Equally at home on the concert and opera stages, Carolyn Sampson has enjoyed notable successes in the UK as well as throughout Europe and the rest of the world.
Last season marked an incredible achievement for Carolyn as she celebrated her recording legacy with the release of her 100th album as a featured solo artist. Over the last twenty-five years of her career, she has sung with countless world-class musicians and these recordings serve as testament to both her versatility as an artist and the scope of her repertoire. In 2024 she was awarded an OBE in the King’s New Year Honours and was elected an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music.
Recent performance highlights include her debut at Berlin Staatsoper singing Créuse in a new Peter Sellers production of Charpentier’s Medée conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, Mahler’s 8th Symphony (soprano 1) with NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester under Semyon Bychkov, Bach’s Passions with the Netherlands and Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orckest and concerts with the Česká Filharmonie, Budapesti Fesztiválzenekar, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and a European Tour with Bach Collegium Japan including a return to the BBC Proms. She presented recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Queen’s Hall Edinburgh, the Muziekgebouw Amsterdam as part of the Grote Zangers series, for Leeds Lieder and for International Lied Festival Zeist.
This season she looks forward to Haydn’s Die Schöpfung/Creation with both the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris under Masaaki Suzuki at the Paris Philharmonie and with the CBSO under Kazuki Yamada, another European tour with Bach Collegium Japan, solo programmes with La Scintilla at Opernhaus Zurich with Riccardo Minassi, with the Freiburger Barockorchester, and returns to the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and Dresdner Philharmonie.
Having begun her career in the early music world she has forged long-standing relationships with many renowned groups among them Bach Collegium Japan, the Academy of Ancient Music, The Sixteen, and Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century. Carolyn also cherishes her relationships with some of the world’s finest symphony orchestras. She has been a regular guest with the Concertgebouworkest, Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest, Gürzenich Orchester Köln, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the BBC Scottish and BBC Philharmonic as well as the Boston Symphony, San Francisco Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestra to name but a few. Recent additions to her repertoire have included Strauss’ Vier Letzte Lieder and Dutilleux’s Correspondances, which pieces she has performed in the UK, The Netherlands and Croatia. She is proud to be part of the Minnesota Orchestra’s Mahler series with whom she recorded both the 4th and 8th Symphony with Osmo Vänskä for the BIS label.
Carolyn has had the pleasure of working with other inspiring conductors such as Harry Bicket, Ivor Bolton, Riccardo Chailly, Jonathan Cohen, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Trevor Pinnock, Donald Runnicles and Ludovic Morlot. She is a regular at international festivals such as the BBC Proms, Aldeburgh, Schleswig Holstein and Dresdner Musikfestspiele.
On the opera stage her roles have included the title role in Semele and Pamina in The Magic Flute for English National Opera, various roles in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen for Glyndebourne Festival Opera (released on DVD), and Anne Truelove The Rake’s Progress and Mélisande Pelléas et Mélisande in Sir David McVicar’s productions for Scottish Opera. In the 21/22 season she sang Cleopatra in Handel’s Giulio Cesare at the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona. She has also appeared at Opéra de Paris, Opéra de Lille, Opéra de Montpellier and Opéra National du Rhin, and sang the title role in Lully’s Psyché for the Boston Early Music Festival, which was released on CD and subsequently nominated for a Grammy in 2008.
A consummate recitalist, Carolyn Sampson appears regularly at the Wigmore Hall and has given recitals at the Oxford International Song Festival, Leeds Lieder, Saintes and Aldeburgh Festivals as well as at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Barcelona, Freiburg, Oper Frankfurt, Pierre Boulez Saal Berlin, Vienna Konzerthaus, Carnegie Hall and on tour in Japan.
Carolyn has had a celebrated song partnership with pianist Joseph Middleton for over a decade. Their debut recording 'Fleurs', was released 2015 on the BIS label and was nominated in the solo vocal category of the Gramophone Awards as is their most recent album “But I Like to Sing”.
Alongside her longstanding relationship with the BIS label, she has released award-winning discs for Decca, Harmonia Mundi, and Hyperion, receiving accolades including the Choc de l'Année Classica!”, an ECHO Award, and a Diapason D’or. Gramophone Awards include 'A French Baroque Diva (recital 2015), Mozart’s Mass in C minor and Exsultate Jubilate (Choral 2017) and Bach St Matthew Passion (Choral 2020).
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BACH St John Passion
Bach Collegium Japan EU Tour / August 2024
Carolyn Sampson delights, in addition to her angelic smile, with a clear and airy soprano which despite the passage of time has managed to keep all its freshness.
