Performances

Benjamin Irvine-Capel is a Choral Scholar of Exeter Cathedral and a recent graduate of Genesis Sixteen.

He has previously been in Portsmouth Cathedral Choir and a Chorister of St Paul’s Cathedral.  

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Since moving to Devon, he has performed as soloist for multiple groups including Wellington Choral Society, the Winkleigh Singers, the Three Spires Singers, Exmouth Choral Society, and at Powderham Castle, as well as a member of the Dumnonii Consort.

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Further afield, he participated in Collegium Vocale Gent’s Bach Academy Bruges 2025 and now tours with the group to destinations such as South Korea, Germany, and The Netherlands. Closer to home, he continues to sing as a founder-member with Contrepoint – a recently founded eight-part consort – as well as deputising for Westminster Cathedral Choir and Lady Clare’s Consort.

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The Bloomsbury Baroque Ensemble is composed of Philippa Hyde, soprano; Diane Moore, baroque violin; William Summers, baroque flute and recorder; Ibrahim Aziz, bass viol, and Yeo Yat-Soon, harpsichord. Their second recital in this year’s Festival concentrates on music of the eighteenth century, around the time of the revival of Shakespeare’s work led by David Garrick. It was Garrick’s celebration of Shakespeare’s Jubilee in 1769 that put Stratford on the tourist map for all enthusiasts for the Bard, and two composers of the time particularly close to the great actor were Thomas Arne and Charles Dibdin. Discover them and others still in this recital.

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Michael Dobson is Director of the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon and Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Birmingham; he is also a Trustee of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, an Honorary Governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company, co-director of the Shakespeare Centre, China, and an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of the Higher School of Ukraine. His publications include: The Making of the National Poet; England's Elizabeth (with Nicola Watson); The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare (with Stanley Wells); Performing Shakespeare's Tragedies Today; and Shakespeare and Amateur Performance.

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Tamara is a lyrico spinto soprano and studied both at the Juilliard in New York and in the UK. Tamara holds a Diploma in Opera Performance from Birkbeck College, University of London, having majored in violin in her native Ukraine.

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She has wide-ranging operatic experience from Mozart to Strauss by way of Puccini, Verdi, Wagner and Tchaikovsky. In 2018 she co-founded Rose Opera and has produced works by Mozart, Verdi, Strauss and Britten. 

 

She also holds an MA in foreign languages (Summa cum Laude) from the State Linguistic University of Kyiv and an MBA (also Summa cum Laude) from the University of Illinois, specialising in International Business. ​​​​​​​​​​​