About the OBS Concertist Fellowship
The Concertist Fellowship is a new initiative from the Oxford Bach Soloists, created to support an advanced singer in the transition from ensemble work to a professional solo career.
While Choral Scholars form the core of the chorus and occasionally step out for solos, the Concertist Fellow is appointed specifically to undertake solo roles in recitatives, arias, and ensemble movements across the season. The Fellowship offers tailored professional development, including coaching and mentorship, with a focus on historically informed performance practice and the German Baroque repertoire.
Concertist Fellows perform alongside OBS’s team of professional artists and guest directors, and play a key role in maintaining the musical and artistic standard of the ensemble’s soloist line-up.
The Fellowship is intended for singers with demonstrable solo experience and a strong affinity for the music of J. S. Bach, offering them the opportunity to build their profile and gain essential experience on the concert platform.0
Meet our Concertist Fellow
Mariana Rodrigues, Soprano
“Singing with a crystalline beauty that would tame any savage beast” (The Times)
Portuguese soprano Mariana Rodrigues has just completed her MA with Distinction at the Royal Academy of Music in London with a full scholarship, under Marie Vassiliou, Raymond Connell, James Baillieu and Joseph Middleton, where she was awarded a DipRAM for outstanding final recital.
Rodrigues was a soloist for Academy Song Circle, Academy Voices, Resounding Shores, and the Bach in Leipzig series where she worked with Masaaki Suzuki, Philippe Herreweghe, Rachel Podger, John Butt, Peter Whelan and Dame Jane Glover, amongst others. Mariana has won the Isabel Jay Memorial Prize, Edna Bralesford Vocal Prize, Regency Award and the Flora Nielsen Prize. She has participated in Masterclasses with Iestyn Davies, Dame Felicity Lott, Joanne Lunn, Christian Gerhaher, Lucy Crowe, Malcolm Martineau and Hermut Hoell.
Recent engagements include a double recital debut at the Royal Albert Hall and Billy Cowie’s song cycle live premiere with her duo Chantefable, a concert in Cripta de la Sagrada Familia with Bachcelona and Sir John Clerk’s soprano solo cantata with Dunedin Consort. Upcoming opera roles include Ms. Slender in Salieri’s Falstaff for the Baroquestock Festival. She will also be collaborating with Dunedin Consort, Mahogany Opera and Hera for their upcoming project In the Belly of the Beast. Recent festival appearances include Bachcelona, Bloomsbury, Baroquestock, Islington, Surrey Bach, and Vilalte in the south of France.
Young Artist Programmes for the 2025/2026 season include: Vache Baroque James Bowman Young Artist, Bachcelona AKADEMIE, first ever Concertist Fellow with Oxford Bach Soloists, BREMF Emerging Artist with Chantefable and Next Generation Artist with Sestina Music.
Mariana is delighted to be the recipient of the Salvat Grant for Baroque Music 2026.