Patrick Delacour, Olyrix
The pure tone and mellifluous phrasing of leading soprano Carolyn Sampson, the one soloist who was not a Proms debutant, seemed to float effortlessly to the top of the huge building. She ideally matched the two flutes in “Ich folge dir” (I follow thee) and was moving again in her Part Two aria “Zerfliesse meine Herze” (Dissolve, my heart). Sampson sings music of all eras, but her vocal qualities seem especially well suited to Baroque music.
Roy Westbrook, Bachtrack
CD – Mahler 8
BIS Records – Minnesota Orchestra, Osmo Vänskä (December 2023)
Sampson emerges as the star of the show; she is one of the most versatile sopranos on the scene, and she is not known much in music of this heft, but she sounds great.
James Manheim, All Music
But I like to sing… / BIS RECORDS
(BIS2673 / Carolyn Sampson, Joesph Middleton / November 2023)
This is, extraordinarily, Sampson’s 100th recording, and it rises to the occasion. With the ever simpatico Joseph Middleton at her side, the soprano takes us on an immaculately sung tour of song with multiple stop-offs including Schubert, Mendelssohn, Richard Strauss, Poulenc, Bernstein and, more recently, Deborah Pritchard and Cheryl Frances-Hoad. What a journey — and what a milestone.
The Times
Carolyn Sampson has shifted from an early music specialist to one of Britain’s finest recital singers. This latest album showcases her radiant soprano in classic German lieder, recherché French chansons and 20th-century Americana.
BBC Music Magazine
There’s much more besides – a world of repertoire and life packed into a short recital. It’s a portrait of an artist who has shown us many faces on those 100 discs but whose voice remains a constant: sweet, flexible, alive to the text. And always intelligent.
Alexandra Coghlan, Gramophone Magazine
Sampson’s soprano is naturally bright but she is adept in colouring it as required.
Her diction is superb
Opera Now
We don't really have the opportunity to listen to Carolyn Sampson in these more romantic repertoires, she whose main work has focused on baroque music... It is therefore a very rare little gem that is offered to us here, a record with serene objectives: joy, light and, through its charm and elegance, like a breath of hope for those who still want to believe in the spirit in this world.
Rtbf
Médée, Charpentier
Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden (November 2023)
Carolyn Sampson as Créuse touches the heart in her role's death scene
Andreas Göbel, RBB Kultur
this last aria of the wasting away, which came out of her like a kind of lovesickness I felt that the way the throat faded quietly, quieter and at its quietest was the absolute musical highlight of the performance!
Kultur Extra
With a silvery timbre that contrasted beautifully with her rival’s darker hues, Sampson was teasing, seductive and moving by turns, her farewell duo with Jason a thing of the utmost beauty.
Carlos María Solare, Opera Magazine
Carolyn Sampson, until now always seen here in chamber sessions, outlined a Creusa well worthy of her rival in love and the death scene near the end of the opera (act five) represented another great moment of "drama in music" of the evening.
Jorge Binaghi, Connessi all'Opera
Light-lyric soprano Carolyn Sampson was moving in its pure, naïve accents, slowly becoming aware of the drama, and stood out in its final scene, in which it slowly burns down, with a polished center and highs, very natural and impeccable diction.
Josep Subira, Scherzo
Sounds and Sweet Airs: A Shakespeare Songbook / BIS RECORDS
(BIS2653 / Carolyn Sampson, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton / August 2023)
Arne’s charming song suits Sampson – still the freshest, prettiest soprano voice around – down to the ground; her trilling, liquid birdsong creates a thoughtful dialogue with Gurney’s setting.
Alexandra Coghlan, Gramophone Magazine
One little gem is Sampson’s tender performance of Haydn’s ‘She Never Told Her Love’.
R Moore, American Record Guide
HANDEL Elijah
BBC Proms (July 2023)
Lustrous solos, however, from Carolyn Sampson
Richard Morrison, The Times
Carolyn Sampson and Rowan Pierce – both known for their accounts of 18th century works – brought a refreshingly clear and bell-like intensity to the two soprano parts; Sampson’s account of ‘Hear ye, Israel’ was packed with creamy expression, ending in a gorgeously floated ‘For I, thy God…’.
Barry Creasy, MusicOMH
When sopranos Carolyn Sampson and Rowan Pierce and mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston joined together for that angelic trio their sound was so spotless and tender you couldn’t help but be melted.
Ivan Hewett, The Telegraph
Out of Her Mouth (Judith)
Dunedin Consort (July 2023)
Carolyn Sampson’s Judith combines lithe sensuality with steely determination
Simon Thompson, The Times
Carolyn Sampson brought both the creaminess and power of her voice to a bravura portrayal, deploying a sarcastic edge for the recitative ‘Hurry, someone make him shut up’, a little unsteadily drunken portamento for ‘He’s closing his eyes’, the quietest pianissimo for ‘It is time’, and a triumphant full-on tone for ‘She strikes the fatal blow’ and the triple time ‘Sing and dance and be glad in the power we had’.
