Alexandra Achillea

Orpheus

Greek mezzo-soprano Alexandra Achillea performs across opera, art song, chamber music, folk, and new music. The forthcoming season finds her at the Athens Megaron Concert Hall, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Festspielhaus St. Pölten, and the Alternative Stage of the Greek National Opera.

Some of her recent performance highlights include a European tour with Martha Argerich as a soloist with the Peace Orchestra under Ricardo Castro, appearing at several renowned venues such as the Philharmonie de Paris, Auditorium Manzoni, and Teatro Galli; BBC Proms debut at the Glasshouse with the Royal Northern Sinfonia conducted by Ellie Slorach; Dallapiccola's Goethe-Lieder at the BBC Total Immersion: Italian Radicals at the Barbican; and Lili Boulanger’s Psalm 130:Du fond de l'abîme at the Barbican Hall under Marius Stravinsky. In 2022 she made her Carnegie Weill Hall recital debut with pianist Élisabeth Pion, and later that year, they performed Messiaen’s epic cycle Harawi at Barbican’s Milton Court, which they regularly revive ever since. Her performances have been broadcast on BNR Radio Bulgaria, BBC Radio 3: New Generation Artists and In Tune, and RSI Radiotelevisione Svizzera. 

She has appeared at international festivals including Settimane Musicali di Ascona, Musicon Durham, Oropa Music Festival, Chipping Campden Festival, Cambridge Summer Music Festival, Music Village Festival, Horto International Music Festival, Plovdiv Chamber Music Festival, and in esteemed venues like Snape Maltings, Cafe Oto and Wigmore Hall.

On the opera stage, Alexandra has performed the roles of Sister Helen Prejean in the London stage premiere of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, Ottavia in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, The Queen in Ethel Smyth’s Fete Galante and Signora Guidotti in Rota’s I due timidi (Guildhall Opera). She has created two roles in chamber operas for Opera Makers in association with The Royal Opera House and joined the 2023 Glyndebourne Opera Chorus. In a collaboration with Figure Ensemble, she performed a staged reimagining of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater reworked by Alex Mills, alongside Dame Emma Kirkby and directed by Sophie Daneman.

Passionate for new music, she collaborates closely with composers, developing and premiering new work. Recent projects include Beatrice Ferreira’s pas de deux for voice and electronics premiered at nonclassical’s 20th anniversary at Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room, and Eden Lonsdale’s voicings, a concerto for voice written for her and premiered at Britten Sinfonia’s Magnum Opus Showcase at St Giles Cripplegate.

Claire-Monique Martin

Persephone, Musical Objects

Hong Kong-born actress, singer and musician Claire-Monique Martin trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. Her theatre credits in the UK and Europe include All’s Well That Ends Well, Antigone, Macbeth, Animal Farm, Twelfth Night, Murder in the Cathedral, The Merchant of Venice and No For An Answer, alongside Off-Broadway productions including Long Lost John, Love Me Tender, Enemy of the People, and This Is Me. She was recently nominated for Best Supporting Performance at the inaugural Fringe Theatre Awards for her performance as Ilse Paulsen in Savage. Claire-Monique is delighted to return to Vertebrae Theatre, having previously played Clytemnestra in Electra Untitled at the Barcelona Fringe Festival in 2025 and the Chorus at the Arcola Theatre in 2024. Her screen work includes the feature film Contrary Motion, in which she played Nina.

Claire-Monique is the founder of Fractured Time Productions, creating new work for stage and screen. Previous Fractured Time productions include Dora Versus Picasso, Around the Globe in 80 Plays, The Strange Affair of Herschel Grynspan, The Dying Wish, Jazz, Love & Rhapsody and Beyond the Frame.

Benjamin Press

Hades, Newscast

Ben Press is a London-based actor trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York. His theatre work includes Dr John Watson in The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Accountant and The Worst Person I Know, with the latter two roles written specifically for him. He is delighted to be playing Hades.

Mayra Stergiou

Librettist, Director, Puppeteer for Eurydice

Mayra (she/they) is a professional Director, Choreographer and Performer. She trained in Lecoq Devised Theatre and Performance at London International School of Performing Arts, in Dramatherapy at University of Derby (MA), in Contact Improvisation and other physical theatre methods. She directs and performs in Devised Theatre, Opera and New Music pieces. In 2013 she founded the Visual Theatre company “Vertebra Theatre”. She has been a visiting lecturer teaching Puppetry, Mask and Embodiment (Roehampton, RCSSD, UAL). Recent Opera credits include:Puppeteer, for Handel: Aci, Galatea e Polifemo by Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin & Janni Younge, Composed by Georg Kallweit and Directed by Janni Younge, at Pierre Boulez Saal, The Game by Elif Karlidag and Electra Untitled. www.mayrastergiou.com

Emanuel Samant-Crampton

Piano

Emanuel Samant-Crampton studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. He hopes to further pursue a career heavily involving opera repetiteur work.

