écoute are a vibrant young trio of award-winning graduates from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) in Glasgow. Formed in 1999 to premiere specially commissioned works by young composers at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, écoute have been thrilling audiences ever since with their blend of style and content.

Shuna Sendall studied with Jane Irwin at the Alexander Gibson Opera School at RSAMD. Concert engagements have included Verdi’s Requiem, Barber's Knoxville Summer of 1915, Berlioz’s Nuits D'ete and Mozart's C minor Mass, as well as the roles of Electra in Mozart's Idomeneo, La Ciesca in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, Concepcion in Ravel's L’Heure Espagnole and Mrs Green in Birtwistle's Down by the Greenwood Side.

She has won several major vocal awards including the Governor’s recital prize, the Margaret Dick Award, the Bill Dewar Award and the Debussy prize. More recently she won first prize in the Great Elm Vocal Awards and a Bayreuth scholarship from the Scottish Wagner society. An accomplished recitalist, Shuna has also given concerts with the RSNO, Opera on a Shoestring and Tayside Opera and regularly performs for the musical charity Council for Music in Hospitals.

Recently Shuna made her Scottish Opera debut in several performances of The Minotaur by Julian Evans and in September 2004 she will be appearing in The Cunning Little Vixen for British Youth Opera with the assistance of The Scottish Arts Council Lottery Funding. In 2005 Shuna will be participating in the Samling Foundation's masterclass programme. Other performances include the role of Micaela in Carmen at Haddo House and tours with Opera on a Shoestring.

Malaysian pianist Wai Sum Chong is a graduate of the RSAMD where she studied with Philip Jenkins. She was awarded the Barcapel Foundation Scholarship to study chamber music and held the post of RSAMD Accompaniment Scholar for two years. She also taught and accompanied students of the RSAMD Junior Department and was Philip Jenkins’ research assistant in preparing Denis Matthews’ manuscript of ‘Cadenza’s for Mozart Piano Concerti’ (Lengnick Publishing, 2003).

In recognition of her accomplishments she has been awarded the RSAMD’s Piano Accompaniment Prize, The Angus Ramsay Calder Prize, The Bach Prize and the Dunbar Gerber Prize. As an accompanist for the Council for Music in Hospitals she has toured Scotland to bring live music to hospices and nursing homes. She is currently based at the Purcell School as a Practice Supervisor/House Tutor and Accompanist. Performances in 2005 include recitals for the Scottish Wagner’s Society, St. Andrew’s University, and a House Pianist residency at the Ardingly Summer Music Summer School.

Emma Wilkins from Ellon, Aberdeenshire began playing the flute at the age of ten. She went on to study the flute at the RSAMD with John Grant and Richard Blake and piccolo with Janet Richardson. She graduated in 2001 with a Bachelor of Music (Honours) in music performance and in the same year was awarded the John McGregor Flute Prize for outstanding achievement. She continued to study at the RSAMD and was later awarded a Master of Music in Music Performance. Emma now enjoys a successful freelance career and has recently performed with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the orchestra of Scottish Opera and The Northern Sinfonia. She has also been recording with the Scottish pop group Texas and features in their forthcoming album out later this year.