Sophie Bevan

Introduction

Sophie Bevan graduated from the Benjamin Britten International Opera School where she studied as a Karaviotis Scholar with Lillian Watson and was awarded the Queen Mother Rose Bowl Award.

Her concert repertoire ranges from Handel to James Macmillan and she has worked with conductors that include Edward Gardner, Harry Bicket, Sir Neville Marriner, Phillipe Herreweghe and Sir Charles Mackerras. Already highly accomplished on the operatic stage, her engagements include Boris Godonov, Cosi fan Tutte, The Coronation of Poppea, Polissena in Handel's Radamisto, Yum-Yum in The Mikado, Télaïre in Castor & Pollux and her first Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier for English National Opera; the title role in The Cunning Little Vixen for Welsh National Opera; her first Susanna Le Nozze di Figaro, Pamina Die Zauberflöte and Donna Elvira Don Giovanni for Garsington Opera; and Waldvogel Siegfried and Pamina for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Future engagements include an appearance at the 2013 BBC Proms, her debut at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera and a return to the Royal Opera House.

Sophie is the recipient of the 2010 Critics' Circle award for Exceptional Young Talent, The Times Breakthrough Award at the 2012 South Bank Sky Arts Awards and the Young Singer award at the 2013 inaugural International Opera Awards.

This is for information only and should not be reproduced. Please contact Kate Baylis for a full biography and for performance details.

Gallery

Welsh National Opera, The Cunning Little Vixen (Vixen) 2013
English National Opera, Radamisto (Polissena) 2010
English National Opera, Castor and Pollux (Telair) 2011
Garsington Opera, Don Giovanni (Donna Elvira) 2012
Garsington Opera, Le nozze di Figaro (Susana) 2010
English National Opera, Rosenkavalier (Sophie) 2012
English National Opera, Cosi fan tutte (Despina) 2009

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Repertoire

BACH
St Matthew Passion
St John Passion
B Minor Mass

BERLIOZ
L'enfance du Christ
Les nuits d'été

FAURE
Requiem

GILBERT&SULLIVAN
Pirates of Penzance (Mabel)
The Mikado (Yum Yum)

HANDEL
Messiah
Samson
Aci, Galatea e Polifemo
Radamisto (Polissena)
Israel in Egypt

HAYDN
Creation
Nelson Mass

MACMILLAN
Parthenogenesis

MENDELSSOHN
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Paulus

MONTEVERDI
L'Incoronazione di Poppea (Poppea)
Vespers

MOZART
Le nozze di Figaro (Susanna)
Die Zauberfloete (Pamina)
Cosi fan tutte (Despina)
Requiem
Coronation Mass
C Minor Mass
Exsultate Jubilate

MUSSORGSKY
Boris Godunov (Xenia)

ORFF
Carmina Burana

POULENC
Stabat Mater

PURCELL
Dido and Aeneas (Dido)

RAMEAU
Castor&Pollux (Télaïre)

ROSSINI
Stabat Mater

TAVENER
Sollemnitas in Conceptione Immaculata

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
Serenade to Music

VIVALDI
L'Incoronazione di Dario (Alinda)

Links

Sophie Bevan: The Times May 2012
Please click here to read Emma Pomfret's article regarding Sophie and Mary Bevan.

Sophie Bevan: The Observer May 2012
Please click here to read Vanessa Thorpe's article regarding Sophie Bevan.

Sophie Bevan: BBC Music Magazine (online) April 2012
Please click here to read Elizabeth Davis' Meet the Artist feature with Sophie Bevan, from April 2012.

Sophie Bevan: Starting on high notes
Please click here to read Robert Thicknesses's article about Sophie Bevan in The Tablet.

Sophie Bevan: Soprano with the genes for greatness
Please click here to read Rupert Christiansen's interview with Sophie Bevan in The Daily Telegraph.

Sophie Bevan: Born to sing
Fast-rising soprano Sophie Bevan comes from a family of eight musical children and an extended musical family of 60. Ahead of her landmark solo recital tonight, she talks to Jessica Duchen. Please click here to read Sophie Bevan's interview in The Independent.

