Soloists

Bethany Horak-Hallett

British mezzo-soprano Bethany Horak-Hallett read Music at Leeds University, gaining a Masters in Music Performance, and completed her training at Trinity Laban Conservatoire. Bethany is a Rising Star of the Enlightenment and a Samling Artist. She was a finalist in the 2020 Cesti Competition at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music and won Second Prize in the 2021 International Handel Singing Competition.

Bethany’s opera engagements have included Dorabella Così fan Tutte for Garsington Opera, Kitchen Boy Rusalka for Glyndebourne Festival Opera and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester / Robin Ticciati as well as Žena Katya Kabanova at Glyndebourne.

On the concert platform Bethany has appeared with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment singing Bach Cantatas and Galatea in Handel Aci, Galatea e Polifemo directed by Steven Devine; the St John Passion with Mark Padmore and Haydn Nelson Mass with John Butt. She joined the Royal Northern Sinfonia / Dinis Sousa as soloist for Bach Cantata 199 and made her BBC Proms début with the Monteverdi Choir / Sir John Eliot Gardiner singing Handel Dixit Dominus (broadcast on BBC TV and Radio), toured with Holland Baroque, sang Bach and Handel with the Academy of Ancient Music, Handel and Mozart arias with Southbank Sinfonia Baroque / Adrian Butterfield and has appeared with the English Chamber Orchestra / James Sherlock and The Instruments of Time and Truth / Christopher Buckland. She has given recitals at the London Handel Festival and for Garsington Opera. Amongst Bethany’s films and recordings are Cupid in John Eccles Semele with the Academy of Ancient Music / Julian Perkins, Bach and Telemann for OAEPlayer and Messiah for the Voces8 Foundation Live from London festival.

Her recent and future engagements include Bach Mass in B Minor and Handel L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato with the Monteverdi Choir / Dinis Sousa, Lady Psyche Princess Ida with the OAE and John Wilson; roles in Iolanta and Will Todd Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for IF Opera, Beethoven Missa Solemnis with the Huddersfield Choral Society and Messiah with The Dunedin Consort / John Butt.

Photo: Emma Jane