Cathy Bell (mezzo-soprano)

Cathy Bell read English and Medieval Literature at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and studied singing as a postgraduate at Birmingham Conservatoire. She took principal roles in all college productions, and in the summer after graduating she was a finalist in the Les Azuriales Opera Young Singers Competition. Roles since college include Third Lady (Mozart The Magic Flute) for the Palestine Mozart Festival and Hampstead Garden Opera; Third Boy for Diva Opera; title role Carmen for Barefoot Opera Young Artists’ Tour; the alto roles in Purcell’s King Arthur; and Arasse (Hasse Siroe) at the London Handel Festival. Chorus work includes contracts at Garsington Opera, Grange Park Opera, Scottish Opera, the Aix-en-Provence Festival and the Beijing Music Festival, as well as a recording for ENO/Chandos.

Cathy also works as a consort singer, performing regularly with groups such as the BBC Singers, the Sixteen and Britten Sinfonia Voices. A keen recitalist, she has studied the song repertoire with Dame Felicity Palmer, Anna Larsson and Malcolm Martineau, and she was a CREAR Scholar 2012. Recent concert highlights include Handel Messiah with Ludlow Choral Society, Wetherby Choral Society, Constanza Chorus and Lord Williams’s Festival Chorus; Scarlatti Salve Regina, Vivaldi Gloria and Bach Christmas Oratorio with Leicester Bach Choir; Handel Theodora with Eastcote Choral Society; Mozart Domenican Vespers at the Leith Hill Musical Festival; Pergolesi Stabat Mater, Bach Magnificat and Vivaldi Dixit Dominus at Southwark Cathedral; Bach B minor Mass with Birmingham Festival Choral Society; a programme of Handel and Bononcini duets and arias at the Handel House; and the Rachmaninov Vespers with Oxford Bach Choir, Cardiff Polyphonic Choir and at the Maribor Festival in Slovenia. Future engagements include Handel Messiah in Leicester; Bach B minor Mass in Grimsby; CPE Bach Magnificat in Nottingham; and consort projects with the Sixteen, the Clerks’ Group and Tenebrae. Now focusing on baroque and contemporary repertoire, Cathy was delighted to have been chosen as a member of the inaugural Handel House Talent Scheme. An Olwen and Edwin Powell Award.