MEET THE TEAM
Joe Davies
Founder and Artistic Director
Recently praised for his 'musical brilliance' (Seen and Heard International), Joe Davies is a Conductor working across the UK. He is Musical Director of the UK Proms in the Park Orchestra, Canterbury Symphony Orchestra, Leamington Sinfonia, and Midland Concert Orchestra, Assistant Conductor of the English Symphony Orchestra, and Artistic Director and Founder of the Cumbria Opera Group. Upcoming and previous engagements include the National Schools' Symphony Orchestra, Oxford University Orchestra, Winchester Symphony Orchestra, and the City of Southampton Orchestra. MD credits include Candide at the Oxford Playhouse and Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, Trouble in Tahiti, A Hand of Bridge, Acis and Galatea, Venus and Adonis and Dido and Aeneas with the Cumbria Opera Group.
Joan Rodgers CBE
Artistic Patron
Joan Rodgers is equally established in opera, concert and as a recitalist. She has appeared in concert with conductors including Solti, Barenboim, Mehta, Harnoncourt, Mackerras, Ashkenazy, Salonen, Rattle, Elder and Bolton. She has appeared in recitals and concerts throughout Europe and the USA. Operatic engagements have included performances at all the major UK opera houses as well as in Paris, Munich, Brussels, Amsterdam and Vienna and the Metropolitan Opera, New York.
Joan Rodgers received the Royal Philharmonic Society award as Singer of the Year for 1997, the 1997 Evening Standard Award for outstanding performance in opera for her performance as The Governess in the Royal Opera’s production of The Turn of the Screw and an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Liverpool University in July 2005. Joan Rodgers was awarded the CBE in the 2001 New Year’s Honours List.
Lucy Britton
Managing Director
Lucy's love of music began when she joined her parish church choir aged eight, and she first became involved with opera when singing the titular role in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas while at school. At university, she sang with Schola Cantorum of Oxford and held choral scholarships at Keble College and Wolfson College Oxford. Lucy graduated with a degree in Biochemistry in 2019, and has since enjoyed learning the ropes of running an opera company.
Jonny Danciger
Theatrical Director
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Jonny read Music at St Peter’s College, Oxford. He has worked with the Royal Opera House (Faust) and British Youth Opera (Scoring a Century), assisting Keith Warner. Direction credits include large-scale productions of Don Giovanni, The Cave, Candide, and world-premieres of works by Toby Young and Joel Baldwin. He is the artistic director of international theatre company Barricade Arts, and has acted professionally under directors Polly Findlay (Twisted Tales, Lyric Theatre) and Steven Daldry (Billy Elliot, Victoria Palace Theatre). Jonny works as a freelance director, composer and designer in London, recently staging his own score of The Tempest for chamber ensemble and live electronics.
Persia Babayan-Taylor
Theatrical Director
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Persia trained as an Actor Musician at Guildford School of Acting. Since graduating, she has begun a varied career in the performance industry, including performing in London’s West End, composing music for theatre with collective Jupiter Creatives and co-directing and producing Swallows and Armenians at Theatre by the Lake.
Persia began working with the Cumbria Opera Group in 2017, co-producing Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, then directing John Blow’s Venus and Adonis in 2018. Persia directed Così fan tutte in the inaugural Cumbria Opera Festival and Don Giovanni at the 2023 Festival.
Jen Hartley
Associate Composer
Jen studied Music at Cambridge, where she stayed to do a PGCE. A love of composing grew out of co-creating pieces with school Theatre Arts Departments, and her compositions include several standalone pieces for choir, orchestra, and chamber groups, and longer works for theatre and ballet. Kings, Witches, Lovers and Souls is her second commission for the Cumbria Opera Group, following the premiere of the Lakeland Song Cycle in September 2021. Jen has worked with choirs, orchestras, and smaller ensembles, as well as being an experienced accompanist, and enjoys performing as one half of a piano duo. She recently completed a PhD in Music Education and is still actively involved in the research community. She is due to take up a new role at Chetham’s School of Music in September 2024.
Board of Trustees
