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The English-born of Welsh origin mezzo-soprano, Carris Jones, was born in Surrey but largely raised in Southeast Asia. She went on to study history at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where she was also a choral scholar, rapidly discovering that music was where her real interest lay. Completing her postgraduate study at the Royal Academy of Music in London in 2008, she graduated with the Bennett of Lincoln Scholarship and a DipRam, the Academy’s highest performance award. In 2011-2012 she was a member of English National Opera’s training programme Opera Works, supported by the Kathleen Trust.
Carris Jones has a busy schedule of opera, recital and oratorio. Her operatic roles include Cornelia in Julius Caesar (English National Opera, cover), Mother/Witch in Hansel and Gretel (Co-Opera and Opera Studio Oxford), Susanna in Susanna (Iford Arts, cover), Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Garsington, cover), Dido in Dido and Aeneas (Eltham Choral Society). Chorus work includes productions of Le nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte and Il Turco in Italia, all for Garsington Opera. Future plans include further performances of Hansel and Gretel across the UK for Co-Opera and Filipyevna Onegin for Bury Court Opera in 2013.
Deeply committed to communicating with audiences in the more intimate world of the song recital, Carris Jones’ song repertoire ranges from Robert Schumann and Grieg to Tchaikovsky and Medtner, Quilter and Dove. She has given recitals across the UK and has also appeared with David Owen Norris and his vocal group The Works. Her extensive experience on the oratorio platform throughout the country includes Verdi's Requiem at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford, J.S. Bach’s B Minor Mass (BWV 232) for City of Bristol Choir, W.A. Mozart’s Coronation Mass for Wokingham Choral Society and Haydn’s Nelson Mass at the Norfolk and Norwich Festival with King's College Choir Cambridge under Stephen Cleobury.
As a consort singer, Carris Jones has sung across five continents, performing with the Gabrieli Consort (Director: Paul McCreesh), The King's Consort (Director: Robert King), Tenebrae (Director: Nigel Short) and Cambridge Singers (Director: John Rutter). She has performed at the BBC Proms under Bernard Haitink and at the Royal Festival Hall under Daniel Harding. She was a founder member of Stile Antico, an unconducted early music vocal ensemble with whom she has won a ClassicFM Gramophone award, been twice nominated for the prestigious Grammy awards and collaborated with Sting on his Dowland lute song project, Songs from the Labyrinth. |
