Prize-winning soprano Rebecca van den Berg recently graduated with distinction from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she was awarded the Susan Longfield Prize, the Tracey Chadwell Memorial Award, and a place on the prestigious Opera Course. During her time there, she performed the role of Amine La rencontre imprevue (Gluck), The Nice Caroline The King goes forth to France (Sallinen) and Fanny La cambiale di matrimonio (Rossini), where she was described in Opera Magazine as
‘…the star of the show, with dramatic and vocal depth.’
Rebecca’s other operatic roles include Anne Trulove The Rake’s Progress, Barbarina/Susanna Il nozze di Figaro (Opera East and Iford Arts), Galatea Acis and Galatea for New European Opera’s inaugural concert performance, and Giulia La scala di seta (Rossini) for British Youth Opera. Last season also included engagements with Glyndebourne on Tour in Jenůfa and Falstaff, resulting in an invitation to return to the Glyndebourne Festival in 2010 to cover Despina Cosi fan tutte. Other engagements during 2010 include covering the role of Kristina The Makropulos Case for English National Opera.
Passionate about the song repertoire, Rebecca’s international recital engagements include recitals in the Paxos International Music Festival where she premiered Geoffrey Burgon’s The Road to Love for soprano and string quartet; a recital at the Stowarzyszenie Milosniko in Gdansk; Castalia Hall in Ireland; and a recital of French and Polish song in Hotel de Soubise, Paris, as a collaboration between New European Opera and ‘Jeunes Talent’. In the UK Rebecca has sung at St Martin-in-the Fields and St James’ Piccadilly, London. She has also sung for the Oxford Lieder Festival, the Edinburgh Festival and with the Britten-Pears School at Snape Maltings, Suffolk.
Rebecca is also an experienced oratorio singer. She has performed Haydn’s Creation in the Faroe Islands and Carmina Burana in the Walthamstow Assembly Halls; Bach’s B minor Mass for Collegium Musicum and the Queen of Sheba in Handel’s Solomon, with the Solomon Choir and Orchestra; the Chandos Anthems with the Academy of Ancient Music under Stephen Cleobury as part of the Cambridge Summer Music Festival in King’s College Chapel, Cambridge; and Bach’s solo Canatata BWV202 at the Iford Festival with the Pepys Ensemble. Rebecca also sings in the ‘Nightingale Trio’ (flute, soprano and piano) with Bojana Dimkovic and Louisa Sparks and recent engagements have taken them across the UK.
Rebecca is proud to be a Britten-Pears Young Artist, a Wingate Scholar, a New European Young Artist and a Susan Chilcott Scholar. She has benefited from the expertise of Yvonne Kenny, Graham Johnson, Sarah Walker, Helmut Deutsch and Emma Kirkby and currently studies with John Evans.
