Biography

Lucy Taylor mezzo-soprano read Modern and Medieval languages and was a choral exhibitioner at Clare College, Cambridge and a Caird Scholar under Patricia MacMahon on the Opera course at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, where she won the Governors’ Recital and John Ireland prizes, and performed numerous operatic roles, including Diana (La Calisto) and Maurya (Riders to the Sea).

Lucy is now based in Cambridge. She studies with Neil Semer, is a Crear Scholar, and combines a busy performing career with voice teaching at Pembroke and Robinson Colleges and the King’s School, Ely. Recent performances have included the Duruflé Requiem in St Etienne-du-Mont, Paris, Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Israel Camerata in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, a recital of songs by Julian Dawes at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Handel’s Belshazzar under René Jacobs at the Deutsche Staatsoper in Berlin, and Handel’s Messiah with the International Festival Chorus of Beijing. She has also performed Andronico (Tamerlano) and Arsamene (Serse) for Cambridge Handel Opera Group, Cherubino in the Cambridge University Opera Society’s gala production of The Marriage of Figaro, Mozart’s C minor Mass for the Cambridge Music Festival, Mahler’s 2nd Symphony in the Markgräfliches Opernhaus, Bayreuth, and Leipzig’s Thomaskirche, and Bach’s Magnificat with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Performances as part of specialist vocal ensembles also forms an important part of Lucy’s work: she has recorded Byrd’s Great Service with Musica Contexta, and performed both Gluck’s Alceste (at the Aix en Provence Festival) and Handel’s Semele (in Beijing and Paris) with English Voices.