Vocal Performance Department (Undergraduate)

Christina Dunwoodie began teaching at the RCS in 2014 she has been teaching students and professional singers since 2007 whilst maintaining her career as a soloist. She graduated from the Opera School at the RSAMD, then studied with famous tenor Juan Oncina in Barcelona where she took part in the Francisco Viñas Masterclasses. Her speciality is in Italian Opera and Bel Canto technique.

Scott Johnson was previously a tutor at the Conservatoire du Kremlin-Bicetre, Parisandalso at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD), London. He studied voice at the GSMD under David Pollard, graduating in 1997 and subsequently completed a PGCE and MA (graduating with Distinction) at London University, Institute of Education. He taught music in a secondary school for several years, and for 11 years was also organist and Director of Music at a parish church in Essex.

Wilma MacDougall is a much sought-after vocal lecturer at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where she has taught for the last fifteen years. Her students have sung at many of the world’s top opera houses and concert halls. Born in Scotland, Wilma graduated BA (Hons) in Music followed by a PGCE in Music and Mathematics from the University of Cambridge. She has recorded and broadcast on BBC radio and television in repertoire ranging from Bach’s Cantata No.51 Jauchzet Gott through to contemporary repertoire.

Elizabeth McCormack was born in Fife, Scotland and studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now RCS) and the National Opera Studio, London. She is a past winner of the Scottish Opera, John Noble Bursary, the Decca-Kathleen Ferrier Prize, the Royal Overseas League Music Competition, the Isobel Baillie Performance Award, Scotland’s representative in Cardiff Singer of the World 1993 and a recipient of the Countess of Munster and Caird Scholarships.

DIP MUS ED (RSAMD), DRSAMD (Piano & Singing), LRAM, PG DIP (RCM)

A graduate of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), in both piano (with Lawrence Glover) and singing (with Elizabeth Izatt), mezzo-soprano, Kathleen McKellar Ferguson, then qualified with honours as a class teacher before pursuing post-graduate studies in singing (with Marion Studholme) at the Royal College of Music in London. Whilst there she won several awards including a Countess of Munster Scholarship. She then studied with Margaret Hyde and pursued a highly successful professional singing career in both opera and on the concert platform before becoming a very sought-after singing teacher and vocal coach both at home and abroad.

OBE

Linda has an honorary Doctorate of Music from St. Andrews University and was awarded an OBE for her services to opera.

Iain retired from professional singing in 2015 to concentrate on his teaching commitments. Iain has taught with Scottish Opera and Opera North. Worked with the Tokyo National Opera School, coaching in a production of Albert Herring. He has also taught for two years at the Dance School of Scotland’s music theatre department.

Professor Stephen Robertson is a vocal pedagogue who is much in demand both nationally and internationally. Having partly retired he now devotes his time to voice teaching and research. 

MA (Oxon), MLitt

Julian has taught at the RCS for more than ten years. His students have won major scholarships to leading conservatories around the world, as well as going on to sign with companies such as the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, Scottish Opera, Gothenburg Opera, and National Theater Mannheim.

Julian’s approach to teaching is informed by his own experience as a performer and the need to equip young singers with the technical security and self-knowledge to allow them to achieve their creative potential. In 2018, Julian was invited to lecture and give workshops at the University of Performing Arts and Music in Vienna. He is currently working on a project which explores the musical milieu of Edward Clark and his teacher Arnold Schoenberg.

Lorna has taught in some form or other for more than 20 years, in schools, masterclasses, summer courses, and at the RWCMD for more than a decade before moving back to Scotland, and teaching at the RCS where it all began.

Mhairi Lawson is a teacher in the Vocal Performance Department at the RCS and also runs a Performance Practice Clinic designed to help students of all abilities and voice types with stylistic aspects of repertoire.

Andrew McTaggart is a Singing Teacher within the Vocal Department, Opera School and BEd course. Andrew always aims to promote a keen and active love of singing and the repertoire whist building technical assurance and confidence.

Andrew’s favourite concert since graduating was his Edinburgh International Festival debut singing Vaughan Williams’s Five Mystical Songs in the Usher Hall in 2019.

A keen advocate of contemporary music, Michael Bawtree has conducted world premieres of operatic, symphonic and choral works by Judith Bingham, Paul Mealor, Cecilia McDowall, Richard Peat and Rory Boyle; he works regularly with Scotland’s foremost composers including the late Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Sir James MacMillan, Thea Musgrave and Sally Beamish.

Born in Malta, Geoffrey Tanti studied piano with Cynthia Turner before moving to Glasgow to study at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he graduated with a Masters in Piano Performance with Distinction and a Masters in Répétiteur Studies. He studied with Jonathan Plowright and Julia Lynch and worked for a year as a Junior Fellow accompanist at the RCS. During his studies, Geoffrey won many solo and accompaniment prizes.

Widely respected as an accompanist and chamber musician, pianist Ingrid Sawers has performed throughout the UK, Europe and Canada. Ingrid also has a long-standing commitment to new music, and has released 2 critically acclaimed CDs on Delphian Records. As well as teaching at RCS, Ingrid is one of a hand-picked group of staff pianists and tutors for the Oxenfoord International Summer School directed by Malcolm Martineau.  

Born and raised in Krakow, Poland, Michał Gajzler is a pianist, repetiteur and vocal coach. He graduated with a Masters in Repetiteurship from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (2015), Masters in Piano Performance from the Krakow Academy of Music (2010) and an MA in Musicology from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow (2009).

Michał has been working for the RCS since 2018. He has also worked for Scottish Opera and Berlin Opera Academy.

Apart from working with singers Michał enjoys playing for ballet classes at The Dance School of Scotland. He is also a composer creating music for theatre and commercials.

Héloïse Bernard has been a French Coach and Lecturer of French Language for Singers at the RCS since 2018 for the Vocal Performance Department. Héloïse has also been involved in the recent Opera productions of the Alexander Gibson Opera School of Les Mamelles de Tiresias, L’étoile, Cendrillon.

Born in Malta, Geoffrey Tanti studied piano with Cynthia Turner before moving to Glasgow to study at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he graduated with a Masters in Piano Performance with Distinction and a Masters in Répétiteur Studies. He studied with Jonathan Plowright and Julia Lynch and worked for a year as a Junior Fellow accompanist at the RCS. During his studies, Geoffrey won many solo and accompaniment prizes.

Dr Svetlana Zvereva is a musicologist, editor, choral conductor, lecturer, and language coach. She is well-known internationally as a specialist in Russian music, both through her publications and through many years of participating in international conferences, seminars, and lectures, and also as an organiser of music festivals and exhibitions. She has participated over the years in several Russian and international projects related to the editing, popularising, and performing of Russian music, as well as the strengthening of the Russian cultural heritage. 

Helen Lawson was born in Northumberland and studied singing at the Royal College of Music and the National Opera Studio in London. Helen has appeared as soloist in opera houses at home and abroad, including English National Opera; City of Birmingham Touring Opera; English Touring Opera; De Vlaamse Opera Antwerpen and Landestheater Thüringen. Having taught singing in German universities (Bayreuth and Bamberg), Helen moved to Glasgow in 2002 to take up the post of Lecturer in Vocal Studies at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland).

Scottish mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and was the winner of the 2002 Kathleen Ferrier Award. In July 2018 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She is also the Patron of the National Girls’ Choir of Scotland.