Linda Hirst

Academic Staff - Vocal Studies

Music

Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance
Faculty of Music
King Charles Court
Old Royal Naval College
Greenwich
London
SE10 9JF

Tel: +44 (0)20 8305 4476

Email: l.hirst@trinitylaban.ac.uk

Area of Work

Professorial Staff - Voice, Performance Tutorial and Contemporary Repertoire

Biography

Linda Hirst was born and grew up in Huddersfield, and studied flute and singing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Her career began during the early music revival of the early seventies, with Roger Norrington, John Eliot Gardiner and David Munrow. From 1974-78 she was a Swingle Singer, she then co-founded Electric Phoenix. With both groups she travelled the world, leading to work with many living composers, and a solo career of international renown, in particular for her performances and recordings of contemporary music.

Her operatic roles have included Handel with Nicholas Kraemer, Berlioz with Roger Norrington, Ligeti for La Monnaie, Osborne and Knussen for Glyndebourne, Schoenberg for the Royal Opera House and La Fenice, and in 2013 an improvised opera with Bruce McLean, and Lucie Treacher’s The Fisherman’s Brides for Tête-à-Tête. She has worked extensively with London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Recherché and Ensemble Intercontemporain, singing Ligeti, Berio, Henze, Knussen, Holt, Weir, Muldowney, Lachenmann among many European and American composers. She has sung at the Edinburgh, Paris, Metz, Holland, Ars Musica festivals and at the BBC Proms and has performed with conductors including Gielen, Nagano, Rattle, Howarth, Masson, Metzmacher and Harding.

Linda’s many recordings include Atom Heart Mother with Pink Floyd, Globokar’s Les Emigrés and Privilege with Ivor Cutler, as well as the solo album Songs Cathy Sang with Diego Masson, early music with Fretwork and Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea with Richard Hickox, and a recent release by Non-Classical of a live improv night with the Mercury Quartet.

She has been Head of Vocal Studies at Trinity Laban for 20 years; is President of the Kathleen Ferrier Society, a trustee of the Hinrichsen Foundation, a Fellow of Dartington College of Arts and holds an Honorary Doctorate in Literature from Huddersfield University.

Qualifications and Educational Background

Guildhall School of Music and Drama

Teaching Experience

Linda Hirst has worked in education throughout her career, has been Head of the Vocal Faculty at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance since 1995, and has given masterclasses in conservatoires, summer schools, the Teatro Colon, La Fenice and several American universities.

Creative Outputs

Ligeti (Aventures and Nouvelles Aventures – CD for Teldec)
Berio (Folk Songs , Recital and A-Ronne – Proms, Geneva Festival)
Henze (Elegy for Young Lovers – London Sinfonietta)
Osborne (The Electrification of the Soviet Union)
Knussen (Where the Wild Things Are for Glyndebourne)
Muldowney (Lonely Hearts and Duration of Exile – Radio 3)
Weir (Consolations of Scholarship and Hello Dolly, Goodbye Mummy – BBC 2)

External Appointments

Fellow of Dartington College of Arts
Hon Dlit, Huddersfield
Trustee of the Hinrichsen Foundation