A Richmond teenager will perform with the Scottish Opera Young Company at the Beacon Arts Centre in Greenock this weekend.
Sophie Montgomerg, 17, has been travelling to Glasgow twice a month for weekend rehearsals since September alongside studying for her A Level’s in music and drama at Richmond School Sixth Form.
Sophie will be part of the chorus in a production of Gluck’s Orfeo & Euridice.
Sophie said she initially felt out of her depth travelling to Scotland to rehearse and being the only English person in the room.
However, she said she soon felt at home.
“No one cared that I wasn’t Scottish, no one really noticed that I had no clue what they were saying, and no one noticed my uncontrollable hiccups until the fourth rehearsal, making all my fears void.
“I felt like I was home. These were people like me, with a love for opera and theatre, who wanted to share it with the world.”
Sophie has been studying singing with Lindsay and Nick Ibbotson, of Marske, since she was 11 and has sung at weddings, concerts and church services around Richmond and the Dales for several years now.
She will also be appearing this year with the Richmondshire Youth Theatre, where she has been a member for several years, in their forthcoming productions of Last Dance of a Dalesman and Miners of Lead.
Last year, Sophie won the prestigious National Operatics and Dramatics Association’s (NODA) youth award for the North of England region.
She won the award for her interpretation of Eliza Doolittle, the lead role in Richmond Operatic Society’s (ROS) 2018 production of My Fair Lady.
The teenager’s ambition is to be a professional opera singer one day.
