Unfortunately, the original soloist for our concerts on Thursday and Friday of this week (3 and 4 October 2019), Christianne Stotijn, is unfortunately unwell and unable to perform. Instead we will welcome soprano Katherine Broderick and the programme will remain unchanged.
Katherine is no stranger to the Ulster Orchestra, having performed Strauss's Vier letzte Lieder with us in 2013. She is also no stranger to Wagner and in January of this year she made her debut in the role of Isolde in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at Opéra National de Montpellier to huge critical acclaim. Emmanuel Andrieu Opera Online described her performance thus:
“The incandescent Elsa (Lohengrin) from two years ago, Katherine Broderick renews our enthusiasm in what constitutes for her a role debut, offering an intense Isolde. Matching the character perfectly, vocally, the British soprano marries every note, every tone, with disconcerting beauty and ease. Her top notes are radiant, her musicality flawless…”
We couldn’t ask for a better replacement and we are confident that you will enjoy the unchanged programme in the hands of our new soloist.
Katherine Broderick: Biography
Katherine Broderick was the winner of the 2007 Kathleen Ferrier Award. She studied at the National Opera Studio and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and spent a year at the Mendelssohn Hochschule in Leipzig. She was an ENO Harwood Artist and now studies with Anthony Roden.
Highlights of the 2019-20 Season include her debut with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra singing Brunnhilde Die Walküre with Jaap van Zweden and Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony with the Hannover Staatsoper Orchestra conducted by Jordan de Souza. Following successful role debuts in concert in Montpellier of Elsa Lohengrin in 2016 and this year's Isolde, Katherine returns to Opéra National de Montpellier for staged productions in the title role Ariadne auf Naxos and Alice Ford Falstaff. Future seasons also see her return to English National Opera and Oper Leipzig in major roles.
A committed concert singer, Katherine appears regularly with leading Symphony Orchestras in the UK and abroad, most recently making her debut with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and Sir Simon Rattle singing Helmwige Die Walküre. She has also sung Strauss Vier letzte Lieder with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León and Wagner Wesendonck Lieder at Staatstheater Karlsruhe.
Her varied repertoire has included Britten Spring Symphony and War Requiem; Mahler Symphonies 2, 4 and 8; Zemlinsky Waldgespräch, Vaughan Williams Sea Symphony and Sinfonia Antartica; Berlioz Les nuits d’été; Honegger Joan of Arc, Verdi Requiem, Brahms Requiem and Dvořák Stabat Mater, Te Deum and Requiem.
For the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons Katherine was a member of the Staatstheater Karlsruhe Ensemble where she sang Sieglinde Die Walküre, Adriana Adriana Lecouvreur and Vitellia La Clemenza di Tito. Katherine has also sung Brünnhilde Siegfried for Leipzig Opera, Helmwige, Woglinde and Brünnhilde Siegfried in Opera North’s Ring Cycle; Miss Jessel in Turn of the Screw for Garsington Opera and Mrs Coyle in Britten Owen Wingrave for Opéra National de Lorraine.
A busy recording schedule and a growing discography includes repertoire such as Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony - Mark Elder (Hallé); Mendelssohn Lieder - Eugene Asti (Hyperion); Britten Songs - Malcolm Martineau (Onyx Classics); Turn of the Screw - Farnes (LSO Live); Walküre and Götterdämmerung - Mark Elder (Hallé); Schumann Lieder- Graham Johnson (Hyperion); Mussorgsky Songs - Sergei Rybin (Stone Records) and Songs for the Turn of a Century Strauss, Berg and Schoenberg Lieder - Malcolm Martineau (Champs Hill).
Katherine also enjoys a successful recital career, appearing at Opéra de Lille, Wigmore Hall, Oxford Lieder Festival, Bath Mozartfest and Leeds Lieder, as well as regular BBC Radio 3 broadcasts. She works frequently with pianists Simon Lepper, Malcolm Martineau, Eugene Asti, James Bailleau, Joseph Middleton and Sholto Kynoch.