The Department of Voice & Opera hosts a master class for undergraduate singers with guest artist Lynne Dawson, soprano; accompanied by Kevin Thraves, pianist (Deputy Head of Opera, Royal Northern College of Music). Free and open to the public.

GUEST ARTIST BIO

Professor LYNNE DAWSON is Head of the School of Vocal Studies and Opera at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England.

Before becoming a singer she trained as a translator and interpreter and spent several years in industry. She worked with many conductors and ensembles at the forefront of the Historical Performance movement making recordings for many major recording labels. Her career developed to encompass opera, concerts and recordings at the highest international level; her discography numbers more than 80. She has worked with major symphony orchestras all over the world and particularly with conductors Daniel Barenboim, Frans Brüggen, Marc Minkowski, Zubin Mehta, John Eliot Gardiner and Carl Maria Giulini. Operatic roles include Mozart’s Pamina, Zaide, Donna Elvira, Countess Almaviva, Queen of the Night, Constanze, Aspasia and Vitellia, as well as Amenaide in Rossini’s Tancredi, leading roles in Handel’s Orlando, Giulio Cesare, Hercules and Ariodante, Marzelline in Beethoven’s Fidelio, the title-role in Gluck’s Iphigenie en Aulide, Mimì in La Bohème, Zdenka in Strauss’s Arabella, and Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata. Lynne has performed in opera houses including Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Berlin Staatsoper, and Salzburg and Aix-en-Provence Festivals. Her concert repertoire encompasses Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs, Ravel’s Shéhérezade, Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’Été, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven concert arias and Berg’s Seven Early Songs, but she has never lost her love of the Baroque repertoire. She sang the Verdi Requiem solo for Princess Diana's funeral 20 years ago.

She was appointed Head of Vocal Studies in 2010 and of Vocal Studies and Opera in 2017.