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
“Firm of both tone and pitch and electric in delivery, Angharad Rowlands is certainly one to watch.”
- Opera Today
Praised for a voice of “great lyric beauty” (Gramophone) and described as “a star in the making” (Radio Times), 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 was generously supported by the Carr-Gregory Trust, the Norman Ayrton Award, and the Josephine Baker Trust. Angharad is the winner of both the 2025 LCS Leach Award for Singing and 2022 Richard Lewis/Jean Shanks Award Song Prize, a 2024 International Handel Singing Competition finalist, and a semi-finalist in the 2026 SWAP’ra Rebecca Clarke Song Competition.
This season, Angharad will make her house and role debut as Meg Page in Verdi’s Falstaff at Teatru Manoel. During her time at Royal Academy Opera, she performed the title role in Handel’s Ariodante, Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Florence Pike (Albert Herring), and Agnes/Troll 3 (WITCH). Other roles include 2nd Bridesmaid (Le nozze di Figaro - Royal Ballet & Opera), cover Juno (Semele - Opéra de Lille), cover Zweite Knappe (Parsifal - Glyndebourne Festival Opera), cover Praskowia (The Merry Widow - Glyndebourne Festival Opera), Quince/Fairy (The Fairy Queen - Longborough Festival Opera), and Dido (Dido & Aeneas - Hurn Court Opera).
Angharad’s concert highlights include Bach’s St Matthew Passion with John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists; Handel’s Solomon with John Butt and the OAE; Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Stephen Layton and the Britten Sinfonia; Rossini’s Ermione with Jakob Lehmann and Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras, and Bach’s St John Passion with Philippe Herreweghe. As a soloist, she has appeared in concert halls such as KKL Lucerne, Haus für Mozart in Salzburg, Cadogan Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, Kursaal in San Sebastián, and Philharmonie de Paris.
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’s artistry is rooted in folk singing and Cerdd Dant, developed during her formative years competing in the Urdd and National Eisteddfod of Wales under the guidance of Leah Owen. At the age of 20 she joined the Monteverdi Choir as an Apprentice after meeting John Eliot Gardiner at the University of St Andrews, where she later graduated with a degree in Art History. During her time with the Monteverdi Choir, Angharad toured extensively across Europe and the Americas, performing in leading international concert halls. She later completed a Postgraduate Diploma at Trinity Laban where she received the 2019-20 Drapers’ de Turckheim Award, before undertaking her Masters degree and Advanced Diploma in Opera at the Royal Academy of Music on scholarship.
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