The Team
Russell Plows
Artistic Director
Russell is an opera director and composer with more than twenty-five years’ experience in the sector.
He began as an assistant director at English Touring Opera and Welsh National Opera but soon felt the need to start producing his own work.
In 2003 he formed Opera Up Close in London in the belief that there was an audience for well-crafted unfamiliar works and he directed operas by Ullmann, Poulenc and Milhaud.
In late 2017 he returned to his native Hull and formed Hull Urban Opera where he remains artistic director. His first opera, Christmas Meeting, was the company’s first production.
Russell is passionate about new music and has commissioned two operas from exciting young Belgian composer Lente Verelst as well as shorter concert works from Anna Appleby, Ella Jarman-Pinto, Rose Dodd and Katie Chatburn.
Richard Welton
Chair of Trustees
As Chair of Trustees, Rick Welton brings over 50 years arts management experience at local and national levels to Hull Urban Opera. His early career included managing arts centres in Hull and Darlington, cultural development work in Milton Keynes and Liverpool, and directing national arts and training organisations. For the past 20 years he has lived and worked in Hull, his home town, where among other projects, he directed the Amy Johnson Festival in 2016 and produced the city’s popular artist decorated animal sculpture trails of Larkin Toads, Amy Johnson Moths and East Coast Puffins.
(photo by Quentin Budworth)
Camille Maalawy
Trustee
British Egyptian mezzo soprano Camille Maalawy has a wide ranging portfolio career encompassing performance of classical and Arabic music and contemporary opera, working with companies such as Glyndebourne, Opera North, Royal Opera House Engender Festival, Pegasus Opera and of course, Hull Urban Opera. She is also passionate about music education, with several projects that take her all over the UK. Camille is delighted to be a trustee of Hull Urban Opera as the organisation seeks to move into a new phase of creation and growth.
Trustee
Polish-American soprano Pamela Hay is Chair of the Association of the Teachers of Singing.
She is a Create and Sing Artist for the Royal Opera House, where she has designed, written and delivered accredited courses on healthy singing, narrated operas on the mainstage, conducted large-scale performances, and devised and delivered warm-ups and workshops across the UK and in national broadcasts.
She has taught at the ROH Youth Opera Company, Eton and JAGS, and has been Head of Singing at Newton Prep.
Pamela observes in a professional voice clinic at Charing Cross Hospital, Imperial College NHS Trust, and has given a talk for the British Voice Association.
She is a mentor for Arts Emergency and the National Youth Choir Fellowship.
As a performer she has played over 35 roles in opera, theatre and film, including Mimì in the 2011 Olivier Award-winning production of La Bohème, roles at Shakespeare’s Globe and Chichester Festival Theatre, and in Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes 2, as well as work as concert soloist with BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra.