Katie Bray

Mezzo-soprano

• Biography
• Reviews
• Repertoire
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  Karaviotis scholar, Katie Bray, graduated from the opera course at the Royal Academy of Music, and was awarded the 2012 Principal’s Prize. Taught by Elizabeth Ritchie and Iain Ledingham, she won First Prize in the Academy’s prestigious Richard Lewis Singing Competition in 2011. Last year, Katie made her solo débuts with Glyndebourne Festival Opera and English Touring Opera, and in 2013, she joined Opera North as Nancy in Giles Havergal’s new production of Albert Herring.

  Katie was awarded prizes for her contribution to English Song and Lieder at RAM, as well as the Alfred Alexander Scholarship and the Karaviotis and Sir Thomas Armstrong Awards. She was also the recipient of the Opera Prize and third prize overall in the 2011 Mozart International Singing Competition, the Audience Prize in the 2010 Handel Singing Competition and third prize in the 2010 Jackdaws Vocal Award.

  Recent solo appearances include Nancy Albert Herring for Opera North, Drummer Girl Der Kaiser von Atlantis with English Touring Opera, Béatrice Béatrice et Bénédict at the Royal Academy of Music, Cherubino Le Nozze di Figaro for British Youth Opera, and song recitals in the Wigmore Hall with the Countess of Munster Young Artists and the Royal Academy’s Song Circle. She will perform a lieder recital in the 2013 City of London Festival with her regular accompanist, William Vann.

  Katie Bray is represented worldwide by Andrew Rosner at Rayfield Allied.
  This biography is for information only and should not be reproduced.

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  • Albert Herring
    Opera North (May 2013)

    Katie Bray’s handsome-voiced Nancy.

    Andrew Clark, The Financial Times *****

    Katie Bray caught my ear as Nancy.

    Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph

    Marc Callahan (Sid) and Katie Bray (Nancy), two other debutants with Opera North, also gave exceptionally attractive performances. Theirs is a decidedly heterosexual love duet, rare in Britten’s operas, and was passionately sung.

    Michael Kennedy, Opera Magazine

    And I liked the unresolved volatility between Katie Bray’s sharply assertive Nancy and Marc Callahan’s Brylcreem-Boy Sid.

    Richard Morrison, The Times ****

  • Emperor of Atlantis
    English Touring Opera

    Musically it's terrific, with not a weak performance anywhere, though Katie Bray’s warmongering Drummer and Callum Thorpe as the multiple voices of reason and technology that Ullmann simply calls Loudspeaker, are particularly outstanding.

    Tim Ashley, The Guardian

    Katie Bray’s mezzo was outstanding. Her punch performance as the thigh-bone wielding Drummer combined vocal athleticism with physical vigour on stage.

    John-Pierre Joyce, Music OMH

    Miss Bray is another rising star who must have been spotted while on the Royal Academy’s Opera Course. ETO has an excellent track record of providing a launch pad for feisty mezzos who can act and Miss Bray did not disappoint.

    Miranda Jackson, Opera Britannia

    Katie Bray was outstanding.

    Opera Now

    There were nonetheless strong performances from Katie Bray (Drummer), a commanding stage presence as well as an ever flexible singer.

    Flora Willson, Opera Magazine

  • Béatrice et Bénédict
    Royal Academy Opera

    Katie Bray’s Béatrice is sparkily acted and warmly sung

    Richard Morrison, The Times

    The Béatrice of Katie Bray was stunningly brilliant

    Michael Tanner, The Spectator

  • World Premiere of Kommilitonen, Sir Peter Maxwell-Davies
    Royal Academy of Music

    Wu is sung with the luxurious mezzo-soprano of Katie Bray, a sound of compassion, plangeant but not abject or begging. This is the most convincingly operatic performance, Bray characterising Wu with the quality of sound. Consequently it’s, for me, the most gripping account of a maligned individual of the evening.

