Who We Are
Scroll down to meet the team
Anna Grieve
Anna is a soprano who has just completed her Bachelor of Music Honours at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with a first class, having learned under Welsh soprano, Gail Pearson. She also completed an exchange program at Sibelius Academy in Helsinki in 2022, studying with Päivi Kantola.
Anna has enjoyed being a part of many operatic productions including Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (David Seligman Opera School, Peaseblossom, 2024); Respighi’s La Bella Dormente nel Bosco (David Seligman Opera School, Chorus, 2024) and Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (Sibelius Academy Opera, Chorus, 2022). In November 2022, she was cast as the soprano soloist for Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium in Sipoo Kirkku, working with conductor Eric-Olof Söderström and the Finnish Baroque Orchestra. Anna finds great pleasure in choral work, being part of Genesis 16 (2023-2024) working with Harry Christophers and Eamonn Dougan and the South African group, True Voices (2018-2020). This year, Anna will be working with the Tenebrae Choir as an Associate Artist.
Soprano
she/her
Sheena Jibowu
Alto
she/her
Sheena Jibowu is a Nigerian alto who has just finished studying music at King’s College London, receiving piano lessons from Francesca Orlando at the Royal Academy of Music, whilst also being a choral scholar with the Choir of King’s College London and studying voice under Robert Rice. Sheena has always been passionate about choral music and conducting in general: during her undergraduate studies, Sheena took up choral conducting and is now the musical director of the chapel of St Thomas Guy, King’s College London. She has also taken part in the Glover-Edward’s conducting course at the Royal Academy of Music with Sian Edwards, as well as the CIAC conducting course with Irina Walters. She is now pursuing a postgraduate degree in the Political Economy of Emerging Markets at King’s College London and is undertaking a choral scholarship at St Martin in-the-Fields.
Akumjung Pongen
Bass
he/him
Akumjung Pongen is a student at oxford University studying Philosophy and Theology. He is from Nagaland, India, and is passionate about music, particularly chorale music and classical piano. Through Vox Next Gen, he strives to enhance his musical knowledge and artistry, aiming to share his learnings not only with friends but with others as well. He seeks to make a positive impact on music accessibility and appreciation within his community through his involvement with Vox Next Gen.
​
Iris Oliver
Bass
she/her
Iris first became hooked on choral music when she performed in a quartet in front of her whole school aged 11, and went on to join her school chapel choir and chamber choir aged 13. Her love for music took her to a choral scholarship at Keble College, Oxford, where she read English & French, and has furthered her passion for singing through working with Schola Cantorum of Oxford, and working in French choral music and jazz bars on her year abroad in Lyon. Alongside working with Vox Urbane, she will be singing with Genesis Sixteen from August, and is a choral scholar at St Martin-in-the-fields for 2024-25. As a queer, trans woman, she is hugely excited to work as a Next Gen young artist, and help promote diversity in the world of choral music.
William Barter-Sheppard
Tenor
he/him
​
I began singing at the age of 8 and joined my school’s Chapel Choir two years later which kickstarted my passion for music. At 13, I was lucky enough to be invited to perform with The Opera Story company in their contemporary retelling of the Robin Hood story at the Bussey Building in Peckham. It was incredibly exciting to be performing alongside professional opera singers and gave me an alternative take on the professional music scene. I was proud to gain a choral scholarship at my school, and relished being head of choir and a role model for the younger students to look up to, just as I once did. I’m about to start at Warwick University and will be engaging with all that Warwick has to offer musically. There’s a deep joy and pleasure in music making with others and I’m thrilled to join such a diverse and original group as Vox Urbane.
Sophie Garner
Mezzo-soprano
she/her
Sophie has just graduated from Durham University having read Music and taken part in many of the musical opportunities there such as college choirs, orchestras and opera. Sophie is super excited to be a part of Vox Urbane this year, especially as someone with a mixed race background whose Indian heritage is often overlooked. Sophie has often felt as though she doesn’t quite fit in with the other choristers of traditional choirs and so is thrilled to be part of a choir where every background is celebrated.
William Barter-Sheppard
Tenor
he/him
​
I began singing at the age of 8 and joined my school’s Chapel Choir two years later which kickstarted my passion for music. At 13, I was lucky enough to be invited to perform with The Opera Story company in their contemporary retelling of the Robin Hood story at the Bussey Building in Peckham. It was incredibly exciting to be performing alongside professional opera singers and gave me an alternative take on the professional music scene. I was proud to gain a choral scholarship at my school, and relished being head of choir and a role model for the younger students to look up to, just as I once did. I’m about to start at Warwick University and will be engaging with all that Warwick has to offer musically. There’s a deep joy and pleasure in music making with others and I’m thrilled to join such a diverse and original group as Vox Urbane.
Talia Lieberman
Soprano
she/her
​
Harry Elliot
Bass
he/him
Having been a member of various Cambridge College Choirs (including Caius, Clare and St John’s Voices), Harry has seen a stark lack of diversity among choir members. As a gay man, he feels he has been lucky with the presence of this type of diversity in the choral world, and wishes the same were true for other types of diversity. He thinks Vox Urbane’s mission to diversify the industry is a fantastic and noble endeavour.
Evi Bukata
Bass
he/him