Katherine Cooper, mezzo-soprano

Katherine Cooper read English at University College, Oxford, and as a postgraduate at the universities of York and London. She made at the universities of York and London. She made her opera debut in 2004 as Mrs Grose in The Turn of the Screw and has since sung the roles of Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Second Lady (Die Zauberflöte), Katisha (The Mikado), Venus (Orpheus in the Underworld) and Second Pigeon in Ed Hughes's new opera The Birds. A former member of the BBC Symphony Chorus, she has sung under Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Andrew Davis, Bernard Haitink and Leonard Slatkin and performed regularly at the BBC Proms. Solo concert work has included Bach's St. John Passion, Vivaldi's Gloria, Mozart's Requiem, Beethoven's Symphony No.9 and Jonathan Dove's The Far Theatricals of Day; recent engagements have included Handel's solo cantata La Lucrezia, Haydn's Arianna a Naxos and songs from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Later this year she will sing the title-role in Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri for Oxford Touring Opera and also return to the roles of Dorabella and Cherubino with the Oxford Opera Company. She studies singing with Sara Jonsson.