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NICOLA BECKLEY

.....beauty of tone quality and nuance....HERTS ADVERTISER

........I have never heard a more perfect interpretation........OXFORD TIMES
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Nicola BeckleyNicola Beckley is a freelance mezzo-soprano based in London and specializing in classical music. She read mathematics at Warwick University and trained as a maths teacher at Oxford University, but soon realized that music was her true passion.

She gained admission to the post-graduate course in vocal studies at the Royal College of Music where she studied  with Margaret Cable and Robert Sutherland, who was at one time pianist to Maria Callas. She then moved on to the preliminary opera course aquiring skills in stage-craft and taking part in opera scenes in the RCM Britten Theatre. She has also performed in masterclasses given by Kurt Equilutz, Emma Kirkby, Nicoletta Conti and Nicholas Cleobury and has continued her vocal studies beyond college with David Mason and Richard Smart. She now works with Colin Baldly, author of the highly-acclaimed book on vocal technique, The Student Voice: An Introduction to Developing the Singing Voice. She also teaches herself, both privately and at St Paul's Girls' School in Kensington.

She has recorded, performed and toured with many of Britain's leading professional vocal ensembles including London Voices, Collegium Musicum 90, The King's Consort, Philharmonia Voices, Opera Rara, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and European Voices. In this capacity she has appeared, sometimes taking on small solo parts, in many of Europe's most prestigious venues, including the Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Westminster Abbey, Vienna Musikverein, Lucerne Concert Hall, Berliner Philharmonie and  Paris Chatelet Theatre and for many leading conductors including Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Daniel Barenboim, Robert King, Charles Mackerras, and Richard Hickox  She has also sung in the operatic choruses of The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, The English National Opera and Opera de Lyon and on movie soundtracks including Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. She is a regualr member of the choir at St Michael's, Cornhill.NB

She is also in demand as a solo artist in repertoire ranging from Bach Christmas Oratorio, B minor Mass, and St John Passion, Handel Messiah, Vivaldi Gloria, to Beethoven Missa Solemnis, Durufle Requiem, Rossini Petite Messe Solenelle, Mendelssohn Elijah, Elgar Sea Pictures, Verdi Requiem and Brahms Alto Rhapsody. In opera she has appeared in roles with Handmade Opera and New Chamber Opera.  She has given many song recitals, particularly of German Lieder, to critical acclaim, performing Schubert's Winterreise with the pianist Simon Over in the Southwark Music Festival. She has also performed contemporary music as part of the Park Lane Group in the Purcell Room and with the English National Opera Studio in the Coliseum.

Outside singing she is interested in philosophy, religion, history, languages and German, English and Russian poetry. She also enjoys walking, painting and decorating and hopes one day to be grown-up enough to take an interest in gardening.