Beatrice Unsworth
Beatrice Unsworth trained initially as a music
teacher at Homerton College, Cambridge, where she graduated with
distinction in Education. In 1973, with a grant from the Ralph
Vaughan Williams Trust, she joined the postgraduate course at the
Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she studied with Noelle
Barker and Walther Gruner.
Her solo singing engagements encompassed opera, oratorio and
recital work. On leaving the Guildhall she joined Kent Opera for
chorus and understudy work. She was a frequent recitalist in London
and the South East, where her principal accompanist was Julian
Elloway. In 1978 she co-founded and was Artistic Director of New
Sussex Opera, which performed annually at the Brighton Festival.
Here she worked with producers Nicholas Hytner and Stefan Janski
and conductors Stephen Barlow and Graeme Jenkins.
Over the years, Beatrice's teaching appointments have included
appointments at the University of Wales, the Royal Academy of Music
and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, where she was
awarded a fellowship in 2006. Beatrice has taught her specialism,
20th-century British song, at the Royal Welsh College and at the
University of Wales. She has adjudicated widely throughout the UK
for the British Federation, as well as chairing the National
Festival for Youth at the Royal Festival Hall. From 1998 to 2003
she was Chairman of Live Music Now! Wales, having been a Committee
Member since 1990. She is a Member of the Working Party of the
Welsh Singers Competition, which she chaired from 1998 to 2005.