Katie Bray

Mezzo-soprano

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  Katie Bray is a Karaviotis scholar on the opera course at the Royal Academy of Music, taught by Elizabeth Ritchie and Iain Ledingham, and was awarded First Prize in the Academy’s prestigious Richard Lewis Singing Competition last year. She recently played the role of Béatrice in Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict at the Royal Academy of Music, conducted by Sir Colin Davis and directed by John Copley. This summer, Katie makes her début with Glyndebourne Festival Opera and English Touring Opera.

  During her time as a postgraduate student at the Royal Academy of Music, Katie was awarded the 2009 Major van Someren-Godfrey Prize for English Song, the 2010 Elena Gerhardt Lieder Prize, 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.

  Other recent solo appearances include Cherubino in British Youth Opera’s Le nozze di Figaro at the Peacock Theatre, Polly Peachum in Royal Academy Opera’s production of Weill’s Die Dreigoschenoper, Wu in the world première of Peter Maxwell-Davies’ opera, Kommilitonen! and song recitals in the Wigmore Hall with the Countess of Munster Young Artists and the Royal Academy’s Song Circle. Katie is grateful for generous support from the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and the Josephine Baker Trust.

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

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  • Béatrice et Bénédict
    Royal Academy Opera

    Kate 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

    Vocally, Katie Bray as Béatrice was as idiomatically French-sounding, with her agile, full mezzo shaping the drooping phrases of her Act Two aria with great elegance, and she managed Béatrice’s love-struck transformation very affectingly

    Peter Reed, Classicalsource

  • Le Nozze di Figaro
    British Youth Opera

    Katie Bray was the vivacious Cherubino, her ‘Voi che sapete’ sung with charm

    Margaret Davies, Opera

  • 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 Opera Repertoire

  BERLIOZ

  • Béatrice et Bénédict (Béatrice)

  BIZET

  • Carmen (Carmen)

  BRITTEN

  • The Rape of Lucretia (Lucretia)

  CAVALLI

  • L’Egisto (Clori)

  GOUNOD

  • Faust (Siebel)

  HANDEL

  • Ariodante (Ariodante)

  MAXWELL-DAVIES

  • Kommilitonen! (Wu)

  MOZART

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

  ROSSINI

  • La Cenerentola (Angelina)

  WEILL

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

  Katie Bray Oratorio 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

  BRITTEN

  • Ceremony of Carols

  COPLAND

  • In the Beginning

  DURUFLE

  • Requiem

  HANDEL

  • Dixit Dominus
  • Messiah

  HAYDN

  • Harmony Messe
  • Paukenmesse
  • Nelson Mass

  JENKINS

  • The Armed Man
  • Stabat Mater

  MENDELSOHN

  • Elijah

  MOZART

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

  ORFF

  • Carmina Burana

  ROSSINI

  • Petite Messe Solemnelle

  SCHUBERT

  • Mass in B flat

  STRAVINSKY

  • Mass

  VIVALDI

  • Gloria

  WEBER

  • Mass in E flat

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