Cecily Shaw is in her first year of the Guildhall School Opera Course under the tutelage of Samantha Malk, and is a Sally Cohen Opera Scholarship recipient. Her previous studies at the University of Waikato focused on both vocal performance, and the experiences of neurodivergent musicians. Cecily has been an alto soloist with several notable New Zealand choirs including Bach Musica and Scholars Baroque Aotearoa, and more recently the Exeter Philharmonic Choir. Cecily’s major operatic roles include Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro, University of Waikato 2016, Cornelia (Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Handel Consort and Quire 2019), and most recently Lady Bertram in Jonathan Dove's Mansfield Park (Guildhall School 2025). She was one of Guildhall School's 2024 Tracey Chadwell Memorial Prize recipients for premiering Maki Gajic Murata's composition "Atlantis", and she received the 2025 English Song Prize. Cecily enjoys performing a wide range of repertoire from oratorio and opera to cabaret, and even her own comedy songs for ukulele, as her alter ego “Socratena”.