Ella Orehek-Coddington – Mezzo Soprano   Benjamin Markovic – Piano

Students from the Royal Academy of Music

Ella Orehek-Coddington, mezzo-soprano, is in her first year of the Royal Academy of
Music’s opera program, under the tutelage of Catherine Wyn-Rogers and Jonathan
Papp, and supported by a Bicentenary Scholarship and the Carr-Gregory Trust. She is
also supported by the Tait Memorial Trust, Help Musicians UK and The Ian Potter
Foundation. She recently won first prize in this year’s Blyth-Buesst Operatic Award at
the Academy.
Ella graduated from the Academy’s master’s programme in 2024 and was awarded the
Diploma of the Royal Academy of Music for her outstanding final recital. She previously
studied a Bachelor of Music (First Class Honours) at the Sydney Conservatorium of
Music, and has a Diploma of Language Studies from the University of Sydney. Ella
previously studied with Barry Ryan OAM and Janet Haney, and has undertaken
masterclasses with Susan Bullock CBE and Gerald Finley OC CBE.
She has performed in various opera productions, including the role of die Mutter in
Hänsel und Gretel, Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Mrs Grose in Britten’s The
Turn of the Screw, the title role in Mascagni’s Zanetto and Dido in Purcell’s Dido and
Aeneas.

Ben Markovic is a first-year Masters student in Ensemble Piano at the Royal
Academy of Music, studying with James Cheung and Joseph Middleton. He read
music and held the organ scholarship at Queens’ College Cambridge, and has
held scholarship positions at Worcester Cathedral and St Stephen’s, Walbrook with
St Martin-inthe-Fields.
Alongside his degree, Ben is active as a freelancing keyboard player, teacher and
conductor, working frequently with the Rodolfus Foundation and National
Children’s Choir of Great Britain, and has performed with ensembles including the
Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, the St Martin Chamber Ensemble and London
Choral Sinfonia.
He also holds the post of Director of Music at St Mary’s, Barnes, and is a Fellow of
the Royal College of Organists. Away from the piano, Ben enjoys reading, cooking,
exploring the countryside on long walks and wearing funky socks.