LotteBetts-Dean
About Lotte
Praised for her âirrepressible sense of drama and unmissable, urgent musicalityâ (The Guardian), Australian mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean is passionate about curation and programming, with a broad repertoire that encompasses contemporary, chamber and early music, as well as art song, opera, oratorio and non-classical collaborations. As a specialist in contemporary repertoire, Lotte has premiered many works by contemporary composers, and recorded several composer portrait albums, including Michael Finnissy, Stuart MacRae, Catherine Lamb and Arthur Keegan.
Recent highlights include her debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Weinbergâs Die Passagierin singing Vlasta, and at the Grand ThĂ©Ăątre de GenĂšve in Shlomowitzâ Electric Dreams. This summer brought a return to the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra following her debut in 2019 with Sir Andrew Davis, as well as a return to the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, West Cork Chamber Music Festival and Kings Place London. Earlier in the season, she returned to Wigmore Hall for a recital with the Armida Quartet.
The 2024/25 season sees Lotte return to Bayerische Staatsoper, as well as debuts with Ensemble MusikFabrik in Cologne, Phaedra Ensemble for Music in the Round, at Festival November Music in sâHertogenbosch and New Music Dublin. Lotte will also record and release a further seven albums across Delphian Records, Odradek Records and Platoon.
Lotte is an alumnus of the Young Artist programmes at Britten Pears Arts, City Music Foundation and Oxford Lieder, having won the 2019 Oxford Lieder Platform with frequent collaborator Joseph Havlat. She has returned to the Festival every year since, curating a series of programmes of everything from Renaissance lute song and German lied to 20th-century art song, cabaret and experimental art rock, including her acclaimed solo voice and electronics show Voice Electric, which debuted at the Aldeburgh Festival in 2022.
Earlier this year, Lotte won the Young Artist Award at the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards, who praised her as "a visionary performer, initiating one bold collaboration after another." She is an Ambassador for Donne, a charitable foundation dedicated to promoting gender equality in the music industry, and in 2022 she was named as an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music for her contributions to music.
Season Highlights
Photos
Selected Repertoire
Adams | Nixon In China (Nancy T'ng) |
---|---|
Britten | A Midsummer Night's Dream (Hermia) |
De Falla | El retablo de Maese Pedro (El Trujaman- The Boy Narrator) |
Dean | Hamlet (Semi chorus) |
Handel | Giulio Cesare (Sesto)   âąÂ   Ariodante (Title)   âąÂ   Theodora (Title)   âąÂ   Hercules (Dejanira) |
Mills | The Magic Pudding (Benjamin) |
Mozart | Le Nozze di Figaro (Cherubino)   âąÂ   Don Giovanni (Donna Elvira)   âąÂ   Cosi fan tutte (Dorabella) |
Rameau | Hippolyte et Aricie (Phedre)   âąÂ   Castor et Pollux (Phebe)   âąÂ   La lyre enchantĂ©e |
Schlomowitz | Electric Dreams (Mezzo Role) |
Smetanin | Mayakovsky (Elsa) |
Tchaikovsky | Eugene Onegin (Filipyevna, Olga) |
News
Press
Boots and All with Ensemble Q
QPAC Concert Hall, BrisbaneAug 2024It was a musical dance around the world with... the UK-based mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean rousing the rabble with her robust voice and mastery of lingo, singing in seven different languages. Her Gaelic crooning of Scottish composer Stuart MacRaeâs Chaidh mo Dhonnachadhâna bheinn (My Duncan has Gone to the Hill) was impressive and a dramatic start to an intriguing concert. The wide-mouthed vowels and glottal stops did not deter her from beaming with infectious enjoyment throughout the haunting piece accompanied by cello and violin.
- Gemma Regan, Limelight
- 06 August 2024