Welsh National Opera Announce Annual Orchestra concert season alongside new Associate Artists

Welsh National Opera Announce Annual Orchestra concert season alongside new Associate Artists

• Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama partnership continues with concerts with soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn, mezzo soprano Justina Gringytė, Opera Gala, Conductors’ Showcase and Side-by-Side concerts
• New Associate Artists join WNO for Autumn Season and concert series
• WNO Chorus return with A Chorus Christmas

Welsh National Opera has announced its WNO Orchestra concert programme which gets underway during the Autumn 2025 Season. This will see them joined by internationally renowned singers for concerts as well as taking to the road for their popular seasonal tours.

The programme begins with WNO Orchestra joined by soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn for a concert at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama’s Dora Stoutzker Hall in Cardiff under the baton of Czech conductor Jiří Habart.

Elizabeth will sing Wagner’s romantic song cycle, Wesendonck Lieder, inspired by five poems reflecting forbidden love and longing. Jiří Habart will conduct a programme that includes Die Ruinen von Athen, a series of dramatic music by Beethoven which include the famous, Turkish March. This is followed by Haydn’s overture from Die Schöpfung and concludes with Dvořák’s Symphony No 8. Performances will take place on Friday 24 and Saturday 25 October.

WNO Orchestra return to perform alongside the singers of the David Seligman Opera School at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama’s annual Opera Gala. The programme will feature familiar operatic favourites and will be performed on Tuesday 2 and Wednesday 3 December.

WNO Chorus return with A Chorus Christmas and will perform side by side with singers from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama on Saturday 6 December at Tabernacl Chapel, Cardiff. Under the baton of WNO Chorus Master Frederick Brown and RWCMD Director of Music Tim Rhys-Evans, the concert will include opera, Welsh choral pieces and Christmas music by composers John Rutter, Britten and John Taverner.

WNO New Associate Artists

Baritone Owain Rowlands and bass-baritone Ross Fettes join the Company as WNO’s new Associate Artists from September. As Associate Artists they will receive training, support, and gain experience with roles in operas, concerts and WNO’s community and engagement work.

Carmarthen born baritone Owain Rowlands has worked with WNO through his studies at RWCMD performing at WNO’s annual Opera Gala and covering the roles of Notary, Guccio and Pinellino in WNO’s recent production of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. He has represented Wales at Expo 2025 in Japan as the Cultural International Ambassador for the Urdd and the RWCMD.

Owain performs regularly on the competition platform, winning accolades including Llais Llwyfan Llanbed, London Welsh Young Singer Competition, W Town Roberts Scholarship prize and the Sir Ian Stoutzker Prize. He has also been a finalist in the Sir Bryn Terfel Scholarship Competition, Pendine International Voice of the Future at Llangollen Eisteddfod and Dunraven Young Singer of the Year. Owain will represent WNO at this year’s Eisteddfod performing alongside former Associate Artist Erin Rossington and Orchestra member Llinos Owen. As an Associate Artist this Autumn Season, Owain will take on the role of Jailer in Tosca, cover for Maximilian in Candide and will also perform in WNO’s School concerts. As part of the Spring 2026 Season, Owain will perform as a soloist in the annual New Year’s Celebration Concert Tour, will cover Mr Evans in Blaze of Glory! and will be part of the extra chorus in Blaze of Glory! and The Flying Dutchman.

Scottish bass-baritone Ross Fettes recently graduated from the Royal College of Music’s International Opera School in London, where he studied under the tutelage of Graeme Broadbent, prior to that he was tutored by Brindley Sherratt. He is a Stephen Roberts Scholar supported by the Stephen Catto Memorial Scholarship Award, a Countess of Munster Trust scholar and a Josephine Baker Trust Scholar.

Ross performed with Scottish Opera in the 2019 touring production of Amadeus and the Bard, and recent opera performances all at the Royal College of Music include the roles of Figaro in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Don Inigo Gomez in Ravel’s L’heure espagnole, Baron Mirko Zeta in Lehár’s The Merry Widow, and Pasquariello in Salieri’s Don Giovanni Tenorio. He has also performed Figaro with Westminster Opera in their production of The Marriage of Figaro.