Efe Yüksel

Electronics

Efe Yüksel (1999) is a composer, electronic musician, and melodica performer from İzmir (Turkey), based in London. He is currently undertaking doctoral studies in the Guildhall School of Music, supervised by Julian Anderson and Aaron Einbond, looking into the structural organisation of inharmonic sonorities and formulating a personal theory of working with noise. His work involves exploring the physical capabilities of instruments via close collaborations and the use of live electronic processing.  His works have been performed by the Zöllner-Roche Duo, Ligeti and Bozzini Quartets, Plus-Minus Ensemble, EXAUDI, glissotar performer Etienne Rolin and pianist Huw Watkins, among others. Alongside composing, he is active as a melodica performer, with a particular focus on the bass melodica, writing and commissioning new works for the instrument. He is supported by the Guildhall School Trust, Talent Unlimited and Dr. Nejat F. Eczacıbaşı Foundation and was the recipient of Ian Horsbrugh Memorial Prize for Composition.

Goi Ywei Chern

Composer

Goi Ywei Chern is a Singaporean composer and guitarist based in London. His music is evocative, intense, and mystical, often inspired by his interests in ancient history, mythology, and traditional music. 

In 2025, his opera Medusa, described as "evocative and charming" by The Reviews Hub and "a stunning reimagining of a well-trodden story" by Everything Theatre, composed with a libretto by Jess McNulty, was premiered in London. His song Letter from Heaven, composed for the Composers & Poets Forum Showcase: A Leeds Songbook in collaboration with poet Yvonne Ugarte, who wrote the lyrics, was performed in the Leeds Lieder Festival in 2024. His compositions have been performed in Singapore, London, Leeds, Bangkok, and Ayrshire.

Goi has taken part in numerous performances and competitions, winning the 11th International Antonin Dvorak Composition Competition (Senior Category) in 2023 and the Leong Yoon Pin Composition Competition in 2016. He also participated in MusicFest Aberystwyth in 2019, and he was selected as one of eight composers to participate in The Cumnock Tryst International Summer-School for Composers 2024 under the guidance of Sir James MacMillan and Oscar Bettison, where his piece Charybdis for contrabass clarinet and string trio was performed on the Dumfries House estate.

In 2026, Goi performed as the soloist in Efe Yüksel's piece Confluences for guitar and chamber ensemble, and he performs as part of Duo Flore with flautist Jess McNulty. He is currently undertaking a DMus (Composition Route) in the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under the supervision of Professors Richard Baker, Matt Kaner, and Julian Anderson.

He previously studied in the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) School of Music, receiving his Diploma in Music Performance in 2016 and NAFA-RCM Undergraduate degree (funded by the OCBC Local Undergraduate Scholarship) in 2019, and the Royal College of Music, where he achieved a Distinction in the Master of Music in Composition degree . He has studied the guitar under Manuel Cabrera II and Hunter Mah and composition under Dr Zechariah Goh, Professor Kenneth Hesketh, and Professor Alison Kay. He is also a Britten Pears Young Artist 2026-27. 

Sam Redway

Dramaturg 

Sam is an international award-winning, multi-disciplinary dramaturg, director, and writer with a deep passion for co-creation, climate focused arts practice, and creative democracy. His work crosses theatre, opera, new music, and community driven performance and is always informed by equitable practice and the empowered performer.

He is currently developing Don't Step on the Cracks as librettist with Laura Bowler and the Youth Opera Company for Royal Ballet & Opera and a co-created opera with NHS workers and the Manchester Medical Orchestra composed by Dave Roche and directed by Felicity Greenand. Sam is Associate Artist (Dramaturgy) of Smoking Apples Theatre Company (Kinder, Ettie and Offie TYA Awards) and The Spark Arts for Children’s Associate Artist for Building Brave Spaces investigating the performing arts’ roles in improving child voice and agency in schools. Sam is a trustee of Cambridge Handel Opera Compamy to support their work empowering youth voice and was co-founder of the multi-international award winning Knaïve Theatre Bin Laden: The One Man Show & War With The Newts)

Recent work includes: Dangerous Matter with Zakiya Leeming, Rosie Middleton & RNCM post-graduate singers (director/librettist), Laura Bowler's The Girl With The Hurricane Brain (librettist, Copenhagen Opera Festival), Elif Karlidag's The Game (librettist) and Abel Esbenshade's Horse Person Opera (director, Tete-a-Tete Opera Festival).

Georgia Moditi

Costume Designer 

Georgia Moditi is a Nicosia-based fashion designer and the founder and creative director of her eponymous label, established in 2014. She studied Fashion Design and Design for Performance at Birmingham City University, later specialising in Styling and Fashion History at London College of Fashion. She returned to Cyprus and spent a decade working as a fashion stylist and editor for a leading publishing group before focusing on her own label. Her work is rooted in a slower, more conscious approach to fashion, with all garments designed by her and made in Cyprus by women, while the brand follows a seasonless model focused on timeless design, quality and longevity. Based in Kaimakli, where she has established her studio and shop, Georgia also works across the wider arts and performance scene, designing costumes for dance, music and site-specific projects. In 2025, she was honoured with the Best Designer Award at the Madame Figaro Women of the Year Awards, recognising her contribution to contemporary fashion and design in Cyprus. Through her practice, she combines fashion, craftsmanship, education and community, contributing to the evolving creative landscape of Cyprus.