Meet The Hidden Gems Team
Jeremy Avis
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Choral Leader
Jeremy has choral music in his blood, having been a choir boy at Canterbury Cathedral and a choral scholar at Oxford. He is musical director of Bristol Voices and has conducted groups of singers all over the world including in USA, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Switzerland, Bulgaria and Italy. He has been musical director and singer in numerous theatre productions including Othello, The Merchant of Venice and The Orphan of Zhao for the RSC and Shakespeare's Globe and As You Like It and Emperor and Gallilean at the National Theatre. He is lecturer in Voice at the University of Wales and is a qualified Estil teacher.
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photograph by John-Paul Bland
Rebecca Askew
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Choral Leader
Rebecca grew up in a jazz-loving household and had her first real choral experiences as a member of the award-winning "vocal big band" The Shout, where she also met Jeremy. She is the musical director of the Whispering Woods choir. She has over twenty years experience as a vocal animateur in a wide range of settings. She has successfully completed projects with Chichester University, Glyndebourne Education, Sing Up and English National Opera, to name but a few. As a performer, she mainly sings new music or jazz. She has recently appeared in productions at Shakespeare's Globe (Eyam), the National Theatre (As You Like It) and the Regents Park Open Air Theatre (PeterPan).
Olivia Ercoli
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Rome Expert and Tour Leader
Olivia grew up bi-lingual having an English mother and an Italian father. She has lived in Rome all her life. She is a historian and a writer. She is creator and co-author of the enormously successful Eyewitness Travel Guide to Rome