Sally Bradshaw is a British high

mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (; ; meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middle C ...

who made a career principally as a Baroque specialist in opera and concerts. As a solo artist she has made a number of recordings and performed worldwide. She has also collaborated with many artists in classical and popular genres.

Background and career

Bradshaw gained a

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

degree in English and then studied singing at the

Guildhall A guildhall, also known as a "guild hall" or "guild house", is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commonly become town halls and in som ...

, London, and in Paris with

Régine Crespin Régine Crespin (23 February 1927 – 5 July 2007) was a French singer who had a major international career in opera and on the concert stage between 1950 and 1989. She started her career singing roles in the dramatic soprano and spinto soprano ...

. She sings the title role in the recording of Handel's

Agrippina Agrippina is an ancient Roman cognomen and a feminine given name. People with either the cognomen or the given name include: Cognomen Relatives of the Roman general Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa: * Vipsania Agrippina (36 BC–20 AD), first wife of th ...

, a world premiere for Harmonia Mundi, which was ''Sunday Times'' Record of the Year and ''Opera Now!'' Record of the Month. She recorded the role with

Nicholas McGegan James Nicholas McGegan OBE (born 14 January 1950 in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, England) is a British harpsichordist, flutist, conductor and early music expert. Biography McGegan received his early education at Nottingham High School. He subs ...

during the Göttingen Festival production. With the same conductor she has performed five other roles in performances in the USA and Europe. Bradshaw has made more than 20 appearances in Germany and Austria in opera, concerts and recordings. She sang Handel's Alcina at the Halle and Berlin Potsdam festivals, a live broadcast of Hasse's Piramo e Tisbe from the Musikverein, Vienna; the live recording of the world premiere of Cestiís Il Pomodoro at the

Hofburg The Hofburg is the former principal imperial palace of the Habsburg dynasty. Located in the centre of Vienna, it was built in the 13th century and expanded several times afterwards. It also served as the imperial winter residence, as Schönbrunn ...

, (Royal Palace) Vienna; concerts and recordings for the International Haydn Festival at Eisenstadt and the premiere of Scarlatti's Gli Equivoci nel Sembiante for the Innsbruck Festival. Bradshaw performed with baroque groups from London Baroque, to The Parley of Instruments, Opera Restor’d,

The Monteverdi Choir The Monteverdi Choir was founded in 1964 by Sir John Eliot Gardiner for a performance of the '' Vespro della Beata Vergine'' in King's College Chapel, Cambridge. A specialist Baroque ensemble, the Choir has become famous for its stylistic convic ...

and Orchestra, Chiaroscuro, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Tafelmusik, Les Saqueboutiers de Toulouse and many other groups. Venues at which she appeared include The

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. It is the home of The Royal Op ...

, Covent Garden and the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam Bradshaw has performed vocals for many popular bands, such as

Pet Shop Boys The Pet Shop Boys are an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1981. Consisting of primary vocalist Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe, they have sold more than 50 million records worldwide, and were listed as the most successful duo i ...

, Art of Noise and

Marc Almond Peter Mark Sinclair "Marc" Almond, (born 9 July 1957) is an English singer. Almond first began performing and recording in the synthpop/ new wave duo Soft Cell where he became known for his distinctive soulful voice and androgynous image. He ...

, as well as on Mike Oldfield's '' Tubular Bells II''. Sally opened the

1998 MTV Europe Music Awards The 1998 MTV Europe Music Awards took place in Assago, near Milan, Italy. The ceremony was hosted by former ''Playboy'' model, actress and comedian Jenny McCarthy. On this year 6 new categories were introduced including the MTV Selects; UK and Ir ...

ceremony in Milan with the band

Faithless Faithless are an English band that formed in 1995, with its core members being Rollo, Sister Bliss and Maxi Jazz. Their first album, '' Reverence'', was released in 1996 and their most recent, ''All Blessed'', in 2020. They have sold millions ...

, and contributed a moment of relative sanity to the otherwise brilliantly bizarre The KLF's

Fuck the Millennium "Fuck the Millennium", sometimes spelled "***k the Millennium", is a protest song by the band 2K—Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty—better known as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (the JAMs) or the KLF. The song was inspired musically by Jerem ...

comeback gig. Bradshaw also performed vocals for

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967) is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer and songwriter, popular for his works in Indian cinema; predominantly in Tamil and Hindi films, with occasional forays in int ...

in a

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

film, '' Dil Se..''. Bradshaw won a drama award at the

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...

for the musical play Maria Malibran, "Bright Star in a Dark Sky" which she co-wrote and starred in, singing

Bellini Bellini is an Italian name, Italian surname, formed as a patronymic or plural form of Bellino (surname), Bellino. People *Family of Italian painters: **Jacopo Bellini (c. 1396–c. 1470), father of Gentile and Giovanni **Gentile Bellini (c. 1429� ...

and

Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...

arias. Bradshaw is a founding member of the group Words and Music which creates entertainments with readings on particular themes. Actors who have worked with her include Prunella Scales, Timothy and Samuel West,

Eleanor Bron Eleanor Bron (born 14 March 1938) is an English stage, film and television actress, and an author. Her film roles include Ahme in the Beatles musical ''Help!'' (1965), the Doctor in ''Alfie'' (1966), Margaret Spencer in '' Bedazzled'' (1967), an ...

