Warwickshire Symphony Orchestra

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Last update
11 May 2013

Mary Plazas - Soprano

Mary Plazas made her operatic debut in 1992 with English National Opera as the Heavenly Voice Don Carlos, and was a former company principal.  Roles have included Mimì (ENO/Opera North/Bregenz Festival/West Australian Opera/Royal Albert Hall), Anne Trulove (Bayerisches Staatsoper/New Israeli Opera), Donna Elvira (ENO/Glyndebourne on Tour/Valladolid), Cio-Cio-San, Nedda, Fiordiligi, Dorabella, Leila, Adina, Nannetta, Micaëla, Marzelline Fidelio, Lauretta, Oscar and the title role in The Cunning Little Vixen(ENO), Juanita in Weill’s Kuhhandel, Salud La Vida Breve, Susanna Le Nozze di Figaro and Elisetta Il matrimonio segreto (Opera North), Heavenly Voice (Royal Opera/BBC Proms), Angelic Voice Palestrina (Royal Opera in London and New York), Duchess Powder Her Face(Almeida/Aldeburgh/Channel 4/LSO at the Barbican), Mum Greek (London Sinfonietta at the Barbican), Mrs Coyle Owen Wingrave(Concertgebouw), Alexina Le Roi Malgré Lui (Grange Park) and Elisabetta Roberto Devereux, title role Lucrezia Borgia, Ismene in the Richard Strauss arrangement of Mozart’s Idomeneo and title role Maria di Rohan (Buxton). 

She created two roles in operas by Jonathan Dove, Tina Flight (Glyndebourne) and Blue Fairy Pinocchio (Opera North). She sung Karin in the world premiere of Gerald Barry’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland), performed the title role in Peter Ëotvös’s Lady Sarashina (Opéra National de Lyon/Opéra Comique), sung the lead in the world premiere of Eleanor Alberga’s Letters of a Love Betrayed (a joint commission from the Royal Opera House and Music Theatre Wales) and created the role of Madame Piccard in Will Gregory’s Piccard in Space for the BBC at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. 

Mary Plazas has given many recitals and concerts including solo recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, and the Karajan Centre in Vienna.  Concerts include Mahler Symphony No 8 (RPO/Sinopoli), Mozart Requiem (Hallé/Skrowacewski), Brahms’ German Requiem(CBSO/Oramo), Shostakovich Symphony No 14 (Irish Chamber Orchestra/Maksymiuk) Schumann’s Paradies und die Peri (OAE/Elder), Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne (Hallé/Elder), Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 (BBCNOW/Daniel), Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges(LSO/Previn), Saint-Saens’ The Promised Land (BBCNOW/Hickox), Bach’s Magnificat (BBC Philharmonic/Noseda), Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass (Philharmonia/Fischer) and Britten’s Les Iluminations (Britten Sinfonia/Poppen).  She has recorded for Opera Rara, Deutsche Grammophon, and Sony Classical, and for Chandos Records the roles of Marguerite Faust, Adina, Zerlina, Liu Turandot and Micaëla   

She studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and at the National Opera Studio.  She won the 1991 Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Scholarship, and she has been supported by the Peter Moores Foundation.

Orlando Jopling - Guest Conductor

Orlando Jopling is Musical Director of the 140-year-old Royal Orchestral Society and has conducted the English Chamber Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Irish Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonia Viva, the Schönbrunn Orchestra in Vienna where he was resident conductor for four years, and Cyprus Symphony Orchestra.

After graduating from the National Opera Studio in London where he won the first Leonard Hancock scholarship, Orlando Jopling co-founded the modern opera company Tête à Tête and conducted over a dozen commissioned operas as well as the modern world première of Vivaldi's lost opera Orlando finto pazzo, and Fledermaus. At Dartington he worked with Diego Masson on the three Da Ponte operas, and went on to conduct Figaro for Savoy Opera, The Merry Widow for Carl Rosa, La Scala di Seta for Independent Opera, Albert Herring for British Youth Opera and Don Giovanni, Figaro and Idomeneo in Vienna with the Schönbrunn Orchestra. He co-founded Stanley Hall Opera and developed it into an established annual festival, conducting Falstaff, Così fan tutte, Figaro, Don Pasquale and Cenerentola. Among other repertoire he has conducted La Traviata, Don Carlos, Cavelleria Rusticana and i Pagliacci, The Pearlfishers, Paul Bunyan, A Streetcar named Desire and this year Don Giovanni in Bahrain.

After reading music at Trinity College Cambridge, Orlando studied conducting with Sir Colin Davis, George Hurst and Colin Metters at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He also studied Bach with William Pleeth, has recorded all six Bach suites for solo cello and regularly gives recitals and concerto performances as well as guesting with London’s top orchestras the Philharmonia, London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra. He is artistic director of Roman River Music Festival in coastal Essex.

Jeremy Ballard - Leader

Jeremy is the orchestra's long-serving leader. He started playing the violin when he was seven years of age. At fourteen his distinguished musical career started as a band boy in the Royal Marines, playing cornet and violin. In 1957, he won the prestigious Cassels Prize for musician of the year with his performance of Beethoven's Violin Concerto. During his years as a Royal Marine he served on the Royal Yacht Britannia, playing many solos for HM The Queen and the Royal Family.

In 1962 Jeremy joined the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra whilst still studying with Sascha Lasserson (a pupil of Leopold Auer) in London. He was leader of the second violins for twenty-five years and has travelled the world with many great soloists and conductors. In 1991 he left the CBSO to concentrate on his other interests and is currently a member of the Midland Chamber Players giving regular lunchtime concerts in Birmingham Cathedral. Jeremy also enjoys working with the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon. The other string to his bow is drawing, for which he has had many fine opportunities at the theatre.