Felicity Palmer (Soprano)

Born: April 6, 1944 - Cheltenham, England

The admired English soprano, Felicity (Joan) Palmer, studied at the Guildhall School of Music in London (1962-1967) and then from Marianne Schech at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich. Subsequently she has worked regularly with Vera Rozsa in London. She first sang in the John Alldis Choir and the Purcell Consort in London. Miss Palmer first received widespread recognition after she won first prize in the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Scholarship in April 1970.

Felicity Palmer made her formal debut in Purcell’s Dioclesian at London’s Queen Elisabeth Hall. She made her operatic debut as Dido with the Kent Opera in 1971. In 1973 she made her USA operatic debut as Mozart’s Countess with the Houston Grand Opera. In 1975 she made her first appearance with the English National Opera in London as Pamina. The demand for her services in a wide range of repertoire developed rapidly both in operatic and concert repertoire, and she was notable for its range, from early music to the avant-garde. She has performed in Britain and overseas with many of the leading conductors of the day, including Pierre Boulez, Zubin Mehta, Haitink, Seiji Ozawa, Colin Davis and Andrew Davis, Lawrence Foster, Raymond Leppard, Pritchard, Charles Mackerras and Karl Richter.

Engagements abroad have included appearances in Paris, Vienna, Bern, Frankfurt am Main, Zürich and in Italy with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Pierre Boulez, and concerts in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Munich, Madrid, Brussels, Amsterdam, Israel and even Rio de Janeiro. She made her Glyndebourne debut as Florence in Albert Herring in 1985, and made her debut at the Salzburg Festival in 1988 as a soloist in Messiah in 1992.

Source: Programme notes to a concert of Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra at the Israel Festival (1976); Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of 20^th Century Classical Musicians (1997)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (May 2001)

Recordings of Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works

Conductor

As

Works

Michel Corboz

Soprano

BWV 245

Philip Ledger

Soprano

BWV 243a

Johannes Somary

Soprano

BWV 11, BWV 80, BWV 232

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