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Biography

The Scottish-German mezzo-soprano, Catriona Morison, was thrust into the limelight when she won the main prize and shared the song prize of the internationally renowned BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition 2017. For two seasons (2016-2018) she was a member of the ensemble of the Oper Wuppertal, where she introduced many roles into her repertoire, including Nicklausse (Les contes d'Hoffmann), Charlotte (Werther), Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel), Maddalena (Rigoletto), Little Arab (Juliette) Princess Clarice (Die Liebe zu den drei Orangen) and Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro). In autumn 2020 she looks forward to returning to Oper Wuppertal to make her debut in the role of Der Komponist in Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos.

Guest opera engagements have taken her to the Edinburgh International Festival, Oper Köln, Bergen Nasjonale Opera and the Deutsches Nationaltheater in Weimar. In 2015 she made her debut at the Salzburger Festspiele under Franz Welser-Möst as a member of the Young Singers Project and in the same year performed at the Salzburger Pfingstfestspiele. In the spring of 2021 she will appear as Meg Page in a new production of Falstaff in Bordeaux. On the operatic stage she has worked with conductors such as Julia Jones, David Parry, Frédéric Chaslin, Stefan Solyom and with the directors Antony McDonald, Immo Karaman, Joe-Hill Gibbons, Christopher Alden, Inga Levant, Charlie Edwards, Nigel Lowery and Timofey Kuljabin.

A passionate concert singer, Catriona Morison made her debut at the BBC Proms in the summer of 2019, performing Elgar’s Sea Pictures with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Elim Chan. She also sang the world premiere of Errollyn Wallen’s This Frame is Part of the Painting, a work commissioned for her, again at the 2019 BBC Proms. The current season also features a wide range of engagements in her calendar: Mozart Vespers with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in Glasgow and Edinburgh under Maxim Emelyanychev, Bach's Weihnachtsoratorium with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia under Trevor Pinnock in Rome, Beethoven's 9th Symphony with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra under Jonathan Nott, Bach's Matthäus-passion with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra under John Butt.

Song repertoire is of particular importance for Catriona Morison. She has given recitals at venues and festivals including the Wigmore Hall, the Edinburgh International Festival, the Leeds Lieder Festival and the Weimarer Meisterkurs. Her first solo CD with Malcolm Martineau will be released in January 2021, and in June of that year she will perform in recital alongside soprano Katharina Konradi with Joseph Middleton accompanying.

Catriona Morison has numerous oratorio works in her repertoire, from Bach to contemporary composers. Recent highlights include a tour with Teodor Currentzis and MusicAeterna with Mozart's Requiem, Bach's Matthäus-passion with the MDR-Sinfonieorchester or Duruflé's Requiem with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Andrew Davis.

Catriona Morison is a recent BBC New Generation Artist and was awarded an honorary professorship at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) in 2017. She studied at the RCS, the Berlin University of the Arts and the Franz Liszt School of Music Weimar.