Portrait Catriona Morison

Catriona Morison

Mezzo-Soprano
© Jeremy Knowles
General Management

Scottish-German mezzo-soprano Catriona Morison came to the attention of a wider audience in 2017 when she won the Main Prize as well as sharing the Song Prize of the internationally renowned BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition. At that time she was an ensemble member of the Wuppertal Opera for two seasons (2016-2018), where she added a variety of roles to her repertoire, including Nicklausse (Les contes d'Hoffmann), Charlotte (Werther), Hänsel (Hansel und Gretel), Maddalena (Rigoletto), Little Arab (Juliette) Princess Clarice (The Love for Three Oranges) and Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro). Guest engagements in opera have taken her to the Edinburgh International Festival, Cologne Opera, Bergen National Opera and the National Theater Weimar, among others. In 2015 she made her debut at the Salzburg Festival under Franz Welser-Möst as a member of the Young Singers Project, and in the same year she sang at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival. In May 2021, she returns to Wuppertal Opera in a new production of Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos under Patrick Hahn. She will also make her debut at the Hamburg State Opera. In the autumn of 2023, she will make a guest appearance as Meg Page in a new production of Falstaff in Bordeaux. Her recent success and debut as Der Komponist in Louisa Muller’s semi-staged production of Ariadne auf Naxos at the Edinburgh International Festival under Lothar Koenigs gained her lauded reviews.

On the concert platform, Catriona Morison made her debut at the BBC Proms in summer 2019, performing Elgar's Sea Pictures with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Elim Chan. She also sang the world premiere of Errollyn Wallen's This Frame is Part of the Painting, a work commissioned for her, also at the BBC Proms. In 2021/22 the artist continues to be in demand internationally: with Berlioz 'Les nuits d'été' in Granada, Edinburgh, and Glasgow, with the Verdi Requiem in Hamburg, for the first time with Mahler’s Third Symphony in Kassel and Berlin, with the Mozart Requiem in Porto, with Bach's 'Christmas Oratorio' in Vienna and Madrid, with the Beethoven 9th Symphony in Tokyo, with Mahler’s Second Symphony in Hamburg and Hong Kong, with Bach's St. John Passion in Amsterdam and Mahler's 'Kindertotenlieder' in Tenerife.

Song is of particular importance to Catriona Morison. She has been a guest at the Wigmore Hall, the Edinburgh International Festival and the Leeds Lieder Festival. In September 2021 she performed with Malcolm Martineau at the Lammermuir Festival and the Lausitz Festival, and further recitals are scheduled in Oxford and Glasgow (with Malcolm Martineau), London and Barcelona (with Julius Drake), at the Schubertiade in Vilabertran (with Ammiel Bushakevitz), and at the Heidelberger Frühling as well as in Ingolstadt (duo recitals with Katharina Konradi, accompanied by Joseph Middleton). Her first solo song CD with Malcolm Martineau was released in January 2021 on Linn Records.

Catriona Morison was a BBC New Generation Artist program artist and was awarded an Honorary Professorship from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) in 2017. She studied at the RCS in Glasgow, the Universität der Künste in Berlin and the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar.




13. June 2023 - 19:30

Braunschweig, Staatstheater Braunschweig

Richard Wagner: Das Rheingold

Info & Tickets



22. June 2023 - 20:00

Leipzig, Gewandhaus zu Leipzig

Detlev Glanert: Prague Symphony

Info & Tickets



23. June 2023 - 20:00

Leipzig, Gewandhaus zu Leipzig

Detlev Glanert: Prague Symphony

Info & Tickets



  • "Nahezu fugenlose Anschlüsse der Register, eine warm-erdige Klangfärbung im ausgesungenen Brustton, deklamatorische Züge im unteren Bereich und eine exzellente Textverständlichkeit waren die technischen Trümpfe, die Morison auszuspielen wusste. Dabei lotete sie das Wort-Ton-Verhältnis der Kompositionen tiefgründig aus, drang spürbar in Schichten der Interpretation vor, die nur durch eine ernsthafte Erarbeitung von Text und Musik gleichermaßen darstellbar sind."
    Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
    Christian Rupp: "Catriona Morisons Lieder", in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 30. März 2022
  • “Catriona Morison’s Composer is sensational. Her voice has an effortless richness that conveys youthful impetuosity and artistic hauteur, but always in a gorgeously full mezzo. She’s a real star.”
    The Times
    “Ariadne auf Naxos" Edinburgh International Festival, in: The Times, 27. August 2021
  • "Her voice is beautifully even, top to bottom, and she has control at all dynamic levels; indeed, her soft singing is invariably lovely. It's still too early to tell if she will become another Janet Baker, but she bears watching." American Record Guide, Paul L Althouse, 08.04.2021
    American Record Guide
    American Record Guide, Paul L Althouse, 08.04.2021
  • "She sounds very, very comfortable, very assured in this repertoire; she just has such a beautiful compelling sound and I love the way this recital is put together."
  • "Hers is a voice of many colours, wielded with innate musicianship and sensitivity across its considerable range. Sometimes she’s a soaring soprano, pinging the top notes with ease; elsewhere she’s a dusky mezzo, coated in velvet."
  • "Die Mezzosopranistin Catriona Morison war genau die Richtige, auf diese Angebote einzugehen. Gesangstechnisch und intonatorisch auf sicherem Gelände, konnte sie mit ihrer Stimme spielen: das Witzige, das Laszive, das Pathetische, das Sprachakrobatische, das Innige und das Rausschmeißerische. Selbst wenn sie in unverständlichen Sprachen sang - wer versteht schon Armenisch? - war sofort klar, worum es ging. Und es ging nicht immer nur um Liebe. Diese Berio-Lieder in dieser Besetzung, das war schon eine echte Entdeckung."
    Franken/Saale Zeitung
    Thomas Ahnert: "Eine echte Entdeckung" in: Franken/Saale Zeitung, 21. September 2020
  • "Thursday’s Prom by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (Prom 39), efficiently conducted by Elim Chan, was a showcase for a rising star: the Scottish mezzo Catriona Morison. First she sang the most ardent performance of Elgar’s Sea Pictures I’ve heard since Janet Baker, then she was the soloist in Errollyn Wallen’s This Frame is Part of the Painting, inspired by Howard Hodgkin’s paintings and sharing their explosively colourful multiplicity.”
    The Times
    Richard Morrison: “Prom 39: BBC NOW” in: The Times, 19. August 2019 - Sea Pictures, BBC Proms, Elim Chan, 2019
  • “Die Rückert-Lieder gestaltete sie zuvor tief ausgelotet, hochemotional, traumhaft schön, herzergreifend… Ihr Auftritt war mit Abstand das Highlight der Matinee.”
    Westdeutsche Zeitung
    Hartmuth Sassenhausen: „Harmonisches Sinfoniekonzert mit einem kleinen Zwischenfall“, 7. April 2019 in: Westdeutsche Zeitung - Mahlers Rückert Lieder, Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal/Julia Jones



Elisabeth Ehlers

Elisabeth Ehlers

Director, General Management
e-mail
+49 89 44488790
Felicitas Wittekindt

Felicitas Wittekindt

e-mail
Assistant Artist Manager
+49 89 444887911