Catriona Morison

Catriona Morison, Scottish mezzo-soprano based in Berlin, gained widespread recognition in 2017 when she won the Main Prize and shared the Song Prize at the prestigious BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition. At that time, she was a member of the opera ensemble in Wuppertal for two seasons (2016-2018), where she added a diverse range of exciting roles to her repertoire, including Nicklausse (Les contes d’Hoffmann), Charlotte (Werther), Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel), Maddalena (Rigoletto), Kleiner Araber (Juliette), Prinzessin Clarice (Die Liebe zu den drei Orangen) and Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro).

In 2015, Catriona Morison made her debut at the renowned Salzburg Festival under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst as part of the Young Singers Project, and the same year she also performed at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival. Her guest engagements in the opera realm have led her to prestigious venues such as the Edinburgh International Festival, Oper Köln, Bergen Nasjonale Opera, Staatsoper Hamburg, and the Nationaltheater Weimar. Recent additions to her operatic repertoire include Der Komponist in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos and Fricka in Wagner’s Das Rheingold. To close the 22/23 season, she took on the role of Nerone (L’incoronazione di Poppea), for which she achieved tremendous success. In the spring of 2024, she will appear in concert performances of Die Walküre with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Catriona Morison places special emphasis on her concert repertoire. In the summer of 2019, she made her debut at the prestigious BBC Proms, performing Elgar's Sea Pictures with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Elim Chan. Additionally, she premiered Errollyn Wallen's This Frame is Part of the Painting, a piece specially commissioned for her at the BBC Proms.

The United Kingdom continues to embrace the talented artist, as evidenced by her upcoming engagements, including four song recitals accompanied by Malcolm Martineau in October 2023, with performances in London and Oxford. In November, she will once again interpret Detlev Glanert's Prague Symphony with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Semyon Bychkov, at London's Barbican Centre. During the spring, she will be a featured guest artist with Scottish Opera in their French Connection opera gala, and will perform concerts of Chausson's Poème de l’amour et de la mer with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, conducted by Thomas Søndergård,.

The 2023/24 season boasts further remarkable engagements with prominent orchestras and collaborators, showcasing the breadth of Catriona Morison's repertoire. These include performances of Mahler's Second Symphony conducted by Jaap van Zweden at the Gstaad Festival, songs by Alma Mahler with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra under Vasily Petrenko and the Katowice Radio Orchestra under Paul McCreesh, Mahler's Eighth Symphony with the NHK Symphony Orchestra under Fabio Luisi, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with both the Gewandhausorchester under Manfred Honeck and the Orchestre de Paris under Klaus Mäkelä, Bach's Matthäus-Passion in Rotterdam under John Butt, Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen in Utrecht/Amsterdam under Edo de Waart, and, for the first time, Beethoven's Missa solemnis including performances in Vienna with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Herbert Blomstedt.

Song repertoire holds a profound significance for Catriona Morison, as demonstrated by her most recent CD featuring songs by E. Grieg, J. Brahms, Josephine Lang, and R. Schumann, with accompaniment by Malcolm Martineau. She has captivated audiences at esteemed venues such as the Wigmore Hall, Edinburgh International Festival, Leeds Lieder Festival, Oxford Lieder Festival, Schubertíada Vilabertran, Heidelberger Frühling, Copenhagen, and Barcelona.

A press review from her song recital at Oper Frankfurt in the spring of 2022 praised “her near-seamless vocal transitions, warm and rich tones, exceptional diction, and her deep exploration of the text-music relationship, which resulted from her dedicated study of both the text and music”. (FAZ, March 30, 2022)

Updated: 27/08/2023