There are 15–20 vocal places at EYSM, and we aim to welcome applications from across the classical voice spectrum to create a balanced ensemble.
Our Vocal Course has a Classical focus with the majority of the week centred around collaboration and ensemble repertoire. Students will also receive solo masterclasses with a professional accompanist and vocal tutor as well as a range of workshops focussed on Vocal development. All vocal students will experience performing with an orchestra as part of the EYSM Course Choir and there are further opportunities to join the Chamber Choir and Musical Theatre option sessions.
Working closely with our Vocal Director and Vocal Tutors students will have the chance to:
Timothy is a tenor, conductor and composer based in Sheffield. He performs around the UK as an oratorio soloist and classical session singer, regularly working with Sony Music Masterworks company RG Live. Soloist performance highlights include the Royal Albert Hall, Barbican, Bridgewater Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Birmingham Symphony Hall and The Sage Gateshead, with broadcasts on BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC Radio 4. He has appeared with ensembles including the San Francisco Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, British Sinfonietta, Northern Ballet Sinfonia, London Concert Orchestra and Ensemble Deva, and records and tours extensively with Kantos Chamber Choir. Before returning north last year, he sang with the Chapels Royal choir at HM Tower of London.
As a music leader, Timothy works with Barnsley Youth Choir, recently celebrating international success as 64 singers represented Great Britain at the Canta al Mar International Choir Competition in Spain, winning both the Youth and Pop categories and achieving the highest score of the event. He is a member of Music Staff for the National Youth Choir, having previously been awarded a Fellowship during which he recorded Ben Nobuto’s Sol, winner of an Ivor Novello award. In Sheffield he works at Sheffield Theatres as Vocal Coach, leads the Staff Choir, and is Vocal Consultant for the Young Company and Community Theatre programmes. He is also Assistant Music Director of Sheffield Oratorio Chorus and Steel City Choristers and leads choral outreach for Grange Park Opera in the region.
In January 2025, Timothy founded FaceNoise, a choral foundation bringing collaborative, creative music-making to new singers and audiences through a weekly community choir, workshop series, multi-day retreats and discovery weekends. His current composition work sets Peak District folk stories inspired by Joe Winstanley’s FOLKS series.
Joanna García gained a First Class Honours Bachelor of Music degree from Manchester University in 1996, also winning three Hargreaves Music Prizes and the Sir Thomas Beecham Medal for outstanding achievement throughout the course.
She continued her studies at the RNCM with Paul Janes and Renna Kellaway, and David Francis for harpsichord, obtaining the sought-after Professional Performance Diploma and a Postgraduate Diploma in Performance. She won the Granada Chamber Music Award, the Song Cycle Accompanist’s Prize, an Allcard Award, and an English-Speaking Union scholarship to study piano in France with teachers from the Paris Conservatoire.
Following her studies, Joanna was offered a two-year Junior Fellowship in accompanying at the RNCM, and was subsequently appointed as Assistant Staff Tutor in Accompaniment. She also worked as Staff Accompanist at Chetham’s School of Music, and taught piano at Manchester University.
Joanna has performed with eminent musicians such as Sir John Tomlinson in a concert shown on the South Bank Show, had a long-standing duo partnership with viola player Robin Ireland, performed a recital in Buenos Aires with tenor Roberto García López, and performed with the Lindsay Quartet in their Sheffield Festival. She has a CD of contemporary music which is available internationally, and she is particularly passionate about collaborative musicianship.
Joanna particularly enjoys working with singers as a coach, and has been repetiteur and conductor with Heritage Opera, conducting operas such as Tosca and Don Giovanni. She has conducted many youth and adult choirs over a number of years, and has a passion for music in education, having worked from 2001 until 2018 as a primary and secondary school teacher, specialist music teacher, and then Assistant and Deputy Headteacher.
Joanna now has a busy teaching schedule as director of the Joanna García Piano School, and works with students internationally. She is also a pedagogy coach with her own team of associate tutors and other piano teachers, a music consultant in schools, and works as occasional staff pianist at the RNCM.
Jane trained as a lyric Soprano at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland gaining a BMus (Hons) and then at the Royal College of Music where she was awarded a graduate diploma.
At the Royal College of music she won the Godfrey van Someran competition for English song and was a runner up in the BBC Radio 3 Kiri Te Kanawa competition. Her solo recital work has taken her across the UK Europe and South Africa. She has performed at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre, the Usher Hall, Bridgewater Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall among many others.
Jane has an extensive and varied recording career; starting with the early learning Centre education CDs, to new compositions in the English song genre, all the way to lead vocals on four albums with the folk rock group Otherworld.
Oratorio play a large part in Janes singing career. She has been soprano soloist in Gloria (Vivaldi), Te Deum (Dvorak), C Minor Mass (Mozart), Requiem (Mozart), Messiah (Handel), Israel in Egypt (Handel), Magnificent (Rutter) and Nelson Mass (Hayden).
Jane is currently vocal tutor at Imperial College, London and Laine Theatre Arts. She formerly taught at Brunel University, Chelsea Academy, Tiffin Girls’ School and a handful of schools across London. Her pedagogy training has included the Voices Foundation, National Youth Choirs of Great Britain and Classical Voice Training.
After achieving a first-class honours degree in Music at the University of Sheffield, specialising in jazz vocals, Cesca went on to achieve a distinction in her MA in Music Theatre from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Alongside her work as a professional actor and vocalist, Cesca also works as both a private vocal coach and a vocal coach at CAPA Performing Art College.
Described by Jez Matthews, director of the award-winning venue Jazz at the Lescar, as a “distinctive and captivating singer, and fine arranger with an eclectic set of influences”, Cesca is continually fuelled by her fascination with storytelling, improvisation and embodiment, working to produce dynamic and exciting new art.
Having been a student on both the orchestral and vocal courses at EYSM, before moving on to join the house staff team and now the vocal team, EYSM has been a huge influence on Cesca’s vocal development and professional journey. As such, she is always thrilled to be back working on the course, meeting the next generation of EYSM singers and helping them develop their vocal confidence and artistry.
