Jennifer Johnston

The dramatic mezzo-soprano was named by both BBC Music Magazine and the Observer as “a rising star,” and the Financial Times as the “Face to Watch in Opera.” A former BBC New Generation Artist, she is a graduate of Cambridge University and the Royal College of Music, and is the recipient of numerous awards. She has appeared in opera at the Teatro alla Scala, Salzburg Festival, Bayerische Staatsoper, Festival d’Aix en Provence, Opera de Lille, Beijing Festival, Baltic Sea Festival, Scottish Opera and Opera North. Her roles include Fricka, Waltraute, Second Norn, Wellgunde, Mrs Grose, Leda, Gaia, Lady de Hautdesert, Jocasta, Hedwige, Lucretia, Margret, Dido, Hänsel, Mrs Noye, Third Lady, Mrs Herring, Mrs Sedley, Giovanna Seymour and Agrippina.She has performed with many of the world’s greatest orchestras in repertoire spanning the centuries, from Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Dallas Symphony and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestras, both under Jaap Van Zweden, Mahler’s Third Symphony under Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra, Schumann’s Faustszenen with the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester and Wiener Symphoniker Orchestras under Daniel Harding, as Jocaste in Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex under Sir John Eliot Gardiner with the Berlin Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestras (released as an LSO Live disc), and Adès’s Totentanz under Thomas Adès with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Maestros she has performed under include Kirill Petrenko, Sir Andrew Davis, Donald Runnicles, Kent Nagano, Ingo Metzmacher, Alondra de la Parra, Vasily Petrenko, Bernard Labadie, Osmo Vänskä, Kiril Karabits, Juanjo Mena, Dan Ettinger, Vasily Sinaisky, Thomas Søndergård, Thomas Dausgaard, Leonard Slatkin and Harry Bicket. She made her solo recital debut at the Wigmore Hall broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. Her extensive discography includes Anthony Payne’s arrangement of Vaughan Williams’ Four Last Songs with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Martyn Brabbins for Albion Records, which she premiered at the BBC Proms.

Jennifer’s engagements in 2016-17 include Mrs Grose in Britten’s Turn of the Screw in a new production at La Scala (Eschenbach/Holten), Hedwige in Rossini’s Guillaume Tell at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Wellgunde in Wagner’s Das Rheingold with Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé (to be released on disc), Ghost in Birtwistle’s The Last Supper with Martyn Brabbins and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Pasqualita in John Adams’ Dr Atomic with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer, Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri with Daniele Gatti and the Accademia Santa Cecilia, Verdi’s Requiem and Mahler’s Third Symphony with Leonard Slatkin and the Orchestre National de Lyon, Schumann’s Faustszenen with the Michael Schønwandt and Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Elgar’s Sea Pictures with Jeffrey Tate and the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra and with Jun Märkl and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Mahler’s Rückert Lieder with Thomas Søndergård and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with Paul McCreesh and the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Dvorak Requiem with Jiří Bělohlávek and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Elgar’s Music Makers with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Bach’s B Minor Mass with the BBC Singers, Tippett’s Child of our Time with Ryan Wigglesworth and the Hallé Orchestra, Beethoven Mass in C with Nicholas McGegan and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and she will appear in recital with Joseph Middleton at Leeds Lieder.