Born in Bedford, Rachel Nicholls read French and Linguistic Science at the University of York, furthering her studies at the Royal College of Music where she won the President's Rose Bowl for the Most Outstanding Student of the Year, the Cuthbert Smith Prize, the Lies Askonas Prize and the Van Someren Godfrey Prize for English Song. Winner of the Second Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Competition, she made her début at London’s Royal Opera as Flowermaiden Parsifal, returning as Pepik The Cunning Little Vixen, Echo Ariadne auf Naxos and Prilepa The Queen of Spades and other operatic engagements have included Philippa Babette’s Feast at the Linbury Studio Theatre, Frasquita Carmen and Flora The Knot Garden for Scottish Opera, the title role in Erismena, Ginevra Ariodante and Elisa Tolomeo for English Touring Opera, Hansel Elephant and Castle for Aldeburgh Festival Opera, Theophano Ottone and Metella Silla at the London Handel Festival, Handel’s Susanna for The Early Opera Company, Bella Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm? for Almeida Opera, Fiordiligi Così fan tutte for Longborough Festival Opera Donna Elvira Don Giovanni for Mid Wales Opera, Junon Platée for T.C.C. Productions, Lisbon, Tatyana Eugene Onegin for Scottish Opera Go Round and Scottish Opera on Tour and Jessie Mahagonny Songspiel at the Cantiere Internationale d’Arte, Montepulciano.

Rachel Nicholls made her international concert début singing Messiah under the direction of Sir David Willcocks in Halle, a work she has also sung for Bach Collegium Japan. Other concert appearances include performances with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Darmstadt Hofkapelle, the Hanover Band, the London Handel Players, the London Mozart Players, the OSJ, Le Parlement de Musique and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, as well as at the Brighton, Chelsea, Fishguard, London Handel, Presteigne and Three Choirs Festivals. Conductors with whom she has worked in opera and concert include Thomas Dausgaard, Sir Colin Davis, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Valery Gergiev, Richard Hickox, Sir Simon Rattle and Masaaki Suzuki. Her broadcasts include Sally Flashmob - The Opera, Schoenberg Quartet No. 2 with the Quatuor Parisii and In Tune for the BBC, and her recordings include B Minor Mass (BIS), Metella Silla (Somm). Hummel Mass in D Minor (Chandos), Music by Cecilia McDowall (Dutton) and Paul Spicer’s Easter Oratorio (Birmingham Bach Choir).

Her current engagements include Joan For You for Music Theatre Wales, Mrs Martin La Cantatrice Chauve at the Tête-à-Tête Opera Festival, Elettra Idomeneo for New Sussex Opera, the B Minor Mass and Messiah with Bach Collegium Japan, Dvorak Stabat Mater with the BBC Concert Orchestra, Messiah with the Apollo Chamber Orchestra, Mahler Symphony No. 2 in Guildford Cathedral, Carmina Burana in Naples, Erwartung with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Il tramonto and Schönberg String Quartet No. 2 with the Quatuor Parisii, Gordon Riley’s GBH with the Scottish Philharmonic Orchestra, Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle in Rome, the Strauss Song Series at the Wigmore Hall, Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music at the BBC Proms, Verdi Requiem in King’s College, Cambridge, and Winchester Cathedral and Shepherd Tannhäuser at the St Endellion Festival.

 “The exciting new find on Bach Collegium’s latest recording is the voice of second soprano Rachel Nicholls...on this evidence is destined to be a big star. Her voice is tight and spring with a rare silvery sheen; she sings bang in tune and ornaments in intricate knots.”
B Minor Mass / BIS CD / Classic fM Magazine

 “...Rachel Nicholls filled out the character of Erismena with her purposeful singing and presence.”

Erismena: Erismena / English Touring Opera / Opera

  “Rachel Nicholls’ unwavering line and the beauty and clarity of her tone echoed Theohano’s steadfastness in the face of many vicissitudes, and her soprano soared gloriously to the upper reaches of the Britten Theatre.”

Theophano: Ottone / London Handel Festival / Opera

 “...a wonderful, dreamy voice, whose haunting sound resonates in the memory.”

Echo: Ariadne auf Naxos / Royal Opera / Opernwelt

 “Rachel Nicholls is a deliciously romantic Tatyana. Her strong clear voice ripples with sensuality while her acing clearly shows an innocent who would love to lose that status to the sophisticated Onegin.”

Tatyana: Eugene Onegin / Scottish Opera Go Round / The Stage

 “...Rachel Nicholls, a crystalline Prilepa...”

Prilepa: The Queen of Spades / Royal Opera / Opera

 “And Rachel Nicholls as Jenny excelled in swapping quickly between great sensitivity and calculating sensuality.”

Jenny: Mahagonny Songspiel / Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte, Montepulciano / Opera

Rachel Nicholls is represented by James Black Management, www,jamesblackmanagement.com

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