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The English mezzo-soprano, Nancy Cecilia Colem, was raised in Lancaster and educated at the Lancaster Girls' Grammar School. She gained a choral scholarship to St Edmund Hall, Oxford University to study music. Whilst there she sang with Schola Cantorum of Oxford, St Peter's chapel choir and St Edmund Hall, touring to Poland, Germany and Italy. Operatically she performed in Dido and Aeneas and The Magic Flute and gave recitals in the Jacqueline du Pré music room, St Peter's college and the Holywell Music Rooms. Graduating in 2009, she then gained a full academic scholarship to complete a Masters in Vocal Performance and practise at the University of York She studied there with with Peter Seymour, passing with distinction. She has just begun studying postgraduate singing at the Royal College of Music, with Amanda Roocroft and John Blakely, from September 2014. First term highlights include performing in the chorus for the International Opera School production of The Magic Flute.
Nancy Cole sang regularly as a soloist with the Yorkshire Bach Choir, Yorkshire Baroque Soloists, and at the internationally renowned York Early Music Festival. Her areas of study specialised in Monteverdi, Robert Schumann and less frequently performed 20th century English song. As a freelance singer in London, she has given solo recitals at the Handel House Museum and St Martin in the Fields.
In 2011-2012 Nancy Cole gained a place on the inaugural Genesis Sixteen training scheme (course), run by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen. Since then she has sung with the leading consorts of today including The Sixteen, Tenebrae, Gabrieli Consort, Choir of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Vocal Futures, Britten Sinfonia Voices, and with many of London's leading church choirs, including The St Martin’s Voices, St Bartholomew the Great and St Margaret All Saints. She is a regular member of Siglo de Oro and The Fieri Consort.
Her discography includes: J.S. Bach's early version of Matthäus-Passion (BWV 244b) with Peter Seymour and Yorkshire Baroque Soloists.(Signum), Paul Carr's Seven Last Words from the Cross (Stone Records), and a 2015 release of Polish music with The Sixteen. She makes regular appearances on BBC Radio 3. |
