Gillian Crichton

Opera, Concert Singer

About Me

Berlin-born mezzo-soprano Gillian Crichton studied musicology and violin before devoting herself to singing.

She began her professional career in the acclaimed opera and dance production La guerra d’amore by Monteverdi at Theater Basel, conducted by René Jacobs. Subsequent engagements have taken her to the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Staatstheater Mainz, Oper Kiel, Stadttheater Klagenfurt and Staatstheater Schwerin, among others.

As a long-standing ensemble member at Theater Ulm, she appeared in a wide-ranging repertoire that included Idamante (Idomeneo), Orfeo (Orfeo ed Euridice), Olga (Eugene Onegin), Maddalena (Rigoletto), Nancy (Martha), Anna I (Die sieben Todsünden), Venus (Tannhäuser) and Ottavia (L’incoronazione di Poppea). Her current repertoire focuses on the dramatic German Fach and includes Waltraute (Götterdämmerung), Brangäne (Tristan und Isolde), Erda (Das Rheingold), the Witch and Gertrud (Hänsel und Gretel).

Gillian Crichton is also an experienced concert and oratorio soloist. Her concert repertoire includes Bach’s Passions and major sacred works, Handel’s Messiah, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody, Rossini’s Petite Messe solennelle, Bruckner’s Mass in F minor and Te Deum, Dvořák’s Stabat Mater and Mendelssohn’s Elijah.

She has appeared at the Berlin Philharmonie and at festivals including the Wiblinger Bachtage and the Festival d’Ambronay, and has performed with ensembles such as the Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra of Augsburg, the Bach-Collegium Berlin and the Chœur de Chambre de Namur. Her orchestral engagements have included Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, Ravel’s Shéhérazade and Korngold’s Lieder des Abschieds.