The Sopranos
Soprano
Suzanne Jones
Day job Business manager
Aspires to sound like Andrea Haines (Voces8)
Choral highlight Virtual recording with The Swingles, Voces8 and The King's Singers in lockdown.
Random fact I've sung backing vocals in a band with Adele's granny...
Favourite Spectrum piece 'This Endris Night' by Sarah Quartel gives me all the Christmas feels.
Soprano
Emily Scaglioni
Day job Music teacher
Aspires to sound like Eva Cassidy
Choral highlight Conducting a delightfully enthusiastic junior choir in Manchester.
Random fact I founded and led a Ukulele Society at York University for two years.
Favourite Spectrum piece 'Song of the Dawn' from the 1930s' film King of Jazz.
Soprano
Angela Brown
Day job Bank consultant
Aspires to sound like Kiri Te Kanawa
Choral highlight Singing in Handel's Messiah as the soprano soloist with Yate Choral society.
Random fact I had the truly thrilling experience of singing the title role in Puccini's Madam Butterfly.
Favourite Spectrum piece Janet Wheeler's song cycle 'Time Becomes a Song'.
Soprano
Maryna Klichnikova
Day job Translator
Aspires to sound like Grace Davidson
Choral highlight Singing with my chamber choir at home in Kyiv.
Random fact I speak six languages: Ukrainian, Russian, English, Italian, French and German.
Favourite Spectrum piece Rani Arbo's 'Crossing the Bar' in memory of my father.
Soprano
Emma Loyns
Day job Music teacher / Running coach
Aspires to sound like Raye
Choral highlight Having my composition for choir 'There is no rose', performed at Portsmouth Cathedral.
Random fact I've run more than 50 ultra marathons and marathons.
Favourite Spectrum piece I'm loving Ben's arrangement of Beethoven's Piano Concerto no. 5 which appeals to my classical orchestral background.
Soprano
Qi Zhang Mitchell
Day job Music teacher / Pianist
Aspires to sound like Barbra Streisand
Choral highlight I led the NEPU College Choir to win 3rd Prize in the 5th National College Students Art Performance Festival (China) while working there as a music theory lecturer.
Random fact I dream of being a scuba diver instructor working around Bali...
Favourite Spectrum piece I love the simple but transcendent harmonies in 'The Long Day Closes'.
The Altos
Alto
Frances Strickland
Day job University lecturer (Reader)
Aspires to sound like Ewa Podleś
Choral highlight A formative choir tour to Prague in 1991 where we sang in St Vitus Cathedral.
Random fact I frequently appeared as a giant panda in my first job...
Favourite Spectrum piece 'Hope is the Thing with Feathers' by Christopher Tin.
Alto
Helen Turner
Day job HM Inspector of Health and Safety
Aspires to sound like Katherine Jenkins
Choral highlight Singing at Chester Cathedral for a week in the visiting choir: sleep, sing, repeat ... bliss.
Random fact I've performed with Hinge and Bracket at the Wimbledon Theatre.
Favourite Spectrum piece 'Northern Lights' by Ola Gjeilo. At last, a composer who likes altos!
Alto
Shelagh Greenland
Day job RNLI fundraiser. Retired teacher of the deaf
Aspires to sound like Kathleen Ferrier
Choral highlight Evensong in Tewkesbury Abbey.
Random fact I played Queen Eleanor giving birth to Edward, first Prince of Wales, while 9 months pregnant, for BBC radio.
Favourite Spectrum piece I enjoy most of the music I've sung in the past 24 years!
Alto
Julia Nasrallah
Day job English teacher
Aspires to sound like Norah Jones
Choral highlight Singing Brahms' Requiem in the University of Beirut's Assembly Hall.
Random fact When studying in Utah, I was part of the only all-women crew-racing yachts on Salt Lake.
Favourite Spectrum piece I mainly love the mix of sacred and secular music.
Alto
Rebecca Davies
Day job GP
Aspires to sound like Karen Carpenter
Choral highlight Singing with my school choir in the Royal Albert Hall.
Random fact I have a human skeleton in my attic.
Favourite Spectrum piece Rheinberger's 'Abendlied' is a pleasure to sing as the harmonies are so satisfying.
The Tenors
Tenor and Musical Director
Benjamin Gait
Day job Composer/Local Authority Officer
Aspires to sound like Scott Walker
Choral highlight Playing first horn in a performance of Elgar's Dream of Gerontius.
Random fact I own roughly 50 Miles Davis albums.
Favourite Spectrum piece 'Clew Ein Llef'.
Tenor
George Speed
Day job Bus driver
Aspires to sound like Any proper tenor, preferably a Welsh one! (I'm Scottish.)
Choral highlight St David's Praise with Cambrensis.
Random fact I've played the organ in Westminster Abbey (very loudly!).
Favourite Spectrum piece 'Christmas Medley' and any Swingle-style arrangements of Bach and Handel.
Tenor
Michael Lee
Day job Medical writer
Aspires to sound like Roderick Williams
Choral highlight Singing Verdi's 'Quattro Pezzi Sacri' in the Sheldonian.
Random fact I've swum weekly in Jesus Green Lido in winter...
Favourite Spectrum piece Anything slow and easy!
Tenor
Geoff Howells
Day job Retired organist / public school D of M
Aspires to sound like Euan Williamson (Voces8)
Choral highlight Either conducting 'Spem In Alium', or hearing the Tallis Scholars sing 'Te lucis ante terminum', a little gem of perfection.
Random fact I once accompanied the choir in Sheffield Cathedral dressed as a donkey.
Favourite Spectrum piece 'and the swallow'. My passion for choral music tails off after 1625, but Caroline Shaw genuinely has something to say.
The Basses
Bass
Nigel Holloway
Day job Writer
Aspires to sound like Jamie Wright (The Swingles)
Choral highlight Finding myself by accident in the middle of the London Symphony Orchestra Chorus singing Berlioz's Grande Messe des Morts.
Random fact I've written a musical of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, set to Arthur Sullivan's music.
Favourite Spectrum piece The Lost Birds by Christopher Tin.
Bass
Carsten Muller
Day job University researcher and lecturer
Aspires to sound like Ivan Rebroff
Choral highlight Performing Carmina Burana with Cardiff Uni Choir and Orchestra in St David’s Hall.
Random fact I steered a 45m merchant vessel through Kiel canal aged 17.
Favourite Spectrum piece One of my favourites is 'Pokarekare', the harmonic equivalent of strawberries and cream...
Bass
Simon Carter
Day job Dental courier
Aspires to sound like Bryn Terfel
Choral highlight Carmina Burana is my all-time favourite work for the drama of it.
Random fact As a trained violinist, I've appeared in stage productions of Fiddler on the Roof no less than eight times.
Favourite Spectrum piece 'Bohemian Rhapsody' as I've always loved it.
Bass
Kevin Morgan
Day job
Aspires to sound like Bing Crosby
Choral highlight
Random fact
Favourite Spectrum piece