| Biography | Nominated for The Times Breakthrough Award in Opera at the 2016 South Bank Sky Arts Awards, Winner of the Song Prize at the 2014 Kathleen Ferrier Awards and of a 2014 Leonard Ingrams Award from Garsington Opera, Jennifer France graduated from the Opera Course at the Royal Academy of Music, where she won many prizes, including the prestigious Patrons Award that resulted in her solo recital debut at the Wigmore Hall, and was awarded the Principals Prize at graduation for exceptional all-round studentship in Summer 2013. Jennifer France has been awarded the Bruce Millar/ Gulliver Singing Prize in Glasgow and the Song Prize at the Hampshire Singing Competition. She is currently studying with Lillian Watson.
At the RAM, Jennifer France was a member of the Song Circle and was a soloist for the Academy/Kohn Foundation Bach Cantata series. Jennifer France was also a Samling Scholar and before joining the Royal Academy of Music, she studied at the Royal Northern College of Music with Sandra Dugdale. Her studies were kindly supported by the Countess of Munster Music Trust, the Musicians Benevolent Fund (Sybil Tutton Award) and the ABRSM Postgraduate Scholarship.
At the Royal Northern College of Music, she sang Sandrina Linfedelta delusa and Adele Die Fledermaus and for Royal Academy Opera her roles included Héro Béatrice et Bénédict, Lisetta La vera costanza, Madame Herz Der Schauspieldierktor, Papagena Die Zauberflöte and Zerbinetta Ariadne auf Naxos. Further engagements have included Marzelline Fidelio for Garsington Opera at Wormsley and at the Winterthur Festival, First Niece Peter Grimes, Lauretta Gianni Schicchi and Esmeralda The Bartered Bride for Opera North, The Controller Flight for Opera Holland Park, Le Feu / Le Rossignol Lenfant et les sortilèges with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Marjory Making Arrangements for Tête-à-Tête Opera and Esmeralda The Bartered Bride for British Youth Opera.
Jennifer France sings regularly in concert, her engagements including Bruckner Te Deum with the Oxford Philomusica, Messiah for the Really Big Chorus at the Royal Albert Hall, Mozart Requiem with the London Mozart Players, New Year Celebration Concerts with the Hallé and a Viennese New Years Eve Gala at the Barbican Hall, London. Her recordings include Debussy Songs Vol. 3 with Malcolm Martineau on Hyperion CD.
During 2015 / 2016, she was an Emerging Artist at Scottish Opera where she sang Dalinda Ariodante and Despina Così fan tutte. Other highlights included Flavio Il Vologeso with Classical Opera, Adele Die Fledermaus for Opera Holland Park, Elgar Une voix dans le desert with the Hallé, A Concert for the Eve of St Cecilias Day with the London Handel Orchestra, Mahler Symphony No. 8 with the Philharmonia Orchestra at the 2016 Three Choirs Festival, Carols by Candlelight on tour with Raymond Gubbay Ltd, Lieder and Other Arts Songs (Music by Fauré and Schumann) on tour with the Israel Camerata and Viennese Whirl with the Orchestra of Opera North.
Her current engagements include Marzelline Fidelio and Susanna Le nozze di Figaro with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Ophelia in Brett Deans Hamlet for Glyndebourne On Tour, Esilena Rodrigo for La Nuova Musica in Florence, the title role in Semele at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Susanna Le nozze di Figaro for Garsington Opera at Wormsley, a return to Scottish Opera to sing Giulia La scala di seta, Zerbinetta Ariadne auf Naxos for the Nederlandse Reisopera, Four Seasons by Candlelight at the Kultur und Kongresszentrum, Lucerne, Lucerne, and Viennese Concerts with the Hallé and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Looking ahead, major debuts include the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Dutch National Opera, the Opéra national de Lyon and the Hamburg State Opera. (Last updated December 2016) |