For WNO, Ross will take on the role as Sacristan in Tosca this Autumn Season he will also join Owain as a soloist in the annual New Year’s Celebration Concert Tour and will cover the role of Daland and will be part of the extra chorus in The Flying Dutchman in the Spring 2026 Season. They will both have other opportunities to perform at other events and engagements as well as the annual Associate Artist Recital.

They will both have other opportunities to perform at other events and engagements as well as the Annual Associate Artist Recital which will be performed on Sunday 5 July 2026. 

Owain said: ‘I’m thrilled to be joining Welsh National Opera as an Associate Artist next season. This opportunity feels like an essential step in my development, working alongside the incredible WNO Orchestra and learning from such inspiring singers, conductors and directors. Last season, I was fortunate enough to cover a couple of roles in Gianni Schicchi, and the experience was invaluable. I learned so much through the process, all within the supportive and welcoming environment that makes WNO such a special place to grow.’

Ross said: ‘I’m absolutely thrilled to be joining Welsh National Opera as an Associate Artist. Originally from Glasgow, regional theatre and opera were my first introduction to the art form, so it’s a real honour to be joining another regional company that brings opera to audiences across Wales and England. I’m excited to be working and living in Cardiff, and I can’t wait to get started.’

WNO Orchestra 2026 Season

To ring in the New Year, WNO Orchestra will once again fill the air with some of the finest examples of Viennese music for A New Year Celebration concert tour. Concertmaster David Adams will lead a selection of waltzes, polkas and classical favourites from the likes of Josef Strauss, Johann Strauss II, Dvořák, Weber and Brahms, with the Orchestra joined by WNO’s new Associate Artists, Owain Rowlands and Ross Fettes.

The concert tour will open in Theatr Brycheiniog, Brecon on Saturday 3 January 2026 before visiting Ilfracombe on Sunday 4 January,  Bangor on Friday 9 January; Hafren on Saturday 10 January; Southampton on Sunday 11 January; Cardiff at RWCMD’s Dora Stoutzker Hall for two performances on Friday 16 January; and finishing in Truro on Sunday 18 January.

In February, WNO Orchestra return to the Dora Stouzker Hall for a concert conducted by Conductor Laureate Carlo Rizzi. Mezzo soprano Justina Gringytė will join the Company to sing Florence Price’s Adoration, Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été and Bruckner’s Symphony No 4. Two performances of the concert will take place on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 February 2026.

May will see the return of the Conductor’s Showcase where the young conductors at RWCMD conduct WNO Orchestra in a lunchtime celebration of young talent. The showcase will be on Tuesday 19 May.

WNO Orchestra will round off their year of partnership with the RWCMD with their regular Side-by-Side concert. The Side-by-Side sessions give music students the opportunity to learn from and play with members of our Orchestra and is an invaluable experience to students who may have never played with an orchestra before. The concert will include Vaughan Williams Oboe Concerto and Rachmaninov Symphony No 2. The concert is performed on Wednesday 24 June.

wno.org.uk

ENDS

Notes to Editors

Welsh National Opera is the national opera company for Wales, funded by the Arts Councils of Wales and England to provide large-scale opera, concerts and outreach across Wales and to major cities in the English regions. We endeavour to provide transformative experiences through our education and outreach programme and our award-winning digital projects. We work with our partners to discover and nurture young operatic talent, and we aim to show future generations that opera is a rewarding, relevant and universal art form with the power to affect and inspire.

WNO production images are available for download at wno.org.uk/press Further information on WNO’s productions can be found at wno.org.uk

• Leader of WNO Orchestra is Supported by Mathew and Lucy Prichard
• WNO Orchestra is Supported by Mathew and Lucy Prichard
• WNO Orchestra Chairs are Supported by Principal Players Circle
• WNO is grateful for the generous support of the Shirley & Rolf Olsen Bursary, Sheila and Richards Brooks Bursary, Anthony Evans Scholarship, The Eira Francis Davies Bursary, Joseph Strong Frazer Trust, Stanley Picker Trust, The Noël Coward Foundation, Thriplow Charitable Trust and the Chris Ball Bursary towards our WNO Associate Artist programme.

For more information, photos or interviews please contact:

Christina Blakeman, Communications Manager Christina.blakeman@wno.org.uk