Marcus Hopkin

As a sixth-former in Cardiff, Marcus studied the piano with Geoffrey Buckley and the organ with Michael Smith. He was also choral scholar at Llandaf Cathedral and a member of the National Youth Choir of Wales. He then attended the Birmingham Conservatoire where he studled singing and piano. Throughout the 90's he performed mainly as a Jazz pianist and has been involved with various projects, including musical director of shows at the Edinburgh Festival, and producing vocal workshops for many primary schools in South Wales.

A fluent Welsh speaker, Marcus currently lives in Blackwood. He teaches the piano privately, and is also a qualified secondary school teacher. He performs regularly as an accompanist and increasingly as a singer. His debut for competing at the National Eisteddfod was at Swansea in 2006, where he achieved success in the Baritone Solo competition. Marcus has also worked with a variety of choirs\; most recently with the Bridgend Male Choir as Associate Conductor.

Marcus has sung as a bass-baritone soloist In many works including Handel's Messiah, Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Durufle's Requiem, Schubert's Masses in E flat and A flat, Carmina Burana, and Faure's Requiem. In March 2007 he performed the bass solo In the Haydn Nelson Mass with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall, Birmingham. He has studied singing with Jeanette Massocchi, Wynford Evans and Eric Roberts.