Ms Jennifer Johnston
Nationality: United Kingdom
Year: 2005
Subject Area: Arts and Humanities
Website: Visit (opens in a new window)Jennifer Johnston graduated from the Royal College of Music’s Opera Course with Distinction and attended both the National Opera Studio, where she was sponsored by Opera North and supported by a Wingate Scholarship, and the Britten Pears Young Artists Programme. She continues to study with Lillian Watson. Named by the Financial Times as the Face to Watch in Opera 2007, she is the recipient of numerous awards, including in 2005 the inaugural Susan Chilcott Scholarship and Second Prize in the Montserrat Caballé International Singing Competition. During the summer of 2006, she made important debuts at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence (Dido/Dido and Aeneas) and the Salzburg Festival (Carmi/La Betulia Liberata, released on DVD by Deutsche Grammophon). Her other operatic engagements have included Irene/Tamerlano, Mercedes/Carmen and Hansel/Hansel and Gretel for Scottish Opera and Giovanna Seymour/Anna Bolena for the Tower of London Festival. Recent concert and recital engagements include Handel’s Messiah at the Berlin Philharmonie broadcast live across Germany on New Year’s Day, Verdi’s Requiem in Canterbury Cathedral in the presence of His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, Handel’s Messiah and Mahler’s Second Symphony at the Royal Albert Hall, and her American concert and recital debuts in Florida. She made her UK television debut in the BBC documentary ‘Castrato’ and is a founding member of the Prince Consort, with whom she recently appeared at the Purcell Room. Her recordings include Mozart Opera A to Z with the Classical Opera Company (Sony BMG) and Walford Davies’ Everyman (Dutton). Future engagements include Suzuki/Madame Butterfly (Scottish Opera), Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with Leonard Slatkin and the RPO, and her debut at the Edinburgh International Festival 2007 as both Paquette/Candide and Sorceress/Dido and Aeneas.