Winner of the 1994 Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Prize, Susan Gritton read botany at Oxford and London Universities before taking up a career in singing.

Her operatic engagements have included Liù (Turandot), Marenka (The Bartered Bride) and Ismene (Mitridate) for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Vitellia (La clemenza di Tito), Romilda (Xerxes), Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare) and the title role of Rodelinda at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich; Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) at Opéra de Montréal; Countess Almaviva, Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Nannetta (Falstaff) and the title role of The Cunning Little Vixen at the English National Opera; Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Zerlina (Don Giovanni) and the title role of Theodora at the Glyndebourne Festival; Governess (The Turn of the Screw) and Blanche (Dialogues des Carmélites) at Aldeburgh; Marzelline (Fidelio) for Rome Opera; Tytania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) for Teatro la Fenice, Venice and Fiordiligi at the Mostly Mozart Festival, New York.

Future operatic engagements include Micäela (Carmen) at Covent Garden and Konstanze (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) and Fiordiligi at the Bayerische Staatsoper.

In concert, recent highlights include Bach’s St John Passion, Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortileges and Brahms’ Requiem with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle; Mozart and Handel arias with Sir Roger Norrington in Salzburg; Hero (Béatrice et Bénédict) with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis, and with the New York Philharmonic; Mahler’s Symphony no. 2 at the BBC Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Bernard Haitink; Les Illuminations with L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Jeffrey Tate and Barber’s Knoxville with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Richard Hickox. With Sir Charles Mackerras she has sung Mozart’s Requiem and Haydn’s The Creation with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Ravel’s Sheherezade with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. Among her concert highlights this season are Bach’s Mass in B Minor with the Berlin Philharmonic and Norrington and Brahms’ Requiem with the same orchestra under Rattle in Vienna and in Turin.

A regular recitalist, her appearances include the Wigmore Hall with Graham Johnson, the Lincoln Centre in New York with Eugene Asti and the Oxford Lieder Festival. She has recorded songs by Britten, Medtner, Schubert, Fanny Hensel and Clara Schumann. Her extensive discography also includes Handel’ Saul, Solomon, Theodora (title role), Messiah, L’Allegro and The Choice of Hercules; Brahms’ Requiem; Mozart’s Requiem; Haydn’s Nelson Mass; Hummel Masses and the roles of Marenka (nominated for a Grammy Award); Elena (Paride ed Elena); Hero; Nannetta; Tiny (Paul Bunyan); Miss Wordsworth (Albert Herring).

She lives in Surrey with her husband and two children.