Siân Dicker, Krystal Tunnicliffe, Saki Kato
Biographie Siân Dicker, Krystal Tunnicliffe, Saki Kato
Siân Dicker
‘Oozing characterful expression’ with ‘ample tones, gorgeously rich in the middle’ (Opera Today), soprano Siân Dicker is in demand for her rich, full-bodied voice and dramatic flair. A regular on the competition platform, Siân won the Singers Prize in the 2020 Royal Over-Seas League Annual Music Competition as well as the Oxford Lieder Young Artist Platform. Siân is a City Music Foundation Artist, a 2021/22 Britten Pears Young Artist and was listed in BBC Music Magazine’s ‘Rising Stars’ feature in February 2023. She was delighted to be awarded the Simon Sandbach Award by Garsington Opera for her contribution to their 2023 season.
Siân’s recent roles include Miss Jessel The Turn of the Screw (Waterperry Opera Festival), Mařenka The Bartered Bride (Garsington Opera, OperaFirst), First Lady The Magic Flute (English National Opera, cover), Flaminia Il mondo della luna (Bampton Classical Opera), Contessa Le nozze di Figaro (Opera Holland Park Young Artist Production), Amaranta La fedeltà premiata (Guildhall Opera), Venus Venus and Adonis (Guildhall Opera) and Erste Dame Die Zauberflöte (Hurn Court Opera). Siân recently worked with the Royal Opera House on Lost and Found; a project of newly commissioned operas premiered in St Pancras Station in 2022 and subsequently joined ROH for a performance of new operas at the 2023 Wilderness Festival in Oxfordshire.
Siân enjoys regular song recitals with duo partner, Krystal Tunnicliffe, across Europe and the UK. Recent performances include recitals at the International Lied Festival Zeist, Life Victoria Barcelona, Aldeburgh Festival, Ryedale Festival, Oxford Lieder Festival, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Ludlow English Song Weekend and BBC Radio 3’s In Tune. The duo are excited to be joined by Saki Kato (guitar) to release a recording of the entire William Walton song collection with Delphian Records in October 2024.
Siân is proud to have recently been announced as President for community music charity, Wiltshire Rural Music. She is a proud community musician herself, working as a Live Music Now musician and regularly delivering interactive performances for care homes and SEND schools. She is a regular workshop leader for the Britten Pears Arts Community team, delivering workshops to older people in the local Suffolk community, and has recently enjoyed delivering relaxed, interactive performances at both Aldeburgh and Ryedale Festivals.
Krystal Tunnicliffe
Australian pianist Krystal Tunnicliffe enjoys a varied career as a collaborative pianist and music educator. She is a Samling Artist, Britten-Pears Young Artist, Ryedale Festival Young Artist, and an Oxford Song Young Artist, and she is a staff pianist in the Junior department of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. With duo partner Siân Dicker, she has performed at the Oxford Song Festival, LIFE Victoria Festival (Barcelona), International Lied Festival (Zeist), Aldeburgh Festival, Ryedale Festival, on BBC Radio 3 ‘In Tune’, and they opened St John’s Smith Square’s 2020 Autumn Season. They are looking forward to the release of their debut disc, ‘The Complete Songs of William Walton’, with Delphian Records in October 2024. In 2019, she won the prize for the best accompanist in the heats at Melbourne National Liederfest, and with Harriet Burns she was a finalist at the Maureen Lehane Awards. Other recent highlights include performances with Brindley Sherratt and Nicky Spence as part of the Ludlow English Song Weekend and Ryedale Festival respectively.
Krystal completed Bachelor and Masters degrees (with distinction) from the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and the Guildhall School respectively, before undertaking a Junior Fellowship at the Guildhall School. She studied with Glenn Riddle and Andrew West, and now continues her studies privately with Christopher Glynn. She is also a graduate of the Franz-Schubert-Institut in Baden bei Wien.
Krystal’s recent engagements include performances in London, Cornwall, Ireland, Wales, Belgium, Italy and France (Notre Dame de Paris, Disneyland Paris, La Madeleine), including recitals at Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, St-Martin-in-the-Fields, and LSO St Luke’s. She has accompanied the BBC Symphony Chorus in preparation for performance at the Barbican, and the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. In the summer of 2021, she was the pianist for Waterperry Opera’s staged song cycles, Lili Boulanger’s Clairières dans le ciel, and Vaughan William’s On Wenlock Edge. In 2018 she performed Bernstein’s Arias and Barcarolles as a part of the BBC Total Immersion Day, later broadcast on BBC Radio 3. She was the concerto soloist for Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue and Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Piano Concerto for the Chorus of Dissent. In 2019/2020, she was the repetiteur/orchestral pianist for Northern Ireland Opera/Lyric Theatre Belfast’s Sweeney Todd, and Kiss Me Kate. She has been a staff pianist at Arts Educational Schools, Guildford School of Acting, Millennium Performing Arts, the Victorian College of the Arts and Opera Scholars Australia.
Krystal is also passionate about music education and outreach, and has worked on education workshops for the Glyndebourne Education Department, the Royal Academy of Music, Samling Academy, the London Bach Choir, the Prison Choir Project, and Kingston Music Service, among others. She was a Wigmore Hall Chamber Tots Artist 2017-18. She is the accompanist for the award-winning Bromley Boy Singers, has been a staff pianist for the Rodolfus Choral Courses, National Youth Choir, and BAY Choral Courses, and in Australia has worked with the Gondwana Voices.
Saki Kato
is a Japanese classical guitarist who specialises in the areas of new music performance and community music-making. She has given concerts extensively all over the world, in solo, ensemble, and concerto performances. In 2019 she gave her debut solo recital at the Wigmore Hall for the Julian Bream Trust, which included the world premiere of Edward Cowie’s Stream and Variations. As a Julian Bream Trust scholar, Saki studied privately with Julian Bream from 2017–20.
As both a soloist and a member of the Miyabi Duo, Saki regularly collaborates with composers, including Sylvia Lim and Mihailo Trandafilovski, whose pieces they premiered at the Wigmore Hall in 2021 and 2022. They have recently recorded albums of music by Edward Cowie and Mihailo Trandafilovski, both of which will be released in 2022 by Métier. In 2022 they will begin recording the complete guitar music of Timothy Bowers.
Saki’s extensive community music-making work includes leading musical workshops for participants ranging from babies to elderly people living with dementia. In 2020-21 she was awarded fellowships at both Wigmore Hall Learning and Open Academy (RAM) to develop these skills. She now works regularly with organisations including Britten Pears Arts, Royal Academy of Music, and Wigmore Hall Learning.
Saki graduated from the Royal Academy of Music with first class honours in 2020, having been awarded the prestigious Dove Award, the John McAslan Prize, the Timothy Gilson Guitar Prize, and the LRAM diploma.
