NATALIE DICKSON graduated from the University of Cape Town (South Africa) with B.Mus (Honours) in Opera. She is currently completing her Postgraduate Diploma in Singing at the Royal College of Music in London, and is singing under the tutelage of Marie McLaughlin. She was a winner of the Caltex Massed Choir Festival Soloist Competition and winner of the Demindex Singing competition. She has also been awarded the Jeanie Stuart Bursary as well as two Postgraduate bursaries from UCT.
Natalie started her operatic career in South Africa, where she performed regularly for Cape Town Opera. She has performed many different roles in both operas and operettas, including Nedda (I Pagliacci), Elettra (Idomeneo), The Shepherd Boy (Tannhäuser), Lauretta and Nella (Gianni Schicchi), Suor Angelica (Suor Angelica), Valencienne (The Merry Widow), Musetta (La Bohème), Gretel (Hansel and Gretel), Kate (Madama Butterfly), Frasquita (Carmen), Barbarina (Le nozze di Figaro), Mother Jean and Sister Mathilde (Dialogue of the Carmelites) and Susanna (Susanna’s Secret).
Natalie has also performed as a soloist in many oratorios throughout South Africa, including Handel’s Messiah, Brahms’s German Requiem, Gounod’s Messe Solenelle, Schubert’s Mass in G, Bach’s St John Passion, Mozart’s Requiem, Missa Brevis in C and F Major, Exultate Jubilate, Coronation Mass in C and St Cecilia Mass and Bach’s St John Passion. Natalie has recently performed Haydn’s The Creation in Buckingham.
March 2004