(Credit: Genevieve Gerling)

The Royal Northern College of Music and English National Opera have announced the first artists on the new RNCM/ENO Creative Incubator.

The artists include screenwriter Stefanie Reynolds, composer and multidisciplinary musician Thandanani Gumeda, and inclusive dance artist Matthew Rawcliffe. They will each receive dedicated workshop and rehearsal space, mentoring, financial support, and creative and business skills training, along with learning, shadowing and collaborative opportunities with ENO and the RNCM.

Reynolds is a screenwriter and playwright from Manchester who contributed the audio drama “Baby Mama” to the podcast series “The Waves” in 2022. Moreover, her play “Danesha” opened at The Lowry in 2024. She also adapted “A Doll’s House” for the Almeida Theatre’s 14 to 18 Young Company.

Gumeda is a composer, vocalist and integrated artist of Xhosa and Zulu heritage, originally from South Africa and now based in Leeds and Manchester. He has performed at the BBC Proms, Roundhouse Theatre, Buxton Opera House and Buckingham Palace. He is an Opera North Resonance alumnus and a board member of the Manchester Jazz Festival.

Rawcliffe won the contemporary dance category of the BBC Young Dancer competition in 2019 and played the title role in the Royal Danish Theatre’s production of “Pinocchio.” He recently appeared in opera as a stunt performer at the Bregenz Festival in Austria and is currently touring “Hades & Persephone.”

The Creative Incubator aims to support innovation in opera making and to create new ways for audiences and communities to engage with the art form.

“The format and content of this initiative is intentionally very open, so that we can support artists working across different disciplines and practices, and even artists with no previous experience of creating opera, with what they need to develop their ideas and craft,” RNCM Deputy Principal and Artistic Director Manus Carey said, per an official press release.