Opera in the City
The Opera in the City team.
Chloe Maloney
Creative Producer
Chloe graduated with a high 2:1 in Music from Goldsmiths College, University of London in 2005.
During her time at Goldsmiths, she played the eponymous heroines in OperaGolds productions of ‘Venus and Adonis’ and ‘Dido and Aeneus’ and Mephostophilia in the UK debut of Alfred Schnittke’s Historia von D. Johann Fausten with the Tenor Justin Lavender, conducted by Alexander Ivashkin.
Chloe performed extracts from Carmen, and Dido and Aeneus at the Teatro Palacio Valdes in Asturias, Spain, the Pie Jesu from Durafle’s Requiem and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater at Southwark Cathedral, with the Goldsmiths chamber choir and Sinfonia, and excerpts from Berlioz’ Le Nuits D’été accompanied by Goldsmiths Sinfonia.
Following graduation, Chloe performed with Opera UK, Opera Holland Park Chorus, Longborough Festival Opera in their productions of Janáček’s Jenufa, Verdi’s La, Montemezzi’s ‘L’amore dei tres Rei’, Puccini’s Manon Lescaut and Giordano’s Fedora.
Chloe was chosen to take part in the ENO Baylis Opera Works and performed the role of Cherubino from Mozart’s ‘le Nozze di Figaro’ at Sadlers Wells.
Chloe was awarded the Geraint Evans award to study her Post graduate diploma at the Royal Welsh College of Music where she trained under Suzanne Murphy. While studying at the RWCM, Chloe performed roles such as Cherubino, Hermia, Cupid from Orpheus in the Underworld and Dorabella as part of the RWCMD opera scenes. Chloe was instrumental in setting up the Independent Singer’s, a small Opera group at the end of 2008 and performed the role of Dorabella with Orchestra. Chloe left RWCM in 2009 and went on to perform the role of Rosina in Opera Scenes with The European Chamber Opera in Seville, chorus in La Boheme for Opera Holland Park and the role of Flora in GoOpera’s production of La Traviata.
Chloe often sings with the Lloyd’s of London choir as a soloist and has been performing in various opera galas and giving private recitals in London and the South East of England.
Jacques Cohen
Muscial Director
Carol Sloman
Director
Carol works as a composer, musical director, actress, and multi-instrumentalist.
Since 1999 Carol has been Resident Musical Director at the Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch where she has directed and performed in nearly 50 shows. She is an Associate Artist at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton where she composed music for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “A Streetcar Named Desire”. She was MD for “The Hired Man” which won a TMA award for Best Ensemble.
Theatre credits include composing the music for “Merchant of Venice”. She adapted the Bruch Violin Concerto which she played in Sweeney Todd by Chris Bond, directed by the author. She composed and played the music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream and A Comedy of Errors for the Ludlow Festival directed by Glen Walford. She has written two musicals, Harry From The Hill with Kath Sayer, and “A Stitch In Time” with Amanda Swift . She is currently composing the music and lyrics for “Aladdin” (her twenty-first pantomime!). She has also composed original music for Brighton Rock, Glass Menagerie, Jane Eyre, Cinderella, Jack & the Beanstalk, Dick Whittington, Aladdin, Sleeping Beauty, The Mother, Antigone and Crazy. At the Chichester Festival Theatre she was MD/pianist for “The Pied Piper”. West End credits include Buddy, for which she was also Musical Director, at the Victoria Palace and the Novello; Murderous Instincts at the Savoy; A Lie Of The Mind and Greenland at the Royal Court. She was nominated for an Olivier Award for her performance in Lennon at the Astoria Theatre.
A CD of her songs, Ordinary Pleasure, is available on I-Tunes. She plays and sings in the band, Bluesmoke.
Carol is married, with three grown-up children and lives in Brighton.
Brian Bendle
Pianist
Jacques Cohen is equally known as conductor and composer. He is Music Director of The Isis Ensemble in London and has conducted concerts and broadcasts with such groups as Kremerata Baltica, National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Sofia Soloists, BBC Concert Orchestra, Albania Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra and Bucharest Philharmonic with whom he has been a regular guest conductor since 2003. He read music at Oxford where he conducted the university orchestras and performed his own compositions. On leaving Oxford, he was awarded the Conducting Scholarship at the Royal College of Music where he won several prizes including the Tagore Gold Medal, the college's award for its most outstanding student. Frequently heard on radio both here and abroad, he has recorded a number of CDs including the critically acclaimed Music for Strings disc on the Meridian Label. A brand new CD of transcriptions he has made for strings including Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition has just been released also with Meridian.
Jacques' compositions are published by Norsk Musikforlag and include Passion Fragment (The Denial of St Peter), Yigdal , Quiet Music, the award winning Elegy on a floating Chord, a symphony and the chamber opera The Lady of Satis House. Other recent commissions include Castle Lament (Primrose Quartet), Concertino (Onyx Brass) and Pantheon (National Youth Wind Orchestra). Last year saw the première of Nun danket alle Gott (Fitzwilliam String Quartet) and Love Journeys for soprano and strings (Marie Vassiliou with the Isis Ensemble) at the Southbank Centre. Earlier this year he conducted the world première of his oratorio Exodus Fragment and the UK premiere of his Prelude 49 for vibraphone and strings with Dame Evelyn Glennie at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.
Brian has been involved with music making as an accompanist, performer and conductor for many years.
He began playing the piano at the age of 5 but continued his musical studies at University as a French Horn player. He toured Australia in the late 1970s before switching back to piano, completing an Accompaniment course which led to his first engagement as accompanist to the Lloyd’s Choir in 1979, a position he still holds today. In the same year, Brian joined the Lloyd’s insurance market developing a book of professional liability business and today juggles the running of a specialist broking house with a busy music schedule. Brian is a music patron at St Pauls Cathedral and regularly accompanies choral and instrumental soloists at venues throughout the United Kingdom.
Brian was accompanist of the Lloyd’s Dramatic & Operatic Musical Society in the 1980s and 1990s involved with light opera performing in the West End and the City and is delighted to now be associated with Opera in the City. Brian has three children and lives in Kent with his wife, Hannah.