• Wednesday 18 March 2015
• 7pm in the Ernest Read Hall
• Admission free

We are privileged to be able to welcome Catherine Bott, leading soprano and presenter on Classic FM and BBC Radios 3 and 4, to adjudicate this year’s Gold Singing Award here at Queenswood.

The competition is one of the true highlights of the musical calendar, and attracts many entrants from the Middle School and Sixth Form. Each girl will sing two numbers, one from the classical repertoire and one from a music theatre show, and the competition is sure to be as fierce as ever.

Please join us for the concert and adjudication on Wednesday 18 March.

Catherine Bott

Catherine Bott studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and then spent two years singing everything from Bach to Berio with the Swingles before beginning her solo career. She is recognised as a virtuoso of early music: among her many recordings in this field are Bach’s St. John Passion with the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with the Academy of Ancient Music. She has also premiered and recorded works by contemporary composers Craig Armstrong, Jonathan Dove, Michael Nyman and Errollyn Wallen.

Other CD releases include a cabaret recital, London Pride, for Hyperion, “an utter delight, outstanding” (International Record Review) and a collection of Spanish and Moorish songs and poetry, Convivencia, for the innovative new Fred label: “a rare commitment worthy of spoken theatre” (Gramophone).

These days, Catherine Bott’s speaking voice can regularly be heard on radio: between 2003 and 2013 she wrote and presented more than 300 editions of Radio 3’s long-running Early Music Show and was one of the regular presenters of live evening concerts. In 2013 she signed a long-term contract with Classic FM, where her Sunday-night programme, Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Classical Music, explores a different topic each week, from the evolution of the overture to Elgar’s vocal music: since last September she’s also presented The Full Works Concert every Thursday and Friday.

Catherine continues to make feature programmes for Radio 4, where she is a member of the Pick of the Week presenting team. She is a Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and an Honorary Fellow of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.