Hailing from Suffolk, Katherine Nicholson studied Modern Languages before turning to singing as a career.

In January 2018, Katherine took up a position as a full-time member of the BBC Singers, where she keeps up a busy schedule of rehearsals in the iconic Maida Vale Studios and live broadcast performances in London and further afield. Highlights so far have included Jake Heggie’s arresting opera Dead Man Walking with Joyce DiDonato, centenary celebrations of Bernstein, Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Peter Dijkstra, and in a departure from choral repertoire, performances in solo song cycles by Bizet and the Boulanger sisters. A pre-pandemic high point was a trip to Burma to lead workshops and perform with children’s choirs in Yangon. 

Song projects in recent years have included 18th Century songs for voice and fortepiano with Nathaniel Mander; 20thCentury US Art Song including Barber, Copland, Rorem and Chanler with Californian pianist Anyssa Neumann; and the World Premiere of Karel Janovický’s song cycle setting poems from A Shropshire Lad with Joan Taylor. Her next solo project, with organist Marth Baker, will explore the legacy of the 10th Century polymath, Hildegard von Bingen.

Equally at home of the solo platform, recent solo appearances include Purcell Ode for St Cecilia (1692), Vivaldi Gloria, J.S. Bach St John Passion, St Matthew Passion, B Minor Mass, Christmas Oratorio, Handel Messiah, Dixit Dominus and Israel in Egypt, C.P.E.Bach Magnificat, Pergolesi and Scarlatti Stabat Mater(s), Mozart Requiem, Rachmaninov Vespers, Stravinsky Mass, Copland In The Beginning and Bob Chilcott’s Christmas Oratorio.  

In her work as an ensemble singer, Katherine recently sang Boulez Cummings ist der Dichter with contemporary music specialists Exaudi and Ensemble Intercomtemporain in Paris, George Benjamin’s Dream of the Song with Philharmonia Voices, and recorded new and rediscovered compositions by woman composers with the acclaimed upper voices ensemble Aurora Nova.