Ann Sloan

Ann was born and brought up in the Midlands and educated in Birmingham. She worked for four years after leaving school, and then studied for a BSc Hons in Ophthalmic Optics at The City University, London. She then went on to gain her professional qualifications and membership of the British College of Optometrists.

Having settled in Oxfordshire, Ann joined the Banbury Operatic Society, whose senior members recognised her as a future principal and suggested some vocal training. She was lucky enough to fall into the safe hands of Janet Edmunds from the Birmingham Conservatoire, and has since taken many principal roles, including the title roles in The Merry Widow and Gilbert and Sullivan’s Princess Ida, Bessie Throckmorton in Merrie England (the official Millenium celebration for Cherwell District Council at Broughton Castle, Banbury), Julie Laverne in Showboat . Other G&S roles include Mabel, Josephine, Elsie Maynard, Gianetta, Rose Maybud and Aline and many lead roles in the musicals.

Other operatic roles include Violetta in extracts and Annina in La Traviata , The Mother in Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, and various concerts for Oxford Touring Opera. Belinda and First Witch in Dido and Aeneas for Elizabeth Holland at Sheffield University, and then again for Halesowen Choral Society.

In 2005 Ann sang The Countess (The Marriage of Figaro) in extracts for the 10^th Anniversary of The Creation Fund in aid of The Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

Last year Ann was involved in a choral workshop of Haydn’s Nelson Mass with Sir David Willcocks.

Ann has also sung with other groups including Opera Spa-Leamington, Welsh Male Voice Choirs and at many charity functions where she is in demand to sing a wide-ranging repertoire of Opera and Song.

Ann lives in Oxfordshire with her husband and daughter.