Barry Creasy, MusicOMH
Sampson’s conveying of the vengeance, power, shock and grief experienced by this complex figure was palpable, resulting in several audible gasps at the end of her final scene.
Miranda Heggie, theartsdesk
You Did Not Want For Joy / DEUX-ELLES
(DXL1192 / Carolyn Sampson, Matthew Wadsworth / July 2023)
It’s ravishing, the balance of lushness and simplicity perfectly judged in Sampson’s delivery. Sampson’s sweet, true soprano is on home ground with the early repertoire.
Alexandra Coghlan, Gramophone Magazine
Elysium / BIS RECORDS
(BIS2573 / Carolyn Sampson and Joseph Middleton / April 2023)
Sampson is at her best in the nocturnal ‘Nacht und Träume’, with a masterly balance of word articulation and legato line. Few singers so effectively build the tension of a song with a slow expansion of tone, especially in the sublime ‘Du bist die Ruh’. It seems that the more she records, the better she gets.
David Patrick Stearns, Gramophone
Sampson has a natural intimacy to her voice.
Sampson has plenty of swashbuckling drive, complete with punchy accents and crisp diction.
Myron Silberstein, Fanfare
Stabat Mater, Pergolesi
Les Violons du Roy, Quebec and Montreal, November 2022
Carolyn Sampson est vraiment une chanteuse que nous aimons voir ici. […] il semble que rien ne peut lui arriver, et tout est implacablement juste, bien placé, bien exprimé et de bon goût. On lui doit le grand moment de la soirée, le « Vidit suum » du Stabat Mater de Pergolèse, où, sur « dum emisit spiritum », elle semble elle-même rendre son dernier souffle, notamment à la reprise.
Carolyn Sampson really is a singer that we like here. [...] it seems that nothing can fluster her, and that everything is impeccable, well placed, well expressed and in good taste. To her we owe the greatest moment of the evening, the "Vidit suum" from Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, on "dum emisit spiritum" she seemed herself to take her final breaths, notably in the reprise.
Christophe Huss
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But I like to Sing
Carolyn Sampson 100th
Disc as featured solo artist - BIS records, to be released around March 2023
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Scenes from Schumann’s Lieder (with Joseph Middleton)
Released April 2021, BIS Records
"Amid formidable recorded competition, Sampson is close to the top of the Frauenliebe pantheon…" - Richard Patrick Stearns, Gramophone - The Week's Essential New Albums
Lieder by Robert and Clara Schumann*, together with a selection of extracts from letters, read by Carolyn Sampson or an actor
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A Soprano's Schubertiade (with Joseph Middleton)
“It’s a sign when you have to finish listening a complete disc of single songs because each one makes you long for the next. And because the singing is so wonderful, even the most celebrated pieces seem so much more beautiful than you remembered them. The British soprano Carolyn Sampson – crystal-clear timbre, each syllable audible – has made a name with recital discs that are more than a compilation of songs. A Soprano’s Schubertiade too is such an intelligent album. […] It doesn’t take more than piano and voice to tell everything. Schubert knew that and this is stressed with a golden pen on Sampson’s first Schubert album.” - Micha Spel, NRC Handelsblad [translated from the Dutch]
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SCHUBERT Lieder: Elysium (with Joseph Middleton)
Following the success of the release of A Soprano’s Schubertiade, the duo will release their second Schubert disc in November 2022.
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Trennung: Songs of Separation (with Kristian Bezuidenhout)
“Carolyn Sampson enthrallingly unfolds the tale of shipwrecked love … The phrases of Lied der Trennung are tenderly ornamented and sung with deep pathos by Sampson … Sampson’s beguiling, luminous voice, with immaculate German and elegant delivery, is perfectly matched by Bezuidenhout’s endlessly inventive imagination” – BBC Music Magazine
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Reason in Madness (with Joseph Middleton)
“[…] a brilliantly assembled exploration of how female madness has fascinated male poets and composers. Their programme takes in responses to Shakespeare, Goethe and others by composers including Strauss, Schumann, Brahms, Koechlin, Wolf and Duparc, all performed with Sampson’s wonted freshness of tone, superb control and subtle sensuality, with Middleton offering vibrant support.” - Erica Jeal, The Guardian
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Sounds and Sweet Airs: Shakespeare in Song
Recorded for BIS records, due for release in August 2023
Carolyn Sampson – Soprano
Roderick Williams – Baritone
Joseph Middleton – Piano
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Fleurs (with Joseph Middleton)
BIS Records, released March 2015
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