About us

	Niall Ashdown Baritone Niall is a comedian, actor, improvisor and writer. He has improvised with Improbable Theatre in Lifegame and Animo and with the Comedy Store Players. He's written and performed two acclaimed solo shows, Hungarian Bird Festival and The Man Who Would Be Sting and is in Note to Tale, a collaborative work with improvising classical quintet Between the Notes. TV work includes Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Swiss Toni, and, as writer/performer , Barking and Confessions. On radio, he has co-written and starred in two series of Losers for BBC Radio 4 and in two radio plays, Tunnel Vision and Hungarian Birdsong. He is sport columnist Robbo on BBC Sport Online.
	Susan Bisatt Soprano Susan Bisatt is a versatile artist as well as an experienced vocal & performance skills workshop leader and teacher. She has worked as a soloist with Opera North and ENO, and at the Edinburgh International and Almeida festivals. Her recordings include Baroque operas and Purcell Sacred Music on the Hyperion and Naxos labels. She is a founder member of Opera Circus and a member of the Cornelius Cardew Ensemble. She is a regular workshop leader for National Association of Youth Theatres and since September 2001 she has held the post of Vocal Animateur for Tameside Local Education Authority.
	Peter Furniss Clarinets, recorders, saxophone - 'the man who does everything with the wind' Having played the recorder since birth, Pete Furniss took up the clarinet at the age of seven and has been making it up as he goes along ever since. He was a proud winner of the 1981 Telford Young Clarinettist Competition and, less proudly, spent the prize money on tickets to an Adam and the Ants gig. He has performed extensively across the planet (often using actual music, written down by real composers), giving recitals at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, London's Purcell Room and the Tenri Institute in New York and has appeared at many festivals from Spitalfields to Jerusalem via Azerbaijan, as well as at a special audience in Salzburg with the Dalai Lama. Not content with the misery inflicted by one clarinet, Pete now gives performances using live electronic processing and multi-tracked tape, in which the audience finds itself surrounded by a sonic manifestation of his multiple personality in music by Pierre Boulez, Steve Reich, Richard Dudas, Andrew May and others. Emergency exits are always clearly indicated. A committed teacher for over 15 years, Pete is also involved in a number of projects as animateur, composer and conductor, particularly with the DaCapo Music Foundation. In July 2005 he conducted a performance of his Farmyard Suite in Norwich Cathedral with 720 school children. A second piece, Finn and Friends, is due to be performed by the Aurora Orchestra in 2010. www.peterfurniss.co.uk
	Anthony Ingle Musical Director Started improvising on the piano at the age of three, and learning to do it properly two years later; parts of the latter process involved a music degree from Cambridge and postgraduate work at the London Opera Centre. Has been Director of Music for Productions at LAMDA for many years, and since 2001 Musical Director of Opera Circus; has written original scores for over sixty musico-theatrical productions (notable: 'Nana', Almeida 1987/Mermaid '88; 'The Invisible Man', Stratford East 1991; 'A Working Woman', West Yorkshire Playhouse 1992; 'Misalliance', Clwyd 1997), and directed the music for as many others. Also regularly appears in recital (as accompanist) and in country dance bands (as bass player). Is the Voice of the Rooster in Opera Circus's current production, 'Arcane'.
	Morag McLaren Soprano Morag has performed in a wide variety of opera, musicals and music theatre productions, as well as her critically acclaimed one-woman shows and concerts here and in the USA. She played Carlotta in Lloyd Webber's Phantom of The Opera, Her Majesty's; Mrs Segstrom in Sondheim's A Little Night Music at Royal National Theatre as well as roles at Welsh National Opera and Scottish Opera Mother. She toured extensively as The Good Wife and The Maid in Opera Circus' naughty tale, Shameless. More about Morag: http://www.moragmclaren.com
	David Pearl (Artistic Director) Tenor David began singing at the age of nine at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden where he worked as the boy soprano soloist for four years. He worked with Kent Opera and New Sadlers Wells Opera before co-founding Opera Circu s in 1990 with Tina Ellen Lee. David is well known as a pioneer in arts in business work around the world. In this he draws on his eclectic experience of the creative disciplines as an opera singer, theatre director and performer, improvisation practitioner, film writer, television presenter and one-time professional serenader! Offstage and undercover, David is the Director of PearlGroup. He works as full-time entertainer (unpaid) for Elsa (10) and Zachary (8).