CATHERINE LECLERC: Wagner's Place among the Romantic Lieder Composers

Famous in particular for his incredible operatic scores, Wagner is often overlooked as a great pioneer in Lieder writing.  Catherine will explore phrase lengths, harmony, prolonged cadences and much more through song and explanation. We will discover the great contribution he made to this genre along with his German Romantic Lieder contemporaries. 

Catherine is a former pupil of Douglas Academy Music School, Glasgow and completed her voice studies under Caroline Crawshaw at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, UK. She has enjoyed an international professional singing career ranging from the great National Opera Houses of Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, to the underworld vibe of Glastonbury all the way through to the bohemian streets of The Edinburgh Fringe, with companies including Carl Rosa Opera, Grange Park Opera and Garsington Opera. Favourite roles she has played include Druisilla in L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Adel in Die Fledermaus and Norina in Don Pasquale. Oratorio credits include Soprano Solos in Mozart’s Requiem and C Minor Mass, Gounod’s Messe Solenelle and Bach’s St Matthew Passion.

Musical Theatre credits include Bessie Smith in South Pacific directed by Craig Revell Horewood and Laurie in Oklahoma. She has performed in a series of Public Masterclasses with Cleo Laine and is a regular solo cabaret performer with the Opera Burlesque and in her own musical variety show “Cat’s got the Cream”. Catherine is a veteran of the “Thursford Christmas Spectacular” – the biggest variety show in Europe. 

Catherine now lives in Brussels and continues to perform regularly in recital, oratorio and cabaret both in Belgium and Britain.