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Biography

Originally from Nottingham, soprano Zoë Brookshaw was a choral scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge where she read Theology. Beginning her singing career as an apprentice in the Monteverdi Choir, she has since performed extensively around the world as an established soloist specialising in Baroque repertoire. She was recently a Rising Star of the Enlightenment with the OAE for their 2019-2021 season.

 

Highlights of solo engagements include Bach Matthew Passion (Sir John Eliot Gardiner), Handel Israel in Egypt at the Royal Albert Hall BBC Proms (Bill Christie and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment), ‘Aci’ in Handel Aci, Galatea e Polifemo with OAE, Handel Dixit Dominus (Laurence Cummings and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra), Bach John Passion at the Barbican (Britten Sinfonia), Bach John Passion at Wigmore Hall and Bach Fest Leipzig (Solomon’s Knot), Monteverdi Lamento Della Ninfa at Carnegie Hall (Gallicantus), Handel Dixit Dominus at Concertgebouw, Amsterdam (Collegium Vocale Ghent), Pergolesi Stabat Mater (OAE), Handel Dixit Dominus (Paul McCreesh).

 

Zoë has a growing solo discography, featuring on many critically acclaimed CDs such as Bach Matthew Passion (Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Soli Dei Gloria), Magnificat (Solomon’s Knot, Sony Classical), Leçons de Ténèbres (Arcangelo, Hyperion), John Blow An Ode on the Death of Mr Henry Purcell (Arcangelo, Hyperion), Stabat Mater (The Marian Consort, Delphian), Bach H-Moll Messe (Gli Angeli de Genève, Claves).

 

Opera credits include ‘Aerial Spirit’ in Opéra National de Lyon’s production of Purcell Indian Queen with Emmanuelle Haim, ‘Eurydice’ and ‘La Musica’ in Monteverdi Orfeo for Robert Hollingworth,  ‘the statue’ in Rameau Pygmalion with John Butt and Dunedin Consort and soloist in Purcell Fairy Queen for Paul McCreesh. Other productions with Sir John Eliot Gardiner include Bizet Carmen, Weber Le Freyschuetz, Berlioz Benvenuto Cellini, and Gluck Ophée at Covent Garden.

Photography: Gerard Collett

  • “Zoë Brown and the orchestra’s leader Kati Debretzeni limned Bach’s lines with limpid tenderness. For a moment, time seemed to stop.”

    Ivan Hewett, The Telegraph.

  • “…the sense of great – almost erotic – rapture is beautifully created by Zoë Brookshaw… in a performance of shimmering intensity”

    Gramophone Magazine

  • "Zoë Brookshaw's pealing soprano spread delight dancing with two pastoral flutes"

    The Times (on Solomon's Knot's St John Passion)

  • “[Brookshaw's] innocent, gently glowing soprano shone"

    The Guardian

  • "Katherine Watson and Zoë Brown intertwined beautifully in the elegiac duet, Ohime, dov'e il mio ben, from Book 7 of the Madrigals, its bitter melancholy eked out in the sweetest, freshest way."

    The Times (on Arcangelo Monteverdi Madrigals at Wigmore Hall)