Fleur Barron, mezzo-soprano

Fleur Barron

Hailed as a “charismatic star” by the Boston Globe and as “a knockout performer” by The Times, British-Singaporean mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron is a 2018 HSBC Laureate of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and the recipient of the 2016 Grace B. Jackson Prize from the Tanglewood Music Festival, awarded to one outstanding young singer each year. A passionate interpreter of chamber music, concert works, and opera ranging from the baroque to the contemporary, Ms. Barron is mentored by Barbara Hannigan.

In the 2021-2022 season, Ms. Barron has house debuts at Arizona Opera as the title role in Carmen, at English National Opera as Schwertleite in Die Walküre, conducted by Martyn Brabbins, and in Oviedo as the title role in Hänsel und Gretel. She returns to the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence as Ottavia in L’incoronazione di Poppea under the baton of Leonardo Garcia Alarcon and to Opéra de Toulon as Polina in The Queen of Spades. On the concert platform, Ms. Barron has a recital debut at Wigmore Hall, joins Barbara Hannigan for Offenbach with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican, and reunites with regular collaborator Julius Drake for a United States recital tour, performances of Schubert’s Winterreise in Spain, and multiple concerts in the United Kingdom. Additionally, she serves as an artist-in-residence at Denmark’s Oremansgaard Festival with acclaimed cellist Natalie Clein. This season sees the release of CDs of Brahms and Samuel Barber songs, both for Resonus Classics, as well as a world rremiere recording of the Handel/Hasse opera “Caio Fabbricio HWV A9” with London Early Opera for Signum Records, in which she sings the lead role of Pirro.

In the 2020-2021 season, Ms. Barron made her house debut at Garsington Opera as Olga in Yevgeny Onegin and returned to Opéra de Monte-Carlo as Mercedes in Carmen. She had also been scheduled to make her house debut at Opera Philadelphia as Museum Curator in the world premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Woman with Eyes Closed and to sing Ottavia at Opéra royal de Versailles. In concert, she gave solo recitals with pianist Julius Drake at Chamber Music Northwest, Het Concertgebouw, and multiple concert series in the United Kingdom, with pianist Joseph Middleton at Leeds Lieder Festival and Blackheath Halls, with pianist Myra Huang at the Cincinnati Song Initiative, with Jocelyn Freeman at The Red House, Aldeburgh, and with pianist Kunal Lahiry at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in a program curated around the theme of Empire/Identity. Additionally, she gave a duo recital with tenor Ian Bostridge and Julius Drake at the Oxford Lieder Festival, and another with tenor Nicky Spence featuring Czech song at Opera Holland Park.

Ms. Barron holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and Columbia University.