Karen Cargill

Scottish mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill has adopted Glasgow as her city; she studied at the city’s Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (formerly the RSAMD). She also spent time honing her technique at the University of Toronto and the prestigious National Opera Studio in London. In 2002, she was the joint winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Award.

She has sung with some of the world’s greatest orchestras and conductors such as the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle; Tanglewood Symphony under James Levine; Atlanta Symphony under Donald Runnicles; Rotterdam Philharmonic under Yannick Nezet-Sequin; London Symphony under Sir Colin Davies; Seoul Philharmonic under Myung Whun Chung, as well as the London Philharmonic and Orchestre Nationale du Capitole de Toulouse among others. She is also prominent on the Scottish orchestral scene, making frequent appearances with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (with which she was the 2009/10 Artist in Association) under Robin Ticciati and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Runnicles.

On the operatic stage, she has a close association with Scottish Opera where she gave acclaimed performances of Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri in 2007 and 2009 respectively. She has also sung with English National Opera as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, and at Berlin’s Deutsche Oper singing Waltraute in Götterdämmerung. She will soon make her debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, singing Waltraute in Götterdämmerung and Anna in Les Troyens, both under James Levine.

She sings regularly at the BBC Proms, including Mendelssohn’s Elijah under Kurt Masur, and an appearance at the Last Night of the Proms in 2005, and she often appears as a soloist at the Edinburgh International Festival’s orchestral concerts.

Karen has appeared at New York’s Mostly Mozart festival, and has given recitals at the Wigmore Hall and LSO St Luke’s in London, as well as at her alma mater, the RSAMD (RCS) in Glasgow.