Rebecca van den Berg

Rebecca grew up in Rye, on the East Sussex coast and studied singing under John Evans at GSMD, gaining an MMus and MMP with Distinction. A recent graduate from the GSMD Opera Course, competition successes include the Susan Longfield Prize (GSMD) and the Tracey Chadwell Memorial Award (GSMD). Rebecca is also proud to be a Britten-Pears Young Artist, a New European Opera Young Artist and to have received both a Wingate Scholarship and The Royal Phimharmonic Society’s prestigious Susan Chilcott Scholarship. She now studies with Lillian Watson and Gary Coward.

Operatic roles include Anne Trulove (The Rake’s Progress, Stravinsky) and Barbarina (The Marriage of Figaro Mozart) both for Opera East Productions and the Iford Festival. Critically acclaimed roles at GSMD include Amine (La rencontre imprevue, Gluck) The nice Caroline (The king goes forth to France, Sallinen) and Fanny in La cambiale di matrimonio, Rossini. After graduationg, she joined the Glyndebourne Chorus in Autumn 2009 and returned during the Festival 2010 to understudy Despina in Cosi fan tutte. This season she performed both the role of Siren in Rinaldo with The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Ottavio Dantone and Daphne in Charpentier’s La descente d’Orphee aux enfers again with the OAE under Robert Howarth, the latter was part of the Jerwood Young Artist Scheme at Glyndebourne. Rebecca also covered the role of Kristina in Janacek’s masterpiece, The Makropulos Case for English National Opera and will return to the company in Spring 2012 to perform a role in Wolfgang Reim’s Jakob Lenz.

Passionate about the song repertoire, Rebecca has performed recitals in the Paxos, Edinburgh and Oxford Lieder Festivals. She opened the New European Opera recital series in Paris and has also performed solo recitals at St James Piccadilly, St Martins in the Field and the National Portrait Gallery.

Oratorio performances include Bach Cantata 202 at the Iford Festival and Handel’s Chandos Anthems in the Cambridge Summer Festival. She has sung the role of the Queen of Sheba in Handel’s Solomon at St James’ Piccadilly and specialises in Haydn, most notably singing The Creation in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with the Faroese Symphony Orchestra!