Sofia Kirwan-Baez (soprano)

Anglo-Venezuelan soprano Sofia Kirwan-Baez studied at the Royal College of Music and was a National Opera Studio Young Artist. A regular song recitalist, she was a 2022/23 Wigmore Song Exchange artist and is joining Samling institute in 2025. Her concert work spans Monteverdi’s Vespers to Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, and she won the 2021 Concerto Competition at the RCM with Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine. Last season, she made her role and house debuts as Musetta at Longborough Festival Opera and Rosina at the Opéra National de Bordeaux’ Barbier de Séville Revisited. Engagements in 2025/26 include covering Mélisande (Pelléas et Mélisande) in Longborough, performing Susanna in Cumbria Opera Group’s The Marriage of Figaro as well as Papagena in Opéra National de Bordeaux’s Die Zauberflöte.

Angharad Rowlands (mezzo-soprano)

Welsh mezzo-soprano Angharad Rowlands studied at the Royal Academy of Music, supported by the Norman-Ayrton Award and the Carr-Gregory Trust. She is a 2024 International Handel Singing Competition finalist, and winner of the 2022 Richard Lewis/Jean Shanks Award Song Prize. This season she returns to the Glyndebourne Chorus, covering Zweite Knappe (Parsifal), and Žena (Kát’a Kabanová). At Royal Academy Opera she performed the title role in Handel’s Ariodante, Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), and Florence Pike (Albert Herring). Other roles include 2nd Bridesmaid (Le nozze di Figaro – Royal Ballet & Opera), cover Juno (Semele – Opéra de Lille), and cover Praskowia (The Merry Widow – Glyndebourne Festival Opera). Concert highlights include Bach’s St Matthew Passion with John Eliot Gardiner, and Bach’s St John Passion with Philippe Herreweghe. In recital, she has performed at the Oxford International Song Festival, Leeds Song, International Lied Festival Zeist, and Wigmore Hall.

Hugo Brady (tenor)

Winner of the 2022 Junior Ferrier Competition, London-Irish tenor Hugo Brady studies at the Royal College of Music, under the tutelage of Russell Smythe, as the Victor and Lilian Hochhauser Scholar. Brady began singing aged eight, as a member of the Royal Opera House’s Youth Opera Company, singing in the children’s choruses of operatic favourites such as La Bohème and Carmen. Brady has appeared with Nevill Holt Opera and the Manchester Camerata, at the Aldeburgh Festival and at Barbican Hall. Performing with the ensemble most recently at the Cadogan Hall as Belfiore in La Finta Giardiniera, Brady is an Associate Artist of The Mozartists. This year Brady becomes an Oxford Song Young Artist. The season also includes exciting debuts at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the Verbier Festival, as well as a recital debut in the LIFE Victoria Festival.

Peter Edge (baritone)

Shropshire-born baritone Peter Edge is delighted to be joining the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Rising Stars. Peter studied at the Royal College of Music, graduating as a Master of Music in Vocal Performance with Distinction. He was a finalist in the 2025 London Handel Festival Singing Competition, the runner up of the 2024 London Bach Singers Prize, winner of the John Kerr Award for English Song and the International Medal at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod. As a principal artist, Peter has enjoyed seasons with English Touring Opera, Longborough Festival Opera, The Grange Festival, Hampstead Garden Opera, and Opera North.

Peter made his role debut with The Royal Opera in the 2024/25 Season in Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti/A Quiet Place and returned to perform in Verdi’s Aida.