St Giles' Spotlight is a concert series celebrating musicians we are excited to share with our visitors. This series presents varied and engaging performances, featuring singers from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's Vocal Department and organists from around the country.
On the 15th of May, we are looking forward to welcoming the Soluna Duo; Scottish Mezzo-soprano Katy Hardie and Scottish Soprano Shauna Healy, accompanied by composer and pianist Reese Carly Manglicmot.
Artist Biographies:
Katy Hardie, Scottish Mezzo-soprano from Fife is currently in her fourth year on the undergraduate course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland under the tuition of Lorna Anderson and Mhairi Lawson. She is the prize holder of the Leonie Kayser Prize for Singing (2024), recipient of the Emma Kerr Classical Singing award, Oxenfoord (2025) and was chosen as the young artist for Monica McGhees premier of The Pebbles we Keep (2025).
Katy is a member of The National Youth Choir of Scotland; highlights include performing at the Rydale Festival with Eric Whitacre; BBC Proms Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Nights Dream; UK Premier of Fire in my Mouth with Marin Alsop and Philharmonic Orchestra; Opening EIF with Veil of the Temple and La Pasion Segun Marcos. Other choral stand out works include Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra; Vivaldi Gloria and Mozart’s Requiem (RCS). Soloist in performances of Purcell Ode for St. Cecila’s Day; Mozart’s Regina Coeli and Martines’ Dix Dominus (Kelvin Choir). In the summer Katy will join the Arran Oratorio Group returning for the second time as part of the McLellan Arts festival, this year as the alto soloist in Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle.
Operatic roles include Ida in Die Fledermaus (Fife Opera); Parpignol in La Boheme (Fife Opera); Miss Rose Lakme in Fife Opera’s La Traviata, L’ecureuil in L’Enfants et les Sortilèges (RSNO); Hansel in Hansel and Gretel (RCS). Katy also performed in the UK premiere of The Tsar Has His Photograph Taken with the Scottish Opera Young Company.
Shauna Healy is studying on the Undergraduate Vocal Performance Course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, currently in her 4th year, under the tutelage of Lorna Anderson and Mhairi Lawson.
Her operatic roles include: La Princessein L’Enfants et les Sortilèges (RSNO), Gretel in Hansel and Gretel (RCS), Alcina in Alcina (RCS Opera Scenes), Miles in The Turn of the Screw (RCS Opera Scenes), John in Peter Grimes (RCS Opera Scenes).
In 2025, Shauna placed first in the Hugh S. Roberston Scots Song Competition. She is also a two time winner of the Glasgow Grand Opera Society Cup both in 2021 and 2022. Shauna performed as one of the Soprano soloists in Steve Reich’s Music for Mallet Instruments, Organ and Voice. She also performed as a Soprano soloist in Tippett’s A Child of Our Time with the National Youth Choir of Scotland.
Reese Carly Manglicmot is carving a unique path founded on versatility, operating primarily as a composer and performer. Her “positively eloquent” music has been performed across the UK and Europe by groups including the BBC Concert Orchestra, (BBC Proms), the Red Note Ensemble (soundfestival Aberdeen) and Nordic Viola (University of Stirling).
As a pianist, she has performed and self-premièred in Lithuania, Romania and across the UK. Her performances involve blending free improvisation, new music and poetry recitations amongst familiar repertoire. She has played not only as a solo, collaborative and orchestral pianist, but also as a keyboard continuo (harpsichord) player.
Currently, she is a BMus Joint Principal Study (Piano and Composition) student at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and holds an RCS Trust Scholarship. Over the course of her studies, she accumulated prestigious prizes including The British Reserve Insurance Prize for Early Music (2025), and The Walter and Dinah Wolfe Prize for Composition (2025).