Alice Farnham
Final Adjudicator
Alice Farnham recently made her debut at St. Petersburg's Mariinsky, conducting Britten's Rape of Lucretia. In 2013 she conducted Britten's Paul Bunyan for Welsh National Youth Opera to critical acclaim ('Alice Farnham's conducting, the driving force' - The Guardian). This was the first ever youth group to be nominated for a South Bank Sky Arts Award, and won the Opera Category of 2014 RPS Music Awards (with WNO's Lulu and Lohengrin). Other recent engagements include Singapore Lyric Opera, Tete a Tete Opera, Grange Park Opera 'Rising Stars' and Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. Future engagements include a UK Tour of Hans Krasa's children's opera Brundibar for Mahogany Opera Group.
Alice has been a Guest Conductor at the Royal Ballet Covent Garden, Danish Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet and Rambert Dance Company.
A student of the legendary pedagogue Ilya Musin, Alice studied conducting at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire from 1997-2000. A graduate of Oxford University she held an Organ Scholarship at St. Hugh's College and St. Thomas' Church Fifth Avenue, New York. She has been on the Guest Music Staff at Covent Garden Royal Opera since 2005.
Alice Farnham is increasingly sought after as an educator and trainer of young instrumentalists, singers and conductors. She is Head of Morley Opera School and works regularly at the RWCMD and the South Bank Sinfonia. In 2014 she founded 'Women Conductors at Morley' - a programme of workshops and classes to attract young women into the conducting profession.
