Michelle Foster
Michelle Foster
Singer
What Makes Michelle Foster Special?
- A sensational performer with a great deal of experience and training.
- Loves to draw people into her performances.
- Flexible and able to sing a wide range of repertoire with ease and flair.
- A sensitve and powerful singer.
- Can adapt to any situation and change of repertoire.
- Options: Most people would choose to have Michelle sing with an accompanist such as piano, organ, chamber music ensemble or string quartet. Could also team up with another singer or additional instrumentalists if required. Michelle's singing can be accompanied by piano, organ, chamber music or string quartet.
Michelle Foster is a sensational performer with a great deal of stage experience and training. A consumate artist who loves to draw people into the performance whether on a large or small scale. Flexible and adaptable with a wide range of repertoire, can step into a roate with a moments notice. A sensitive yet powerful singer, Michelle's repertoire and style will suit any occasion.
Michelle Foster studied at the RSAMD's Alexander Gibson Opera Studio, studying with Jane Irwin and Patricia MacMahon. She graduated with a first class honours degree in 2003, and completed a Master of Music performance in 2004. During her period of study, Michelle won several prestigious awards from The Countess of Munster Musical Trust, The Musicians Benevolent Fund, The Ruby and Will George Trust and The Mary Garden Scholarship Fund, as well as a travelling scholarship to Canada from the Canadian Scottish Philharmonic Foundation. Michelle’s studies were generously supported by the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, The Leverhulme Trust, The Sir Richard Stapley Educational Trust and the South Square Trust.
Public recitals have led Michelle to perform widely across the UK and abroad. Engagements include recitals at Gleneagles for Scotland International, Mahler’s Rückert Lieder in Toronto (Canada), Mahler’s 4th Symphony at the RSAMD under James Lowe and Britten’s les illuminations with Edinburgh University String Orchestra. Michelle has also performed in recital with Sir Thomas Allen, Patricia MacMahon, Lisa Milne, Peter Wilson and Malcolm Martineau, and has sung at Glasgow’s West End Festival with Graeme McNaught. She has also given recitals for Scottish Executive, Channel Four, the Conservatorio di Monopoli (Italy), and House for an Art Lover. Michelle is also in demand as an Oratorio performer; she has sung at York Minster with the York Music Society in Handel’s Israel in Egypt, Handel’s Messiah in Manchester with Richard Lea, Elgar’s Coronation ode and Mozart’s Coronation Mass in Glasgow under Ben Parry, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solonnelle for HHCOS at Aberdeen’s Music Hall with David Jones, and many performances of Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem throughout Scotland, the most recent being with the BBC ‘scratch’ orchestra.
Michelle’s career as a recitalist has also brought opportunities to perform throughout Europe and Canada in recitals for the Schubert Society of Germany, and The Canadian Scottish Philharmonic Foundation in Toronto. Michelle also recently sang in recital with Malcolm Martineau in Edinburgh, in aid of the Mary Garden scholarship award. She was a semi finalist in this year’s Kathleen Ferrier Awards at the Wigmore Hall in London, and a semi finalist in 2005’s prestigious YCAT selection in London. Michelle has also performed for the Royal Overseas League in Edinburgh, at the Glasgow Summerfest in a recital of Strauss Lieder with Jane Irwin and Nico de Villiers, in recital with Graeme McNaught performing Schoenberg and Berg Lieder, as well as recording soundtrack music for the BBC documentary Galapagos.
Operatic roles at the RSAMD include ‘Rusalka’ (Rusalka), ‘Countess Almaviva’ (le nozze di Figaro), ‘Marguerite’ (Faust), ‘Mar?nka’ (The Bartered Bride), ‘Leïla’ (les Pecheurs de Perles) and ‘Female Chorus’ (The Rape of Lucretia). This year, Michelle performed the role of ‘Concepcion’ (L’heure Espagnole) in collaboration with the RSAMD and the orchestra of Scottish Opera, and ‘Donna Elvira’ (Don Giovanni, RSAMD). She is currently performing with Opera on a Shoestring, in their touring production of Espagna.
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Testimonials
'The cast reacted skilfully to the awesome comedic challenge In the Ravel, it was the one female role, Michelle Foster's sex mad Concepcion – that stood out. Her male entourage, though assured in their roles, found moments of difficulty in projecting over the lavish orchestral wash."
Kenneth Walton, The Scotsman
"…The cast was uniformly excellent. Michelle Foster was bewitching, infuriating, and spontaneous as Concepcion, with a pleasing Soubrettish soprano… Again, Lloyd Evans made it all work like... Well, clockwork."
Raymond Monelle, Opera
"By any yardstick, the performance last night by the players of Academy Symphony Orchestra, which marked the start of a new session of rush hour concerts, was a deeply impressive affair… Only in the Scherzo, which was dragged out, did James Lowe’s sense of momentum seem to falter, though it regained stability for Michelle Foster’s lovely singing in the gently paced finale."
Michael Tumelty, The Herald
"There is a thesis to be written on the chronology of Tuesday’s recital by teacher and pupil in the Summerfest season… Established mezzo Jane Irwin and her opera school protégé soprano dueted at either end of that time span. No surprise, then, that Fauré’s lovely litany of tears, Pleurs d’Or, and the two concluding Britten ballads, were highlights…. Foster’s voice – and personal style – seem from an earlier age, was absolutely at home on a trio of early twentieth century songs by Herbert Howells and Ivor Gurney. This is the sort of unfashionable repertoire Naxos revives and the budget label should sign her up now, so that everyone can hear her way with Gurney’s The Fields are Full."
Keith Bruce, The Herald
"Michelle, what a lovely face you have and it told us all we needed to know about Chloris and your Hungarian violinist. I thought ‘A Chloris’ a difficult one to start with, but you immediately engaged us. ‘Le Jardin Mouillé’ evoked rain and trembling grass so clearly, with some distinctly drenched colouring in your voice! I believe we have the perfect blend of even vocal production and skilled interpreter in one lovely performer."
Linda Kitchen, Norma Grieg French Song Prize
"Michelle, thank you for a day of beautiful singing. You have such an enchanting quality; it makes one wish for more. Your presence was felt even when you were up-stage as an onlooker. Your instincts are a gift not to be under-estimated. You move with poise and with a natural openness – the gestures always followed through. You are, as yet, a small-scale Rusalka, but I hear some strong vocal lines and there is an ease in the bigger, higher phrases, which leads me to believe that this is the right repertoire. Keep being clever and true."
Linda Kitchen, RSAMD opera scenes
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