Kate Semmens is a soloist with many leading groups and opera companies, and has sung with some of the UK’s finest choirs with conductors including Sir John Elliot Gardiner, Paul McCreesh, John Butt and Eric Whitacre. Her opera performances have included Cupid (Venus and Adonis), Mycene (Isis), Suzanna (Le Nozze de Cherubino), and Mrs P (The Man who mistook his wife for a hat) and Ottavia (L’Incoronazione di Poppea). Kate is a regular performer for New Chamber Opera, with whom performances include Galatea (Acis and Galatea), Second Woman and Belinda (Dido and Aeneas), Orgando (Amadigi), Atalanta (Xerxes), Semira (Artaxerxes), Clarice (Il Mondo Della Luna). She was the title role in Mozart’s ‘Il Re Pastore’ and most recently played Asteria in Handel’s ‘Tamerlano’. She created the role of Euridice in Caldwells’ The Story of Orpheus. Of her Ciro, in their production of Stradella’s Il Trespolo Tutore, Opera Magazine wrote ” the clarity and charm of Kate Semmens’ soprano was disarming”.
Kate has been particularly involved in historic performances, singing the title role in the first modern performance of John Stanley’s Teraminta for Opera Restor’d and was involved in performances of Cavalli’s Erismena, from the original English edition bought by the Bodleian Library in 2009.
Kate particularly enjoys singing with instrumentalists, and has been enjoying recent performances of Bach Cantatas with violinist Margaret Faultless, programmes with Matthew and Rebecca Truscott, Jacobean programmes with lutenist Lynda Sayce, and viol programmes with Jacob Heringman and Susanna Pell as well as Handel with recorder player Emma Murphy.
Kate has been particularly enjoying performing recitals of music from the pleasure gardens, the anniversaries of Thomas Arne and William Boyce sparking an initial interest and giving opportunities to explore the wealth of this music even further. Her solo CD Delicatessen with harpsichordist Steven Devine and recorded at the Sendesaal in Bremen gave opportunity to record some of this repertoire. This has now been followed up by Delicatessen II, which took this repertoire into even more unknown territory. These two CDs have led to recitals across the country and also to Europe where they have become well knon for this repertoire. Kate and Steven also developed programmes of music based around the domestic music of the Bach Household. This led to performances at St John’s Smith Square and Radio 3 as well as many Festivals across the country, and ultimately a recording of The Notebooks of Anna Magdalena Bach. All these recordings are available from www.devinemusic.co.uk
Kate is also developing a reputation as a teacher and has spent time in Canada teaching and giving masterclasses alongside Nancy Argenta and Ingrid Antrott Kate has also given masterclasses at Christ Church Canterbury as well as lectures and talks at Trinity College Music department. She has also spent time teaching and coaching at Dartington summer school and Baroque Week.
Together with Harpsichordist Steven Devine, Kate has been giving day workshops for Early Music Fora across the country based on Restoration Music in the church and on the stage ‘The secrets of our hearts’ and also based around the music created for the Pleasure Gardens of London.
