Caroline Taylor & Sebastian Issler

Caroline Taylor, singer, United Kingdom, age 33

British soprano Caroline Taylor was a finalist and special prize winner at the 2025 International Haydn Competition and received the Armitage Audience Prize with duo partner Sebastian Issler at the 2025 Northern Aldeborough Festival’s New Voices Competition. Recent highlights include Suor Genovieffa/Suor Angelica (Dorset Opera Festival), Contessa/Le Nozze di Figaro (Cumbria Opera Group), her Royal Ballet and Opera recital debut with Fran Hills and a solo recital with Roger Vignoles at Goldsmiths’ Hall. She graduated from the RNCM (UK) with Distinction, winning the Joyce and Michael Kennedy Strauss Award.  

Sebastian Issler, pianist, Switzerland, age 32

Swiss pianist Sebastian Issler won the Prize for Best Duo at the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition, the Paul Hamburger Prize awarded by Graham Johnson, the Audience Prize at the New Voices Singing Competition and several prizes at the Swiss Youth Music Competition. Trained at the Guildhall School with Julius Drake and Zurich University of the Arts, he completed his Artist Diploma and holds two master’s degrees with distinction. He is a member of the faculty of the Golandsky Institute in New York, a fellow at the Guildhall School and a lecturer at the Zurich University of the Arts.