Kirsty Hopkins

Genre: Soprano

Artist Reviews

"Soprano Kirsty Hopkins, most true in timbre, is very touching in the setting of Christina Rossetti’s ‘Song of Mary Magdalene’, her gorgeous voice endearingly caressing Goodall’s lovely new setting of ‘When I survey the wondrous Cross’"

Gramophone Magazine (Howard Goodall Invictus, Recording, Christchurch Choir Oxford dir. Stephen Darlington, Oct 2018)

"Gibbons's silver swan can rarely have had her "silent throat" unlocked more sweetly than by Kirsty Hopkins's top notes"

The Times, Richard Morrison (I Fagiolini, Wigmore Hall, Apr 2016)

"stealing the show was Kirsty Hopkins, her Ruth a peroxided, anguished victim, noble ultimately as she delivered her poignantly sung farewell"

Birmingham Post (Entanglement, Charlotte Bray & Amy Rosenthal, George Vass/Nova Music Opera, Presteigne Music Festival, Aug 2015)

"Centre stage was Hopkins as Ruth. She offered a gripping, multi-layered performance suggesting vulnerability, steely determination and instability in equal measure"

Opera Magazine, (Entanglement, Charlotte Bray & Amy Rosenthal, George Vass/Nova Music Opera, Cheltenham Music Festival, July 2015)

"Kirsty Hopkins's lovely performance of the Peruvian girl Orazia's love song to the Mexican warrior Moctezuma ('They tell us that your mighty powers above') reminds us that it ranks among Purcell's most rapturous operatic creations".

Gramophone Magazine, David Vickers (Indian Queen, Purcell recording, Harry Christophers & The Sixteen, Mar 2015)

Biography

Soprano Kirsty Hopkins read Music at Manchester University and then continued her post-graduate vocal training at Trinity College of Music in London (now Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance) where she won the Elizabeth Schumann Lieder Prize.  She now enjoys a versatile career performing all over the world with some of today’s most exciting and renowned conductors and ensembles.

Passionate about being on the stage, Kirsty’s recent work includes immersive show The Apple Tree for OAE Tots and reworkings of Purcell King Arthur and The Fairy Queen for school children for OAE Education; Rumbled by John Barber and Hazel Gould at Wigmore Hall; soprano soloist in The Sixteen and Streetwise Opera’s The Passion – a fully staged shortened version of Bach’s St Matthew Passion receiving rave reviews and broadcast on BBC4; the title role in John Barber and Hazel Gould’s new opera The Nightingale in Aldeburgh; playing Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in the UK, in Charlotte Bray’s new opera Entanglement; Betrayal, I Fagiolini’s murderous fusion of renaissance music and contemporary dance; Thomas Tallis at The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe (as part of a soloist consort from The Sixteen); the title role in Sally Beamish’s new chamber opera Hagar in the Wilderness which premiered at Presteigne Festival; onstage singer for Rambert in their new ballet Labyrinth of Love with music by Michael Daugherty; Asphodéle in Chabrier L’Etoile for Sir John Eliot Gardiner at Opéra Comique in Paris and the title role in a semi-staged production of Purcell Bonduca for OAE at King’s Place, London.

Recent concert performances include the European premiere at St John’s Smith Square of Howard Goodall’s Invictus – A Passion; Handel-Mendelssohn: Israel in Ägypten for The King’s Consort; Purcell Indian Queen and Handel Dixit Dominus for Harry Christophers at the Edinburgh Festival and Sydney Opera House; Soprano Evangelist in Arvo Pärt’s Passio for Eric Whitacre conducting Hamburg Symphony Orchestra; Glory of Venice programme for OAE; Mozart Ch’io mi scordi di te with Joanna Macgregor at Cornerstone Festival; Bach Lutheran Mass in G Minor for Australian Chamber Orchestra at Maribor Festival, Slovenia; Handel Israel in Egypt for Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Monteverdi Vespers for OAE throughout the UK and Europe.  Kirsty made her proms debut in the  BBC “Inspire” Young Composers Prom with Aurora Orchestra. She is a keen recitalist, a highlight being performing Dame Penelope Keith’s favourite arias and songs from shows for West Green Opera.

Kirsty features on several recordings including Howard Goodall’s Invictus: A Passion, Monteverdi Vespers for OAE; Purcell Indian Queen for Harry Christophers and Handel at Vauxhall Volume 1 for London Early Opera . Television performances include recent appearances on Charles Hazelwood’s The Birth of British Music, The Sixteen’s Sacred Music at Christmas and The Passion on BBC4.

Future plans include a community opera for OAE throughout the UK, recording more Purcell for Harry Christophers and The Sixteen with performances at Wigmore Hall and a collaboration with Rautio Piano Trio performing arias by Mozart.

www.kirstyhopkins.com

For Oratorio and Concert repertoire please scroll down:

Oratorio and concert rep
Composer Work
Allegri   Miserere
Bach J.S.  Cantata 61, Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland
Cantata 140, Wachet Auf, ruft uns die Stimme
Cantata 147, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben
Cantata 151, Süßer Trost, mein Jesus kömmt
Cantata 202, Weichet nur, betrubte Schatten
Christmas Oratorio
Lutheran Mass in G minor
Magnificat
Mass in B Minor
St John Passion
St Matthew Passion
Bernstein Glitter and be Gay (Candide)
Brahms Requiem
Couperin Lecons de Tenebres
Daugherty M. Labyrinth of Love
Drayton P. The Passion of Christ as told by Mark the Evangelist
Dvorak Mass in D Major
 Ešenvalds Passion and Ressurection
Faure Requiem
Goodall H Every Purpose under the Heaven
The King James Bible Oratorio
Invictus: A Passion
The Lord Is My Shepherd
Handel Acis & Galatea
Athalia
Dixit Dominus
Guilio Cesare
Israel in Egypt
Judas Maccabeus
Messiah
Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne
Semele
Solomon
Xerses
Israel in Ägypten (Mendelssohn arrangement)
Haydn Missa Sancti Nicolai
Nelson Mass
Stabat Mater
The Battle of the Nile
The Creation
McDowall A Time for all Seasons
Mendelssohn Elijah
Def Psalm 95
Monteverdi Vespers
Mozart Ch’io Mi Scordi di Te (Concert Aria)
Coronation Mass
Litanae Lauretanae
Mass in C Major
Mass in C Minor
Missa Brevis
Requiem
Vesperae solennes de confessore
Orff  Carmina Burana
Pärt Passio
Pergolesi Stabat Mater
Purcell A Song to Welcome home his majesty from Windsor
Bonduca
Dido and Aeneas
Fairy Queen
Indian Queen
King Arthur
My Heart is Inditing
O dive Custos
Swifter Isis
Theodosius
The Summer’s Absence
Welcome to all the Pleasures (Birthday Ode)
Rutter Requiem
Schubert Mass in G
Stainer The Crucifixion
Todd W. Mass in Blue
Vaughan Williams In Windsor Forrest
Vivaldi Gloria
Magnificat
Nulla in Mundo
Wood C Requiem
Artist: Kirsty Hopkins
Label: Ann Ferrier Artists
Genre: Soprano