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The Scottish mezzo-soprano, Catriona Morison, was born into a musical family and learned to play violin and viola before turning to singing. She studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and at the University of the Arts in Berlin, graduating with a Masters in Opera with Distinction and continues to study with Professor Siegfried Gohritz of the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar. In 2017, she became the first Brit and Scot to win the Main Prize as well as the Song Prize (jointly) at Cardiff Singer of the World. Before that won the “Toonkunst Oratorio Prize” at the 50. International Vocal Competition ’s-Hertogenbosch in 2014 and reached the final of the 9th International Hilde Zadek Competition in Vienna in 2015. She took part in the Samling Artist programme for outstanding young singers in 2013 and in 2015 joined the Young Singers Project of the Salzburg Festival, making her debut there in Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier with the Wiener Philharmoniker under Franz Wesler-Möst. The following season saw her become a member of the Thüringer Opera Studio.
At the beginning of 2016-2017 season, Catriona Morison joined the ensemble of Oper Wuppertal, where she has sung roles including Maddalena in Rigoletto, Hänsel in Engelbert Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, Nicklausse in Les contes d’Hoffmann and Clarice in Die Liebe zu den drei Orangen. This season (2017-2018) she gives her role debut as Charlotte in Massenet’s Werther and can be seen as Cherubino in W.A. Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro. In the role of Charlotte she makes her Norwegian and Scandinavian debut at Bergen National Opera. Guest engagements have taken her to Oper Köln as Cherubino, German National Theatre Weimar as Annina in Der Rosenkavalier and Kay in Die Schneekönigin, to Theater Erfurt as Giove und Pisandro in Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, as well as to Theater Hof and the Lithuanian National Opera for staged performances of W.A. Mozart’s Requiem and George Frideric Handel’s Alexander’s Feast respectively. Further roles in her repertoire include Dorabella in W.A. Mozart's Così fan tutte, Nerone in L’incoronatione di Popper, Bianca in Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, Hermia in B. Britten's A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Mercédès in Georges Bizet's Carmen which she has performed at the Banff Centre in Canada, with Edinburgh Grand Opera and with Scottish Opera.
On the concert platform Catriona Morison was recently a soloist with MusicAeterna under Teodor Currentzis on a European tour of W.A. Mozart’s Requiem and made her Russian debut in J.S. Bach’s b-Minor-Mass (BWV 232) at the Trans-Siberian Music Festival in Novosibirsk. She gave her London Proms debut in 2013 and in the following year she sang E.T.A. Hoffmanns Miserere with the Bamberger Symphoniker. Further performances include J.S. Bach’s St John Passion (BWV 245), G.F. Handel’s Messiah and Dixit Dominus, Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music. She has given recitals in multiple British and German cities as well as at the Edinburgh International Festival and at the Wigmore Hall as a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist.
Current concert projects include Ravel’s Shéhérazade with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Chaussons Poème de l’amour et de la mer with the Heidelberger Symphony Orchestra, Ethel Smyth's Mass in D with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Martyn Brabbins at the Barbican Centre London and with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under Sakari Oramo as well as G.F. Handel's Messiah at the Royal Festival Hall in London. She sings Gustav Mahler’s Rückert Lieder with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Thomas Søndergård and the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra under Julia Jones, J.S. Bach’s St Matthew Passion (BWV 244) with the MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig and Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis. |
