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The English soprano, Natalie Clifton-Griffith, graduated from the Birmingham Conservatoire in 1996 with a First Class Bachelor of Music Honours Degree and was also awarded the B.Mus. Graduates’ Year Prize, and last year was made an Honorary Member.. She completed her training at the Royal College of Music with Elizabeth Robson. During this period she won the 1998 Bach-Handel Prize, was awarded Second Prize at the 1998 Great Elm Vocal Awards and was a finalist in the 1997 Lies Askonas Competition. Following her success as a prize-winner at the first London Handel Society Competition in 2002, Natalie is gaining a reputation for her performances of the Baroque and Classical repertoire.
Natalie Clifton-Griffith's many and varied engagements have included Filia Iepthae in Carissimi’s Jephta at the 1998 Turku Festival in Finland, Purcell’s The Fairy Queen at Symphony Hall, J.S. Bach's Magnificat (BWV 243) at the Barbican Hall with the English Chamber Orchestra, J.S. Bach's St. John Passion (BWV 245) in Chelmsford and Lichfield Cathedrals, Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne with the Bath Philharmonia, Ancilla in The Denial of St Peter and de Lalande's Dies Irae at the BBC Proms, Messiah in Exeter Cathedral with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Solomon in Queen Solomon and Mystery in The Fairy Queen at Symphony Hall, Birmingham, First Fairy in Felix Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 at St John’s, Smith Square.
Operatic roles have included Blow, Mozart, Cavalli, Ravel, Purcell and Robin Holloway. Natalie Clifton-Griffith has recorded Rodrigo’s Ausencias de Dulcinea and Himnos de los neófitos de Qumran with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, released on EMI Classics, and de Lalande’s Te Deum with Ex Cathedra for Hyperion. Natalie works frequently with the organist Alexander Mason, and together they have toured Norway. Operatic roles have included Venus in Venus and Adonis, Amore in L’Egisto, Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro, The Princess in L’enfant et les sortilèges and, most recently, Jane in Boys and Girls Come Out to Play (Robin Holloway) for the Cambridge Opera Group, Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte for Pegasus Opera, Belinda in Dido and Aeneas with Ex Cathedra and Timea in La Libertà Contenta at The Barber Institute.
Natalie Clifton-Griffith has had a long and close association with Ex Cathedra, with whom she has performed and recorded, most notably in de Lalande’s Dies Irae at the BBC Proms. She has also worked with many leading ensembles and orchestras including the English Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Birmingham Bach Choir and I Fagiolini.
Her recent work includes J.S. Bach’s Mass in B minor (BWV 232), Heitor Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasileiras and Orff’s Carmina Burana with Birmingham Royal Ballet. More recent engagements have included two concerts at the 2003 London Handel Society’s Festival, J.S. Bach's St. John Passion (BWV 245) for the Birmingham Bach Choir, George Frideric Handel's Messiah for the East Cornwall Bach Choir in Bristol Cathedral and Ode on Queen Anne’s Birthday for the London Pro Arte Choir, Monteverdi Vespers of 1610 in Sheffield Cathedral, John Rutter's Psalmfest for the Chandos Choir, Solihull, and Mozart’s Mass in C Minor at Exeter Cathedral and Coronation Mass with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. |
