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Gillian WEBSTER |
Gillian Webster was born in Scotland
and studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and the National Opera
Studio.
From 1988 to 1992 she was a member of the Royal Opera, Covent Garden where
her roles included Pamina and 1st Lady(Die Zauberflote), Ilia(Idomeneo),
Servillia, Neices 1 and 2 (Peter Grimes), Michaela, Mimi, Euridice, Marzelline(Fidelio),
Woglinde and Wellgunde returning later for La Contessa (Figaro), Le Coq
d’Or, Kata Kabanova and most recently the new production of Die
Zauberflote by David McVicar.
She has also sung Pamina for E.N.O and Stuttgart, Leila (E.N.O) , Euridice(Komische Oper Berlin), La Contessa (Flanders) Servillia (Nancy), Michaela(Tours), Mimi in Las Palmas to huge critical acclaim, 1st Lady in Bordeaux, Geneva, Aix-en-Provence, Choregies d’Orange, Amsterdam, and at the Bastille and Ginevra with the Musiciens du Louvre.
In 2002 she sang the Comtesse de la Roche in Die Soldaten in Nantes returning this year to make her debut in a major Wagner role singing Elsa in Lohengrin. A role repeated later in Dijon.
Gillian is also sought after on the concert platform. She has sung with Maestros Bernard Haitink, Jeffrey Tate, John Elliot Gardiner, Solti, Marc Minkowski , Paul Mcreesh and Sir Colin Davies in a repertoire noted for Baroque music but also including Mahler, Strauss, Mozart, Beethoven and many others. She did a major concert tour with Sir Yehudi Menuhin, sang Mahler 4 with the New York Philharmonic under Sir Colin Davies and more recently sang the Last Four Songs (Strauss) to open the Nancy concert series and the Beethoven Missa Solemnis with the Madrid National Orchestra. She has just sung the role of Pallas Athene in Gluck’s Paradide ed Elena and recorded the role for release later this year.
Other recordings include Beethoven 9th Symphony, 2nd Neice (Peter Grimes), Euridice in the Harry Kupfer production from Covent Garden (DVD) and 1st Lady (New McVicar on DVD).
She also sings chamber music and has appeared with the Alice Ader Ensemble, the Arpeggione quartet, the Talich quartet and the Wanderer trio singing Schostakovitch, Chausson, Schubert and Schoenberg.
En 2004/2005 she will sing
concerts in Lyon and Grenoble under the direction of Marc Minkowski”Songe
d’une nuit d’Eté” by Mendelssohn, then ViTellia/La
Clemenza di Tito in Metz, then the revival of Magic Flute in Covent Garden,
then concerts with Musiciens du Louvre under Marc Minkowski in «
Acis and Galathea” in a big European tour that will lead to the
Whitsun Festival in Salzburg.