John Kerr Award - 2nd Place and Audience Prize (2016)

Felicity Hayward studied on the Opera course at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, supported by the Geraint Evans award, and completed undergraduate studies at Trinity College of Music, graduating with First Class Honours and winning the Silver Medal, the Gladys Puttick prize and the Chamber Music Prize. She currently studies privately with Ameral Gunson.

Felicity’s operatic roles to date include Clorinda in Rossini’s La Cenerentola (Jackdaws Young Artists), Rosalinde Die Fledermaus, La Princesse/Une Pastourelle L’Enfant et les Sortilèges and 2nd Woman/1st Witch Dido and Aeneas (all for Iris Theatre). She created the roles of 'Woman' and 'Rhino' in Danyal Dhondy's Just So, an operetta based on Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories, at the 2012 Tête à Tête Opera Festival and in September 2013 she covered the role of Micaela in Bizet’s Carmen (Woodhouse Music). At the RWCMD Felicity covered the role of Female Chorus in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia and played Mrs Grose in ensemble piece Britten’s Women at the Bath International Festival. Later this year, Felicity will be singing the role of High Priestess in Verdi’s Aida for South Downs Opera, as well as covering the title role.

Extensive solo oratorio engagements have included Verdi Requiem, Haydn Nelson Mass and The Creation, Mozart Requiem and Coronation Mass, Handel Messiah, Bach Magnificat, Fauré Requiem and Vivaldi Gloria. She has also performed in masterclasses with Malcolm Martineau, John Fisher, Susan Bullock and Anita Morrison.

Felicity is a passionate exponent of song and of new music, frequently performing and premiering new works. She has collaborated frequently with the London Composers Forum and similar groups, and in 2014 participated in the Flourish Opera Competition at the King’s Head Theatre, in the ensemble cast of they heavily vanish by Timothy Lewis Thornton, which was performed in full at the Tête à Tête Opera Festival in August 2015.

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