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 is finishing her studies at RAM with a full scholarship under Marie Vassiliou, Raymond Connell, James Baillieu and Joseph Middleton. A soloist for Academy Song Circle, Academy Voices, and Resounding Shores, Rodrigues has won the Isabel Jay Memorial Prize, Edna Bralesford Vocal Prize and Regency Award. Recent engagements include Clerk’s solo cantata with Dunedin Consort and Billy Cowie’s song cycle live premiere with Chantefable. Recent festival appearances include Bloomsbury, Baroquestock, Islington, and Vilalte in the south of France. During 2025/26, she is a James Bowman Young Artist for Vache Baroque, Young Artist for Bachcelona with Paul Agnew and Lluís Vilamajó and Concertist Fellow with Oxford Bach Soloist.
