Our Choral Scholars
The choral scholarship scheme here at St John’s is generously supported by the William Gibbs Religious & Educational Trust. Each year, eight scholarships are available to vocal students from London music colleges, many of whom go on to very successful careers in opera, oratorio and other singing work. We also welcome volunteer singers who would like to join us in song - please contact the Director of Music if you’re interested.
Choral Scholars 2025-2026
Rachel McLean
Soprano
Scottish soprano Rachel McLean is a Samling Artist and graduated in 2023 with a Master of Music in Vocal Performance at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland under Wilma MacDougall. She previously graduated with a First Class Honours Bachelors of Music degree under Margaret Izatt.
Operatic roles include Donna Anna Don Giovanni (Lyric Opera Studio Weimar), Youka in Chabrier’s L’Étoile (RCS Opera), Pamina Die Zauberflöte (LOSW). In spring 2024 she was cast to cover Donna Anna and was chorus in Hurn Court Opera’s production of Don Giovanni.
Operatic scenes include Fiordiligi Cosi fan Tutte, Arabella Arabella, Ilia Idomeneo, Rosalinde Die Fledermaus,Elettra Idomeneo, Vitellia La clemenza di Tito, and Anne Trulove The Rake’s Progress.
Concert highlights include Die Schöne Müllerin – An International Women’s Day concert with the RCS, soprano soloist in Haydn’s Nelson Mass with the Garleton Singers, Vivaldi’s Gloria with RCS Chorus and Orchestra, and Jenkins’ The Armed Man with the National Youth Choir of Scotland.
Future engagements include Countess Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro with Lyric Opera Studio Weimar.
Rachel’s MMus studies were generously supported by the ABRSM. Rachel is currently training as a Young Artist on the Global Talent Programme at the National Opera Studio (NOS), London.
Madeleine Perring
soprano
Madeleine Perring started her musical career as a chorister at Wells Cathedral where she discovered her love of music. This was developed as a vocal specialist at the school, and even more so at the Royal College of Music. After graduating from the RCM with first class honours, she is thrilled to be studying with Rosa Mannion and is grateful to continue her Masters studies as a Brooks-Anderson Award holder. Highlights from the past year include various opera scenes; performing as Susanna in Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and as Josephine in Gilbert & Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore under the direction of Saffron van Zwanenberg, as well as Barbarina in Jonathan Dove’s Little Green Swallow under the direction of Stuart Barker and Despina in Mozart’s Cosí fan tutte. Madeleine has also enjoyed working as a soprano soloist with the Somerset and Plymouth choral societies, and most recently with the Civil Service Choir in St John’s Smith Square. Maddie looks forward to her final year of Masters with generous support from both Help Musicians and the Countess of Munster Musical Trust.
alexandra cooper
soprano
Alexandra Cooper is the Stephen Catto Memorial Scholar at the Royal College music where she studies with Tim Evans-Jones. She completed her Bachelor of Music at RCM as the Douglas and Hilda Simmonds Scholar. Recent engagements include Ida in Die Fledermaus with Westminster Opera Company at the Chateau de Panloy, Charente MariJme, Ensemble in Jonathan Dove's Flight and Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro with the RCM Opera Studio and RCM Opera scenes as Papagena in Die Zauberflöte, Serpina in La Serva padrona and Rosmene in Imeneo. She was also a finalist in the 2023 Charles Wood song compeJJon and previously a scholar at the Junior Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where she was awarded the Peter Vernon Vocal Prize. Alexandra recently made her screen debut as Choral girl No.1 in Alan Benne2’s upcoming film The Choral directed by Nicholas Hytner.
niamh kearney
mezzo-soprano
Niamh Kearney is an Irish Mezzo soprano. Her love of choral singing was sparked when she joined her local church choir at the age of ten. Her passion for singing led her to move to London where she has just graduated with First Class Honours from Trinity Laban Conservatoire, under the tutelage of Yolanda Grant Thompson and Helen Yorke. She was a Choral Scholar at the Old Royal Naval College Chapel in Greenwich, and as a result performed several large-scale orchestral concerts. Highlights included alto soloist in St John's Passion, accompanied by the Brandenburg Baroque Soloists and Purcell's 'Come ye sons of art' with The Royal Hospital Chelsea. She has taken part in recordings for BBC Songs of Praise and BBC Radio 4 Choral Evensong, where she was the cantor soloist.
She is commencing her Masters in Vocal Studies at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, under the tutelage of Sarah Pring. Niamh is a member of the CCI Studio, Chamber Choir Ireland’s programme for emerging choral singers, directed by Eamonn Dougan. She was recently awarded a place on Genesis Sixteen, The Sixteen’s Young Artist Programme directed by Harry Christophers.
