KarenCargill

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Mezzo-Soprano
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Nicholas Moloney

Nicholas Moloney

Senior Artist Manager
Megan Steller

Megan Steller

Associate Artist Manager

Representation

Worldwide general management with Askonas Holt

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About Karen

Following her critically acclaimed Brangaene Tristan und Isolde at the Glyndebourne Festival, Scottish mezzo-soprano, Karen Cargill's 2024/25 season includes Brangaene with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and with Sir Simon Rattle and the Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra. She will also make her role debut as Brigitte in Die Tote Stadt in concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons and returns to the Montreal Symphony Orchestra for Schoenberg's Gurrelieder with Rafael Payare, the San Francisco Symphony for Verdi's Requiem with Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Toronto Symphony for Mozart's Requiem with Jukka-Pekka Saraste, and the San Diego Symphony for Mahler Symphony no. 3 with Rafael Payare.

Her 2023/24 season included a revered tour of Die Walküre (Fricka) with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle (Judith) with Karina Canellakis and the Boston Symphony, Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde with the Wiener Symphoniker and Robin Ticciati; and Berlioz La mort de Cléopȃtre with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Maxim Emelyanychev.

She is Patron of the National Girls' Choir of Scotland and in 2018 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She sang in the National Service of Thanksgiving and Dedication for King Charles III following his Coronation in 2023.

Karen is based in Glasgow

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Representation

Worldwide general management with Askonas Holt

Follow Karen

Season Highlights

Jul 2024 - Aug 2024
Glyndebourne Festival
Wagner Tristan und Isolde (Brangäne) Robin Ticciati (conductor)
Sep 2024 - Sep 2024
la Maison Symphonique, Montreal
Schoenberg Gurrelieder Rafael Payare (conductor) Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Sep 2024 - Sep 2024
Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco
Verdi Requiem Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor) San Francisco Symphony

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  • Bluebeard's Castle (Judith)

    Boston Symphony Orchestra with Karina Canellakis
    Feb 2024

    • Cargill was full and rich at the top…she nailed her high C at the opening of the fifth door, and she was touching when Judith tells Bluebeard “Hallgass, hallgass, itt vagyok még” (“Look! Look! I’m still here”) even as he’s assimilating her.

    • Karen Cargill brought similarly admirable dramatic instincts to Judith…she charted Judith’s journey from lovesick young bride to Bluebeard’s latest resigned casualty with intense fervor.

    • Karen Cargill, led the way with some gleaming high notes and a steely lower register…the mezzo brought fire to her character’s demand for the final door to be opened.

    • Scottish mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill made a dramatically savvy and vocally powerful Judith, hues of innocence, curiosity, love, and despair flickering across her face as well as her voice. Her repeated intonations of “Szeretlek” (“I love you”) sounded achingly sincere.

Discography