Nigerian-American soprano Francesca Chiejina is a recent graduate of the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where her roles included Countess Ceprano/Rigoletto; Lady-in-Waiting/Macbeth; the Voice from Heaven/Don Carlo and Ines/Il trovatore. She also sang Micaela/La tragèdie de Carmen at Wilton’s Music Hall and Melantho & Love/The Return of Ulysses at the Roundhouse and covered Ifigenia/Oreste; Antonia/Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Giannetta/L’elisir d’amore and Arbate/Midridate, re di Ponto.
In the 2019-20 season she will make her debuts with Capella Cracoviensis and Longborough Festival Opera. She will also sing Miss Jessel/The Turn of the Screw (Wilton’s Music Hall).
Other recent performances include her house and role debut as Clara/Porgy and Bess (Grange Park Opera); her debut with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (Serena/Porgy and Bess), Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music at the Last Night of the BBC Proms.
Chiejina has participated in masterclasses with Martin Katz, Kamal Khan, Gianna Rolandi, Joyce DiDonato, Brigitte Fassbänder, Edith Wiens and Felicity Lott. Competition successes include reaching the finals of the inaugural Glyndebourne Opera Cup in 2018, the semi-finals in the National Mozart Competition and winning both the GSMD English Song Prize and the Aria Prize. She has received Loveday, Marianne Falke, Maurice H and Evangeline L Dumesnil, George Shirley Voice and Willis-Patterson Scholarships.