Celia Harper worked for many years as a keyboard continuo player and latterly double harpist, playing and recording with most of Britain's early music ensembles in concert and opera. She was for many years particularly associated with Kent Opera's baroque productions under Sir Roger Norrington and has worked with conductors such as Harry Christophers (The Sixteen), Paul McCreesh (Gabrieli Consort and Players), Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Christopher Hogwood.

She has taught as a singer's style coach on early music at the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh and also with the European Union Baroque Orchestra. Her interest in researching 17th and 18th century music led to her devising several series of music programmes for S4C, the Welsh Television Channel and in "All Hayle to the Days", an album of carols from the 17th century to Victorian times.

Celia started composing in 1994 and has had works premiered by Michael Chance and Fretwork, Robin Blaze, Dame Felicity Palmer, Canterbury Chamber Choir, Chiswick Baroque and the Joyful Company of Singers among others. Her ensemble Sulis has been involved in ground-breaking research into music and healing at Bristol Cancer Help Centre.

In 2007 Celia won prizes in the English Poetry and Song Society's song writing competition, and the ensuing song cycle "Songs of Gloucestershire" to poetry by FW Harvey was premiered by bass-baritone Michael George in 2008. In 2009-2010 Celia was Composer in Residence at Holy Innocents Church, Hammersmith and her commissioned Mass for Childermas Day was premiered in January 2010 and repeated in January 2011. Celia's 3 Sulis CDs are all available on Magnatune.

Eirian James was born in Wales and studied at the Royal College of Music with Ruth Packer. After studying she was soon in great demand and is now recognised as one of Britain's leading singers, with a flourishing operatic, concert and recording career.

Her British appearances have seen her on the stages of all our leading opera companies. She has sung major roles with Covent Garden, English National Opera, Opera North, Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera and Kent Opera (which played a very important part in her early career and gave her many leading roles.) She has also performed for Sadlers Wells, Buxton Festival, the Singer's Company and the Edinburgh Festival.

Her international career has taken her to many of the major opera houses of the world, including Netherlands Opera, Opera de Lyon, Geneva Opera, Munich and Dresden Opera and Houston Opera. Eirian has worked with eminent conductors including Sir Colin Davis, Jeffrey Tate, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Roger Norrington, William Christie, and Mark Minkowski among others. She has also appeared on many recordings.

The concert platform continues to play an important part in Eirian James' work. She has been seen in the BBC Proms, at the Aldeburgh Festival, the Barbican and with the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra. Some notable concerts have included Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen in Lyon, Beethoven's Mass in C in London with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Mozart's C minor Mass in Edinburgh and Paris with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Haydn's Harmonienmesse with Sir Roger Norrington, Mendelssohn's Elijah with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Gluck's La Corona at the City of London Festival and concert performances of Cosi fan tutte with Sir Neville Marriner in Paris. With the Akademie für Alte Musik she has performed Irene (Theodora), Cyrus (Belshazzar) and Queen of Sheba (Solomon) all three broadcast live on Radio.

She is no stranger to TV either, having hosted many music series on Channel Four Wales. Her most recent operatic appearances were Falsirena (La Catena d'Adone) an opera of Domenico Mazzocchi (17th century) in Innsbruck and Antwerp, and Zerlina at San Diego Opera.

Julie Kennard read music at the University of Southampton and then went on to the Royal College of Music to study singing with Ruth Packer.

Julie has always specialised in oratorio although early on in her career she took lead roles in several operas. She has appeared in all major UK concert halls and Cathedrals and in many venues abroad. In Ireland, she was a soloist in Mahler's Eighth Symphony for RTE Television and Bach's Mass in B Minor; in Italy, Poland, Switzerland and France she performed the role of Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas; in Iceland she featured as soprano soloist in John Speight's Symphony No. 2 for the Symposium of Nordic composers - a work she has subsequently recorded. Verdi's Requiem has also played a large part in Julie's career and to date she has sung 80 performances of that great work.

English music has featured strongly in her repertoire and she has sung numerous performances of Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony, Elgar's The Kingdom and Apostles, Herbert Howells' Hymnus Paradisi and Britten's War Requiem. The War Requiem was highlighted in a television documentary of Britten and showed Julie singing in a commemorative performance from Coventry Cathedral with CUMS and Stephen Cleobury.

Solo recitals in Luxemburg and at the Three Choirs Festival have featured Schumann's "Frauenliebe und Leben", "Les Nuits d'ete," by Berlioz and "On this Island" by Britten, "The Four Last Songs" by Strauss and a recital for soprano and organ featuring a new commission by Pavel Novak - "The lake of heavenly Desires". She was the soprano soloist in a programme of words and music celebrating the life of Admiral Lord Nelson with Richard Baker as the narrator and also in a programme featuring Dame Judi Dench and her family.

Julie's recordings show her versatility - they include Monteverdi's Christmas Vespers, Haydn's Nelson Mass with St. Paul's Cathedral and Howells' "Hymnus Paradisi" with Vernon Handley and the RLPO.

Julie also enjoys teaching singing at the Royal Academy of Music and is the Artistic Director of the Grove Park Music Festival. She is married to Michael George.

