Meet the team
Mark Bradbury: Director
Mark trained as a professional singer at the Royal Academy of Music in London and went on to perform in opera and on the concert platform throughout Europe. He was a member of the Glyndebourne Chorus for 10 years and played an active role in the groundbreaking Glyndebourne Opera education department. Mark continues to inspire creative music making across many generations as animateur/ workshop leader. He is the choral director of Little Notes and Big Notes Choirs and founder director of the international early years education program Little Notes. He developed the first Build an Opera summer school in 2014, is one of the directors of SongBuilders and runs his own voice coaching studio at horshamsingingteacher.co.uk
Christopher Hussey:
Musical Director/ Composer
Christopher Hussey is a composer, arranger, orchestrator, audio producer and educational author. He studied composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and at the University of Cambridge, and his original music includes orchestral concert pieces, choral music, jazz scores, theatre music and works for children and amateur musicians. His work has been performed at venues including the Barbican Centre, Purcell Room, St. John’s Smith Square and Wigmore Hall. His choral work Dreamtide was shortlisted by BASCA in the British Composer Awards in 2012, and in 2015, two of his concert pieces for woodwind orchestra were released on the contemporary classical music album, Twisted Skyscape, performed by the Czech Philharmonic Wind Ensemble. As an orchestrator, Christopher has worked on musical theatre scores and orchestral scores for TV, and his work as an arranger includes over 400 sheet music publications and recordings (ranging from choral pop scores to classical piano albums), big band arrangements and a concert suite of the Oscar-winning film score from ‘Atonement’ for its composer Dario Marianelli. Chris was part of the founding team of Build an Opera in 2014 and is the lead composer and co-director for SongBuilders projects.
Katy Ellis: actor/ musician
Katy is a recent actor/ musician graduate of the Guildford School of Acting. For GSA she played the lead role of Klara in their production of Frank Wedekind’s play, Musik and Daisy's best friend Alice in Daisy Pulls it Off. Elsewhere Katy has played Biondello in Taming of the Shrew, Grusha in The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Christine in Phantom of the Opera and Adelaide in Guys and Dolls. Katy has worked with the SongBuilders team on their Build an Opera project for three years now.
Anna Caunter: Artist/ Designer
Anna Caunter is an artist and the founder of “Art 4 All”. She started her creative career working as a scenic artist at Plymouth theatre Royal, painting many a set destined for both West End and primary UK tours. When she gained a place at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Anna supplemented her bursary by continuing to paint sets in and around London. Anna continued to work on many West End productions over the next 11 years until finally moving out of London. Anna started to paint more canvas pieces. She worked at Windlesham House Prep School where she discovered a love of teaching and now runs a thriving art school, Art 4 All and has worked on every Build an Opera project to date. Anna is brilliant fun to be around and she is a dab hand at mask-making, set-building and scene painting.