Frances Bourne
Frances Bourne (mezzo soprano, Irene in Tamerlano) studied singing while at Trinity College, Cambridge, and continued her vocal studies at the Royal Academy of Music. Since graduating from the RAM in 2000 she has sung as a soloist for many of Europe's leading conductors, including Trevor Pinnock, Sir Roger Norrington, Emmanuelle Haďm, Harry Christophers, Andrew Manze, and Sir Neville Marriner. She has performed with the Northern Sinfonia, the City of London Sinfonia, and the English Chamber Orchestra, and has recorded Mozart's Requiem with the European Chamber Orchestra for Warner Classics, and Bach's Cantata 148 for Sir John Eliot Gardiner as part of his Bach Cantata Pilgrimage in 2000. Her operatic roles have included Puck in Weber's Oberon and the Sorceress in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas for Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Judith Weir's The consolations of Scholarship with Kokoro (the contemporary music ensemble of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra), Dorabella in Mozart's Cosě fan tutte, Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Cherubino in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, and the title role in Handel's Oreste at the Linbury Studio Theatre, Covent Garden. Forthcoming roles include Cherubino for Grange Park Opera. She also looks forward to recitals in the Presteigne, Deal, and Buxton Festivals, and performances of Copland's In the Beginning with Gloucester Cathedral Choir, Rossini's Petite Messe Solenelle in St John's, Smith Square, Tippett's A child of our time with Nicholas Cleobury and the Huddersfield Choral Society, Bach's B minor Mass in Gloucester Cathedral, and Dvorák's Stabat Mater in Winchester Cathedral.