Michael George, established as one of Britain's most versatile bass-baritones, was a chorister at King's College, Cambridge under Sir David Willcocks. He studied at the Royal College of Music, where he was a major prize-winner and has appeared with all the leading UK orchestras and ensembles, both throughout Britain and extensively abroad.

Michael has worked widely as a recording artist, and releases include The Dream of Gerontius, The Messiah, Bach's St. Matthew Passion,and St. John Passion,Schubert's Mass in A Flat with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Boyce Odes with the Hanover band, Bach Cantatas and Masses with King's College Cambridge and Stephen Cleobury, numerous recordings with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, the complete Purcell series with Robert King and The King's Consort and much music with Philip Pickett and the New London Consort, including Monteverdi's "Orfeo".

Performances have included Bach's St Matthew Passion with the Bach Choir, Purcell's "Faerie Queen" in The Netherlands, Cherubini Requiem with Muti, Elgar's "Apostles" and many other works at the Three Choirs Festivals, Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis" with the Halle and Mark Elder, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with Sir Neville Marriner in Brisbane and major tours of Handel's Messiah with Christophers and The Sixteen in Europe and Japan. He has sung with the Vienna Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the LPO. Recent engagements and future plans include "L'Enfance du Christ" in Denmark, Handel's Saul in Holland, a tour of St. John Passions with the Irish Baroque Orchestra, Commendatore in Don Giovanni in Moscow, Riccardo Primo in Basel, Semele and Fidelio for Scottish Opera, further performances of Orfeo all over Europe for Philip Pickett, Messiah in Aarhuis, Paris and with the RLPO, Haydn's Seasons with St Louis Symphony Orchestra, Mozart's Requiem with the Bach Choir and concerts in Montreal. Bach's St. John Passion in Milan and Haydn's Creation in Israel. He sang Aeneas in a new Jonathan Miller production of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in several European countries in 2008 and 2009.

In 2010 he performed Acis and Galatea in many European cities with Philip Pickett. He is performing in a new production of Purcell's Fairy Queen in several European countries in 2011, again with Philip Pickett and The New London Consort

Neil Jenkins, who has been a professional singer for over forty years, began as a Chorister at Westminster Abbey, and a Choral Scholar at King's College Cambridge. He subsequently studied in the Opera School at the Royal College of Music and made his debut in London in October 1967.

For the next ten years he sang and recorded with the Deller Consort, under the direction of Alfred Deller, whilst establishing himself as an opera singer. He was a principal tenor with Kent Opera for the entire twenty years of its existence. In the 1970s he was appointed as an RCM singing professor by Sir David Willcocks, for whom he became a regular soloist with the Bach Choir, especially in the Bach Passions.

He has carved out a unique career, being equally at home as an Operatic, Oratorio and Recital singer; and combining this with an increasingly important role as a musicologist. In 2003 he was appointed to a Cambridge Fellowship to enable him to write a book about Handel's favourite English tenor: John Beard. He has delivered scholarly papers to conferences on Handel and 18th century London Theatrical life.

Neil has translated and edited all of Bach's major choral works for the New Novello Choral Edition, and Haydn's choral works for King's Music. He has produced several song albums for OUP and Kevin Mayhew Ltd.

He has recorded under such eminent batons as those of Bernstein, Britten, Marriner, Mackerras, Chailly, Nagano, Andrew Davis, Hait ink, Norrington, Parrott, Gardiner and Hickox. He is also known for his performances of contemporary music, where he has been directed by Rattle, Henze, Oramo, Atherton, Penderecki, Lutoslawski, Jac van Steen, Boulez and Previn.

Neil has sung wit h all of Britain's leading opera companies, particularly at Glyndebourne, Scottish Opera and WNO. For New Sussex Opera he has sung the tit le roles in Britten's Peter Grimes, Rossini's Count Ory and Mozart's Idomeneo; and for Kent Opera he took the title roles in Robinson Crusoe, Count Ory, and The Return of Ulysses. Performances since 2000 have taken him to New York, Chicago, Berlin, Paris, Lyon, Amsterdam, Geneva, Santiago, Dublin, Belfast and Tel Aviv. His performances in Glyndebourne Festival's Lulu and Higglety Pigglety Pop and Kent Opera's King Priam are available on video. He has had a huge success in the two Monteverdi productions recently at WNO (The Coronation of Poppea and The return of Ulysses), and he rejoined WNO in 2008 for a production of Verdi's Falstaff, starring Bryn Terfel which was broadcast on Radio 3 and seen on S4C TV.

In 2004 Neil was honoured by the Worshipful Company of Musicians with the presentation of the "Sir Charles Santley Memorial Award" for his achievements in his singing career, and his labours in producing new scholarly Bach editions for Novello. Neil is President of the Haywards Heath Music Club, the Shoreham Oratorio Choir, Basildon Choral Society and the Grange Choral Society of Bournemouth; Vice-President of Brighton Competitive Music Festival and Huntingdon Philharmonic Society; and is a Patron of the Goldsmith's Choral Union.

All Hayle to the Days