Future Screens NI’s creative industries talks Future Tuesdays hosted Artistic Director of Ulster Touring Opera Dafydd Hall Williams. Dafydd presented recent Augmented Reality research and development projects, the February 2022 Ulster Touring Opera touring event and plans for the future.
Dafydd Hall Williams trained at the Oxford School of Drama before attaining a BA and MA at Aberystwyth University. Dafydd has worked in a wide range of artistic and managerial roles at companies in the UK and Ireland such as Welsh National Opera, Wexford Festival Opera, English Touring Opera, Buxton Opera Festival and Northern Ireland Opera. Since 2015, Dafydd has been a Visiting Director at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, directing Opera Scenes performances with undergraduate and postgraduate Vocal Studies students.
In 2019 Dafydd founded UTO, the only dedicated cross-border opera company on the island of Ireland. The company aims to increase access to opera across the province of Ulster through live touring and immersive technology experiences. UTO’s flagship live tour ‘A Night at the Opera’ will visit four venues in Northern Ireland and three venues in the Republic of Ireland in February 2022. UTO will also launch its App on Apple Store later in Spring 2022, which will be home to the company’s augmented reality experiences developed with the support of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Future Screens NI, NI Screen and Digital Catapult NI.
Joining Dafydd via recorded video was baritone Ross Ramgobin.
A graduate of Brunel University and London's Royal Academy of Music and National Opera Studio, Ross Ramgobin was nominated for a WhatsOnSrage Breakthrough Award.
Recent engagements have included the title role in Grange Park Opera's film of Owen Wingrave, Prince Arjuna in Satyagraha and Schaunard in La bohème for English National Opera, Papageno in The Magic Flute for The Royal Opera's Christmas Concert and Alberich in Birmingham Opera Company's RhineGold. Upcoming engagements include Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro for the Israeli Opera and concert debuts with Britten Sinfonia, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Radio Filharmonsich Orkest of The Netherlands, as well as a return to The Royal Opera.
Ulster Touring Opera is a participant in the XRX Programme, a partnership of Future Screens NI, Northern Ireland Screen & Digital Catapult NI aimed at supporting companies working on innovative ideas within the XR industry. UTO is also the recipient of several Future Screen NI funding streams.