Soprano got into opera thanks to school teacher

OPERA singer Stephanie Hershaw credits her music teacher at school for her success now.

The 27-year-old soprano will be singing with the Aliquando Chamber Choir at St Mary’s Church in Henley next Saturday.

She is one of three soloists who will perform in This Shining Night, which will be raising money for Lowland Rescue Oxfordshire, a charity whose volunteers help the emergency services search for missing vulnerable people (see below).

Stephanie grew up in Upper Basildon and went to the Abbey School in Reading.

From 2014 to 2018, she attended the Royal Welsh College of Music, achieving a first class honours degree in music.

In August 2019, she played Papagena in Waterperry Opera’s production of The Magic Flute.

She recently returned from Germany after completing a two-year contract on a Young Artist programme with the Landestheater Detmold opera company.

Stephanie, who now lives in
Earley, says: “I’ve always loved singing. I’m not from a musical family but I was always singing around the house growing up.

“I went to a Saturday acting, dancing and singing school and I had an amazing music teacher at the Abbey, who encouraged me to broaden my horizons and listen to some opera and classical music.

“I love languages and there’s lots of language in opera. I think opera is a whole lot of different art forms in one, with dancing on stage, costumes, lighting and a huge orchestra.

“Opera singers don’t use microphones and I just found all that really cool, I just wanted to be involved in it.

“I still love musical theatre but at the moment my operas are starting to take off, so I’m focusing on that at the moment as I am freelancing.

“I think the life of an opera singer is crazy and unreliable but it’s fun because I’m always going to different places. I’m going to Denmark next year and I’m possibly returning to Germany next season. There’s lots of stuff going on.”

The Aliquando concert will follow the Biblical story of the Angel Gabriel’s appearance and message to Mary with Buxtehude’s Magnificat and the story of the Shining Star, which led the shepherds and the three kings to Bethlehem, with Schutz’s The Christmas Story. The music continues with Praetorius’s Es ist ein Ros entsprungen, a hymn set to music prophesying the birth of Jesus, and Sweelinck’s Hodie Christus natus est (Today Christ is born). Benjamin Britten’s Christmas carol, A Hymn to the Virgin, will follow.

Stephanie says: “I’m singing with the choir in the first half and then I’m singing some Barber, Sure on This Shining Night, this really beautiful song. It’s a long list of repertoire.”

The other two soloists are tenor Alex Haigh and bass baritone Daniel Tate. Alex is a patron of the Chiltern Centre in Henley, having succeeded his late mother, and Daniel is a singer and conductor from Oxford.

The choir will be conducted by Anne Evans and there will be a string ensemble led by Amanda Shepherd with continuo Ian Westley.

• This Shining Night by the Aliquando Chamber Choir is at St Mary’s Church in Henley on Saturday, November 18 at 7pm (doors open at 6pm). Tickets cost £25 reserved, £20 unreserved, under-16s free. For more information and to buy tickets, call (01491) 578238 or visit www.aliquando.co.uk