SUSAN MARRS

Mezzo-soprano

Susan graduated from Trinity College of Music, London, after winning The Ricordi Opera Prize and The Trinity College Singing Department Prize.

Susan works extensively in the UK and Europe as a concert soloist and her wide oratorio repertoire includes performances of Elgar’s “The Dream of Gerontius”, “The Kingdom”, “The Music Makers” and “The Apostles”, Verdi’s “Requiem”, Dvorak’s “Stabat Mater”, Mozart’s  “Requiem” and  “C Minor Mass”, Bach’s  “Mass in B Minor” and  “St. Matthew and St. John Passions”, Handel’s  “Messiah” and “Dixit Dominus,” Haydn’s “Nelson Mass” and “Paukenmesse”, the Vivaldi “Gloria” and “Magnificat”, Rossini’s “Petite Messe Solennelle” and “Stabat Mater”, Prokofiev’s  “Alexander Nevsky and Karl Jenkins “The Armed Man”.

Susan has enjoyed twelve years as a member of the Extra Chorus at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and performances have included Wagner’s “Parsifal”, Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra”, Britten’s “Peter Grimes” and Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov”. Susan has also sung for English National Opera in their production of “The Pearlfishers”.

Sue sings with “London Voices” under the direction of Terry Edwards, and has participated in numerous concerts and recordings of works by Bach, Stravinsky, Pierre Boulez, John Tavener, Sir Michael Tippett and Sir Paul McCartney, among others, and several works conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, Seiji Ozawa, the late Sir Georg Solti and the late Richard Hickox.  Film score recordings have included “Star Wars”, and “Harry Potter” conducted by John Williams, “The Lord of the Rings” conducted by Howard Shore and “The Phantom of the Opera”.

Recently Susan travelled to Paris to sing with conductor John Nelson in a performance of Handel’s “Messiah” as part of the St. Denis festival with London Voices, to Lucerne to sing Ligeti’s “Requiem” and “Lux Aeterna” under Jonathan Nott, to Berlin to join the Berlin Radio Choir in a series of 20th century music performances and to New York to sing for The Lincoln Centre Festival performing “La passion de Simone” by Kaija Saariaho with soprano Dawn Upshaw.  

Recent solo appearances have included performances of Verdi’s “Requiem”, Gounod’s “St. Cecilia Mass”, Mendelssohn’s “Elijah”, “The Armed Man” by Karl Jenkins, Bach’s “B Minor Mass” with the Manchester Camerata, Elgar’s ‘Dream of Gerontius’ in Chester Cathedral and two performances of Durufle’s “Requiem”.

2010 season has included performances of Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion” in Shrewsbury Abbey, Constant Lambert’s “Rio Grande” at The Brentwood Centre and recitals in Nantwich and Chester. 2011 concerts will include performances of ‘Even such is Time’, - a new work by Andrew Mildinhall, Handel’s ‘Messiah’ and Elgar’s ‘Dream of Gerontius’.

Susan is a Fellow of Trinity College, London.