Grace Durham

voice

Grace Durham is a London-born mezzo-soprano whose career spans baroque, recital, opera and contemporary music. She trained at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the National Opera Studio, was a member of the Junges Ensemble at the Semperoper Dresden, and is the winner of several international competitions including the Cesti Competition for Baroque Opera and the Toulouse International French Song Competition. She currently lives in Paris.

With lovemusic, she has given the world premières of Philip Venables’ Numbers and Michelle Agnes Magalhaes’ The Word, and performed works by Luxa M. Schüttler, Claude Lenners and Jennifer Walshe. As a member of the Semperoper Dresden, she also created the role of Clare in the German première of Philip Venables’ 4.48 Psychose; with Ensemble Itinéraire, she created the role of Miranda in the world première of Michelle Agnes Magalhaes’ Après la tempête : a songbook for Shakespeare at the Festival Messiaen. Ensemble Itinéraire also selected her as one of six participants in their Opus One Academy, a mentoring programme for first-time composers, and her début work Night Vision was recorded by the ensemble in 2025.

Her latest projects include covering the title role in Handel’s Ariodante at the Royal Ballet & Opera, Covent Garden, The Presenter in an immersive, inclusive production of Tippett’s New Year with Birmingham Opera Company, and Aeneas in an all-female reimagining of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, featuring spoken theatre and dance, on tour throughout France with Ensemble Les Surprises. She has also performed in recital with Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques at the Staastoper Berlin, the Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik and the Festival Antiqua Bolzano, and in recital programmes ranging from Haydn to world premières with pianist Edward Liddall at the Opéra de Lille, Opéra de Montpellier, Opéra National du Capitole de Toulouse, Musée d’Orsay and London’s Wigmore Hall.

Grace holds a degree in French and Italian from Clare College, Cambridge, has studied theatre at the Académie Aparté with mentors including Nicolas Vaude, and can often be seen on stage wearing clothes she has created.