Janice Watson

Profile: Soprano Soloist

Janice Watson is one of the worlds most celebrated sopranos,renowned for the beauty of her sound. A flautist originally, she began
taking singing seriously at the instigation of tenor Phillip Langridge. She studied with Johanna Peters at the Guildhall in London, then later
with Renata Scotto, followed by a period at the Ravel Institute in Ciboure. At the age of 23 she won the Kathleen Ferrier Award and the
Royal Overseas League, which launched her into the upper levels of the singing profession. She is also a Grammy winner with 2 further
nominations to her name.


Janice has performed in most of the major Opera Houses of the world, including Covent Garden, Metropolitan New York, Chicago, Santa Fe,
San Francisco, Vienna, Paris, Lyon, Amsterdam, Berlin, Hamburg, La Scala Milan, Naples, Turin, Sydney, Beijing, Tokyo, and has been
a regular guest with both English National Opera and Welsh National Opera. She has sung many times at the Royal Albert Hall Proms and
the Edinburgh Festival.


Conductors she has worked with include; Riccardo Chailly, Richard Hickox, Neeme Järvi, Franz Welser-Möst, Gustavo Dudamel, Kurt
Masur, Mark Elder, Donald Runnicles, Martin Brabbins, and a collection of musical Knights: Sirs Charles Mackerras, Bernard
Haitinck, Antonio Pappano, Colin and Andrew Davis, and André Previn KBE.


Roles include; Countess (Nozze di Figaro), Ellen Orford, Arabella, Daphne, Musetta, Katja Kabanova, Jenufa, Salome,
Marschallin, Blanche & Stella (Streetcar named Desire), Ariadne, Alice Ford, Leonore, Elisabetta (Don Carlos), Elsa (Lohengrin),
Elisabeth (Tannhaüser), Madame Lidoine (Carmelites), Hecuba (King Priam), as well as much concert repertoire.


Janice has also done many recordings. Her performance of Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes for Chandos with Richard Hickox and LSO won
her a Grammy, and she has received 2 further nominations. Other recordings include Elisabeth (Don Carlos) and Jenufa for Chandos, A
Poisoned Kiss, Owen Wingrave, Midsummer Nights Dream, Dvorak Stabat Mater, Beethoven Missa Solemnis & Ah Perfido,
Poulenc Gloria and Stabat Mater, Bernard Hermann?s ?Citizen Cane? - Saalambo?s Aria with the Scottish National Orchestra. A recording last
year of Delius Mass of Life and Prelude & Idyll for Naxos was CD of the week both on Radio3 and in Gramophone magazine.


Concert work includes the Britten Spring Symphony at The Tanglewood Festival in Boston, Die Walküre in Hong Kong, a concert tour of the
Far East with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, many performances of the Britten War Requiem, Vaughan-Williams? Sea Symphony, Mahler
Symphonies, Strauss 4 Last Songs, Walton's Facade (Janice has performed the Speaking role in duet with Sir Andrew Davis!),
Rachmaninov?s “The Bells”, Beethoven Masses, Mozart Mass in C and Requiem, and Oratorios by Handel Elgar and Mendelssohn.