Olivia is a mezzo-soprano and conductor based in London. She sings with several professional ensembles including London Voices, London Contemporary Orchestra Voices, Chamber Choir of London, and Corvus Consort. Olivia currently holds a permanent position in the choir of the Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula at the Tower of London. Previously, she was the Genesis Sixteen Conducting Scholar (2022-23), and a Fellow with The National Youth Choirs of Great Britain (2022), with whom she sang as both a soloist and a Fellowship Ensemble member on several recordings of new commissions. Alongside singing, Olivia leads choral singing workshops on behalf of the VOCES8 Foundation and The Sixteen.
Olivia graduated from the Royal Academy of Music (Choral Conducting MA) with distinction, in addition to a DipRAM award for outstanding performance in her final recital and the Sir Thomas Armstrong Choral Leadership Prize (2021). Whilst at the Academy, Olivia studied singing with Alexander Ashworth and sang with the Academy Chamber Choir. Following the completion of her Master’s degree, she was appointed as a Fellow at the Academy (2021-22), where she founded the early music ensemble, The CONVENTional Project, specialising in music of the Italian convents from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Olivia now conducts the University of London Chamber Choir, University of Greenwich Choir, London Youth Choir West and is the Assistant Conductor of Ealing Symphony Orchestra. Her recent engagements include Assistant Conductor for Puccini’s La bohème (Longborough Festival Opera 2024), Conductor for a staged production of Handel’s Messiah (The Merry Opera Company 2024), and a Grand Finalist in the London International Choral Conducting Competition (2024).
Q: Tell us about your background in music.
A: My mum was a secondary school music teacher, so she started me off playing the violin and singing when I was at school. I played with the Hounslow Youth Orchestra and sang in the London Youth Choir (for whom I now work!), which instilled a love of ensemble music making in me. Choral Singing started to become more than a hobby when I went to study music at the University of Sheffield. Whilst I was a student, I gained a Choral Scholarship at Sheffield Cathedral, singing five services a week of repertoire which I mostly had never heard of. I stayed in the city for a few years after I graduated, and was appointed as the first female Lay Clerk at the Cathedral. In 2019, I moved back to London to study Choral Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music, and began singing with several professional church and chamber choirs. I am now lucky enough to sing and conduct professionally.
Q: What do you enjoy most about singing with Tenebrae?
A: Because it is a small group, with some pieces being one-to-a-part, it feels like every member is incredibly important. The repertoire is really varied and challenging (in a good way!). It is some of the highest quality music making that I do, and it really is such a privilege to sing alongside the members of Tenebrae.
Q: Which Tenebrae concert(s) are you particularly looking forward to?
A: We are performing the ‘I Saw Eternity’ concert programme in Basel, Switzerland just after Christmas, which I’m really looking forward to. Basel is very beautiful (and it will be still be very Christmassy!), and the programme contains several of the Bach motets, which are some of my favourite pieces to sing from the Tenebrae repertory. I am also really excited for Janáček’s opera The Excursions of Mr Brouček with the London Symphony Orchestra in May 2025, for which Tenebrae are singing the choruses. I love Janáček’s music – I have performed in The Cunning Little Vixen previously, but I have never sung in Czech before!
Q: What is your favourite piece of music to sing and why?
A: From the performances I have done with Tenebrae so far, my favourite piece is Joby Talbot’s Path of Miracles. Another singer in the group described the piece as being like a rollercoaster that you can’t get off, which I think is a really good way to describe it. Once it starts, it just goes! As a singer, there are definitely some scary moments, but there is so much going that you can hear it many times and still find new things to like about it.
Q: Can you tell us about the most memorable concert you ever performed in?
A: My most memorable concert with Tenebrae would have to be Path of Miracles at All Saints Church in Lund, Sweden, which was a very special concert for me. The church was beautiful and was an incredible space to perform in, and we had the added excitement of being recorded for broadcast. A friend who I don’t get to see very often (as he lives in Germany) was even able to be in the audience, which was so lovely.
Outside of Tenebrae, my most memorable concert would have to be conducting my early music group, The CONVENTional Project, at Wimbledon International Music Festival in 2023. We performed Cozzolani’s Vespers of 1650 with 8 singers and period instruments. I am really passionate about this music, and so it was such a pleasure to bring this under-performed and epic setting of vespers to such a large and appreciative audience.
Q: Do you have any travel hacks for touring?
A: My colleagues in Tenebrae have taught me that a neck pillow and an emergency sandwich are always useful to have with you. Our tours often involve a lot of travel, and unexpected weather or traffic conditions can mean delays, so emergency food and a comfy pillow are essential!
Q: What is your pre-concert routine?
A: Go for a quick walk after the rehearsal and have a snack, and (of course!) drink lots of water.