“With the generous support of the Exuberant Trust, I was able to attend the Abingdon Summer School for Solo Singers this August. This inspirational course gathers together some of the UK's finest vocal coaches for a week of intense tuition. The course has been invaluable in providing direction, expert technical advice as well as being an enormous affirmation that a career in singing is worth striving for”.

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Anna Shackleton

Anna Shackleton is a Soprano from Sutton Courtenay near Abingdon, Oxfordshire and currently studies with highly renowned mezzo-soprano Christine Cairns. She started her musical studies at Matrix Music School aged four on the Yamaha Music Course, an aural based program of study. She later began individual piano and violin lessons and joined the County Youth Orchestras.

Whilst enjoying instrumental playing, Anna always knew that singing was what she really wanted to explore, and at 15, became a member of the Oxford Girls' Choir. It was here that the seeds were sown for a career in singing. Anna has much choral experience, having also sung with the exciting research choir Schola Pietatis Antonio Vivaldi (SPAV), an all-female SATB ensemble aiming to recreate Vivaldi's Figlie di Choro, as well as the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Chorus and Ashmolean Voices.

As a soloist, Anna has been invited to sing with the Orchestra of St John's on several occasions, most recently taking part in the Summer Proms at the Ashmolean Museum, singing Auf dem Strom by Schubert. Anna also frequently sings as an oratorio soloist around Oxfordshire.

In 2013 Anna graduated from Birmingham Conservatoire with a first class BMus (Hons) degree in vocal studies.

For the Exuberant Trust Showcase Anna will sing a selection of ‘Animal related songs’, especially written by Daniel-Lewis Fardon, a good friend and fellow graduate of the conservatoire:





10th Anniversary Showcase Performers - 22nd September 2013, Pegasus Theatre, Oxford.