LTC: Milly Forrest & Hamish Brown

Milly Forrest

Lyric soprano Milly Forrest studied at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music. Milly won the Singers Section Prize in the 2021 Royal Over-Seas League Annual Music Competition and was awarded the Ferrier-Loveday song prize in the Kathleen Ferrier singing competition in 2020 and in June she gave a recital at the Wigmore Hall with her accompanist Hamish Brown as part of their Sunday afternoon recital series.

On the operatic stage, Milly has sung Iris in Semele (Shanghai Symphony Orchestra), Barbarina (cover) in Le Nozze di Figaro (ENO) and Miranda in The Enchanted Island (British Youth Opera). During June and July of this year she performed for Garsington Opera playing Alice in Le Comte Ory by Rossini.

As a keen recitalist, Milly sang a selection of Britten’s folk song arrangements with Roger Vignoles in May at Snape Maltings and in September she took part in a project with Oxford Lieder recording songs by Cheryl Frances-Hoad. She has performed at Ronnie Scott’s, Cadogan Hall and has recently recorded at Abbey Road studios with London Grammar and Emeli Sande.

She is a Samling Young Artist, a Britten Pears Young Artist and an Opera Prelude Young Artist.

During the pandemic Milly worked at Watford General Hospital as a porter for patient transfers and frequently sang to patients and staff to boost morale; it was one of the most rewarding and eye-opening experiences she has ever had.

Hamish Brown

Hamish Brown is a London-based pianist, whose varied and wide-ranging work includes performances as a vocal accompanist, chamber musician, orchestral pianist and soloist. He is currently the Gilbert & Eileen Edgar and Anthony Saltmarsh Collaborative Piano Fellow at the Royal College of Music.

From his many collaborations with singers, Hamish has won the pianist prizes at the ROSL Annual Music Competition, Kathleen Ferrier Awards, Mozart Singing Competition and Somerset Song Prize, and has been a finalist at the Wigmore Hall/Independent Opera International Song Competition and Copenhagen Lied-Duo Competition. He is a former Oxford Lieder Young Artist and Britten Pears Young Artist.

In 2021, Hamish performed his debut Wigmore Hall recital with his duo partner, soprano Milly Forrest. He has performed at Cadogan Hall, Elgar Room (Royal Albert Hall), King’s Place, St John’s, Smith Square and V&A Museum, and at festivals including Oxford Lieder, Aldeburgh, Leeds Lieder, Internationaal Lied Festival Zeist and Heidelberger Frühling, as well as live on BBC Radio 3.

Hamish read music at the University of Manchester, continuing with postgraduate studies under Simon Lepper and Roger Vignoles at the Royal College of Music, graduating with Distinction.