Lyriel Bena (soprano)

She began singing at age 17 with Professor Isabelle Martin while also becoming the vocalist of the symphonic-metal band Bring Me Eternity. A year later, she enrolled at the Lyon Conservatory and studied public administration management at the local university. In 2014 she joined the singing class of Pierre Ribémont, dean of the conservatory's vocal department, and left Bring Me Eternity to specialise in opera. She appeared as Colette in Les Amours de Ragonde on a tour of southern France and as the Second Woman in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. She also sang in Duruflé's Requiem with the prestigious Les Solistes de Lyon choir at the La Chaise-Dieu Festival.

Marzena Frankowska (soprano)

A first-year master's student of voice in the Vocal and Acting Department of the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań, in Tomasz Zagórski's class. She completed her bachelor's degree there in June and also holds a master's degree in chemistry from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. She began her music education on violin at the Kłodzko State Music School and continued with Janusz Gajownik at the music school in Nysa. She has sung since childhood, starting in the children's choir of the Kłodzko school under Katarzyna Mąka and working with her Concerto Glacensis Choir since its inception. In June she made her small-stage debut at the Grand Theatre in Poznań as the Lady in Radosław Mateja's contemporary opera Mikołajek i inne chłopaki; she also performed Bastienne in Bastien und Bastienne. Every year she takes part in the Piękny Śpiew Music Festival in the Noteć region, singing soprano parts in Moniuszko's Litania ostrobramska, Vivaldi's Gloria and Mozart's Coronation Mass in C major, among other works. Since 2013 she has participated annually in the opera festival at Bad Hersfeld in Germany.

Sylwia Gorajek (soprano)

A third-year student at the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław in the classes of Piotr Łykowski and Olga Ksenicz. She has developed her vocal technique through workshops and masterclasses with Izabela Kłosińska, Charlotte Lehmann, Ingrid Kremling, Urszula Kryger, Ella Susmanek and Ubaldo Fabbri, among others. She collaborated with the Leopoldinum Chamber Orchestra under Benjamin Bayl at the 49th Wratislavia Cantans International Festival. As a soloist she sang the part of Fire in the Polish premiere of František Antonín Míča's cantata Quatuor Elementa at the 50th Wratislavia Cantans Festival. In 2015, she sang Haiderl Tschöll in Heinrich Berté's Das Dreimäderlhaus at the seventh Muzyka Epok International Festival in Duszniki-Zdrój, the seventh Muzyka u Józefa Ignacego Schnabla International Festival in Nowogrodziec and the 53rd Moniuszko Festival in Kudowa-Zdrój. Her repertoire includes songs, operatic and oratorio arias, and opera roles.

Julien Henric (tenor)

A young French tenor with a dark vocal timbre, he began studying opera singing several years earlier. In 2014 he entered Denis Manfroy's class at the Conservatory of Lyon, exploring international repertoire by Mozart, Verdi, Schumann, Schubert, Fauré, Bizet and Arensky. That year he also sang Rossini's Stabat Mater with the conservatory choir at the Lyon Auditorium. He has appeared in concerts in Lyon, Paris and abroad. In 2015, he began working with Pierre Ribémont, dean of the conservatory's vocal department. As a third-cycle student in 2016, he was engaged to sing Aeneas in Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and Loustot in André Messager's operetta Véronique. He is particularly interested in Eastern European repertoire and sings in Polish, Russian and Romanian.

Leszek Holec (baritone)

A graduate of the Vocal and Acting Department of the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, where he studied with Maciej Witkiewicz and Leszek Skrla. He attended vocal masterclasses with Marcin Habela and Marek Rzepka and chamber music courses with Maja Nosowska-Pasławska. His competitions include Golden Voices of Masovia, the second Drezdenko Vocal Competition, the Giulio Perotti Vocal Competition in Ueckermünde and the Jakub Pustina Vocal Competition in the Czech Republic. His roles include Antonio in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, Geronimo in Cimarosa's The Secret Marriage and Count Ceprano in Verdi's Rigoletto, with which he made his debut at the Opernfestspiele in der Stiftsruine in Germany in 2012. He also performed Marullo in Rigoletto and Brander in Berlioz's The Damnation of Faust at the Bydgoszcz Opera Festival in 2014 and 2015. He won prizes at Golden Voices of Masovia in 2013 and the second National Vocal Competition in Drezdenko in 2015.

Paweł Jeka (tenor)

A second-year student in the advanced programme at the Lyon Conservatory in Professor Marcin Habela's singing class. He graduated in 2014 from the vocal and acting department of the Secondary Music School in Gdynia, where he studied with Maria Borowska-Gasik. In February 2014, he gave a recital at the Uphagen House in Gdańsk. In December 2014, he appeared with the choir Le Concert de l'Hostel Dieu during the Festival of Lights at the Hôtel de Région Rhône-Alpes. In January 2015, he participated in Rossini's Stabat Mater at the Auditorium de Lyon. In May 2015, he gave a joint recital with Bogdan Hołownia at the Polish Consulate General in Lyon for the celebration of Poland's Constitution Day. He initiated and organised the Spring Evening of Song and Opera and Professor Marcin Habela's International Vocal Masterclass.

