Old Instruments, New Ideas

Honorary Patron -
Professor Lynne Dawson

Lynne is Head of the School of Vocal Studies and Opera at the Royal Northern College of Music. Before becoming a singer she trained as a translator and interpreter and spent several years in industry. She worked with many conductors and ensembles at the forefront of the Historical Performance movement making recordings for many major recording labels. Her career encompassed opera, concerts and recordings at the highest international level; her discography numbers more than 80. She has worked with major symphony and chamber orchestras all over the world and particularly with conductors Daniel Barenboim, Frans Brüggen, Marc Minkowski, Zubin Mehta, John Eliot Gardiner and Carl Maria Giulini. Operatic roles included Mozart’s Pamina, Zaide, Donna Elvira, Countess Almaviva, Queen of the Night, Constanze, Aspasia and Vitellia, as well as Amenaide in Rossini’s Tancredi, leading roles in Handel’s Orlando, Giulio Cesare, Hercules and Ariodante, Marzelline in Beethoven’s Fidelio, the title-role in Gluck’s Iphigenie en Aulide. Lynne has performed in opera houses including Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Berlin Staatsoper, and Salzburg and Aix-en-Provence Festivals. Her concert repertoire encompassed Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs, Ravel’s Shéhérezade, Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’Été, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven concert arias and Berg’s Seven Early Songs, but she never lost her love of the Baroque repertoire. She was appointed Head of Vocal Studies in 2010 and of Vocal Studies and Opera in 2017.

Lynne was the soprano soloist in the Verdi Requiem on the occasion of the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales.

In addition to her role at the RNCM, Lynne is Vocal Consultant for Yorkshire Young Musicians and a Trustee of the Richard Shephard Music Foundation, a charity which sponsors placing specialised music teachers into primary schools in the North. She frequently gives masterclasses and especially in Australia, New Zealand, Italy, the US and Canada.