Lisa Swayne - Soprano
Lisa began her vocal training when she was a teenager and having received a musical scholarship at school, she continued her studies at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama where she gained a BMus in musical performance and a diploma in Operatic Studies. She is now a freelance musician, living in London and studying with Nan Christie.
Lisa’s operatic roles include Tatyana in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Diana in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, both with Kentish Opera; Marie in Lortzing’s Peter The Great and the roles of May Queen and Bessie (cover) in Edward German's Merrie England, all with Opera South, and a Methodist Preacher in Unexpected Opera’s Pastoral Messiah (which is based on Handel’s Messiah). In 2009 and 2010, Lisa joined the chorus of Grange Park Opera for Bellini’s Norma, Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen, Puccini’s Tosca and Prokofiev’s The Love For Three Oranges; she also covered the roles of The Hen in Cunning Little Vixen and Nicolette in The Love for Three Oranges.
Lisa’s Oratorio repertoire includes Verdi’s Requiem, Elgar’s Music Makers, Handel’s Messiah, Mendlessohn’s Elijah, Faure’s Requiem, Bach’s St John Passion, Brahms’ Deutsches Requiem, Handel’s Samson and Carl Orff's Camina Burana. She also sang the female solos for Video Games Live with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and chorus in Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall and she has performed Graham Hair’s Three Microtonal Songs at the International Computer Music Festival in Belfast and the International Symposium for Performance Scientists in Auckland.
While at the RSAMD Lisa won the Margaret Dick award for singing and recital prizes in the Edinburgh Competition Festival. She also appeared in masterclasses with Ann Murray, Malcolme Martineau and Mhairi Lawson. Lisa was the soprano in the operatic quartet for the premier of The Island of the Bird Men composed by David P. Graham and Jean Paul Dessi in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis and she was in the chorus for a touring non-staged production of Mozart’s Idomeneo with Kate Royal, Ian Bostridge and Europa Galante which visited Amsterdam, Lisbon and London. In the summer of 2007, Lisa performed in a private performance at the request of Her Majesty The Queen at Balmoral as part of the chamber choir Laudibus.