Last night the mezzo-soprano was Beth Taylor, and rarely if ever have I felt the power of that call so strongly. She sang with a perfectly natural fullness of tone that was tender and magnificent at once, though she had already melted us in the preceding hushed prayer to the “little angel” to allow us into heaven.”
Biography
Lauded by The Guardian for her “dark and focused” voice, “sensational coloratura” and “spectacular singing” and by The Times for her “fierce, indeed terrifying, cane-swishing” characterisations, Beth Taylor is one of today’s most electrifying young mezzo-sopranos.
In the 2025/26 season, she is set to make a number of notable debuts and returns. She will make her Carnegie Hall debut in May 2025 with the English Concert and Harry Bicket, performing her acclaimed interpretation of Cornelia in Handel’s Giulio Cesare on tour across the US and UK. She will also make her debut with the LA Philharmonic in Mahler’s 2nd Symphony tour in LA, Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei and Tainan, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel.
She returns to the BBC Proms as the soloist in Mahler’s 3rd Symphony with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales/ Ryan Bancroft. Other upcoming performances include Elgar’s Sea Pictures with Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal/Rafael Payare,, Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man and Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with the Müncher Philharmoniker. With the Berlin Philharmonic/K.Petrenko, she will perform Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and Mahler’s 8th Symphony and with Bach’s B minor Mass with Raphaël Pichon. With Sir Simon Rattle, she performs Mahler’s 2nd Symphony with the Bayerisches Runfunksorchester,
Upcoming performances in the UK include Tippett’s A Child of our Time with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Ryan Wigglesworth and Elgar’s Sea Pictures with the London Philharmonic Orchestra/Edward Gardner. Her recent performances as the Angel in Dream of Gerontius with the BBC SSO were remarked on by the Times as “immensely powerful, with melting quality and electrifying musicality…a natural successor to Janet Baker” and “her farewell providing one of those moments of transcendence that even the greatest art produces only rarely”.
Over the last several years, the mezzo has made a number of important debuts. In summer 2022, Beth made her acclaimed debut at the Glyndebourne Festival as Bradamante in a new production of Alcina and as Cornelia in the well-loved revival of Giulio Cesare. Following her Deutsche Oper Berlin debut as La Cieca in La Gioconda, she returned to this theatre to make her role debuts as Arsace in in a new production of Rossini’s Semiramide, as Erda in Das Rheingold, Erste Norn in Götterdämmerung and Schwertleite in Die Walküre in Stefan Herheim’s new Ring cycle under the musical direction of Sir Donald Runnicles. Her recent debut in the title role of Cenerentola with the Opéra de Lorraine received huge accolades for her “bold, unique and polished interpretation of an otherwise not immediately obvious role for her voice-type” and “radiant coloratura”.
On disc, she can be heard in the Mozart’s Requiem and J.S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor with Ensemble Pygmalion and Raphaël Pichon on Harmonia Mundi International label. She will also feature with the same label as soloist with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie with Haydn’s Harmoniemesse On Warner/Erato label, she features in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (Sorceress) and Handel’s Giulio Cesare (Cornelia) with Il Pomo d’Oro, conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev and Francesco Corti respectively. Her debut recital album “The Deeps have Music” with friend and collaborative pianist Hamish Brown will be released on Linn Records in early 2026.
She is a grand finalist of the 2023 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, the winner of the 2022 Elizabeth Connell Award, 3rd prize winner of the 2019 Wigmore Hall Competition and the winner of the 2018 Gianni Bergamo Classical Music Awards. She was shortlised for the “Newcomer” award at the International Opera Awards 2023.
