About Wendy Eathorne


Wendy Eathorne JP FTCL ARAM LRAM ARCM FRSA FCSM Hons Voice

 

Wendy Eathorne was born in the tin mining village of Four Lanes near Redruth in Cornwall. She was educated at Helston Grammar School and still maintains strong links with the Duchy, being a Cornish Bard, as well as President of her home village Four Lanes Male Voice Choir and a former Trustee of The Hall for Cornwall in Truro.

 

Immediately after studying at The Royal Academy of Music in London, where her teachers included May Blyth, Flora Nielsen, Bruce Boyce, Gwen Catley and Dame Eva Turner, she went into the West End Musical Robert and Elizabeth by Ron Grainer. She was a prize winner in the International Vocalist Concours in Holland in 1975 and also won the Gulbenkian Foundation Award in 1976. She then sang at Glyndebourne Festival Opera as Atalanta in Nicholas Maw’s The Rising of the Moon, First Boy in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and Sophie in Massenet’s Werther. Later for English National Opera she sang Oscar in Verdi’s The Masked Ball, Papagena in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, The Princess in Prokofiev’s Love for Three Oranges, Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Cupid in Handel’s Semele, and Daniel in Handel’s Susanah. For the Handel Opera Society she sang roles in Jeptha, Ottone and Atalanta.

 

She became one of the busiest sopranos on the books of the agents Ibbs & Tillett, singing throughout Europe, the Middle East and Canada in contemporary works and first performances by such composers as Tjeknavorian, Berkeley and McCabe as well as the great oratorios by J.S.Bach and Handel. She made many studio and live concert broadcasts, including First and Last Nights at the Promenade Concerts. Wendy has performed under the direction of such notable conductors as Abbado, Henze, Rattle, Boulez, Haitink, Davis, Horenstein, Boult, Leinsdorf, Pritchard, Norrington, Hickox, Willcocks, Steinitz, Meredith Davies and Gardner. She made numerous television appearances including episodes of Face the Music and Star Brass. Her performances for the Huddersfield Choral Society, London Bach Society, The Bach Choir, Royal Choral Society, LSO, RPO, LPO, BBCSO, Halle, CBSO, BSO and ECO are remembered with affection.

Overseas engagements have included France, Germany, Belgium, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, South Africa, Egypt, South East Asia and Canada.

 

From 1989-1994 she was Head of Vocal Studies, Opera and Music Theatre at Trinity College of Music, London (now Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance), devising and administering the course there. Since 1985 she has been on the teaching staff of the College where in 1998 she was made a Fellow. She specialises in voice and drama. In 1994 she was awarded the Sir Charles Santley Memorial Prize by the Worshipful Company Musicians. She is a member of the Royal Society of Musicians and an Honorary Fellow of the Cambridge Society of Musicians. In 2014 Wendy founded and directed Stars of Trinity Laban to promote advanced students by giving them public performances in pretigious venues.

 

Interests beyond music include dressmaking, cooking, swimming and gardening. She also enjoys films, the theatre and entertaining friends at home. From 1988 until 2009 she was a Justice of the Peace.