OLIVER GOOCH conductor and répétiteur studied at Magdalene College, Cambridge (Organ Scholar), GSMD and NOS. He also studied conducting at the Tanglewood Festival under Robert Spano and Seiji Ozawa and was nominated for the Rolex/Mentor Protégé Arts Initiative under Colin Davis. In 2000, he founded Opera East Productions as Artistic Director. For them, he has conducted The Turn of the Screw, Albert Herring, The Rape of Lucretia, The Cunning Little Vixen, Così fan tutte and Lennox Berkeley A Dinner Engagement; next season he will conduct La Cenerentola and Don Giovanni. Other operatic work includes The Bear (Edinburgh), The Little Sweep (Aldeburgh) and Maskarade (GSMD).
He is Principal Conductor of the Pepys Ensemble and made his London debut with the Salomon Orchestra last year. As an accompanist, he has broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and 4. During the 2004/05 season, he will play piano for La rondine, and will join the Royal Opera music staff for Werther, Madama Butterfly and Turandot. He will also act as assistant conductor on The Royal Ballet triple bill Tombeaux, Enigma Variations, The Rite of Spring ih March and Midsummers Night's Dream/Symphony in C in April.
He has recently been appointed Music Director of Iford Festival Opera and will be the Assistant Conductor for Glyndebourne on Tour's production of Le Nozze di Figaro at the end of the year.

SUSANNA STRANDERS studied at the University of Exeter and at GSMD, where she won the Accompanists' Prize, the Schubert Lieder Prize and the John Ireland Prize. As opera coach at the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio, she was supported by the Sir Henry Richardson Award 2000-02 and the Magro Foundation. At CCM, she conducted Dido and Aeneas, was Music Director for 3's Company and répétiteur for Pelléas et Mélisande, The Crucible and the world premiere of The Memory Game. She was répétiteur for Cincinnati Opera in summer 2002, playing for productions of Roméo et Juliette and Le nozze di Figaro. With San Francisco Opera's Merola Programme in 2003 she was répétiteur and orchestral pianist for productions of The Medium and Angélique and répétiteur for Il barbiere di Siviglia.
In 2003/4, she was a member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, working as répétiteur and orchestral pianist for the world première of HGO's production of The End of the Affair, as répétiteur and orchestral celesta player for Turandot, as Assistant Chorus Master for Die Zauberflöte and as répétiteur for Giulio Cesare. She has participated in master classes with Graham Johnson, Martin Katz, Warren Jones, Stephen Blier, Sir Thomas Allen, Jane Eaglen, Tom Krause, Reri Grist, François LeRoux and Jonathan Miller.
During the 2004/5 season she will join The Royal Opera music staff for Werther, Die Walküre, Madama Butterfly and Rigoletto.