Our Patrons
We are incredibly grateful to our Patrons for their support of the Graham Vick Foundation. Their belief in our vision, generosity of spirit and commitment to the transformative power of the arts help us carry Graham’s legacy forward and create opportunities for new voices to be heard.
We are proud to have them as part of the Graham Vick Foundation community and thank them for championing our work.
Susan Bullock CBE
Soprano
British soprano Susan Bullock is known for her fearless artistry, powerful stage presence, and the emotional depth she brings to her performances. Whether commanding the vast dramatic landscapes of Wagner and Strauss or venturing into new theatrical terrain, she sings with uncompromising honesty and a deep commitment to storytelling.
As her career has evolved, so too has her repertoire. In recent seasons, she has taken on bold new roles, including a “chilling” Kabanicha (Katya Kabanova) at Grange Park Opera, Klytämnestra (Elektra) for both Canadian Opera Company and Oper Frankfurt, and Kostelnička (Jenůfa) for both Den Norske Opera and English National Opera. Her artistic curiosity has also led her to explore roles in contemporary, and crossover, works, such as Mrs. Lovett (Sweeney Todd) for Houston Grand Opera and Scottish Opera, The Mother in Mark Anthony-Turnage’s Greek in Edinburgh, Glasgow and New York, and The Mother in Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves at the Opera Comique. Most remarkable of all has been her collaboration with Daisy Evans
in her re-imagining of Bluebeard’s Castle as an exploration of dementia which has been remounted in Atlanta and Wellington since its premiere in London.
Last season, she brought her dramatic flair to Scottish Opera as Lady Billows in Albert Herring, joined La Monnaie / De Munt for the world premiere of Mikael Karlsson’s Fanny and Alexander, and portrayed Cosima Wagner in the critically acclaimed UK premiere of Avner Dorman’s Wahnfried for Longborough Festival Opera. Further ahead, she returns to Bluebeard’s Castle in Helsinki; and will sing the role of Iwana, written for her by Missy Mazzoli, in her new opera - The Galloping Cure – for the Edinburgh International Festival and Norrlandsoperan.
A celebrated interpreter of Wagner’s Brünnhilde, Bullock made history as the first soprano to perform four consecutive Ring Cycles at the Royal Opera House under Sir Antonio Pappano, sealing her reputation as one of the leading dramatic voices of her generation. Her portrayal of Strauss’ Elektra, another signature role, has brought her to audiences worldwide, including her debut at The Metropolitan Opera and led to acclaimed collaborations with conductors including Fabio Luisi, Semyon Bychkov, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Mark Elder, and Edo de Waart.
Away from the opera house, Susan Bullock’s voice has been a welcome guest in the world’s foremost concert halls, where she’s performed with such luminaries as Esa-Pekka Salonen and Zubin Mehta, delivering unforgettable interpretations of Erwartung, Wesendonck Leider and the Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde. Further highlights in her long career, included among them the Last Night of the BBC Proms and the London 2012 Olympics Closing Ceremony, have brought opera to wide and varied audiences. In a striking shift from opera to spoken drama, Susan Bullock made her acting debut as Goneril in Keith Warner’s staging of King Lear at the Grange Festival, embracing the challenge of storytelling in a new medium.
Her recording - spanning Salome with Philharmonia Orchestra under Sir Charles Mackerras, Der Ring des Nibelungen with Oper Frankfurt, and latterly, her personal project Songs My Father Taught Me —demonstrate a career marked by both vocal brilliance and personal depth.
Offstage, Susan Bullock is a generous mentor and advocate for the next generation of singers, including now the Graham Vick Foundation. She contributes actively to the National Opera Studio, sharing her experience through workshops and masterclasses across the UK. Whether through the towering roles of the dramatic soprano canon or her work with young artists, Susan Bullock continues to inspire with her integrity, intelligence, and unmistakable voice.
Jonathan Dove CBE
Composer
Winner of the 2008 Ivor Novello Award for classical music, Jonathan Dove explores what opera can be, and what audiences it can reach. He has written more than thirty operas of different shapes and sizes, which are regularly
performed all around the world, including the highly successful airport-comedy Flight. Alongside chamber operas and operas for television, he has written operas for a family audience (The Adventures of Pinocchio, The Enchanted Pig,
Swanhunter, Itch, Around the World in 80 Days, The Secret Garden), and works bringing together amateur and professional performers (Tobias and the Angel, The Monster in the Maze, Uprising).
These works draw on his experiences of writing community operas for Glyndebourne (Hastings Spring, Dreamdragons, In Search of Angels) which were, in turn, inspired by working with Graham Vick on a community production of West Side Story in Salt’s Mill in Bradford in the 1980s. Dove was associated with Vick’s work over three decades, first as repetiteur and arranger, re-orchestrating Falstaff, La Bohème,
The Magic Flute, The Cunning Little Vixenand The Ring for the touring opera company that eventually evolved intoBirmingham Opera, for which Dove composed Life is a Dream.
Dove has received three RPS Awards, five British Composer Awards, and beenFeatured Composer in festivals in the UK, Europe and North America. He wasArtistic Director of the Spitalfields Festival 2001-2006 and Guest Festival Directorof the Salisbury Festival in 2019. He was made a Commander of the BritishEmpire (CBE) in the Queen's 2019 Birthday Honours for services to music.