Mackenzie Paget

Accompanist

Mackenzie was born in Blaina and has been receiving piano lessons since the age of seven, where his passion and love for music began to progress. So much so, he achieved his ABRSM Grade Eight with distinction in 2013, which led him to study under concert pianist Nicola Meecham at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Whilst being a Junior Student there, he performed several solo recitals. Mackenzie is currently an undergraduate at the Royal Northern College of Music where he studies with prolific concert pianist, author and chamber musician Dr Murray McLachlan.

Since being at the Royal Northern College of Music, Mackenzie has had countless opportunities to work with some of the most distinguished artists in the classical music industry. His accompanying and chamber music skills have been in high demand with students requesting accompaniment for various recitals, classes and master classes. He also performs as a soloist regularly. After his four years at the RNCM, he wishes to continue postgraduate studies in the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Mackenzie has been a very active choral and solo accompanist for many years, accompanying Blaenavon Male Voice Choir and Monmouth County Council Combined Choir, amongst others to which he stood as Deputy Accompanist. Blaenavon Male Choir won Best UK Choir in the Cornwall International Male Voice Choir Festival in

2015, where Mackenzie also won best accompanist award. The choir was also recorded as part of the Hairy Bikers’ BBC documentary of ‘The Pubs that made Britain’ where both the choir and Mackenzie were featured.

Mackenzie also enjoys orchestral playing and has played piano and clarinet in competition-winning county orchestras, who have gone on to perform in the Royal Albert Hall several times. Additionally, he has been invited to play piano many times with the National Youth Wind Orchestra of Wales and the Liverpool Youth Philharmonic Orchestra.

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Lesley Garrett CBE

President

Lesley Garrett CBE is Britain’s best known soprano, regularly appearing in opera, music theatre, concert, on television and CD.

For more than 30 years she has enjoyed one of the most successful and idiosyncratic careers of any modern-day, classically trained soprano, winning  both critical acclaim and the affection of many fans and music lovers through the breadth and diversity of her work. Internationally Lesley has performed throughout Europe, the USA, Australia, Russia, Brazil, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea.

As a recording artist, she has fourteen solo CDs to her credit:

Lesley’s major television appearances include Lesley Garrett Tonight, The Lesley Garrett Show, The Singer, Sacred Songs and Lesley Garrett – Desert Dreams, Christmas Voices, Who Do You Think You Are, Strictly Come Dancing, Loose Women and most recently a Songs of Praise Special – My Story, My Music with Aled Jones for the BBC. Lesley was also the subject of a South Bank Show on LWT.

Lesley continues to perform regularly in concert with all the major UK orchestras including the Hallè Orchestra with Sir Mark Elder, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2014 she has toured with the European Union Chamber Orchestra and sang with the Russian National Orchestra and she has recently formed a highly successful new musical partnership with clarinettist Emma Johnson and pianist Andrew West.

Lesley’s operatic career included engagements at the Wexford Festival, Buxton Festival, Welsh National Opera, Opera North, and Glyndebourne Festival Opera before joining English National Opera in 1984. During her time with ENO, Lesley starred in many productions and won critical acclaim for her portrayals of both comic and serious roles including Xerxes, Ariodante, The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, A Midsummer Marriage, The Cunning Little Vixen, The Mikado and Un Ballo in Maschera working with Sir Jonathan Miller, Sir Nicholas Hytner, Richard Jones, Sir Charles Mackerras, David Alden, David Poutney, Sir Mark Elder and Graham Vick amongst many others.

In 2013 Lesley returned to the opera stage with a new production at Opera North in which she enjoyed a great success singing the role of Elle in Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine.  In 2015 she sang in a specially devised production of Chorus for Welsh National Opera and Despina in a new production of Cosi Fan Tutte for Garsington Opera.

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