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Janice Watson

Vocal Tutor

About

Janice Watson is one of the worlds most celebrated sopranos, renowned for the beauty of her sound. , She began taking singing seriously at the instigation of tenor Phillip Langridge. She studied with Johanna Peters at the Guildhall in London, then later with Renata Scotto, followed by a period at the Ravel Institute in Ciboure. At the age of 23 she won the Kathleen Ferrier Award and the Royal Overseas League Gold Medal, which launched her into the upper levels of the singing profession. She is also a Grammy winner with 2 further nominations to her name.

Janice has performed in most of the major Opera Houses of the world, including Covent Garden, Metropolitan New York, Chicago, Santa Fe, San Francisco, Vienna, Paris, Lyon, Amsterdam, Berlin, Hamburg, La Scala Milan, Naples, Turin, Sydney, Beijing, Tokyo, and has been a regular guest with both English National Opera and Welsh National Opera. She has sung many times at the Royal Albert Hall Proms and the Edinburgh Festival.

Conductors she has worked with include; Riccardo Chailly, Richard Hickox, Neeme Järvi, Franz Welser-Möst, Gustavo Dudamel, Kurt Masur, Mark Elder, Donald Runnicles, Martin Brabbins, and a collection of musical Knights: Sirs Charles Mackerras, Bernard Haitinck, Antonio Pappano, Colin and Andrew Davis, and André Previn KBE.

Roles include; Countess (Nozze di Figaro), Ellen Orford, Arabella, Daphne, Musetta, Katja Kabanova, Jenufa, Salome, Marschallin, Blanche & Stella (Streetcar named Desire), Ariadne, Alice Ford, Leonore, Elisabetta (Don Carlos), Elsa (Lohengrin), Elisabeth (Tannhaüser), Madame Lidoine (Carmelites), Hecuba (King Priam), as well as much concert repertoire.

Janice has also done many recordings. Her performance of Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes for Chandos with Richard Hickox and LSO won her aGrammy, and she has received 2 further nominations. Other recordings include Elisabeth (Don Carlos) and Jenufa for Chandos, A Poisoned Kiss, Owen Wingrave, Midsummer Nights Dream, Dvorak Stabat Mater, Beethoven Missa Solemnis & Ah Perfido, Poulenc Gloria and Stabat Mater, Bernard Hermannʼs ʻCitizen Caneʼ – Saalamboʼs Aria with the Scottish National Orchestra. A 2014 recording of Delius Mass of Life and Prelude & Idyll for Naxos was CD of the week both on Radio3 and in Gramophone magazine. In 2015 she recorded with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra a CD of Nordic songs by Grieg Nielsen & Sibelius in new orchestrations created specially for her by Geoff Westley, and has recently been working on recording with orchestra an Argentinian programme which includes Ginastera, Guastavino, Ramirez and Piazzolla, also performed in concert last summer.

Concert work includes the Britten Spring Symphony at The Tanglewood Festival in Boston, Die Walküre in Hong Kong, a concert tour of the Far East with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, many performances of the Britten War Requiem, Vaughan-Williamsʼ Sea Symphony, Mahler Symphonies, Strauss 4 Last Songs, Walton’s Facade (Janice has performed the Speaking role in duet with Sir Andrew Davis!), Rachmaninovʼs “The Bells”, Beethoven Masses, Mozart Mass in C and Requiem, and Oratorios by Handel Elgar and Mendelssohn.

Recent concert performances of Dream of Gerontius, Spirit of England, Die Walküre, and Mozart Concert Arias are to be followed in 2017 by Bluebeard’s Castle, Das Lied von der Erde, and Elgar Sea Pictures.

In summer 2016 Janice agreed to cover the role of Isolde for ENO’s recent new production of Tristan & Isolde at the Colisseum, in order to better learn from the inside this iconic role, which she hopes soon to reprise. Future performances are in Bluebeards Castle Bartok, Elgar Sea Pictures and  Mahler Das lLed von der Erde.

Alongside Janices performing career , she enjoys working with vocal students to achieve their full vocal capability, in many different styles of music, including classical, music theatre and pop.

Other department members

Alison Bell
Assistant Administrator
Alison Woodward
Deputy Director, University of Chichester Conservatoire
Alonso Mendoza-Moreno
Alonso Mendoza-Moreno
Associate Lecturer - Instrumentalist

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