Scottish soprano KATHERINE MACRAE began her musical training in America before taking up a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She went on to train with David Pollard from the Guildhall School of Music and attended international masterclass courses with celebrated artists such as Roger Vignoles, Malcolm Martineau and Françoise Pollet.
As a lyric coloratura soprano, she enjoys singing a broad range of repertoire from the Baroque through to the 21st century. In recent years she premiered two contemporary works, the music theatre piece for solo soprano and wind sextet A Child of Bethlehem by Neil Carey, and the song cycle Darsham Songs, written for her by the American composer Richard Beaudoin.
On the opera circuit, she has performed with Grange Park Opera, Raymond Gubbay productions, Opera East, Ensemble Orquesta, Gothic Opera and early music ensemble the Musical Compass, among others, and in concert venues such as St James Piccadilly and St Martin in the Fields in London, the Linbury Studio at the Royal Opera House, la Salle de la Cité des Arts (Paris),and Steinway Hall (New York).
Katie loves the classical song repertoire as much as opera, and recent song recitals have included programmes by all Russian composers, programmes inspired by folk traditions, and songs inspired by the night, such as her appearance at the First Light Festival 2024, Lowestoft, UK, as part of their late night Moonlit Soundscapes programme.
In 2020 Katie moved from London to Suffolk where she has enjoyed being part of the musical scene, while keeping up professional work and teaching in London. Upcoming roles include the Pied Piper in The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Jonathan Willcocks, for Jubilee Opera.
RECENT WORK
— July 2024: Songs of Love, Longing, Languor and Lust, with Alec Hone, piano at St Mary’s Walpole
— June 2024: Moonlit Soundscapes at First Light Festival, Lowestoft with Gretel Dowdeswell, piano
— November 2023: Soprano Soloist in Handel Messiah with Kingfisher Sinfonia at St Michael’s Beccles; cond. Geoff Lavery
— July 2023: The Water is Wide, with Jodie Schloss, piano at St Mary’s Walpole
— May/June 2023: Galatea in Handel Acis & Galatea with New Sussex Opera, touring Brighton, Eastbourne and Lewes; cond. Nicholas Houghton, dir. David Foster
— September 2022: Actor in theatre workshop led by Alan Cox on The Taming of the Shrew for Shake Festival, at The Cut, Halesworth
— October 2022: On Night and Dreams and Madness recital with Rob Gildon, baritone and Gretel Dowdeswell, piano at St Edmund’s Southwold
— June 2022: Cover of the role of Peggy Martin in Paul Crabtree’s opera Ghost Train for the St Magnus Festival, Orkney; cond. Alasdair Nicolson, dir. Hazel Gould
— May 2022: The Ukrainian Genius Ukrainian folk songs at Pushkin House, London
— October 2021: Arthur in Gounod’s La Nonne Sanglante with Gothic Opera at Hoxton Hall, London — winner of ‘The Offies’ Best Off-West End Opera production 2021 — cond. Rosie Haworth, dir. Franciska Éry
— July 2021: Noon Wife in Leon Haxby’s arrangement of Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle with Gothic Opera at Porchester Hall, London; cond. Thomas Payne, dir. Julia Mintzer
— November 2020: Singing Juno in lockdown zoom performance of Shakespeare’s The Tempest with Shake Festival, Suffolk; dir. Jennifer Caron Hall
— August 2019: Amour in Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie with Ensemble Orquesta at the Arcola Theatre, London; dir. and cond. Marcio da Silva
— April 2019: Zaïre in Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes at John Mackintosh theatre, London; dir. and cond. Marcio da Silva
CONTACT FORM:
Katherine MacRae 