The countertenor, Tom Verney, spent a year as a lay-clerk in Perth Cathedral, Western Australia, before taking up a choral scholarship at St John’s College, Cambridge, and studying for a degree in philosophy, followed by the opera course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Operatic engagements include Narciso (Agrippina) at the Theater an der Wien and Iford Festival Opera, Voice of Apollo (Death in Venice) for Garsington Opera, Athamas (Semele) for Hampstead Garden Opera, Oberon (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) for Shadwell Opera in Cambridge, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, for Guildhall Opera at the Barbican Theatre and in a joint production with the Royal Scottish Conservatoire and Scottish Opera, Fox/Coachman (The Adventures of Pinocchio) by Jonathan Dove and the title role in San Giovanni Battista by Stradella, both for Guildhall Opera, the title role in The Little Green Swallow by Jonathan Dove for British Youth Opera and Corrado (Griselda) at Cadogan Hall and Cosroe (Ormisda) at the Halle Festival.