Patrizia Kwella

Born: April 26, 1953 - Mansfield, England

The English soprano, Patrizia Kwella, studied singing, piano and ‘cello at the Royal College of Music, and shortly afterwards made her BBC Promenade Concert debut with Sir John Eliot Gardiner. She has a wide repertoire, with recordings and performances ranging from the 16th to the 20th century.

Patrizia Kwella has appeared at many of Europe’s leading festivals, including Aldeburgh, Salzburg and Edinburgh, working with conductors such as Phillipe Herreweghe, Christopher Hogwood and Sir Charles Mackerras. Since her American debut with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra under Richard Hickox she has returned to sing with the San Francisco, Houston and Washington Symphony Orchestras, in addition to the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra under David Atherton. She has also sung the title role in Georg Frideric Handel's Theodora at a gala performance in the British Embassy in Paris.

Patrizia Kwella has given the world premières of Colin Matthews' Night's Mask and Pli de Lin, the former with the Nash Ensemble at the Aldeburgh Festival and the latter with the Allegri String Quartet. With the Nash Ensemble she subsequently recorded Night's Mask and also sang the world première of David Matthews' The Sleeping Lord at the Prague Spring Festival, repeating the performance at the Bath Festival and in London's Wigmore Hall.

Other recent appearances have also included Haydn's Creation using Ann Hunter's recently discovered libretto, the first performance in modern times of Zelenka's Requiem, both at the St Ceciliatide International Festival of Music, Mozart's Mass in C minor, and Bach's Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248) in Finland's Turku Cathedral. She has also sung solo Bach cantatas in the Madrid Early Music Festival, Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony, Tippett's A Child of our Time and Weber's rarely performed Mass in Eb. In May 2001 she took part with James Bowman and Jakob Lindberg in a highly successful re-creation of an Elizabethan Masque in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and later in the same month gave the first performances of Clifford Bartlett's edition of the Gloria in excelsis Deo attributed to G.F. Handel which was recently found in the Royal Academy archives.

With 'cellist Jenny Ward Clarke and harpsichordist Laurence Cummings Patrizia Kwella has also given many shared recitals of 17thand early 18thcentury music.