Susan Hamilton, Artistic Director
Susan Hamilton (soprano) was born in Edinburgh and began her musical career as a chorister at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral and a pupil at St Mary’s Music School. She specialises in Baroque and Contemporary music and is in demand as a soloist working with many conductors including Philippe Herreweghe, John Butt, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Raphael Frühbeck de Burgos, Jos van Immerseel, Robert King, Paul McCreesh, Masaaki Suzuki and Ton Koopman, and composers Harvey Brough, Pascal Dusapin, Gabriel Jackson, Witold Lutoslawski, James MacMillan, Peter Nelson, Ronald Stevenson, Bill Sweeney and Errollyn Wallen and has sung with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, A Sei Voci, Collegium Vocale Ghent, Florilegium, Gabrieli Consort, The New London Consort and Cantus Cölln. She also performs regularly with, Il Gardellino, Plus Ultra, Mr McFall’s Chamber, the Ricercar Consort and the Dunedin Consort, which she co-founded and is one of the artistic directors.
She has appeared at major International Festivals in Europe, Japan, Australia and the USA including the Edinburgh International Festival, Boston Early Music Festival, Les Folles Journées in Nantes and Lisbon, Melbourne, St Magnus, Salzburg and Utrecht. Recent work has included, a US tour with the Flanders Recorder Quartet, Bach cantatas in Belgium and France with Il Gardellino, Ronald Stevenson’s Nine Haiku with the pianist John Cameron, Schoenberg’s Herzgewächse in Glasgow and a performance of Bach’s cantata Jauchzet Gott in Wells Cathedral directed by Matthew Owens.
Susan broadcasts regularly on both television and radio and has recorded for Astree-Auvidis, Delphian, Flora, Harmonia Mundi, Hyperion, Linn, Ricercar and Virgin Classics. Her solo recordings include A’e Gowden Lyric a recital of songs by Ronald Stevenson, with John Cameron and Dallapiccola’s Quattro Liriche di Antonio Machado with David Wilde, both on Delphian Records, Haydn’s Scots songs on the Flora label, Consort Songs by Alfonso Ferrabosco with the Ricercar Consort, Purcell’s Ode to St Cecilia’s Day with Philippe Herreweghe, and most recently Handel’s Messiah for Linn Records with the Dunedin Consort directed by John Butt which won a Classic FM Gramophone Award in 2007. Her latest solo CD of Theatre Songs from the Restoration by Henry Purcell and John Eccles with the Dunedin Players is soon to be released.