MEZZO-SOPRANO

Selected by Opera Now as amongst ‘Who’s Hot’ for her performance as Galatea in Aci e Galatea at the London Handel Festival, the mezzo-soprano Clare Wilkinson was born in Manchester. She was a Choral Scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge, where she read Classics and furthered her studies with Hazel Wood at Trinity College of Music, London. She now enjoys collaborations with many distinguished conductors and ensembles, appearing at the world’s major concert hall venues from the Hong Kong Cultural Center to Lincoln Center New York, and from the Amsterdam Concertgebouw to the Royal Albert Hall, London. Conductors with whom she has worked include Harry Bicket, Laurence Cummings, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, David Hill, Nicholas Kraemer, Christophe Rousset, Markus Stenz and Michael Willens in performances with the English Baroque Soloists, the English Consort, Florilegium, the Gürzenich Orchester Köln, Die Kölner Akademie, the Manchester Camerata, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Swedish Baroque Orchestra.

Her stage work has additionally included Zinnia / L’Étoile at the Opéra Comique, Paris, and the Théâtre de Nîmes, Venere / Il Ballo dell’Ingrate with I Fagiolini at the BBC Proms and Second Witch / Dido and Aeneas andAriel / The Tempest on a tour including the Cité de la Musique, Paris, the Opéra national de Lyon and the Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur. With I Fagiolini, she also appeared in Ed Hughes’ The Birds, and The Full Monteverdi, a staged sequence of Madrigals, which achieved nearly ninety performances during 2004 – 2007 and was also filmed for DVD.

Clare enjoys chamber music, working regularly with Fretwork, in repertoire ranging from early to contemporary music, Musica Antiqua and the Rose Consort of Viols. Her recording of Messiah with the Dunedin Consort on Linn gained a GRAMOPHONE award, and her recordings further include J. S. Bach St Matthew Passion, also with the Dunedin Consort on Linn, Josquin Desprez Motets & Chansons and Verdelot Madrigals for a Tudor King with Alamire (Obsidian), Fire and Ashes, Flaming Heart and Sweet Torment - Music by Monteverdi - with I Fagiolini (Chandos), Fire and Ice and A Songbook for Isabella with Musica Antiqua of London (Signum), Four Gentlemen of the Chapel Royal with the Rose Consort of Viols (Signum) and The Silken Tent with Fretwork (Commmons). Most recently released is the reconstruction of the J. S. Bach St Mark Passion (Carus Verlag).

Her current engagements include Galatea / Acis and Galatea at the Trigonale Festival, Austria, Penelope / Una Odissea with Accordone at the Schwetzingen Festival, J. S. Bach Cantatas on tour with the Israel Camerata, the Christmas Oratorio with the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, the St John Passion and Vivaldi Stabat Mater with the Manchester Camerata, the St Matthew Passion with the City of London Sinfonia, the Malaga Philharmonic Orchestra and Washington National Cathedral Choral Society, Les Nuits d’Été with Edinburgh University Chamber Orchestra, Handel Dixit Dominus and Vivaldi Gloria at the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music, Messiah with the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Washington National Cathedral Choir and further projects with Alamire, I Fagiolini, Fretwork and Melopoetica.

www.clarewilkinsonmezzo.co.uk

Please note that this biography is not to be used for programmes. Current information is available on request.