Mezzo-soprano Rosie Middleton works across experimental music, contemporary opera and performance art. She was the 2020 winner of the Michiko Hirayama Prize for experimental vocal music and was honourably mentioned in the 2023 Darmstadt Kranichstein Music Prize.

As a collaborative artist, she creates work with composers and visual and movement artists, often using her body as a stimulus for artistic investigation. Rosie was artist-in-residence at Snape Maltings, Somerset House and The Banff Centre.  Her collaborations include 12 HOURS – a marathon performance for voice and electronics by composer Catherine Kontz, PLASTIC BODIES – an experimental opera about opera co-created with Amy Bryce, Sarah Parkin, Maya-Leigh Rosenwasser and Catherine Valve, unbroken with Diana Soh, and voice(less) with Laura Bowler, Mira Calix and Esin Gunduz. She has performed these works at Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Dark Music Days, Iklecktik, The Tate Modern, Mimosa Gallery, Tête-à-Tête Festival, and with Music in the Round. 

Rosie’s recent opera roles include The Blue Woman (Laura Bowler, Royal Opera House, Britten Pears Arts), The Carmen Case (Diana Soh, TAP Poitiers, ENOA, Opera National de Bordeaux, Grand Theatre Luxembourg) From Tulip to Orchid (Michael Taplin, Birmingham Opera Co), GOLD (Laura Bowler, Riot Ensemble) and #echochamber (Michael Betteridge, Tjarnarbio, Reykjavik, Tête-à-Tête London). Other recent performances include Versionland (Jamie Hamilton, Phaedra Ensemble), Wernicke’s Area (Emily Howard, Irish Museum of Modern Art) Thanksong (Cassandra Miller, Cafe Oto with Phaedra Ensemble) and Athanasia Kontou’s Antigone with Liverpool Philharmonic Ensemble 10/10. 2024-25 work includes 12HOURS at Somerset House and Rainy Days Festival Luxembourg, collaborating on After Nature with composer Pia Palme and artists Elie Salonen, Satu Hakamaki, Siiri Viljaka at Saari Residence and the Sibelius Museum, Finland, The Carmen Case (Opera de Limoges), Rhizomessages by Solomiya Moroz with Riot Ensemble at HCMF, She Spoke Ashes, an Anglo-Icelandic-Danish dance-opera with Michael Betteridge, Ingunn-Lara Kristiansdottir, Sarah-Louise Bielenberg and Camilla Schnackt.

Header Photos by
Bobby Shoebotham
Olga Ivanitskaya