Biography

Bethan Langford is a Mezzo Soprano from Much Wenlock in Shropshire. She is currently studying on the Masters Programme at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, after graduating with first class honours from the undergraduate course in 2012. Bethan is a proud recipient of the Elizabeth Eagle- Bott award for visually impaired musicians and is grateful to the RNIB for their support. She is also kindly sponsored by the Walker Trust, the Ryan Davies Trust and the Mario Lanza Educational Foundation.

Bethan is the 2012/13 winner of the Paul Hamburger lieder prize. She was also the recipient of the 2012 Violette Szabo award for English song at GSMD and was a finalist for the 2013 Oxford Lieder Young Artist Platform and the 2012 Dunraven Welsh Young Singer of the year.

Opera credits include Bridesmaid for Guildhall Opera’s Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart), Octavian (der Rosenkavalier, Strauss), la Marquise (la Fille de Regiment, Donizetti) and Medoro (Orlando, Handel) for GSMD Opera Associates Scenes and British Youth Opera Easter Workshops. Future engagements include chorus for Peter Grimes (Britten) with Opera North on Aldeburgh beach and the role of Hansel in a semi-staged Hansel und Gretel (Humperdink) for Guernsey Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Dominic Wheeler. Bethan is a 2013 Mid Wales Opera Young Artist; she will play Nancy in Albert Herring (Britten) for the YAP this Summer.

As an active recitalist, Bethan has performed in venues such as LSO St Luke's, Oxford Holywell Music Rooms and Charlton House. Bethan made her Wigmore Hall solo debut in March accompanied by Graham Johnson for Sarah Walker's 70th Birthday concert. She will return to the Wigmore in April to sing for Graham Johnson's Gala Schubert concert. She is a member of the Guildhall Song Guild and the Song in the City recital series (patrons Iain Burnside and Sarah Walker), and recently featured as a soloist for Eugene Asti's 'Rediscovering Mendelssohn' festival. Bethan recently performed a solo recital for Oxford Balliol College Musical Society, where she plans to return in 2014. She has sung in Master Classes for artists such as Ann Murray, Wolfgang Holzmair (with the Oxford Lieder Festival residential master course), Amanda Roocroft and Roger Vignoles.

In 2011, Bethan played Winifred Gurney in Unknown Doors, a new production by Iain Burnside which premiered at the Barbican Centre. She returned to this role in April 2012, for a run at the Barbican and tour to Cheltenham Festival, in the re-named production of A Soldier and a Maker and received very warm reviews ('a quietly scene-stealing performance from Bethan Langford' Opera Magazine, 'a terrifically nuanced performance...heart-breaking' whatsonstage).