Amanda Roocroft graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music and has secured an international reputation as one of Britain’s most exciting singers, in opera, concert, and recital. She has also recently been appointed professor of vocal studies at the Royal College of Music.
She enjoys a close relationship with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Glyndebourne Festival, the English National Opera, the Welsh National Opera, the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich and the Netherlands Opera, and her roles in these houses have included Fiordiligi Così fan tutte, Countess Le Nozze di Figaro, Donna Elvira Don Giovanni, Desdemona Otello, Amelia Simon Boccanegra, Mimi La Bohème, Eva Die Meistersinger, the title roles in Madama Butterfly, Katya Kabanoba and Jenůfa, Genevre Ariodante, Cleopatra Giulio Cesare, Jenifer The Midsummer Marriage, and Tatiana Eugene Onegin. Recent opera highlights include Elisabetta Don Carlos in Amsterdam conducted by Riccardo Chailly and directed by Willy Eecker; Ellen Orford Peter Grimes with Sir Simon Rattle and Trevor Nunn in Salzburg; a tour of Japan (Countess Le Nozze di Figaro) with the Bayerische Staatsoper and Zubin Mehta; Tatiana Eugene Onegin for Welsh National Opera; and the title role in Jenůfa in Berlin, Barcelona and at the English National Opera for which she won the 2007 Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera.
In concert she has appeared with leading orchestras throughout Europe and North America with conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Zubin Mehta, Mariss Jansons, Ivor Bolton, Sir John Eliot Gardiner (with whom she has also sung and recorded Fiordiligi on compact disc and video with Deutsche Grammophon Archiv), Daniele Gatti, Sir Neville Marriner, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Charles Mackerras, Valery Gergiev and Bernard Haitink. Highlights of recent seasons include her New York Philharmonic debut; regular appearances at the BBC Proms in London, and at the Edinburgh International Festival; a European tour with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester; and Ellen Orford/Peter Grimes in concert with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle.
Recital engagements have included London’s Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Musikverein in Vienna, New York’s Lincoln Center, La Monnaie in Brussels, as well as appearances in Munich, Frankfurt, Paris, Valencia and Lisbon.