This week’s #RAArtistinFocus is mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean, who is currently working at the Bayerische Staatsoper, making her house debut in Mieczysław Weinberg’s opera Die Passagierin. Called “a force in music to be reckoned with”, Lotte is quickly becoming known for her wide-ranging repertoire and her keen passion for curation and programming. She was recently shortlisted for the 2024 Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award, which will be announced in early March.
Lotte's recent operatic engagements include Shlomowitz Electric Dreams (Teacher - Grand Théâtre de Genève/Ensemble Contrechamps), Handel Theodora (Irene - Amsterdam Muziekgebouw) and Dean Hamlet (Semi Chorus - State Opera South Australia/Adelaide Festival), and she will make her house debut at Bayerische Staatsoper in Weinberg's Die Passagierin next week.
https://www.staatsoper.de/en/p...
She has appeared at festivals across the UK, Europe and Australia, including Aldeburgh Festival, St Magnus International Festival, Cheltenham Festivals, Buxton International Festival, Leeds Lieder, West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Festival Musica Sacra Maastricht, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Festival Musique en Ecrins, International Bach Festival, Australian Festival of Chamber Music and Dark Mofo.This season, Lotte will perform at the Canberra International Music Festival and return to the Australian Festival of Chamber Music.
Lotte was Associate Artist with Southbank Sinfonia and Ensemble x.y, and is a Young Artist alumnus of Britten Pears Arts (2022), City Music Foundation (2017), The Musicians' Company (2018) and Oxford Song (2019). She is a regular collaborator with various chamber groups, including EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble, Explore Ensemble, Ligeti Quartet, and Marsyas Trio. She is also a regular guest with the Choir of His Majesty’s Chapel Royal and has recorded several film and television soundtracks with London Voices.
Lotte has been shortlisted for this year's Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award, which will be announced next Tuesday. Her other awards include the 2020 Royal Over-Seas League Competition Overseas Prize and Audrey Strange Singer’s Prize, 2019 Oxford Song Young Artist Platform, the inaugural The Musicians' Company New Elizabethan Award (2018) and the 2017 Peter Hulsen Orchestral Song Prize. Her most recent album, a collaboration with Scottish composer Stuart MacRae, was released on Delphian Records last July.