    Royal Academy of Music

  • Die Dreigroschenoper
    Royal Academy of Music

    Vocally, the undisputed star was Katie Bray as Polly. Bray gave us wonderful feel for Weill's melodic lines and for every mood, whether lyrical in her Farewell Song, waywardly self-willed in the Song of Yes and No or rapid-fire in her Jealousy duet with Runette Botha's Lucy

    David Karlin, Bachtrack

  • London Handel Festival
    Singing Competition

    Katie Bray…portrays Ariodante’s grief and rage at the perceived betrayal of his love, Ginevra. This is a hugely testing aria requiring dramatic declamation and an extensive range. Too often one hears singers resorting to brassy-toned lower notes which seems unconnected to the rest of the voice and this was a danger that Bray conspicuously avoided…Bray brought a really exciting bravura to the piece. This was the first time in the evening when the hairs on the back of the neck were raised.

    Sebastian Petit, Opera Britannia

• Katie Bray Concert Repertoire

  ASHE

  • The Waters
  • The Light
  • The Earth

  BACH

  • Magnificat
  • Christmas Oratorio
  • St John Passion
  • St Matthew Passion
  • Mass in B minor
  • BWV 7 - Christ unser Herr zum Jorden kam
  • BWV 28 - Gottlob! nun geht das Jahr zu Ende
  • BWV 42 - Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats
  • BWV 83 - Erfreute Zeit im neuen Bunde
  • BWV 164 - Ihr, die ihr euch von Christo nennet
  • BWV 170 - Vergnuegte Ruh
  • BWV 249 - Osteroratorium

  BEETHOVEN

  • Ninth Symphony

  BRAHMS

  • Op. 91

  BRIDGE

  • Three Songs for voice, viola and piano H.76

  BRITTEN

  • Ceremony of Carols
  • Cabaret Songs
  • The Red Cockatoo
  • A Charm of Lullabies

  COPLAND

  • In the Beginning

  DURUFLE

  • Requiem

  HANDEL

  • Dixit Dominus
  • Messiah

  HAYDN

  • Harmony Messe
  • Paukenmesse
  • Nelson Mass

  JENKINS

  • The Armed Man
  • Stabat Mater

  MATTHEWS

  • Vespers

  MENDELSSOHN

  • Elijah

  MOZART

  • Mass in C minor
  • Mass in C major
  • Requiem

  ORFF

  • Carmina Burana

  RAVEL

  • Cinq melodies populaires grecques

  ROSSINI

  • Petite Messe Solemnelle

  SCHUBERT

  • Mass in B flat

  SCHUMANN

  • Frauenliebe und leben
  • Myrten
  • Lieder und Gesange aus 'Wilhelm Meister' Op. 98a

  SEIBER

  • Four Greek Folk Songs

  STRAVINSKY

  • Mass

  VIVALDI

  • Gloria

  WAGNER

  • Wesendonck Lieder

  WEBER

  • Mass in E flat

  Katie Bray Opera Repertoire

  BERLIOZ

  • Béatrice et Bénédict (Béatrice)

  BERNSTEIN

  • Candide (Paquette/Old Lady)

  BIZET

  • Carmen (Carmen)

  BRITTEN

  • Albert Herring (Nancy)
  • The Rape of Lucretia (Lucretia)
  • A Midsummer Night's Dream (Hermia)

  GOUNOD

  • Faust (Siebel)

  MAXWELL-DAVIES

  • Kommilitonen! (Wu)

  MOZART

  • Cosi fan tutte (Dorabella)
  • Don Giovanni (Zerlina)
  • La Clemenza di Tito (Sesto / Annio)
  • Le nozze di Figaro (Cherubino)
  • Die Zauberfloete (Second Lady)

  ROSSINI

  • La Cenerentola (Angelina)

  ULLMANN

  • Der Kaiser von Atlantis (Drummer Girl)

  WEILL

  • Die Dreigroschenoper (Polly Peachum)
  • Die Sieben Todsünden (Anna)

• Photos

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