Jennifer Westwood

Mezzo-soprano/Contralto Jennifer Westwood was born in Sussex and moved to Lancashire aged 8. As a young girl chorister, she sang in Chichester Cathedral and that was the beginning! With a love of music, languages, travel, dancing and dress design Jennifer has her ideal profession as a singer both in concert and on the stage. She graduated from Birmingham University with first class honours and went on to train at the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh and for 3 years as an Advanced Musical Performance Postgraduate at The Royal Northern College of Music (PGDipRNCM). She now enjoys a busy and varied singing career.

In concert she has sung the Angel in The Dream of Gerontius many times in the UK and abroad, as far afield as Hong Kong’s stunning waterfront Cultural Centre. She has sung Stanford’s Bible Songs and Rachmaninov’s Vespers for Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus in Sheffield and Lincoln Cathedrals and Alexander Nevsky for Norwich Philharmonic Chorus. Performances of Elijah, Messiah, Verdi’s Requiem, Duruflé’s Requiem, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle and Vivaldi’s Gloria have taken her to many iconic venues around the UK and continental Europe, including touring Finland’s major cathedrals. Jennifer appeared as a Friend of The Lindsays and Ensemble 360 in their Beethoven, Haydn and Mozart programmes at Sheffield`s Crucible Theatre. She was delighted to celebrate the life of tenor Kenneth Bowen as contralto soloist in William Mathias’s St. Teilo at St. Giles Cripplegate, The Barbican.

Jennifer has sung at the main European opera festivals, notably for several summers at the Bayreuth Festival where she sang smaller solo roles Lehrbube, Edelknabe, Edeldame from the ensemble. In London, Jennifer has sung Erda, three different Valkyries, 1st Norn and Flosshilde in The Ring Cycle and a Flowermaiden and Alto Voice from Above in Parsifal. Her opera roles include Sorceress Dido and Aeneas, Carmen, 3rd Lady The Magic Flute, Begbick The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Maddalena Rigoletto and Filippyevna Eugene Onegin.

Throughout the year, Jennifer performs on stage with The Royal Opera at Covent Garden in a full range of repertoire, and has joined them at The Royal Albert Hall for the BBC Proms, at Symphony Hall Birmingham and on multiple tours to Japan. She was alto soloist in Saint-Saens’ Oratorio de Noël in The Royal Opera House’s Christmas lunchtime concert in their Paul Hamlyn Hall and was Mozart’s 3rd Lady in their 2023 Family Sundays workshops. Jennifer has also worked with ENO and recorded with Opera Rara.

For Oratorio and Concert repertoire and Opera rolls please scroll down: