Anna Boucher

Mezzo-soprano

Anna was born in Shrewsbury in 1969 and educated in Warwickshire. She studied the piano and cello from an early age and read music at Durham University. She then studied singing at Guildhall School of Music studying with Rudolf Piernay, Laura Sarti and Johanna Peters. During this time she participated in masterclasses with Elisabeth Soderstrom, Paul Hamburger, Graham Johnson, Robin Bowman, Geoffrey Parsons, Eric Sams and Roger Vignoles. She studied at the Britten-Pears School with Martin Isepp.

Anna worked for several years in London for a major music agency while studying singing privately before being awarded a scholarship to study at Royal Northern College of Music with Barbara Robotham. She was recently a finalist in the Dame Eva Turner Award for Dramatic Sopranos and the Webster Booth/Anne Ziegler award at RNCM.

Her roles include Female Chorus (Rape of Lucretia) for GSMD, Fiordiligi for Mayer Lissmann Opera Centre and Durham Opera, and in excerpts, the Countess (Marriage of Figaro), Mother Marie (Dialogue of the Carmelites) Sieglinde (Die Walkure) and the Marshallin (Der Rosenkavalier). She recently sang The Mother in Henze's opera Pollicino for the 1998 Henze Festival and the role of Marcellina in the RNCM production of The Marriage of Figaro.

Anna has performed recitals at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, National Portrait Gallery and Ardingly College with Paul Hamburger and on board Swan Hellenic cruise liners! Concert performances include Poulenc's Gloria at St. John's College, Cambridge; Brahms' German Requiem for Cambridge University Music Society; Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony with Leicester Philharmonic; Bach's Magnificat conducted by Sir David Willcocks and Strauss' Four Last Songs at the Guildhall School of Music and Durham University.