Welcome to Forte
Tony Cleverton - Director
Teacher - Voice and Theory
Tony has been living and teaching on the Isle of Skye since 2018.
As a musician, Tony has the highest credentials:
He graduated with a First-Class Honours Batchelor of Music degree from the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Whilst at the college, he won several awards including the prestigious Frederic Cox Award for Singing, the Alexander Young Song Prize, the Robin Kay Memorial Prize for Opera Singing, and was a Major Scholarship recipient from the Peter Moores Foundation.
He is also a multi-instrumentalist, achieving Grade 8 levels in flute, saxophone and voice, as well as playing the piano and clarinet.
As a professional opera singer, he has worked as a baritone soloist extensively throughout the UK, Europe and Canada. He has also sung in professional choirs and opera choruses, including a many-year association with the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus.
As a teacher, he has taught alongside his professional opera career, for over 30 years. His first teaching job at 18 was a student teacher in a prep school in Eastbourne, and he developed a great love of the profession there. He has had many students enter the profession as both performers and teachers, many of whom often contact him for advice.
In 2019, he founded ‘Skye Chorus’, a community choir which performs regularly. In April 2024, they performed Mozart’s Requiem to high acclaim, and in April 2025 will give Handel’s Messiah in 2 performances over the Easter weekend.
He has a natural gift as a teacher and communicator, and looks forward to welcoming future generations of students into his school.
Elaine Ferguson
Teacher - Piano and voice
Elaine has lived and worked on the Isle of Skye for over 20 years and in that time has involved herself in many musical endeavours on the island. Although her background is primarily in science and agriculture, she has continued to return to music for both pleasure and employment.
As a classical pianist she spent many years working as a church organist in both Canada and Scotland, and played as a cellist with the Skye & Lochalsh Orchestra.
As a trained teacher she has integrated musical education in her classroom and recently completed a specialised module with the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She was a founder of the community choir Island Chorus and is served as Musical Director for many years.
She has studied voice and performance with Tony Cleverton for more than 6 years, achieving a high distinction in her Grade 8 singing exam. When not making music she can be found sailing her boat and creating feasts in her kitchen.