Katie Bray

Winner of the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize at Cardiff Singer of the World, British mezzo-soprano Katie Bray has become known for her magnetic stage presence and gleaming, expressive tone.

The 2026-27 season sees Katie make several role debuts including Olga Eugene Onegin with Grange Park Opera under Mark Shanahan, and the title role in Carmen with Blackheath Halls. On the concert platform, highlights include a semi-staged production of L'incoronazione di Poppea with the Academy of Ancient Music/Laurence Cummings, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with Bournemouth Symphony/Mark Wigglesworth, Handel’s Messiah with both The Hallé/Mark Wigglesworth and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic/Matthew Hamilton, and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Irish Baroque Orchestra.

Highlights from previous seasons include Rosmira Partenope at English National Opera under Christian Curnyn, Medoro Orlando at Longborough Festival Opera under Christopher Moulds, Bach’s B Minor Mass with Irish Baroque Orchestra under Peter Whelan, a Messiah tour to Tenerife and Madrid with The Sixteen, Dido Dido and Aeneas with Royal Northern Sinfonia directed by Bjarte Eike and also performing St Marcus Passion with the Arctic Philharmonic.

In the opera house Katie’s roles have included Hansel Hansel and Gretel, Rosina Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Varvara Katya Kabanova, Nancy Albert Herring, Zerlina Don Giovanni, Juno Semele, Zenobia Radamisto, Minerva Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, Zaida Il turco in Italia, Isolier Le Comte Ory and Vivaldi’s Griselda (title role) for companies including English National Opera, Irish National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera, Garsington Opera, Grange Park Opera and Opera Holland Park. Her interest in the music of Weill and cabaret has led to staged productions of this music, including Effigies of Wickedness, based on songs banned by the Nazis, at the Gate Theatre Notting Hill. Her debut Weill album was released on Chandos Records in early 2026.

On the concert platform she has appeared with orchestras including London Philharmonic Orchestra, The Hallé, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Aalborg Symphony, Britten Sinfonia, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Orchestre de Chambre de Paris in repertoire ranging from Messiah and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to Verdi Requiem, Elijah and The Dream of Gerontius, as well as mixed programmes of classical and baroque arias. She gave the premiere of Spell Book by Freya Waley-Cohen with the Manchester Collective and performed Haydn’s Seven Last Words with RIAS Kammerchor at Konzerthaus Berlin.

Noted for her interpretations of baroque repertoire she has received regular invitations from early music groups including Academy of Ancient Music, Irish Baroque Orchestra, The English Concert, Barokksolistene, Monteverdi Choir, Wroclaw Baroque, La Nuova Musica and Spira Mirabilis with conductors including Harry Bicket, Laurence Cummings, Bjarte Eike, Peter Whelan and John Eliot Gardiner.

Katie Bray graduated as a Karaviotis Scholar from the opera course at the Royal Academy of Music, was awarded the Principal’s Prize and won First Prize in the Richard Lewis Singing Competition.