Scottish Soprano Rachel Speirs has recently performed with Oper Frankfurt, English Touring Opera, Longborough Festival Opera, and Hurn Court Opera. This Summer she made her recital debut as part of the Royal Ballet & Opera Family Sunday series in the Linbury Foyer at the Royal Opera House, and also made her Royal Albert Hall debut as the soprano soloist in Mozart's Requiem with Brian Kay and The Really Big Chorus. She is a Royal Opera House Create & Sing Artist, and a graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music where she won the Betty Bannerman Award for French Song, the Joyce and Michael Kennedy Award for the singing of Strauss, and was a finalist in the Elizabeth Harwood Memorial Prize.

Recent and upcoming opera engagements include the Bird (cover) in Judith Weir's Blond Eckbert, Lulu in Under the little red moon (English Touring Opera), Titania in The Fairy Queen/A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Adina in The Implausible Potions of Dr Dulcamara (Longborough Festival Opera), Governess in The Turn of the Screw (MusikFermata), cover Lamplighter in Manon Lescaut, Chorus in The Rake's Progress ,Theresa in The Great Stink (ETO),  Princess Nekaya in Utopia Limited (National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company), and cover Musetta in La bohème (Longborough Festival Opera and Hurn Court Opera). Rachel recorded the role of Lotty with Retrospect Opera for their recording of G.A. MacFarren's The Soldier's Legacy released in 2023, and has also recorded songs by William Alwyn and John Manduell for Divine Art Records.

 

Rachel has previously sung the role of Maria Bertram in Mansfield Park (Royal Northern College of Music), performed Mrs Nordstrom in A Little Night Music (Buxton International Festival), joined the Chorus of Opera North in various concert performances, and sang with English Touring Opera Chorus for their Spring 2022 mainstage productions of La bohème and The Golden Cockerel, as well as the Soprano roles in How To Find Your Name for SEND audiences, which she will perform again in 2024 at the Philharmonie Lux in Luxembourg. 

Rachel is regularly engaged as a soloist on the concert platform with recent and upcoming highlights including Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem, Fauré Requiem, Haydn's The Creation, Handel’s Messiah, and Haydn Nelson Mass.

 

Rachel is passionate about sharing and creating music in community settings and is Co-Director of SoundUp Arts CIC, which brings music and opera to those affected by dementia. She has also worked in community settings for Streetwise Opera, Wigmore Hall Music for Life, Royal Opera House, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, English National Opera, English Touring Opera, Grange Park Opera, and The Sixteen. For more details about Rachel's work as a facilitator, please get in touch via email.