Sussex Symphony Orchestra Soloist

Yvonne Howard studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and was soon in demand on both the concert platform and the operatic stage. Early roles included the title role in La Cenerentola with English Touring Opera, Marcellina Le Nozze di Figaro with both Glyndebourne Festival and Touring Opera, and Fricka and Waltraute in the highly acclaimed City of Birmingham Touring Opera Ring Saga.

In 1991 Yvonne Howard made her debut with the Royal Opera Covent Garden as Mercedes Carmen. Since then she has been a regular visitor in such roles as Karolka Jenufa, Marcellina, 2nd Lady Die Zauberflöte, and Suzuki Madama Butterfly. During the 1997-98 season she sang Cornelia Giulio Cesare, Berta Il Barbière di Siviglia, Marcellina and a Flower Maiden and the Heavenly Voice in Parsifal.

Yvonne Howard is a regular guest at Opera North were roles include Maddalena Rigoletto, Eboli Don Carlos, Evadne Troilus and Cressida and Meg Page Falstaff. For English National Opera she has performed Amastris Xerxes and Meg Page. She has also appeared in Xerxes in Sao Paolo, Brazil, Die Walküre in Paris and Nantes and Falstaff and Madama Butterfly in Tel Aviv as Eduige Rodelinda with Opera Theatre Company and Azucena Il Trovatore in Ireland

Concert and recital work has taken Yvonne Howard to Japan, France, Spain, Scandinavia, Switzerland, USA and, of course, throughout Great Britain. She has received great critical acclaim for, in particular, her interpretation of the Angel in Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, Verdi’s Requiem and the song cycles of Mahler and Berlioz. She can be heard on CD in the Sweet Swan of Avon (Meridian), Messiah (Arte Nova Classics), Walton’s Troilus & Cressida and Moussorgsky’s Boris Godunov (Chandos).

Recent engagements include a return to Opera North to sing Meg Page, Dream of Gerontius in New York, Goffredo Rinaldo at Grange Park Opera, further performances of Eduige throughout the UK and in New York, a Mahler recital in Gran Canaria, Amneris Aida at the Royal Albert Hall, Dream of Gerontius in Cape Cod, Berta at ENO, Assunta The Saint of Bleecker Street at the Spoleto Festival, Ludmilla The Bartered Bride and Third Lady at the Royal Opera House, Leonore Fidelio at Opera Holland Park, Marilyn Klinghoffer in a new TV film of The Death of Klinghoffer, the title role in Telemaco with the English Bach Festival in London and Athens, Dejanira Hercules at Buxton and Irene Theodora in Strasbourg. This season’s engagements include Third Lady with ENO and at the Royal Opera House, Madam Larina at ENO, Meg Page The Merry Wives of Windsor at Buxton, a new piece by Roxanna Panufnik with City of London Sinfonia, Second Norn in both the ENO’s and Royal Opera House’s Ring Cycles and Auntie Peter Grimes at Opera North.