Marta Osmańska (mezzo-soprano)

She was a third-year student in Barbara Ewa Werner's class at the Karol Lipiński Academy of Music in Wrocław, having graduated from the Feliks Nowowiejski Secondary Music School in Szczecin, where she studied classical solo singing with Dr Małgorzata Wieland. She began winning vocal prizes in her second year of secondary school: second prize at the Giulio Perotti International Vocal Competition in Ueckermünde, third at the Maria Stankowska National Vocal Festival in Olsztyn and distinctions at the CEA macroregional auditions in Warsaw and the Franciszka Platówna National Vocal Competition in Wrocław. A Szczecin city scholarship holder, she won the regional Art Olympiad and became a finalist of the 36th National Art Olympiad in music history. She regularly performed at charity concerts, including events for flood victims in Bogatynia, and at concerts promoting her school and city. From 2011 to 2014 she participated in performances of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater and also performed in Germany. In 2011 she prepared Schumann's Frauenliebe und -leben with pianist Michał Landowski, an experience that accelerated her musical development. Since late 2011 she has performed as a duo with harpist Noemi Hańczyk; they won first prize at the fourth international Malchower Kirchenpreis in 2012. Her repertoire spans Baroque to new music. Romantic music is particularly close to her, although she also enjoys Mozart and late Romantic works. She loves music in all its forms and has a particular attachment to the piano, with which her musical journey began.

Deborah Tardy (mezzo-soprano)

Passionate about classical dance from childhood, she began ballet lessons at age seven at the Jerusalem Conservatory. After moving to France, she studied singing with Jane Berbié and in 2008 entered Jacques Schwarz's singing class at the Toulouse Regional Conservatory, graduating with distinction in 2015. In February 2013, she sang the Mother, Chinese Cup and Dragonfly in Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges at the Théâtre du Capitole. She performed seven popular songs by Manuel de Falla in the Fusion Flamenca production of Compagnie Betty Tardy at the Saint-Pierre-des-Cuisines concert hall in Toulouse. She works with Rie Hamada and gives recitals in Lyon, Paris, Cahors, Toulouse and abroad. She has attended masterclasses with Leontina Vaduva, Sophie Koch, Jean-Philippe Lafont, Udo Reinemann and Kate Aldrich. Since 2015 she has studied at the Lyon Conservatory in Marcin Habela's class. She was cast in the leading female role of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas for a production in Lyon in May 2016.

Pianists

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  dr Tomasz Lupa

  Born on 11 August 1977 in Jarosław, he graduated with distinction from the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, where he studied piano with Professor Czesław Stańczyk. Since 2005 he has worked as an assistant at the Piano, Harpsichord and Organ Department of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw in Professor Jerzy Sterczyński's class; he earned his doctorate in 2012. His awards include: a distinction at the second stage of the International Beethoven Competition in Hradec nad Moravicí, Czech Republic (June 1999); first prize in the duo category with violinist Fatima Aaziza at the fourth Krzysztof Penderecki International Contemporary Chamber Music Competition in Kraków (September 2000); the main prize, a Leopold Kronenberg Banking Foundation scholarship, at the fourth National Competition of 20th-Century Music for Young Performers in Radziejowice (May 2001); recognition in the Young Performers series of the 37th Polish Piano Festival in Słupsk (September 2003); a distinction for his performance of Karol Szymanowski's Étude in B-flat minor, Op. 4 No. 3, at the Edvard Grieg International Competition in Oslo (September 2010); and a prize for best Mozart performance at the International Mozart Competition in Frascati, Italy (May 2012). During the 2013–14 academic year he taught at the Keimyung–Chopin Academy of Music in Daegu, South Korea.

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  Magdalena Holec

  She graduated from the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Secondary Music School in Żyrardów in Elżbieta Budnik's piano class and studied at the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz with Tatiana Shebanova, Jarosław Drzewiecki and Piotr Kępiński. She participated in national piano competitions and twice won awards at the Masovian Piano Auditions in Sochaczew (2002 and 2006). At the third and fourth International Piano Forum “Bieszczady without Borders” in Sanok, she studied with Jarosław Drzewiecki, Alicja Faryniarz, Irina Rumiancewa and Grzegorz Kurzyński and accompanied singers including Eugenia Rezler and Aneta Kapla. As a pianist-accompanist she participated in vocal courses led by Maciej Witkiewicz (December 2008), Urszula Kryger (February 2011), Piotr Bednarski (February 2013) and Tomasz Zagórski (October 2009). She also worked with Joanna Kurpiowska, Teresa Rosłoń-Esztenyi, pianist Mikhail Voskresensky and chamber music teacher Maja Nosowska-Pasławska. An active accompanist, she took part in the sixth International Brass Instruments Competition in Gdańsk, the seventh and eighth Golden Voices National Vocal Art Competitions in Warsaw, the second and third Giulio Perotti International Vocal Competitions in Ueckermünde, and the second Andrzej Hiolski International Vocal Competition in Kudowa-Zdrój. In July 2014 she was a répétiteur at the third International Vocal Masterclass of Marcin Habela. She has worked with Opera Nova soloist Katarzyna Nowak-Stańczyk and, since August 2014, served as a répétiteur at Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz.