About Angharad
“Ariodante tends to steal this particular show and with her silvery, shaded mezzo and poetic phrasing no one will have begrudged Angharad Rowlands her ovation. Her ‘Scherza infida’ seemed to suspend time.”
- The Spectator
“In the title role, the mezzo-soprano Angharad Rowlands warmed to the task, unleashing her full range of expression in her joyful final aria ‘Dopo notte’. I’d have loved her to sing it all over again.”
- The Guardian
“In the opera’s greatest hit ‘Dopo notte’, Rowlands showed great versatility, comfortable stage presence and maintained the jubilant scene with a vibrant, flexible voice, and a confidence in the space.”
- Gramophone
“Angharad Rowlands did wonders with her extraordinary, powerfully sung, misanthropic Florence Pike.”
- The Classical Source
Praised for a voice of “great lyric beauty” (Gramophone), Welsh mezzo-soprano Angharad Rowlands is a Rising Star of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment for 2025-27. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, she studied under Raymond Connell and Iain Ledingham and was generously supported by the Carr-Gregory Trust, the Norman Ayrton Award, and the Josephine Baker Trust. Angharad is a 2024 International Handel Singing Competition finalist and the winner of both the 2025 LCS Leach Award for Singing and the 2022 Richard Lewis/Jean Shanks Award Song Prize.
At Royal Academy Opera, Angharad performed the title role in Handel’s Ariodante, Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Florence Pike (Albert Herring), Agnes/Troll 3 (WITCH), 2nd Witch (Dido & Aeneas), and cover Mother Goose (The Rake’s Progress). Other roles include 2nd Bridesmaid (Le nozze di Figaro - Royal Ballet & Opera), cover Juno (Semele - Opéra de Lille), cover Praskowia (The Merry Widow - Glyndebourne Festival Opera), cover Zweite Knappe (Parsifal - Glyndebourne Festival Opera), Quince/Fairy (The Fairy Queen - Longborough Festival Opera), and Dido (Dido & Aeneas - Hurn Court Opera).
Angharad’s concert highlights include her debut as a soloist at KKL Lucerne, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Janáček Theatre, Brno; appearances at Philharmonie de Paris, Palau de la Música Catalana, Barcelona, Kursaal San Sebastián, Cadogan Hall, and St John’s Smith Square with conductors including John Eliot Gardiner, John Butt, Jakob Lehmann and Philippe Herreweghe.
In recital, Angharad regularly collaborates with Sholto Kynoch at the Oxford International Song Festival, and has performed at Leeds Song, International Lied Festival Zeist, Handel Hendrix House, and Wigmore Hall.
A proud native Welsh speaker, Angharad spent her formative years competing in the National Eisteddfod of Wales under the guidance of Leah Owen, specialising in the ancient Welsh traditions of Cerdd Dant and folk singing. She graduated with a degree in Art History from the University of St Andrews, and later completed a Postgraduate Diploma at Trinity Laban where she received the 2019-20 Drapers’ de Turckheim Award.
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