Raphaela Papadakis

London-born soprano Raphaela Papadakis is currently studying with John Evans on the Opera Course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she is supported by a scholarship provided by JM Finn & Co and a Musician’s Benevolent Fund Postgraduate Performance Award. Before she came to the Guildhall, she gained a first class Honours Degree in English Literature from Clare College, Cambridge, graduating in 2009.

Earlier this year, she won the Association of English Singers and Speakers Courtney Kenny Award, and a place on the Internationale Meistersinger Akademie, which took her to Germany for six weeks of intensive study. Whilst in Germany, she was selected by the Internationale Hugo Wolf Akademie to perform in their 2012 recital series in Stuttgart. In 2010, she won first prize in the Guildhall English Song Competition.

Operatic roles include Dido (Dido and Aeneas), Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), the title role in Holst’s Savitri (Cambridge University), Branghien in Frank Martin’s Le Vin Herbé (Ardente Opera), and Pamina in The Magic Flute (Hampstead Garden Opera),as well as Despina (Così fan tutte), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), and Sophie (Werther) in GSMD scenes. In May 2011 she understudied Dido at l'Opéra de Dijon, conducted by Jonathan Cohen. Next year, she will cover the role of Tytania in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for GSMD Opera.

Earlier this year, Raphaela gave a performance of Britten’s Les Illuminations with Brien Stait and the Arion Orchestra in St James’s Piccadilly, performed in the world premiere of Unknown Doors, a dramatisation of the life of Ivor Gurney by Iain Burnside at the Barbican’s Pit Theatre, and sang the soprano solos in Bach’s B Minor Mass in St Johns’s Smiths Square. She also appeared in recital with Sholto Kynoch in London, Oxford, and Bangor, performing a varied programme which included songs by Schubert, Satie, Poulenc and Schoenberg.  Highlights still to come in 2011 include recitals in Bristol, Shropshire, and London, as well as a performance of Bach’s cantata “Ich habe genug” with the Arion Orchestra, and the soprano solos in Mozart’s Requiem with Stephen Cleobury, the Choir of King’s College Cambridge and the Aurora Orchestra in Kings Place, London.