so often attracted praise, is now turned towards teaching, which he combines with his continuing performing career. RCM students he has taught since joining the staff have gone on to successful careers.
Having already directed a number of choral societies on a guest conductor basis, from 2013 to 2015 Justin was the musical director of Opera at Bearwood in Berkshire. For Bearwood he conducted Le Villi, Carmen, Orpheus in the Underworld, Romeo and Juliet and The Bartered Bride. RCM students figured prominently in the casts of these productions. Having moved to Buckinghamshire Justin co-founded Arcadian Opera based at Stowe, where he has conducted full-scale productions of La Bohème, L’Elisir d’Amore, Roméo et Juliette, Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers, Dido and Aeneas and Die Zauberflöte, often with RCM students included in the cast. He also conducts the Phoenix Singers in Oxfordshire, with regular performances of major oratorios collaborating with the Trinity Camerata Orchestra of Oxford.
Continuing his singing career, before the pandemic Justin sang the tenor solo in Verdi’s Requiem in the final concert of the 300th Anniversary Season of the Three Choirs Festival at Hereford Cathedral, followed by performances of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde in Hong Kong and Vienna.
Olsi Qinami
Conductor and Music Director of the Covent Garden Opera Festival
Olsi Qinami is the Principal Conductor and Music Director of the London City Philharmonic, Conductor of the National Radio Television Symphony Orchestra of Albania and Conducting Professor at the University of Arts in Tirana, Albania.
Olsi has worked with many and Orchestras Opera Houses such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, National Opera of Slovenia, Opera Hong Kong, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, BBC Singers, Opera de Massy in Paris, Parnu Festival Orchestra, National Opera of Albania, National Opera of North Macedonia, Athens Philharmonic, University of Arts Philharmonic Orchestra of Albania, Constanta State Opera, London Thames Orchestra, The Amadeus and Chorus Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Versailles, Kammerphilharmonie Graz, Orchestra Giovanile di Genova and many others.
Olsi holds a Master’s Degree in Orchestral Conducting from the “Royal Birmingham Conservatoire” where he studied with Daniele Rossini and Michael Seal, and also Diplome Superior in Conducting from the “Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris” where he studied with Dominique Rouits. He continued his studies with Paavo Jarvi at the “Jarvi Conducting Academy”, Riccardo Muti at the “Riccardo Muti Opera Academy” with Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini, “Orkney Advanced Conducting Course” with Alexander Vedernikov & Charles Peebles and “the Royal Northern College of Music Advanced Conducting Masterclasses” with Mark Heron. He also studied with, Jorma Panula, Marco Guidarini, Stefano Ranzani, Alexander Vedernikov, Michalis Economou, Roland Çene, Petrika Afezolli, Bujar Llapaj, Howard Williams, Neil Thomson and others.
Waiyin Lee
Piano and Repetiteur
Wai-Yin Lee was born in Hong Kong, where she obtained her first Music Degree in Piano from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. After that she was awarded a two-year full scholarship from the Royal College of Music in London supported by Rothschild Trust and Crocher Trust, to pursue her postgraduate studies with Professor Julian Jacobson and she has been living in London since then. Later on, she obtained her Masters Degree in Piano Performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and continued her studies as a repetiteur on City Educational Scholarship. The following year she was awarded a two-year repetiteur fellowship running concurrently with a part- time traineeship at the National Opera Studio.
Wai-Yin enjoys a busy career as a repetiteur and a song accompanist. She has been working in some of the best music colleges in the UK such as Royal College of Music and Royal Academy of Music. She has been involved in many opera productions and opera scene performances and has worked with world-renowned artists like Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Sir Thomas Allen and Justin Lavender. International conductors like Sian Edwards, Peter Robinson, Lionel Friends, Stephen Barlow, Paolo Olmi, Gianluca Marciano Emmanuel Siffert and many more. For long stretches of time, she was also working as a music director for the European Chamber Opera for the autumn tours, performing well-known operas at the piano with well-established singers from different countries and travelled to Southeast Asia, Japan and the United Arab Emirates. Other opera companies she has worked with include Opera Holland Park, Grange Park Opera, English Touring Opera, Longborough Festival Opera, Birmingham Opera Company, Castleward Opera Company, European Opera Centre, English Pocket Opera, Pegasus Opera Company, Southgate Opera, the National Opera Studio and British Youth Opera.
Apart from being totally dedicated herself to operas, Wai-Yin has also been active in other music scenes, such as giving solo and chamber recitals at prestigious venues across the UK including the RFH Queen Elizabeth, Purcell Room, RAH Elgar room, St Martins-in-the-Fields, St James’s Piccadilly and V & A museum. Wai-Yin has appeared on Hong Kong Radio 4 and BBC3 in tune with singers from GSMD and BYO. She has also been invited to work in Quito for the Ecuador National Symphony Orchestra as their audition pianist and orchestra pianist. The most enjoyable and rewarding work experience she finds is being involved in the outreach programme and playing for events and workshops organised by Opera Holland Park – using music to bring people together!