Equally at home on the concert and opera stages, Carolyn Sampson has enjoyed notable successes in the UK as well as throughout Europe and the US.
On the opera stage her roles have included the title role in »Semele«, and Pamina in »The Magic Flute« for the English National Opera, various roles in Purcell’s »The Fairy Queen« for the Glyndebourne Festival Opera (released on DVD) and both Anne Trulove in »The Rake’s Progress« and Mélisande in »Pelléas et Mélisande« in Sir David McVicar’s productions for the Scottish Opera. Internationally she has appeared at Opéra national de Paris, Opéra de Lille, Opéra national de Montpellier and Opéra national du Rhin. She also sang the title role in Lully’s »Psyché« for the Boston Early Music Festival, which was released on CD and was subsequently nominated for a »Grammy« in 2008.
Carolyn’s numerous concert engagements in the UK have included regular appearances at the BBC Proms, and with orchestras including Britten Sinfonia, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the English Concert, the Hallé, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, The Sixteen, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
In Europe her many appearances have included concerts with the Bergen Philharmonic, the Freiburger Barockorchester, the Gürzenich Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia – Roma, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest, the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, and the WDR Symphony Orchestra.
In the US Carolyn Sampson has featured as soloist with the Boston, Cincinnati, Detroit, and San Francisco Symphonies, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, and is a regular guest at the Mostly Mozart Festival. Most recently, she performed and recorded Mahler Symphony No. 4 with Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra. In October 2013 she made her Carnegie Hall recital debut to a sold-out audience in the Weill Recital Hall, and has given recitals at the Lincoln Center, New York, and at San Francisco Performances.
Carolyn Sampson works with conductors such as Sir Mark Elder, Harry Bicket, Ivor Bolton, Riccardo Chailly, Harry Christophers, Philippe Herreweghe, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Louis Langrée, Trevor Pinnock, and Donald Runnicles.
A consummate recitalist, Carolyn Sampson appears regularly at the Wigmore Hall where she was a »featured artist« in the 2014/15 season. She has given recitals at the Oxford and Leeds Lieder, Saintes and Aldeburgh Festivals as well as at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Barcelona, Freiburg, the Oper Frankfurt, the Vienna Konzerthaus, and recently made her debut recital tour of Japan.
Carolyn Sampson has developed a partnership with the pianist Joseph Middleton over recent years. Her debut song recital disc with him, »Fleurs«, was released early in 2015 featuring songs by composers from Purcell to Britten, and was nominated in the solo vocal category of the »Gramophone Awards«. Since then they have gone on to release »A Verlaine Songbook« exploring settings of the poetry of Paul Verlaine, »Lost is my Quiet« - a duet disc with the countertenor