Kathleen Garner studied at Oxford University, then won a Bodyform Careers Award to study on the ENO ‘Knack’ after which she studied opera performance at Birkbeck College. She continued postgraduate vocal studies with Wendy Eathorne and Robert Aldwinckle at Trinity College of Music.
Kathleen has sung all over the UK with the Red Baroque chamber ensemble and with the Euphony trio, and as a soloist, in venues including the Holywell Rooms Oxford, Keble College Chapel, Oxford Playhouse, Edinburgh Playhouse, Corn Exchange Newbury, Grantham Guildhall, Waltham Abbey and Leighton House. She has also performed at the Bloomsbury, Hungerford and Hackwood Festivals. She recently performed with the Corkery Consort at the Inchigeela Festival in Ireland. Recent engagements also include Verdi and Mozart Requiems and recitals at St John’s Bethnal Green and Dartford Church. Kathleen was one of the singers on the prestigious 2008 Oxford Lieder Festival Mastercourse, tutored by Sarah Walker.
In 2008 she won the Opera, Oratorio and Song Recital Prizes in the Stratford & East London Festival, and together with Helen Lowe, she won the bronze medal in the North London Festival’s Premier Challenge class. Kathleen represented Trinity in the Sir Anthony Lewis Memorial Prize and AESS Patricia Routledge English Song competitions. She was a semi-finalist in this year’s Stuart Burrows International Vocal Awards and the Llangollen Eisteddfod.
Operatic roles include Laila (Les Pecheurs de Perles), Frasquita (Carmen), Belinda, Aeneas, 1st Witch (Dido & Aeneas), Giannetta (L’Elisir d’Amore), 1st Lady, 2nd Boy (Die Zauberflote), 3rd Bridesmaid (Der Freischutz), Lonely Heart (Shawna & Ron’s Half Moon), Diana (Orphee aux Enfers), Lover (Il Tabarro), Cis (Albert Herring), Suor Genovieffa, Suor Osmina (Suor Angelica), Sister 1 (Cinderella: an original opera), Phyllis (Iolanthe), Katisha (Mikado), Bridesmaid (Trial by Jury) and 3rd Wild Goose (Paul Bunyan). She represented Trinity in David Owen Norris’ 2007 Elgar Masterclass.
Kathleen is an experienced choral and consort singer. She is currently a member of the St Michael’s Singers, the Corkery Consort and Sonitus chamber choir, and runs her own close-harmony group, ‘Euphony’. She is a regular chorister at the Oxford Oratory and Christchurch, Kensington.
