Where Are They Now 2025 Prize Winners

Jane Burnell

Winner, EBISC 2025

Since winning EBISC 2025 Jane has performed Mademoiselle Silberklang

(The Impresario) with Buxton International Festival, followed by

Contessa di Folleville (Il Viaggio a Reims) and Tytania (A Midsummer

Night’s Dream) with Wexford Festival Opera.

She is currently working with the Reisopera on “To Die For”, singing the role of Barbie! Recently Jane won

2nd Prize and the Audience Prize in this year’s Handel International Singing

Competition.

Next season Jane joins the Opera Studio with Royal Swedish Opera.

Jane says that she is so grateful for the experience of competing at EBISC 2025, which gave her confidence

for performances and auditions. The recordings of Jane’s EBISC performances have been invaluable

for many subsequent applications. Jane highly recommends that this year’s

singers take advantage of the opportunity to purchase their EBISC recordings!

Francesca Lauri

2025 Accompanist’s

Prize

Since competing at EBISC  2025,  Francesca has remained the Lord and

Lady Lurgan collaborative piano fellow at the RCM and has worked with the

Samling Institute and Oxford Song.

She has performed at Salle Cortot, Wigmore Hall and the Festival de La

Gente. She was awarded the Viola Tunnard Award by the Britten Pears

Foundation and will perform at this year’s Aldeburgh Festival with tenor Nicky Spence OBE. 

Francesca has been a repetiteur for three operas since EBISC 2025

- ‘La Montagne Noire’ by Augusta Holmès, ‘The Hive’ by Harvey Brough

and Verdi’s ‘La Traviata’.

Recently working with Ellen Pearson as ‘Samling and Song’ resident artists,

she has also performed in festivals in Zeist and Barcelona.

Francesca looks forward to returning to Eastbourne this year as a staff

accompanist.

Samuel Mills

2nd Prize, 2025

Since being awarded 2nd Prize in The Eastbourne International Singing

Competition 2025, Samuel has continued his studies at the Royal Academy of Music with Adrian

Thompson. In the last year, he has performed the role of First Armed Man in Die Zauberflöte and performed a recital of Robert Schumann’s ‘Dichterliebe’, having been invited to join the Royal Academy Song Circle.

Samuel says that his participation in The Eastbourne International

Singing Competition 2025 has been transformative.  He adds that the

competition facilitated a further expansion of his repertoire and gave

him the opportunity to meet like-minded young professionals. Samuel

adds that the competition

was also a lot of fun! In October 2025, Samuel returned to Eastbourne to

perform the tenor solos in Haydn’s ‘Nelson Mass’ with the Eastbourne Concert Orchestra.

Sian Sulke

Winner, The Nicholas

Partridge Award For

Outstanding Creativity,

2025

Since EBISC 2025, Sian has continued her studies at the RCM where she is

completing her Master’s degree. She has enjoyed competition success,

including first place in the Joan Chissell Schumann Competition and third

place in the Brooks Van der Pump Competition. Earlier this week, Sian

appeared as a finalist in the Ashburnham English Song Awards 2026. 

Recent performances include the premiere of the opera ‘Rosalind’ by Peter Hugh White, with Helix Music,

and the Gamekeeper’s Wife (The Cunning Little Vixen) with the RCM International Opera Studio, which Sian

will join full-time this September.

Sian has also recently been selected as a Samling Young Artist.