A CONDUCTOR from Potterne near Devizes and an award-winning singer from Trowbridge are to perform a major concert in London next week.

Michael Cobb will be conducting the Orchestra Vitae at The Mozart Exhibition at St John’s Smith Square on Tuesday, November 7, from 7.30pm.

Trowbridge soloist Sian Dicker recently won the Voice of the Future award at the Eisteddfod Festival in Wales and will be singing at the concert.

The narrated concert will lead the audience through the different styles of music from Mozart’s life; Opera, Choral and Orchestral.

Sian is from Trowbridge and is studying for her Masters in Performance at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

In this concert, she will be singing various roles from Mozart’s operas including Desdemona from Cosi Fan Tutte, Zerlina from Don Giovanni.

Mr Cobb is a professional conductor who completed his Masters in Orchestral Conducting at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in 2016.

He grew up in Potterne and went to Lavington School before studying his A-Levels at St Augustine’s College in Trowbridge.

He was one of the founding members of The Super Strings Club in Market Lavington, as well as a regular at the music summer schools run by the late Michael Oliver.

In 2012, when he was living in London and working at the Royal Albert Hall, Mr Cobb and a friend created Orchestra Vitae, an orchestra made up of young London based musicians.

Now living in Lyon, France, Mr Cobb is developing his conducting career by assisting conductors at the Orchestra National de Lyon.

He said: “Originally Orchestra Vitae was an excuse to get some friends together to play Brahms Symphony No.1.

“It has since snowballed into a young London professional orchestra with a residency at St John’s Smith Square and has previously performed in the Royal Festival Hall.

“As a fully operational company, Orchestra Vitae performs three large-scale concerts per year, with further chamber music activities at private events.

“The orchestra prides itself on combining better known orchestral music with music from a living composer in every concert.

“In 2016 for example, the orchestra commissioned the work Arches by the award-winning composer Dani Howard.”