Yvonne Sandison

Yvonne Sandison was born in Cheshire, and studied at Chetham's School of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music with Frederic Cox. While at college, she won the Miriam Licette Scholarship which enabled her to further her studies in Paris under the distinguished French coach, Janine Reiss.

She subsequently studied at the National Opera Studio with a Peter Stuyvesant Foundation Scholarship. She received the Glyndebourne Touring Opera Singers' Award and made her Festival début in Die Zauberflöte - other roles there included A Midsummer Night's Dream (Hippolyta), Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Rosina) and L'amour des Trois Oranges (Linette).

She made her début at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in Der Rosenkavalier under Sir Georg Solti. Other notable appearances include Erda/Flosshilde/Grimgerde in Graham Vick's Ring Cycle for City of Birmingham Touring Opera, Hippolyta in the critically-acclaimed production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Grimgerde in Scottish Opera's production of Die Walküre, Third Lady at the Grand Theatre de Bordeaux and at Covent Garden, and a tour of A Midsummer Night's Dream to Paris, Montpellier, Lyon and Caen.

Yvonne recorded Malcolm Williamson's Six English Lyrics for Abbey records with the Scottish Baroque Ensemble and has appeared regularly on the concert platform, where performances have included Elgar's Sea Pictures in Ulster, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Beethoven's Mass in C in Singapore and The Dream of Gerontius in Manchester.

Operatic roles have included Suzuki in Madam Butterfly, Mother Goose in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress for Welsh National Opera, Margaret in Wozzeck for Opera North, Larina in Eugene Onegin for Opera Ireland, Suzuki at the Royal Albert Hall and 'Friday Night is Music Night' with the BBC Concert Orchestra.

More recently, Yvonne has combined a busy oratorio career with teaching at Uppingham and Oakham Schools and she is now a vocal tutor at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. She is also a qualified yoga teacher for individuals and class work and has given workshops in Britain, Ireland and in Europe, specialising in yoga for singers.