Photo: Marco Borelli

Photo: Marco Borelli

About Lauren

Scottish mezzo Lauren Young was an inaugural studio artist at Mascarade Opera Studio in Florence, Italy. She is a graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) Alexander Gibson Opera School, where she studied with Linda Ormiston OBE.

Lauren is a Britten Pears Young Artist 2022/2023 and recipient of an Independent Opera Voice Scholarship and Fellowship. She was a semi-finalist in the 42nd Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition in 2024, the winner of the Clonter Opera Prize and the Joaninha Trust Award in 2020 and runner up in the Ye Cronies Opera Award 2019 and 2020. 

Lauren initially graduated with a Bachelor of Education (Music) at RCS studying with Marilyn Smith MBE. After working as a secondary school music teacher for two years, she returned to RCS to complete her Master of Music in Vocal Performance. 

Upcoming engagements include cover Maddalena in Rigoletto with English National Opera and her debut at Longborough Festival Opera in 2025. Recent engagements include Philip Venables and Ted Huffman’s The F*ggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions at the Ruhrtriennale Festival, Tisbe La Cenerentola and Baba the Turk The Rake’s Progress with English Touring Opera, Mathilde in Handel’s Ottone with English Touring Opera, Daughter 6 in Philip Glass’ Akhnaten, cover Rita The Handmaid’s Tale, cover Rossweisse in Wagner’s The Valkyrie, cover Mrs. Alexander in Philip Glass’ Satyagraha with English National Opera, Vana Zonnendanz in Donizetti’s Viva la Diva at the Buxton International Festival, Witch Hansel and Gretel with British Youth Opera/Silent Opera at Opera Holland Park. Lauren made her debut at Teatro La Fenice Venice in May 2021, where she sang the roles of Charlotte (Act 3 of Werther, Massenet) and Fillipyevna (Act 1, Scene 1 of Eugene Onegin, Tchaikovsky).

Operatic experience includes Baba The Turk (Cover) The Rake’s Progress, Angelina (Cover) La Cenerentola (British Youth Opera); Erste Mägde ElektraFlosshilde Das Rheingold (Edinburgh Players Opera Group); Lucretia The Rape of LucretiaZita (Cover) Gianni Schicchi, Sorceress Dido and Aeneas, Jade Boucher Dead Man Walking (UK Staged Premiere); Cherubino Le nozze di FigaroLa Prieure Dialogues des Carmélites (RCS).

Lauren made her Wigmore Hall debut in October 2020 as part of the Independent Opera Scholar’s Recital. Recent concert highlights have included A Charm of Lullabies with Malcolm Martineu as part of the Britten Pears Arts Britten Song Weekend and Das Lied von der Erde with Nicholas Daniels and the Irion orchestra. Other concert repertoire include Verdi Requiem, Duruflé Requiem, Bach B Minor Mass, Magnificat and St. John Passion, Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle, Mozart Requiem, Pergolesi Stabat Mater.

A keen interpreter of song, Lauren has a special performing relationship with Spanish pianist and répétiteur José Javier Ucendo. As a duo, they have won Elgar-Spedding Memorial Lieder Prize at RCS, and were finalists in the Oxford Lieder Young Artist Platform 2020.  Javier and Lauren were picked to participate as Leeds Lieder Festival Young Artists in April 2020. Lauren made her recital debut at Opera Holland Park in 2021 as part of the Opera In Song series.

Lauren is represented by Steven Swales Artist Management.

  • This biography should not be edited without permission from Lauren. For print and programmes, please contact Lauren in the first instance for the most up to date copy.

For an up to date CV, please contact Lauren directly by following the link below.

Contact me.

Reviews

 

“It is, however, Lauren Young as the unabashedly

wicked Witch who takes the cake.”

Inge Kjemtrup, The Stage, August 2021
(Hansel and Gretel, Silent Opera/British Youth Opera/Opera Holland Park)

“Young was perfectly chosen to complement Hovhanissyan’s voice, her warm mezzo beautifully rounded in ‘Tears,’ revealing the sheer size of her voice in the troubled ‘Passion spent’ (a lot of angst, there) and, with Perez on the piano, ‘Dawn’, with the two singers in beautiful harmony together. Young is most definitely a name to watch.”

Colin Clarke, Seen and Heard International, July 2021

(Opera in Song: Violetta and Tatyana, Opera Holland Park)

“Lauren Young’s ruby-fruity timbre and quiet dignity lent Lucretia an appealingly unaffected profile…”

Opera Magazine, April 2020 
(The Rape of Lucretia)
 

“The singing was also perfect, mezzo soprano Lauren Young in particular outstanding as Lucretia.”

Opera Journal, January 2020 
(The Rape of Lucretia)

“It was well sung by Lauren Young…Young’s plush mezzo should take her far”

Hugh Canning, The Sunday Times, February 2020
(The Rape of Lucretia)
 

“Lauren Young gave a towering performance as Lucretia, attempting to fight off her attacker, her fiery mezzo fearsome in the quartet preceding her rape, a highlight of the performance.”

David Smythe, Bachtrack, January 2020
(The Rape of Lucretia)