Mezzo-soprano Catherine Backhouse grew up in Edinburgh and began singing as a chorister in St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral. She graduated with an honours degree in music from The University of Durham and has completed the prestigious Opera Studies and Artist Diploma programmes at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with distinction. She will be a Scottish Opera Emerging Artist for the 17/18 Season playing the role of Annina in La Traviata, Olga (cover) Eugene Onegin and touring Scotland with Opera Highlights. Earlier this year she toured the role of Third Lady in The Magic Flute with Mid-Wales Opera. In 2016 she played the title role in Donizetti’s La Favorite, Philomen in Gluck Philomen and Baucis (UK Premiere) and Pallas in Arne The Judgement of Paris with Bampton Classical Opera, Idamante (cover) for Garsington Opera. In 2015 her debuts included Dryad in Ariadne auf Naxos with Opera Project at West Green House, Solo Fairy in Mendelssohn A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Garsington Opera/RSC and covering Louhi in Swanhunter for Opera North. Catherine was a 2014 Britten-Pears Young Artist and played the role of Kate Julian in a new production of Britten’s Owen Wingrave at the Aldeburgh and Edinburgh International Festivals to critical acclaim. Other operatic highlights include Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus at Clonter Opera and the title role in Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortilèges in the Barbican. While at Guildhall she played Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Jean in Le Portait de Manon by Massenet and Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Previous roles performed are Mezzo Actor in Judith Weir’s A Night at the Chinese Opera with British Youth Opera and Rossweisse in Die Walküre at the St Endellion Festival. An enthusiast of new music, Catherine has performed Kurtág Messages of the Late R.V.Troussova, Mariko in Tokaido Road by Nicola LeFanu, Jan in Jan Tait and the Bear by Emily Doolittle, Ronald Reagan in The Catfish Conundrum by Edward Lambert. On the concert platform she has appeared as a soloist with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in the St Magnus Festival on Orkney, sung Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Ludus Baroque, Handel’s Messiah with Dunedin Consort and Alexander Nevsky in the Barbican. Her recital work has featured Elgar Sea Pictures, Schumann Frauenliebe und Leben, Wagner Wesendonk Lieder and Britten Cabaret Songs. She also performs programmes for voice, viola and piano with her group The Amalie Trio. More information can be found at www.catherinebackhouse.co.uk

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