The soprano, Rebecca Ryan, was born in New Zealand and graduated from the University of Otago with a first-class degree in Music and an arts degree in Information Science. Thereafter she gained a Diploma in Postgraduate Performance from the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she studied with Penelope Mackay. In 2001 she won the English Song prize at the Royal Academy and gave the British première of Handel’s newly-discovered Gloria to great critical acclaim. Her oratorio appearances include Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Magnificat, and Christmas Oratorio, and Haydn’s The Creation; her operatic performances include rôles in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, and Purcell’s King Arthur and The Fairy Queen. The performance of Silete Venti marks her solo recording début.