Elizabeth Watts won the 2007 Rosenblatt Recital Song Prize at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition and the Outstanding Young Artist Award at the Cannes MIDEM Classique Awards as well as the 2006 Kathleen Ferrier Award. She is a former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist and was awarded a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in February 2011.

Her critically acclaimed debut recording of Schubert Lieder (Sony) was followed by equally acclaimed discs of Bach Cantatas (Harmonia Mundi), Strauss Lieder with Roger Vignoles (Hyperion) and Mozart arias with the

Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Christian Baldini (Linn Records); and most recently, a disc of works by Alessandro Scarlatti with the English Concert and Laurence Cummings (Harmonia Mundi), and Couperin Leçons de Ténèbres with La Nuova Musica and David Bates (Harmonia Mundi).

Plans this season and beyond include Ligeti Le Grand Macabre with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle; Bach St John Passion with Blomstedt and the Oslo Philharmonic; a New Year concert with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Nick McGegan, returning later in the season for Mozart Coronation Mass with Richard Egarr; Mahler Symphony no. 4 and Strauss songs with the Hallé Orchestra and Ryan Wigglesworth, recitals with Roger Vignoles at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and Malcolm Martineau at London’s Wigmore Hall and her debut at Grand Théâtre de Genève.

Recent concerts have included Mozart Requiem with the London Symphony Orchestra; Mass in C minor with Akademie für Alte Musik and Daniel Reuss and with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Olari Elts; Brahms Requiem with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Bach St Matthew and St John Passions (concerts and recordings) with the Academy of Ancient Music and Richard Egarr; Beethoven Symphony no. 9 and Haydn Scena di Berenice with the SCO; Mahler Symphonies nos. 2 and 4 and Strauss Lieder with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra; no. 2 with the LPO and Andrés Orozco-Estrada and no. 4 with the LSO and Michael Tilson Thomas as well as with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Vladimir Ashkenazy; Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony with the Stockholm  Philharmonic Orchestra and Sakari Oramo as well as performances with Bachakademie Stuttgart and Hans-Christoph Rademan and with RIAS Kammerchor, Berlin and Ottavio Dantone.

Opera roles have included Zerlina Don Giovanni and Marzelline Fidelio for the Royal Opera, Covent Garden; Susanna Le Nozze di Figaro for Santa Fe Opera and WNO, for whom Elizabeth has also sung Pamina Die Zauberflöte and Fiordiligi Così fan tutte, and most recently Countess in both Mozart’s opera and a sequel Figaro Gets A Divorce by Elena Langer; Almirena in Handel Rinaldo for Glyndebourne on Tour and, in concert, Josephine HMS Pinafore at the 2015 Edinburgh Festival and Minerva Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria with Academy of Ancient Music.

Elizabeth was a chorister at Norwich Cathedral and studied archaeology at Sheffield University before studying singing at the Royal College of Music in London. From 2005-2007 she was a member of English National Opera’s Young Singers Programme.

 

November 2016