BETH MACKAY

Beth Mackay is currently studying towards a Postgraduate Diploma (Opera Studies) at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama under Pat Hay. She was awarded a Postgraduate Diploma (Vocal Studies) with distinction from the Royal Northern College of Music in December 2007. During her time at the RNCM, Beth was a recipient of the Annie Ridyard Scholarship which fully assisted her final year of study and was a finalist in the Frederic Cox award for young singers. Prior to being at the RNCM, Beth attained a BA (Hons) from the University of Leeds in 2004 where she read music and received a first class award for performance.

Beth has performed the alto solos in Bach’s Mass in B Minor, and Handel’s oratorios Israel in Egypt and Esther, under the direction of Peter Holman with the Leeds Baroque Orchestra. She has sung alto roles in Missa Salibergensis (Biber), Come Ye Sons of Art (Purcell), Gloria (Vivaldi), Te Deum (Charpentier), Messiah (Handel), Handel’s Dixit Dominus, Mozart’s Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater (with Philippa Hyde), Haydn’s Harmoniemesse, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Tippett's A Child of our Time, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Copland’s In The Beginning and Karl Jenkins’s The Armed Man. She has twice participated in Classic FM’s Mostly Mozart Festival finale with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

Beth’s opera roles include the Baker's Wife in Sondheim's Into the Woods, Rihova in Dvorak's The Stubborn Lovers, Morgan Le Fay in Avalon by Michael Babb, Lapak in Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen and Larina in Eugene Onegin. Excerpt series have seen her as Polinesso (Ariodante), Nancy (Albert Herring), Charlotte (Werther), Frau Reich (Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor) and the title roles in Handel’s Ariodante, Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia and Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri.