Mark Tinkler

Founder & Artistic Director

Mark founded EPOC in 1993 and has been its artistic director ever since. He has been involved in music all his life: as a boy chorister; opera singer; opera director; choral leader; and music educator.

Training: St. John’s College Choir School, Cambridge; Leighton Park School, Reading; Manchester University (B.Mus. Hons); Royal Northern College of Music (GRNCM, PPRNCM); Berlin; Firenze.

Writer, Workshop leader: EPOC; Opera North; English National Opera; Scottish Opera.

Visiting Tutor: CCM (University of Cincinnatti); Opera Studio (Casa da Musica, Porto, Portugal); QMC University of London; London College of Fashion; Rose Bruford College; Royal Academy of Music; Royal College of Music; Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama; Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Director: Scottish Opera; Birmingham Opera Company, Aldeburgh, BBC Proms; Opera North; Music Theatre Lucca; Haddo House Opera, Scotland; Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Teatro de la Zarzuela, Madrid.

Singer: Glyndebourne Touring Opera; Scottish Opera; Paris, Caen, France; Batignano Festival, Italy; Holland Park Opera; Opera North; Buxton Festival; London Symphony Orchestra; Bayreuther Festpielchor; Halle Orchestra; Edinburgh Festival; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra; Northern Sinfonia; Ulster Orchestra.

Posts; Director of Productions, Haddo House Opera, 1997-2000; Board member, Opera and Music Theatre Forum 2005-9; Governing Body, Pooles Park Primary School 2007 – present; Artistic Director, English Pocket Opera Company 1993 – present.

Paul Featherstone

Associate Director

Paul was a professional actor until he discovered at the age of 30 that he had an operatic tenor voice. He sang in the chorus and with the education team at Scottish Opera for a few years before embarking on a solo career. Since then he has sung all over the world from Paris to Pago Pago, Salzburg to Shetland. His favourite roles have been unstable poetic types like Rodolfo (La Boheme), Hoffmann (Tales of Hoffmann) & Werther (Werther) and noisemongers such as Calaf (Turandot) & Canio (I Pagliacci). He first worked for EPOC in 2011, singing Siegfried in “Wagner’s Ring in 90 Minutes” and since then he has introduced opera to thousands of children from Camden to Carlisle and from Barnet to Bosnia in EPOC’s innovative interactive workshops and singfest performances. Also for EPOC, he has directed productions of Bartok’s “Bluebeard’s Castle” and Verdi’s “Macbeth”. www.paulfeatherstone.com

Pamela Hay

Associate Producer/Associate Artist

Polish-American soprano Pamela, born in New York City and now living in London, studied at the Royal College of Music and Peabody Conservatory. Pamela made her debut as soloist with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, in a concert and interview broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland.  She was invited to return as soloist to the BBC SSO in a concert broadcast on BBC Radio 3 as part of their 2013 “Sound of Cinema” series.

Pamela returned as guest soloist on BBC Radio 2′s Friday Night is Music Night, having made her debut there in 2010 with the BBC Concert Orchestra. In the same season she also made her debut as soloist with the Hallé Orchestra. Pamela has given solo recitals in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Salzburg, Belgium, Costa Rica, and at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden.

Pamela played Mimi in the 2011 Olivier Award-winning production of La Bohème at the Soho Theatre, and has played over 30 roles in opera and musical theatre including Ellen Lakmé (Opera Holland Park), Juliette Roméo et Juliette (Royal Albert Hall), title role The Fairy Queen (Royal Albert Hall), Gretel Hansel and Gretel and Euridice Orfeo ed Euridice (English Pocket Opera), Nedda Pagliacci (King’s Head Theatre), Donna Elvira Don Giovanni (British Youth Opera), Sylla Ulla’s Odyssey (UK premiere: London’s Kings Place, plus UK tour), Title role La voix humaine (Friedberg Theatre, Baltimore), Title role Merry Widow (Kentish Opera), Yum-Yum The Mikado (national tour, Opera Della Luna).

Her work has also included frequent work in the theatre, performing roles at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, and in the national tour of Tony Award-winning play Master Class, playing Sharon Graham opposite Stephanie Beacham as Maria Callas. Pamela is the voice of phone network Orange in their online campaign for their HD Voice service, and has a featured role in Guy Ritchie’s film Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows starring Robert Downey Jr. www.pamelahay.com