Our people

Vanessa Woodward
Co-Founder / Artistic Director / Trustee

Vanessa originally studied music at Colchester Institute and later gained an advanced postgraduate diploma (voice) from Trinity College of Music, where she was awarded the Wilfred Greenhouse prize for Oratorio and Cantata. Vanessa studies singing with Quentin Hayes. Her early professional career was as a singer/guitarist in rock and folk bands, before resuming her classical singing career. She is experienced as an oratorio soloist and also enjoys Lieder and 20th century British Song. With Opera Anywhere, Vanessa has performed in some unusual situations, including performing ‘soap opera scenes’ on ITV’s ‘This Morning’! Operatic roles include Nireno / Giulio Cesare (Handel Opera Company), Princess / Suor Angelica, Popova / The Bear by Walton (‘In Tune’, BBC Radio 3), Baba / The Medium, Miss Baggot / The Little Sweep, Miss Todd / The Old Maid and the Thief and 3rd lady/3rd boy / The Magic Flute.

Mike Woodward
Co-Founder / CEO / Trustee

Mike is General Manager of Opera Anywhere, in addition to providing tour and production management services to other companies, including Barefoot Opera. He studies singing with Quentin Hayes. In addition to Mike’s organisational responsibilities, he loves performing in song concerts, oratorios and operas. Mike’s operatic roles include Kaspar / Amahl and the Night Visitors, Rinuccio / Gianni Schicchi, Camille / The Merry Widow and the Gilbert & Sullivan ‘patter’ roles (with Opera Anywhere.) Mike regularly performs popular tenor repertoire in various corporate and private performances, and particularly enjoys ‘Singing Waiters’ events. Mike created ‘Arias On Ice’ and performed ‘Nessun Dorma’ on live TV on ice skates alongside English tenor Alfie Boe as part of a Channel 4 documentary about Opera Anywhere. Mike has also appeared on ITV’s ‘This Morning’, performing soap opera scenes in an operatic style!

John Alcock
Technical Director / Lighting Designer / Trustee

John’s interest in stage lighting developed alongside his career working for a multi-national technology company. He has worked with Opera Anywhere as lighting designer and technician since the company started, and particularly relishes the challenges presented by the ‘Anywhere’ aspect of our performances. John became a trustee and company director of Opera Anywhere in 2012, taking responsibility for our health and safety in 2017. John is a holder of a Production Safety Passport. While Opera Anywhere always has first call on his time, he occasionally works with contemporary groups As If and The Back Four and in 2016 lit the stage for the Emfest festival, headlined by Scouting for Girls. He has also provided lighting for Ormond Opera’s production of Carmen, An Audience with Jonathan Veira and Three Chairs and a Hat productions Melody and Verity, including at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2019.

Nia Williams
Musical Director / Pianist

Nia is a freelance musician and writer. Her work as a pianist/MD encompasses opera, lieder, ballet and musical theatre. She leads storytelling/musical projects, and as Associate Artist for English National Ballet and co-founder of MuMo Creative, runs live and online workshops. Nia’s theatre company Three Chairs and a Hat stages her original musicals, which have appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe. She’s the author of several novels and her stories have been broadcast on BBC radio. As Opera Anywhere’s MD/pianist, Nia enjoys bringing opera to a wider audience, in all venues and weathers! www.niawilliams.com or www.facebook/threechairsandahat.

Nick Planas
Flute / Clarinet / Sound Effects / Arrangements

Nick is a composer, conductor, performer and teacher of woodwind. His initial musical training was on the flute under Geoffrey Hall and, after leaving school, with Christopher Taylor, Principal Flautist of the Festival Ballet Orchestra. Nick has composed many orchestral works as well as large and small-scale operas, musicals, and chamber works, and has had several smaller pieces published. He has also written three detective novels, with a fourth planned for mid-2021. Nick has been a member of the Opera Anywhere touring orchestra since 2012, thoroughly enjoying the variety of instruments and sound effects required for each performance. www.nickplanas.com.

Tristan Stocks

Company Manager and Production Director: The Magic Flute, The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance, Iolanthe, Patience, H.M.S. Pinafore, Trial By Jury

Tenor Tristan Stocks trained at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama and at Dennis O’Neill’s prestigious studio, the International Academy of Voice. Previous awards include a Susan Chilcott Scholarship, the Grange Park Opera Scholarship and a prize at the John Lill Awards. In 2010 Tristan made his role debut as well as understudying for Glyndebourne Festival Opera. He was a Britten-Pears Young Artist at Aldeburgh, in Les Mamelles de Tirésias. Recent roles have included: Tonio / La fille du regiment, Alfredo / La Traviata, Ernesto / Don Pasquale, Tamino / The Magic Flute, Rinuccio / Gianni Schicchi, Nemorino / L’elisir d’amore and Orpheus / Orpheus in the Underworld. www.tristanstocks.com.