Maureen Brathwaite
Maureen Brathwaite studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she won the Capital Radio Anna Instone Memorial Award and the Ian Fleming Award, which enabled her to continue her vocal studies in Florence. She was also a chosen ‘Soliste de Radio France’.
Maureen Brathwaite’s operatic engagements have included Frasquita Carmen, Strawberry Woman Porgy and Bess and Fire/Nightingale L’Enfant et les Sortilèges for Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Glyndebourne Touring Opera. She sang Despina Così fan tutte and Donna Elvira Don Giovanni for Welsh National Opera, Sandman/Dew Fairy Hansel and Gretel for English National Opera, Leila Les Pêcheurs de Perles at Opera Holland Park, Flowermaiden Parsifal for the BBC Promenade Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and at Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, and Pamina Die Zauberflőte at the Harare International Festival.
Maureen Brathwaite created the role of Vertu in the world premiere of Les Nègres (Micael Levinas) at Opéra de Lyon, Geneva’s Grand Theatre and at Freiburg Opera. She also sang in the world premiere of A Shetland Odyssey for Tête à Tête Productions. Other contemporary roles have included Edna Tobias and the Angel (Jonathan Dove) for the reopening of the Young Vic Theatre and at Oundle Festival.
Maureen Brathwaite’s roles in Porgy and Bess have also included Bess in concert performances with Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the RAI Symphony Orchestra, and Clara for the BBC Promenade Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and at the Sala Atlântico, Lisbon. She performed Lily in staged performances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Maureen Brathwaite has appeared in concerts with the Orchestre National de Lyon, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, OSJ (formerly the Orchestra of St John’s, Smith Square), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Conductors she has worked with include Semyon Bychkov, Sir Mark Elder, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Simon Rattle, Franz Brüggen and Andrew Litton. She has performed with Wayne Marshall both as conductor and pianist in their successful recital duo.
Maureen Brathwaite’s wide concert and oratorio repertoire ranges from Handel Messiah and Haydn Creation through the Mozart Masses to the Beethoven Missa Solemnis, and the Requiems of Brahms, Fauré and Verdi. She also sings The Four Last Songs of Richard Strauss, Britten War Requiem, Tippett A Child of Our Time and Orff Carmina Burana. She is the composer’s ‘soloist of choice’ for David Fanshawe’s African Sanctus.
Most recently Maureen Brathwaite appeared as a featured soloist in a staging of Les Noces with Birmingham Opera Company, and as The Forester’s Wife Cunning Little Vixen at Oundle Festival. Recent concert engagements include Exposure for ROH2 at the Linbury Studio Theatre of the Royal Opera House, and Carmina Burana with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi.
November 2011
"The haunting cry, high up in the head, of "Strawberry" and the languid lullaby of "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess were encores which understandably brought the house down in Maureen Brathwaite’s Summerscope recital last night. For those who had seen her at Glyndebourne, the songs record the electricity of her stage presence in the production there. For everyone in the audience they set the seal on the bright-eyed generosity and spontaneous warmth which had characterised her recital." The Times
London International Opera Festival Gala / Purcell Room
"With a winning smile and a vivacious personality she has found the way to capture the attention of an audience…The top of her voice is especially attractive, soaring out freely in Bess’s "My man’s gone now" and the Jewel Song from Faust." Financial Times
Recital with Elisabeth Marcus / Radio-France and Montpellier International Festival
"Her voice is beautiful in all registers: from the dark lower range to the vibrant rich top notes with breathtaking pianissimi." Midi Libre
A Child of Our Time / Crouch End Festival Chorus
"Maureen Brathwaite’s shining soprano sweetly scaled the heights in Tippett’s masterpiece, hovered achingly beautiful around ‘Steal away’." Opera
Porgy & Bess Suite / Royal Festival Hall / Salomon Orchestra
"Maureen Brathwaite’s lazily honey-toned reading of Summertime was magical." Hampstead & Highgate Express
Despina / Così fan tutte / Welsh National Opera
"First class singing too from (inter alia) the inimitable Maureen Brathwaite as the ladies’ maid." Celtic Newspapers
Carmina Burana / UEA Choir
"Maureen Brathwaite sang the soprano solo with firm tone and real clarity." Eastern Evening News
Miriam’s Song of Triumph / Schubert / UEA Choir
"The soprano soloist was Maureen Brathwaite, displaying a remarkable range as she led the way into the choral sections and bringing welcome variety in mood." Eastern Daily Press
Benefit Concert: Bournemouth Orchestras / University Hall, Bournemouth
"The real star of this though was diva Maureen Brathwaite. Expertly accompanied by Wayne Marshall she entranced with spirituals and Broadway numbers." Exeter Express & Echo
African Sanctus / Yorkshire Philharmonic Choir / Wakefield Cathedral
"First heard 30 years ago, the piece is a journey in recorded sound up the Nile from Egypt to Kenya, overlaid with Fanshawe’s choral settings of texts from the Latin Mass, and accompanied by organ, harp, guitars and, on this occasion, the startling Backbeat Percussion Quartet and the soprano Maureen Braithwaite who soared above the waves of sound majestically."
Patric StandfordAfrican Sanctus / Bach Choir / Usher Hall / Edinburgh
"Maureen Brathwaite's glorious high soprano soared out from the Bach Choir's beautiful sequences." Pat Napier
Bess Porgy and Bess
Glyndebourne Festival Opera/Simon Rattle
With Willard W White, Cynthia Haymon, Damon Evans
EMI 5562202
Akin Euba
Chaka
City of Birmingham Touring Opera/Simon Halsey
ASINB 000001203
