Russell Hepplewhite

An alumnus of Chetham’s School and the Royal College of Music, Russell Hepplewhite is a composer noted for the success of his operas, and for his empathetic writing for children’s voices. Stage works for young people commissioned by English Touring Opera include Laika the Spacedog, Silver Electra and Shackleton’s Cat, all widely performed to critical acclaim – Laika the Spacedog being awarded the prize for Best Production at Budapest’s Armel Opera Festival, with performances at Avignon Opera, Fribourg Opera, and at Le Reflet in Vevey, Switzerland.

For W11 Opera, the London-based company for performers aged nine to eighteen, Hepplewhite has composed two operatic scores, The Price and Ever Young, for the Aldeburgh-based Jubilee Opera The Casket Girl, and for Montpellier Opera Le Climat. His musical Moonfleet was premiered at the Salisbury Playhouse in 2018. Most recently, his collaboration with the distinguished poet Michael Rosen, a set of children’s songs entitled Everything, has proved especially popular, and is included in the Friday Afternoons song bank project.