"There is little doubt that one day, Durham will be dazzling us with vocal fireworks in the manner of Ann Hallenberg or Vivica Genaux" (Jacques Duffourg, Baroquiades)
Winner of the First Prize at the 10th Pietro Antonio Cesti Competition for Baroque Opera, and the Grand Prix of the 2019 Concours international d’interprétation de la Mélodie Française de Toulouse, Grace Durham was born in London. She began her studies as a linguist, graduating with a First-Class Honours Degree in French and Italian from Clare College, Cambridge, and continued her training as a singer at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the National Opera Studio.
Grace's engagements in 2021/22 include MercédèsCarmen at the Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse, GiovannaRigoletto at the Opernhaus Zürich, and Kuchtík Rusalka at Garsington Opera and the Edinburgh International Festival, as well as recital débuts at the Opéra de Lille, Opéra national de Bordeaux and London's Wigmore Hall. Concert engagements this season include Chausson Poème de l'amour et de la mer (Festival Murten Classics) and Ravel Shéhérazade (Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra). With Les Talens Lyriques, she toured the recital programme Plaisir d'amour ne dure qu'un moment to the Staatsoper Berlin and Festival AntiquaBZ (Bolzano) and sang Job's Wife in Werner Job (Haydneum Festival, Budapest), and with Collectif Lovemusic she appeared in Talking Music, the première of Philip Venables' Numbers 81-85 and Numbers 96-100 (Festival Musica, Strasbourg; Festival d'Automne, Paris). Summer 2021 saw the release of her first CD, Aimer à loisir, singing songs by Chausson, Fauré and Ravel with Edward Liddall on B Records.
From 2017 to 2019, Grace was a member of the Junges Ensemble at the Semperoper Dresden, where her roles included MercédèsCarmen, LucienneDie tote Stadt, CherubinoLe nozze di Figaro, Second LadyDie Zauberflöte, Flora BervoixLa traviata and Clare in the German première of Philip Venables’ 4.48 Psychosis. Further engagements have included covering the title role in Ariodante with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre, RosinaIl barbiere di Siviglia for Lyric Opera Ireland, Second MaidElektra at the Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse, and the recital programme Music for a While with Les Talens Lyriques at the 2020 Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik.
Future engagements include returning to the Opernhaus Zürich as Second Lady Die Zauberflöte, and to the Wigmore Hall for Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music with the Nash Ensemble, as well as making her house début at the Opéra national de Lorraine as Deuxième Prêtresse/Femme grecque Iphigénie en Tauride. Grace will also appear with Collectif Lovemusic at the Klangwerkstatt Festival Berlin, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and the Arsenal in Metz.