John Julius Norwich John Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich, (15 September 1929 – 1 June 2018), known as John Julius Norwich, was an English popular historian, travel writer, and television personality. Background Norwich was born at the Alfred House Nursing ...

, Rowan Williams and Alexander McCall Smith. The group has toured worldwide for the British Council doing three Far Eastern tours. Bradshaw teaches regularly at

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

where she is a senior member of

Lucy Cavendish Lucy Caroline Cavendish, also known as Lady Frederick Cavendish ( Lyttelton; 5 September 1841 – 22 April 1925), was a pioneer of women's education. A daughter of George Lyttelton, 4th Baron Lyttelton, she married into another aristocratic fa ...

. She has run Vocal Summer schools in Malta for the International University there, and run master classes in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

. She has taught at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, USA and runs residential courses, notably in the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Sco ...

and in South West France. Bradshaw has often spoken on BBC Radio: as panellist in ''Wordly Wise'', ''In Tune'', ''Matters of Taste'' and on ''

The Food Programme ''The Food Programme'' is a BBC Radio 4 programme investigating and celebrating good food, founded by Derek Cooper and currently presented by Sheila Dillon, Dan Saladino, Leyla Kazim and Jaega Wise. The series is produced by BBC Audio in Bris ...

''. She fronted a

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

documentary on deceptions in the food advertising business. Throughout her singing career writing has gone alongside, and she has written a musical guidebook to Austria for the AA, and has published articles in all the main newspapers:

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

, ''

The Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...

'', ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'', ''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'', ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' and ''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'', and contributed articles to ''The Singer'' as well as '' Harpers''.

Recordings

Handel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training i ...

. ''

''. (HWV 6, Venice 1709–10). Harmonia Mundi HMC 907063/65 *

Delius Delius, photographed in 1907 Frederick Theodore Albert Delius ( 29 January 1862 – 10 June 1934), originally Fritz Delius, was an English composer. Born in Bradford in the north of England to a prosperous mercantile family, he resisted atte ...

. ''

Irmelin ''Irmelin'' is an opera in three acts with music by Frederick Delius. Composed between 1890 and 1892, it was the first opera which he finished. But it wasn't premiered until 1953, nearly twenty years after his death. The libretto was by the compo ...

'' – An Opera in three acts. (Voice in the air) BBC Recording 1984 *'' Amadis''.

Lully Jean-Baptiste Lully ( , , ; born Giovanni Battista Lulli, ; – 22 March 1687) was an Italian-born French composer, guitarist, violinist, and dancer who is considered a master of the French Baroque music style. Best known for his operas, he ...

. (Oriane). BBC recording *''Okeanos Reflections'' *''Ancestral Voices'' KPM EMI * Cesti. '' Il pomo d'oro'', Vienna 1989 * Campra. ''L'Europe Galante''. Versailles. 1993. Conducted by

Marc Minkowski Marc Minkowski (born 4 October 1962) is a French conductor of classical music, especially known for his interpretations of French Baroque works, and is the current general director of Opéra national de Bordeaux. His mother, Mary Anne (Wade), i ...

* Scarlatti. ''Gli equivoci nel sembiante''. 1988. Conducted by

Charles Medlam Charles Medlam is an English conductor and cellist also known for his performances on viola da gamba. Medlam studied the cello with Jane Cowan (1915-1996) in London, Paris, Vienna and Salzburg Mozarteum before becoming interested in the bass vi ...

. *The Soul of Orpheus. Songful Records * Mike Oldfield. '' Tubular Bells II''. Vocals *

. '' Introspective''. Vocals *

. ''

The Days of Pearly Spencer "Days of Pearly Spencer" (or in later releases "The Days of Pearly Spencer") is a 1967 song written and originally performed by Northern Irish singer-songwriter David McWilliams, and included on his second album ''David McWilliams Vol. 2''. Alt ...

''. Vocals * Art of Noise. ''

The Seduction of Claude Debussy ''The Seduction of Claude Debussy'' is the fifth and final studio album by Art of Noise, released in June 1999 in the United Kingdom and the United States, and December 1999 in Japan. It features a line-up of Trevor Horn, Anne Dudley, Paul Mor ...

''. Vocals * The KLF. ''

''. Vocals

References

External links

Official websiteYouTube recording of Bradshaw performing
on Left to My Own Devices
YouTube recording
of Antonio Cesti's Il pomo d'oro
YouTube recording of Bradshaw opening the 1998 MTV Europe music awards
with

YouTube recording of Bradshaw performing
on

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bradshaw, Sally Alumni of the University of Cambridge Living people English operatic sopranos Year of birth missing (living people) Singers from London English mezzo-sopranos