If you want to hear world-class singing, that is what you will get from Catherine Carby” (The Independent). She studied at the Canberra School of Music and the Royal College of Music, London. In her native Australia, she has performed with the major opera companies including Opera Australia, National Opera – Canberra, Opera Queensland, Victoria State Opera and West Australian Opera in roles including Romeo I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Countess Geschwitz Lulu, for which she was nominated for a Green Room Award, Hippolyta A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Mallika Lakmé, Ruggiero Alcina, Cornelia Giulio Cesare, Sesto La clemenza di Tito, Donna Elvira Don Giovanni, Nicklausse Les contes d’Hoffmann, Smeraldina The Love for Three Oranges, Suzuki Madama Butterfly, Prince Orlofsky Die Fledermaus, Octavian Der Rosenkavalier and Fenena Nabucco.
Catherine Carby was a finalist in several major competitions including the Kathleen Ferrier Award, the Richard Tauber Award and the Young Concert Artists Trust. Other roles have included Prue The Dancing Master, Ramiro La finta giardiniera and Malcolm La donna del lago at the Buxton Festival, Romeo I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Sara Roberto Devereux and Elcia Mosé in Egitto for Chelsea Opera Group, Aurelio L’Assiedo di Calais, Rodrigo Pia de’Tolomei, the title role in Iphigénie en Tauride, Cornelia Giulio Cesare, Idamante Idomeneo and Rossini Fireworks! for English Touring Opera, Nikona Siberia for the Festival de Radio France Montpellier Occitanie, Orpheus Orpheus and Eurydice for English National Opera, Ino / Juno Semele with the City of Birmingham Symphon Orchestra, Minerva The Return of Ulysses, Penelope Il ritorno d’Ulisse for Pinchgut Opera, Soeur Mathilde Dialogues des Carmélites, Spirit of Antonia’s Mother Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Second Maid Elektra, Voice from Above Die Frau ohne Schatten, Emilia Otello, Annina La traviata and Siegrune Die Walküre for The Royal Opera, London, Octavian Der Rosenkavalier for Scottish Opera and Brangäne Tristan und Isolde at the Teatro Sao Carlos, Lisbon. With The Royal Ballet, London, she has appeared as Katharina Schratt Mayerling.
Concert engagements have included C.P.E. Bach Magnificat with the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra, Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with the Philharmonia, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra, Elgar The Music Makers with the New Zealand National Youth Orchestra and Sea Pictures with the Melbourne and Queensland Symphony Orchestras, Messiah for the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Haydn Arianna auf Naxos with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Missa in tempore Belli with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Paukenmesse with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Theresienmesse with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Karl Jenkins: 75th Birthday Celebration Concerts for Raymond Gubbay Ltd, Mahler Das Lied von der Erde with the Gardner Chamber Orchestra in Boston, Mozart Mass in C for the Polski Chór Kameralny, Mozart Requiem with the Sydney Philharmonia, Girls’ Night Out (A Celebration of the Music of Richard Strauss) for the State Opera of South Australia, Taverner Supernatural Songs with the City of London Sinfonia, a Verdi Gala for the Hallé Orchestra Verdi Requiem with Sydney Symphony Orchestra and an Opera Gala with Royal Northern Sinfonia.
Her recordings and broadcasts include Balfe’s Satanella for Naxos CD, Cellier’s The Mountebanks for Dutton Epoch CD, Ferrandini’s Il pianto di Maria for English Touring Opera’s 2021 Digital Season, Messiah for BBC Radio 3, Mayerling and La traviata for Opus DVD / Blu Ray, The Love for Three Oranges for Chandos CD, Les contes d’Hoffmann for Sony CD / Blu Ray, Der Rosenkavalier for Opera Australia CD / DVD / Blu Ray and Classic 100 Opera for ABC.
Recent engagements have included Charpentier’s Médée for Pinchgut Opera, Lucejo Scipione for Early Opera Company, Idamante Idomeneo for Victorian Opera and a return to The Royal Baller, London, for further performances as Katharina Schratt Mayerling. With Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, she sang Messiah and Verdi Requiem and with Sydney Symphony Orchestra, she sang Wellgunde Das Rheingold.
Her recording as Prue in Malcolm Arnold’s The Dancing Master with the BBC Concert Orchestra, now available on Resonus Classics, won the 2021 BBC Music Magazine Opera Recording of the Year Award, and was also selected by BBC Record Review as Record of the Week, as Editor’s Choice by Gramophone, as Critics’ Choice by Opera News and as a Sunday Times Album of the Week. The Royal Opera, London’s, release on Opus Arte Blu Ray / DVD of Die Walküre on which she sings Siegrune won the 2021 BBC Music Magazine DVD of the Year. Her recording as Mauxalinda The Dragon of Wantley on Resonus Classics, selected as Editor’s Choice by BBC Music Magazine, Editor’s Choice and Critics’ Choice for 2022 by Gramophone, by Presto Music as Editor’s Choice and by The Observer as a CD of the week, won BBC Music Magazine 2023 Opera Recording of the Year. Most recently released is her recording of Verdi Requiem in Richard Blackford’s Orchestration for Two Pianos, Organ and Percussion with The Bach Choir conducted by David Hill, now available on Nimbus CD. Awaiting release is Granville Bantock’s The Seal Woman for Retrospect Opera, on which she sings the title role.
Engagements during 2024 / 2025 include returns to Opera Australia as Gertrude in Brett Dean’s Hamlet, to The Royal Ballet and Opera as Gertrud Hansel and Gretel and Siegrune in the new production of Die Walküre. With Dame Emma Kirkby and Figure she appears in Our Mother (Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with New Music by Alex Mills) at Stone Nest, whilst in Australia she tours Das Lied von der Erde (in the arrangement by Arnold Schoenberg and Rainer Riehn) with Stuart Skelton and Australian Chamber Orchestra and sings Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Ensemble Q.
For Longborough Festival Opera, Catherine Carby has previously sung Waltraute Götterdämmerung and Brangäne Tristan und Isolde.