Kitty Whately

Kitty Whately trained at Chetham’s School of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the Royal College of Music International Opera School. She won both the Kathleen Ferrier Award and the 59th Royal Overseas League Award in 2011, and was part of the prestigious Verbier Festival Academy where she appeared as Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro and in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy. Kitty was a BBC New Generation Artist from 2013-15, during which time she recorded her debut solo album This Other Eden, made recordings with the BBC orchestras, commissioned a new song cycle by Jonathan Dove (included on this album) and made several appearances at the BBC Proms.

Opera highlights include the world premiere of Vasco Mendonça’s The House Taken Over directed by Katie Mitchell, with performances in Antwerp, Strasbourg, Luxembourg, Bruges and Lisbon; Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Stewardess in Jonathan Dove’s Flight (Opera Holland Park); Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bergen National Opera); Kate in Owen Wingrave (Opéra National de Lorraine); Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte (English Touring Opera) and Ippolita / Pallade in Cavalli’s Elena in Montpellier and Versailles for the Aix-en-Provence Festival; and Eurydice in Orfeo with English National Opera at Bristol Old Vic theatre.

Kitty is in high demand as a concert artist and has given performances with most of the UK’s major orchestras, including Duruflé’s Requiem and Mozart’s Requiem (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra), Bach’s B Minor Mass (Royal Northern Sinfonia and Scottish Chamber Orchestra), Beethoven’s Mass in C Major (Philharmonia Orchestra), Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Ulster Orchestra), Haydn’s Nelson Mass (Britten Sinfonia on tour in Spain and the Netherlands) and Bach’s Magnificat (Britten Sinfonia and Choir of King’s College Cambridge). Further performances include Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius at St John’s Smith Square and Handel’s Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall. Kitty has given recitals at Wigmore Hall, Leighton House, and the Edinburgh, Oxford Lieder, Leeds Lieder and Buxton festivals, working regularly with renowned accompanists Roger Vignoles, Graham Johnson, Malcolm Martineau, Gary Matthewman, James Baillieu, Simon Lepper and Joseph Middleton. She premiered Jonathan Dove’s song cycle Nights Not Spent Alone at the 2015 Cheltenham Festival.

Kitty made her BBC Proms debut in Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Suite from Act II of Caroline Mathilde in 2014. She also appeared in a Chamber Music Prom singing the music of Stephen Sondheim, and as Nancy in a concert performance of Britten’s Albert Herring. Her frequent performances with the BBC orchestras include De Falla’s The Three Cornered Hat (BBC National Orchestra of Wales). Her recordings include her solo album This Other Eden, Ravel’s Sheherezade with BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and songs by Rogers & Hammerstein, Jerome Kern and Cole Porter with BBC Concert Orchestra.

"In an age of glossily interchangeable international artists, [Kitty Whately] isn't afraid to tell us her story"

- Gramophone