Elizabeth Atherton

Elizabeth Atherton is one of Britain’s most versatile and promising young singers performing in a wide range of repertoire in both concert and opera. She read Music at Trinity College Cambridge before entering the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, where she studied with Patricia MacMahon. She has won several prestigious prizes including the 2001 Maggie Teyte Prize and the 2003 Handel Singing Competition. She is the recipient of the WNO Sir John Moores Award and WNO Chris Ball Bursary.

From 2004-07 she was an Associate Artist at Welsh National Opera and has sung numerous roles for the company including Contessa (Le Nozze di Figaro), Elvira (Don Giovanni), Pamina (The Magic Flute), Micaela (Carmen), Minerva (Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria) and Thibault (Don Carlos).

Other operatic appearances include Fiordiligi (Cosi fan tutte) and Helena (A Midsummer Nights Dream) for Opera North, Micaela (Carmen) at the Royal Albert Hall, the world premiere of Harrison Birtwistle’s The Corridor for Aldeburgh and Bregenz Festivals, a double bill of Holst Savitri and Vaughan Williams Riders to the Sea for Buxton Festival, Melissa (Amadigi) and La Stonatrilla (Gassmann L’Opera Seria) for the Batignano Festival Italy, Helena (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) for English Touring Opera and Pamina (The Magic Flute) for Grange Park Opera. Other roles have included Conception (L’Heure Espagnole), the title role in Alcina, Female Chorus (The Rape of Lucretia) and Ilia (Idomeneo).

She is equally well known as a concert artist. For the BBC Proms she has sung Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music with the BBC Symphony and Sir Andrew Davies, Tippett The Vision of St. Augustine with BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Sir Richard Hickox and Verdi Four Sacred Pieces with London Symphony and Antonio Pappano. Other concert appearances include Messiah with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi and Sir Neville Mariner, Boulez Le Soleil des Eaux conducted by the composer with the Orchestre de Paris and the BBC Symphony, Beethoven Symphony 9 with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by both Sir Charles Mackerras and Mikhail Pletnev, Handel Solomon at the London Handel Festival and in Oslo, Knussen Ocean de Terre with London Sinfonietta and David Atherton in Krakow, Mozart Coronation Mass with BBC Scottish Symphony at the St. Magnus Festival, Elgar The Spirit of England with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and David Hill, Bach B Minor Mass with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Messiah with Northern Sinfonia and Matthew Best, Vivaldi Gloria and Bach Magnificat with Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Berg Seven Early Songs at St. David’s Hall Cardiff, Haydn Creation with English Festival Orchestra and Sir David Willcocks, Berlioz Les Nuits d’Eté with the English Chamber Orchestra and Benjamin Wallfisch and Viennese galas with CBSO and Barry Wordsworth.

In recital, she has appeared with Iain Burnside at Wigmore Hall, Leeds Lieder+ Festival and for the BBC Radio 3 Voices series, and with Malcolm Martineau at the Aldeburgh Festival. She has also given recitals at the Purcell Room, St. David’s Hall Cardiff, Kings Place, National Portrait Gallery and Linbury Studio at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. She has broadcast frequently on BBC Radio 3, including Mahler and Strauss Lieder with BBC Symphony and Jiri Belohlavek and appearances on In Tune, and has recorded Liszt’s Via Crucis and Missa Choralis with Matthew Best and the Corydon Singers (Hyperion), the solos on a disc of English Choral Favourites with the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus (EMI), her first recital disc, Classic Children’s Songs, with Roderick Williams and Iain Burnside (Just Accord) and Britten’s On this Island with Malcolm Martineau to be released on the Onyx label.

Current and future plans include Fiordiligi and Governess (Turn of the Screw) for Opera North, Micaela for Raymond Gubbay at The O2 and concerts of Berg with BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Thierry Fischer, Varese with London Sinfonietta and David Atherton, Beethoven with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Nicholas Cleobury and Britten’s Les Illuminations with Hong Kong Philharmonic and David Atherton.