Media Player

Video

EDINBURGH FESTIVAL BACKSTAGE
Edinburgh Festival Backstage

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Audio

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Schedule

Berwaldhallen, Stockholm

Programme

HINDEMITH: Violin Concerto
BRITTEN: Spring Symphony

Sophie Bevan, sopran
Anne Sofie von Otter, mezzosopran
Mark Padmore, tenor

Frank Peter Zimmermann violin

Daniel Harding, dirigent
Sveriges Radios Symfoniorkester & Radiokören
Adolf Fredriks Gosskör

Berwaldhallen, Stockholm

Programme

City Hall, Sheffield

Programme

DEBUSSY: La Mer
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: A Sea Symphony

Sophie Bevan, soprano
Matthew Brook, baritone

Cristian Mandeal, conductor
Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus

Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Snape

Programme

TIPPETT: Fantasia Concertante on a theme of Corelli
WEIR: I give you the end of a golden string (world premiere*)
BRITTEN: Les Illuminations
BRITTEN orch. Colin Matthews: Three Songs for Les Illuminations
BARTOK: Music for Strings Percussion and Celeste

Sophie Bevan, soprano
Ryan Wigglesworth, conductor
Britten Sinfonia

Barbican Centre, London

Programme

MENDELSSOHN: Elijah

Sophie Bevan, soprano
Anna Starushkevych, alto
Benjamin Hulett, tenor
Christopher Purves, bass

Richard Cooke, conductor
Royal Choral Society
Philharmonia Orchestra

Cadogan Hall, London

Programme

CORELLI: Concerto grosso in D major, Op. 6 No. 1
HANDEL: Cantata 'Pensieri notturni di Filli'
VALENTINI: Concerto grosso in A major for four violins, Op. 7 No. 1
HANDEL: Cantata 'Tra le fiamme'
CORELLI:Concerto grosso in F major, Op. 6 No. 12

Sophie Bevan, soprano
Richard Egarr, harpsichord-director
Academy of Ancient Music

Press

Mozart

Die Zauberflöte

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

This, too, was near-perfection...The opening chord of the Overture, solid, solemn, carefully weighted, led to a wonderfully detailed account not only of this slightly academic orchestral piece but of the whole sublime masterpiece too...The new hero and heroine, Andrew Staples and Sophie Bevan, are already admirable as Tamino and Pamina. Michael Tanner, The Spectator, May 2013

Bach

St Matthew Passion

King's College, Cambridge

Sophie Bevan’s glowing soprano solos were equally strong... John Allison, The Telegraph, 2nd April 2013

Recital

Wigmore Hall

Sophie Bevan is pure sunshine: like the legendary Elisabeth Schumann, she sings for joy, on a breeze: in Schubert’s Seligkeit, she seemed to be turning cartwheels...But what an enchanting performer she is – at her best here in Schubert’s meditative Das Marienbild and Barber’s gently purring The Monk and his Cat. Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph, 19th March 2013

Janacek

The Cunning Little Vixen

Welsh National Opera

As the vixen Bystrouska, soprano Sophie Bevan had a vibrant yet creamy tone; she was captivating in her foxy allure.
Rian Evans, The Guardian, 26th February 2013

Bevan sings the Vixen as beautifully as anyone I have heard...a charming fresh face...
Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times, 3rd March 2013

In the title role, Sophie Bevan was lithe and lissom, portraying the Vixen's development from a sassy young creature to the mother who risks all for her offspring. The voice was similarly flexible, creamy in tone and maximising the lyrical moments. Rian Evans, Opera, May 2013

Wagner

Siegfried

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

Sophie Bevan enchanted as an aerial Woodbird. Fiona Maddocks, The Observer, 7th October 2012

Among the smaller roles, Sophie Bevan's blithe Woodbird...stood out for expressivity and ease. Anna Picard, The Independent, 7th October 2012

Sophie Bevan chirped sweetly as the Woodbird while performing acrobatics on her trapeze... Richard Fairman, Financial Times, 5th October 2012

Purcell

King Arthur

Usher Hall, Edinburgh International Festival

Best by far of the named soloists was soprano Sophie Bevan. Her delivery is refreshingly unfussy and her voice voluptuous and grainy, which complemented the Sixteen's silvery violins perfectly in The Fairest Isle. Kate Molleson, The Guardian, 29th August 2012

Novello

BBC Proms

Royal Albert Hall, London

The Halle submitted totally to the lushness of the music, and the singers, Bevan especially, who has a wonderfully rich soprano with contralto elements and beautiful purity at the very top... Michael Coveney, What's On Stage, 10th August 2012