biography

Katherine began her vocal training with the Highcliffe Junior Choir in Dorset. She graduated from Cardiff University with First Class Honours in Music and from the Royal Academy of Music Opera course with a DipRAM; supported by an Allcard Award from the Worshipful Company of Musicians and the Alfreda Hodgson Award from Making Music. Whilst at the Academy she achieved much competitive success, including the Grisi & Mario Prize; 2nd Prize in the John Warner Memorial Award; 3rd Prize in the Great Elm Vocal Awards and Isabelle Jay Competition; finalist for both the Thelma King Award and Delius Prize. She studies with Noelle Barker OBE and Clara Taylor and has participated in Masterclasses with Malcolm Martineau, Robert Tear, Rudolf Jansen, Barbara Bonney and Renee Fleming. Recent solo concert appearances include Bach's 'Magnificat' at Snape Maltings Concert Hall; Britten's 'Les Illuminations' with the RAM String Orchestra; Darlow 'Music for Holy Week' premiere at St George's Hanover Square; Mozart's 'Requiem' at St Martin in the Fields & Dunblane Cathedral and Scarlatti's 'Stabat Mater' at St John's Smith Square. Katherine contributed to the Omaggio Festival, a collaboration between the Royal Academy and the Southbank, perfoming Berio's 'Sequenza III' both in concert & live on Radio 3's 'In Tune' programme. She guests on the newly released 'Copland & his Contemporaries' CD with The Choir of New Colledge Oxford and Edward Higginbottom. Opera performances include Lucietta in Wolf-Ferrari's 'I quattri rusteghi', Papagena in 'Die Zauberflote and the title role in Massenet's 'Cendrillon' (all with RAO), as well as scenes from 'Orlando' (Dorinda); 'Idomeneo' (Ilia); 'Les Dialogues du Carmelites' (Blanche); The Rape of Lucretia (Lucia); 'Carmen' (Frasquita) and 'Der Rosenkavalier' (Sophie). She has also performed the roles of Aricie in 'Hippolyte et Aricie' with WNYO; Tatyana in 'Eugene Onegin' for NYO; Eva in 'La Maison du Docteur' with Combe Opera; Cis in 'Albert Herring' with Britten-Pears Young Artists, Genius in 'Der Stein der Weisen' with Garsington Opera, Clomiri in Handel's 'Imeneo' with Cambridge Handel Opera and Rose in Delibe's 'Lakme' with Opera Holland Park. She has also enjoyed a busy 2008 season with Buxton Festival Opera, singing chorus and covering Kathleen in Vaughan Williams 'Riders to the Sea' and Israelite Woman in Handel's 'Samson'.

copyright kmb 2007

design & additional photography by mark smith selected images courtesy of r.a.o