Soprano Roberta Philip on cat-walking for London Trend Week, studying from fashions, and her upcoming recital on the London Competition of American Music

Roberta Philip [Photo: Ben Reason]

Soprano Roberta Philip is a flexible performer working throughout opera and jazz idioms in settings starting from the cat stroll to the live performance platform. She is captivated with bringing lesser-known works by African American composers into the highlight and has been praised for her “powerfully expressive” (The Opera Critic) and “excellent voice” (The Stage).

Roberta performs with pianist Valentina Wang on the London Competition of American Music at The Warehouse on 11 November 2026.

What impressed you to develop into an Opera singer?

I grew up in a naturally musical household. My household would usually burst into music at house, and my Nana, who’s now 99, is notorious for having a hymn for each state of affairs – large or small. My dad and mom didn’t have the chance to be taught devices themselves, in order that they made certain my siblings and I did. I studied classical piano and violin, however singing initially remained one thing I did for enjoyable, whether or not that was singing pop and R&B at house, musical theatre teams or singing in small jazz bands and choirs.

It was truly on the College of Birmingham that I started to see singing as one thing extra. I auditioned for the Birmingham College Singers Chamber Choir, led by Simon Halsey, singing ‘Reminiscence’ from Cats (one of many solely remotely “classical” items I knew). I used to be accepted and went on to sing with the choir all year long. By means of Halsey’s involvement with the BBC Proms Youth Choir, I additionally discovered myself singing within the refrain of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius at my first BBC Proms.

Watching Roderick Williams, one of many soloists, sing with the orchestra at our first Royal Albert Corridor rehearsal gave me chills. He was the primary Black opera singer I had ever seen, and I bear in mind considering that this was what I wished to do. The next yr, the chamber choir audition panel inspired me to take singing classes, recognising my innate musicality. By the point I graduated, singing had develop into my principal examine.

After I graduated, I started a full-time profession in performing arts PR and had personal singing classes, sung with the London Symphony Refrain and used all my annual go away to do summer season vocal improvement programmes.

A couple of years later, I went on to coach on the Guildhall Faculty of Music & Drama, the place I accomplished my Grasp of Efficiency. My trainer, John Evans, was instrumental in remodeling my voice and serving to me recognise my versatility throughout genres as one in all my best creative strengths, exhibiting me the way it might inform and enrich my classical singing. Though my coaching has been rooted in classical music, my love of jazz and soul stays a basic a part of who I’m musically, and continues to affect the way in which that I method efficiency.

In 2024 you carried out at London Trend Week. Are there parallels to be drawn between vogue and music?

In 2024, I used to be chosen as one in all a handful of Guildhall college students to carry out in British designer Patrick McDowell’s Orpheus Ball showcase for London Trend Week. The gathering explored the constructions of orchestral music by vogue.

I carried out Gershwin’s The Man I Love with my colleague Elizabeth Mwale on euphonium. We have been the one musicians dressed within the assortment, and we walked the catwalk while performing; a shock twist throughout the present. I’m not a mannequin, so it was a totally new expertise, however I cherished seeing how vogue and music might work collectively.

By means of this present, I found a key parallel between opera and vogue. In opera, costume might be a lot greater than one thing you put on, it helps you inhabit a personality and attracts you into the narrative world. Within the showcase, as soon as sporting Patrick’s assortment, I noticed the exact same transformation within the fashions, and skilled it myself.

You commonly collaborate with Pegasus Opera Firm. What affect has this firm had in your improvement as an artist?

Pegasus Opera Firm has performed a pivotal function in my improvement. I joined its mentoring programme in 2023–24, and had a number of alternatives to carry out for business professionals and join with key organisations.

Pegasus additionally forged me in my first skilled opera manufacturing, Ruth by Philip Hagemann, the place I performed the Narrator and coated the lead function of Orpah. The truth is, I ended up performing each my very own function and the function I used to be overlaying in each efficiency, which was a rare studying expertise and a big step in my skilled improvement.

My relationship with Pegasus has continued past that manufacturing, and I commonly carry out in live performance excursions. Alison Buchanan, Inventive Director, has additionally been an enormous mentor to me. What I worth significantly is the way in which Pegasus has helped create alternatives whereas encouraging a broader and extra consultant operatic panorama. That connects intently with my very own pursuits as an artist.

Your recital programme for the London Competition of American Music options music by William Grant Nonetheless, Gershwin and Florence Value, amongst others. How have you ever gone about placing this collectively?

I’m thrilled to be making my London Competition of American Music debut with a programme that explores the extraordinary breadth and evolution of African American music. I need to have fun the richness of this repertoire, deliver lesser-known works into the highlight, and share the numerous completely different tales and musical traditions it encompasses.

One composer I’m significantly excited to characteristic is Brittney Boykin. I used to be launched to her work throughout my time at Guildhall, the place I found her music cycle Moments in Sonder, which units poetry by Maya Angelou, one in all my favorite poets. I contacted Brittney over e mail, and I used to be extremely grateful that Guildhall bought the gathering for me to incorporate in my Grasp of Efficiency closing recital. It’s fantastic to have the ability to proceed sharing this music past my research.

For me, my LFAM programme captures an unlimited musical panorama; from the soulful roots of spirituals, to music formed by the civil rights motion and the battle for equality, to songs of unencumbered pleasure, intimacy and love. I’m captivated with broadening the classical canon and inspiring audiences to find composers and works they could not know. This recital is a chance to have fun that range, while exhibiting that African American music can’t be outlined by a single fashion, interval or expertise.

Roberta performs with pianist Valentina Wang on 11 Nov 2026, 7.30pm on the London Competition of American Music at The Warehouse, Waterloo.

Florence Value: Evening, Maintain Quick to Desires, Journey’s Finish , Sympathy
Brittney Boykin: Moments in Sonder
George Gershwin: ‘Summertime’ from Porgy and Bess
Undine Smith Moore: I’m in Doubt, I Need to Die when you Love Me, Lyric for True Love
​William Grant Nonetheless: ‘Give me no Physique with out your Soul’ from Blue Metal, Grief
Margaret Bonds: Three Dream Portraits
George Walker: I Acquired a Letter from Jesus, Ev’ry Time I Really feel de Spirit
Moses Hogan: Had been you There?
Corridor Johnson: Journey on King Jesus