Lunchtime Music

Mairi McGillivray soprano
Alex Wyatt piano

Ravel Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé:
Frances-Hoad One Life Stand
i. Brief encounter
vi. Rubbish at Adultery
Schubert Totengräbers Heimweh D.842
Turina Tríptico, Op.45: No.1 Farruca

Other performers tbc

Mairi McGillivray (pictured) recently completed her Master of Music in Vocal Performance at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire under the tutelage of Louise Crane, having previously gained a Bachelor of Music from University of Glasgow (one semester at State University of New York).

Whilst Mairi was based in the central belt of Scotland, she performed in projects with Paisley Opera, Glasgow University Opera Society, Scots Opera Project, Edinburgh Studio Opera, Glasgow Bach Cantata Project and Clyde Opera.

In November 2024 she performed the role of Tisbe from Rossini’s La Cenerentola in RBC Opera Scenes and in June 2025 performed the role of Aeneas in the RBC Summer Opera double-bill of Dido and Aeneas/Fête Galante.

In November 2025, Mairi performed the role of Der Komponist in a scene from R. Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos and most recently performed role of L’Opinion Publique in RBC’s fully staged production of Offenbach’s Orphée aux Enfers.

Alongside her duo partner Alex Wyatt, Mairi and Alex were each awarded first place in the vocal and accompanist prizes of the Edward Brookes Lieder Prize in January.
Mairi also works as an artist for Birmingham Opera Company and performed in their fully staged performances of Michael Tippett’s New Year in July 2024, accompanied by the CBSO. In March 2025 she worked with BOC on their Opera Lab project as a chorus mentor on Judith Weir’s woman.life.song. Mairi has also recently featured as a soloist for Buckingham Choral Society, Malvern Festival Chorus, The Phoenix Singers, Pershore Choral Society and Redditch Choral Society.

This summer Mairi performed the role of The Sorceress in Opera Caledonia’s performance of Dido and Aeneas in St. Giles’s Cathedral (Edinburgh) and was a member of the chorus in British Youth Opera’s production of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress. She also appeared as mezzo soprano soloist for Arcadian Opera in their opera gala performance at the Buckingham Music Festival, performing arias from Carmen, Lakmé, Don Giovanni, Il trovatore, Dido and Aeneas, Cavalleria rusticana and La traviata.

Alex Wyatt was born in Milton Keynes in 2003 and began musical studies with violin and piano aged five, supported by local music services. Later he was a student at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, studying violin, piano and composition. He was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain for two years as a composer. Alex recently graduated with a BMus from RBC, where he studied under Dr Robert Markham and Prof Pascal Nemirovski.

Recent concerto engagements include Beethoven Piano Concerto No.5 ‘Emperor’ and Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.1. Alex is a winner of the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra Concerto Prize, supported by the Ludlow Philharmonic Prize Fund.

As a collaborative and ensemble pianist, Alex has worked across a wide variety of repertoire. In 2025 he performed Boulez’s masterwork Sur Incises at the CBSO Centre with other RBC musicians, celebrating the composer’s centenary year. He also performed Quatuor pour le fin de temps by Messiaen in a collaboration between staff and students.

He also has experience in orchestral keyboard, historical piano, with a focus on Classical-era fortepiano playing, and continuo. In 2025 he was a winner of the Leamington Chamber Music Prize, performing with Duo Argentis, a flute duo also based in Birmingham.

In Birmingham Alex has been a repetiteur for multiple opera productions, including Dido and Aeneas and Ethyl Smyth’s Fête galante, conducted by Harry Server. In May he worked on a production of Menotti’s early comic opera The Old Maid and the Thief at the Mayfield Festival. He has accompanied students representing RBC at the Junior Ferrier Bursary awards and regularly played for vocal classes and conducting classes within the Conservatoire. He performed in vocal duo masterclasses from James Gilchrist and Sholto Kynoch. Collaborative projects at RBC have recently included performances from Errollyn Wallen’s Songbook in an evening of cabaret songs and an evening of Purcell and Britten-Purcell arrangements directed by Christopher Bucknall.

During his studies in Birmingham he won several awards, including the Miss Bowen Challenge Cup for First-Year Pianists, the Denis Matthews Prize, the Delia Hall Accompaniment Prize, the Stuart Cameron Smith Prize for French song accompaniment, Edward Brooks Prize for English song accompaniment and the Edward Brooks Prize for Lieder accompaniment

Running time approx. 55 minutes