Whilst she has a love of early music and Baroque, Niamh has a wide musical repertoire from Lieder to contemporary and folk. She loves the centuries old melismatic Irish singing style of Sean-nos, and was the main soloist on a live broadcast Mass, sung in Irish for Irish National Radio.
Tim Burton
Tenor
Tim has recently graduated from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, studying with Christopher Turner. He is looking forward to continuing his studies with Tim Evans-Jones at the Royal College of Music on the MPerf programme in September 2024, generously supported by the college with a scholarship.
Whilst at RBC he has taken part in various opera productions, with roles including The Schoolmaster in The Cunning Little Vixen – Janáček, Mr Bobo in Coraline – Turnage, Moon and King of the East, The Enchanted Pig – Dove, and Le Doyen de la Faculté, Cendrillon – Massenet. Opera scenes productions at RBC include performances as: Vasek (Bartered Bride), Jaquino (Fidelio), Polidoro (La Finta Semplice), Lysander (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Max (Der Freischütz), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni). Tim was awarded first place in the Edward Brooks English Song Prize in 2023.
At the 2023 Grimeborn festival at Arcola Theatre, he played the tenor in the Trio of Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, directed by Finn Lacey. This production was awarded an Offie in February for Opera Production.
Tim started his musical career as a chorister at Gloucester Cathedral, and has since been a Lay Clerk at Gloucester, and Birmingham St Philip’s Cathedrals. He enjoys Oratorio work with repertoire including Messiah, Samson, Handel, St John Passion (solos), Bach, Petite Messe Solenelle, Rossini, Requiem, Saint-Saens. He was part of the 10th Cohort of Genesis Sixteen from 2020-21 and an Ex Cathedra Scholar from 2019-21 and has since sung with The Dunedin Consort, Ex Cathedra, and The Sixteen.
quito clothier
Tenor
Quito will be commencing his postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Music this autumn, studying under Patricia Rozario OBE, generously supported by the St Matthias Trust. Previously, he read music at the University of Bristol where he graduated with first class honours, studying under Angela Hickey.
In 2024/25 he made his debut at The Grange Festival as Gastone (Cover) in Verdi’s La Traviata with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/Richard Farnes, and as Chorus in Strauss’s Die Fledermaus with the BSO/Paul Daniel. In Autumn 2025, he will debut the title role in Kevin Rodger’s Murderous Delusions of Gavrilo K. at the Tête à Tête Opera Festival this autumn, and will be performing the role of Mr Pasek in the RCM Opera Studio’s production of Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen.
Other recent operatic roles performed include Monsieur Triquet (Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin) with HGO/Oliver Cope, Ismaele (Verdi’s Nabucco), Satyavan (Holst’s Savitri), and The Schoolmaster (Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen). In concert, Quito has been a soloist in a variety of choral and orchestral works, such as Puccini’s Messa di Gloria, Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle, Gounod’s St. Cecilia Mass, Schubert’s Mass in G, Haydn’s Creation, and Handel’s Messiah. Previously, he had also been a choral scholar at St James, Piccadilly and St Martin-in-the-Fields.
Hugo Burgess
Baritone
Hugo Burgess is currently an undergraduate Music student at King’s College London, where he holds a Choral Scholarship with the chapel choir. Alongside this, he studies performance at the Royal Academy of Music. In 2024, he was also awarded a Choral Scholarship at Saint Cuthbert’s, Earl’s Court, as well as a scholarship with Mascarade Opera in Florence, where he specialised in Italian Renaissance music through workshops and masterclasses led by Dame Emma Kirkby.
At King’s, Hugo has appeared as a soloist in numerous major works, including JS Bach’s Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen, Schubert’s Mass in G, Fauré’s Requiem, and Stanford’s Nunc Dimittis in G. He also featured as the bass soloist in the choir’s recent recording of Kristina Arakelyan’s A Christmas Offering.
Hugo performs regularly as a soloist beyond the chapel choir, with recent engagements including Tippett’s A Child of Our Time, Duruflé’s Requiem, Stainer’s The Crucifixion, and Mozart’s Requiem. His performances have taken place in prestigious venues such as Westminster Abbey, St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Cathedral, Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts, and Christ Church Cathedral and St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin.
As an academic, Hugo’s research interests include the music of JS Bach and embodiment, comparing early modern and contemporary neuroscientific conceptions of creativity. He also explores Poulenc’s compositional identity and his position within the 20th-century French canon.
Alongside his studies, Hugo maintains a busy freelance career across several churches in London and Oxford.
