Biography
The BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2007 Main Prize Finalist and Rosenblatt Song Prize finalist, Australian soprano Miranda Keys studied for her music degree at the Guildhall School Of Music in London. She completed the opera course at the Royal College of Music where she held the President Emerita Scholarship, the most prestigious scholarship the college can confer. She then studied for two years at the Royal Scottish Academy Music and Drama and finally at the National Opera Studio.
Her NOS studies were generously supported by the Sybil Tutton Charity Trust, Amici di Verdi, Peter Stuyvesant Foundation and the Friends of Covent Garden. During her studies, she won many prizes for both her performances of opera and song repertoire and was the 1999 Madeline Finden Memorial Prize winner. She won the 2006 Wagner Society Bayreuth Bursary and the 2005 John Scott Award from Scottish Opera.
At the RCM, Miranda performed Britten's Les Illuminations with the RCM String Ensemble and Dallapiccola's Commiato with the 20th Century Ensemble, broadcast on BBC Radio 3. She sang Strauss's Vier Letzte Lieder with Nicholas Cleobury conducting the RCM Symphony Orchestra at the Thaxted Festival and the RCM Concert Hall. She also sang Vier Letzte Lieder in Mexico City with the National Orchestra of Mexico as part of the Festival Centro Historico in 2000. In 1997, Miranda sang in a concert for Placido Domingo, which was organized to commemorate his 25th season at the ROH.
Operatic roles include ARIADNE (Salzburg Landestheater and Leipzig Oper), ODABELLA (Lyric Opera Dublin), MUSETTA and ELETTRA (Glyndebourne Touring Opera and Salzburg Landestheater), WITCH/MOTHER (Scottish Opera on Tour), COUNTESS, FIORDILIGI, MARENKA and LA CIESCA (cover, Glyndebourne Festival Opera), LEONORE and LADY MACBETH (Scottish Opera), MISS WINGRAVE (covering Josephine Barstow for the Channel 4 production, conducted by Kent Nagano), MISS JESSEL, FEMALE CHORUS, and MADAME LIDOINE. She also sang the role of PLAINTIFF in Trial By Jury at the Musée d'Orsay, broadcast live on French radio. She created the role of WIDOW in the Royal Opera House's production of Babette's Feast and sang the role of SUZANNE in the European premier of Tobias Picker's Thérèse Raquin for Opera-te, also at the ROH's Linbury Studio Theatre.
She has sung 3rd Norn under Sir Simon Rattle (in Aix and Salzburg), Sir Mark Elder (for the Halle orchestra) and Donald Runnicles (BBC Proms).
An accomplished recitalist, she has performed in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Mexico City, Guanajuato, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, Singapore, Manila, Sydney, Perth, and Brisbane. In the UK, she has sung at the Barbican Hall, QEH, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Linbury Studio Theatre at Covent Garden, St Martin in the Fields, the Usher Hall and St John's Smith Square.
In 2001, she represented Australia, singing the soprano solo in Verdi's Requiem, at the opening concert of the International Cervantino Festival in Guanajuato, Mexico with the Estado del Sinfonica del Mexico. Her varied repertoire also includes solo parts in many other oratorios, for which she is regularly in demand.
Miranda has two CD's available through the Meridian Label, Love's Dream and Alfred Reynolds; Music for the Theatre with the London Salon Ensemble (1996). She is also a guest soloist on With a Voice of Singing by the Kevock Choir (2003). Other recording work has encompassed the solo vocal soundtracks for computer games, most notably FA Premier '99 (EA Sports/ Electronic Arts) and REPUBLIC; The Revolution (Elixir Studios/Eidos). The music soundtracks for both of these games were nominated for many awards, including BAFTAs.
Highlights of 2010/11 include her debuts in the roles of Elisabeth in Tannhäuser (Trieste) and Fidelio (Turin).