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The English mezzo-soprano, Jennifer Westwood, was born in Sussex and moved to Lancashire aged 8. As a young girl chorister, she experienced singing in Chichester Cathedral and that was the beginning! With a love of music, languages, travel, dancing and dress design she has her ideal profession as a singer both in concert and on the stage. She graduated from Birmingham University with first class honours and went on to train at the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh and at The Royal Northern College of Music (PGDipRNCM).
Jennifer Westwood now enjoys a busy and varied singing career. In concert she has sung the Angel in Edward Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius many times in the UK and abroad, as far afield as Hong Kong’s stunning waterfront Cultural Centre. She has sung Stanford’s Bible Songs and Sergei Rachmaninov’s Vespers for Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus in Sheffield and Lincoln Cathedrals and Alexander Nevsky for Norwich Philharmonic Chorus. Performances of Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah, George Frideric Handel's Messiah, Verdi’s Requiem, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle and Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria have taken her to many iconic venues around the UK and continental Europe, including touring Finland’s major cathedrals. Jennifer appeared as a Friend of The Lindsays and Ensemble 360 in their L.v. Beethoven, J. Haydn and W.A. Mozart programmes for Music in the Round Festivals at Sheffield`s Crucible Theatre.
Jennifer Westwood has sung at the main European opera festivals, notably for several summers at the Bayreuth Festival where she sang smaller solo roles from the ensemble. In London, Jennifer has sung Erda, three different Valkyries, 1st Norn and Flosshilde in Der Ring des Nibelungen and a Flowermaiden and Alto Voice from Above in Parsifal. Her opera roles include Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas, Georges Bizet's Carmen, 3rd Lady W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Begbick in The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and Maddalena in Rigoletto.
Jennifer Westwood performs with The Royal Opera at Covent Garden each season, and has joined them many times at The Royal Albert Hall for the BBC Proms, at Symphony Hall Birmingham and on their most recent tour to Japan. She was the alto soloist in Camille Saint-Saëns’ Oratorio de Noël in The Royal Opera House’s Christmas lunchtime concert in the Paul Hamlyn (Floral) Hall. She has also worked with ENO and has recorded little-known bel canto works with Opera Rara.
This season’s (2021-2022) concerts include L.v. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem and Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and she joins the Royal Opera Chorus for Verdi’s Requiem. On the ROH stage she will sing in operas by Georges Bizet, Verdi, Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky. She currently lives in London, England. |
