Ellen Pearson

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  • Mezzo-Soprano
  • Fellow

About Ellen

British mezzo-soprano Ellen Pearson is a Jette Parker Artist at the Royal Opera House (2025-27). She is also a Lies Askonas Singers’ Fellow with Askonas Holt. She is a graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music (First-Class Honours), and the Royal College of Music (Master’s of Music with Distinction).

Upcoming roles in the 2026/27 Season at the Royal Opera House include Blumenmädchen (Parsifal), Mercédès (Carmen), Zweite Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Second Maid (Elektra). She will cover Dorabella (Cosí Fan Tutte), La Ciesca (Gianni Schicchi) and Varvara (Katya Kabanova).

“With great swashes of impassioned, red-blooded singing” (The Spectator, Richard Bratby), Ellen recently performed the roles of Julia (The Departure, Maconchy) and Irina (Four Sisters, Langer) in the Jette Parker Contemporary Chamber Opera, at the Linbury Theatre.

In the 2025/26 Royal Opera HouseSeason, Pearson also performed the roles of Zweite Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Flora (La Traviata) and Giovanna (Rigoletto), with covers including Komorna (Makropulos Case)and Enrichetta Di Francia (I Puritani).

Other roles include La Ciesca (Gianni Schicchi) at the Verbier Festival, Rosina (The Barber of Seville) at Opera Holland Park, Donna Ximena (Don Giovanni) at the Royal College of Music.

Ellen is an avid song recitalist, performing recently at Life Victoria Lied Festival (Barcelona), Internationaal Lied Festival (The Netherlands), Aldeburgh Festival, Oxford Song Festival and more.

Awards include the Ferrier Loveday Song Prize at the Kathleen Ferrier Awards 2025, the Nigel Beale First Prize and the Anthony Lowrey Audience Prize at the 2024 Hurn Court Opera Singer of the Year and First Prize and Best Duo Prize with Archie Bonham in the 2024 Ashburnham English Song Competition.

Pearson has previously been an Opera Holland Park Young Artist, Opera Prelude Artist, an artist on the Wigmore Hall French Song Exchange programme, an Oxford International Song Young Artist, a Samling Artist, a Shipston Song Rising Star and a Britten Pears Young Artist.

Ellen is based in London

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Contact

Representation

Worldwide general management with Askonas Holt

Follow Ellen

Season Highlights

May 2026 - May 2026
Linbury Theatre
Tales of Love and Loss
May 2026 - May 2026
Barcelona
Recital with Francesca Lauri LIFE Victoria, Barcelona
Oct 2026
Royal Opera House, London
Parsifal (Flower Maiden)
Oct 2026 - Nov 2026
Royal Opera House, London
Carmen (Mercédès)
Dec 2026 - Feb 2027
Royal Opera House, London
The Magic Flute (Second Lady)
Jul 2027
Royal Opera House, London
Elektra (Second Maid)

Video

Photos

Selected Repertoire

Bizet

Carmen (Mercédès)

Janáček

Katya Kabanova (Varvara)

Mozart

Cosi fan tutte (Dorabella)   •   Die Zauberflote (Second Lady)

Puccini

Gianni Schicchi (La Ciesca)

Rossini

Il barbiere di Siviglia (Rosina)   •   L’Italiana in Algeri (Isabella)

Strauss

Elektra (Second Maid)

Verdi

La traviata (Flora)

Wagner

Parsifal (Flowermaiden)

News

Press

  • Tales of Love and Loss

    Royal Opera House
    May 2026 - May 2026

    • Still, Maconchy’s music, sombre yet lyrically expansive in a way that made it feel like the orchestra was bigger than the 14-strong Britten Sinfonia, made an impressive vocal showcase for the mezzo-soprano Ellen Pearson and baritone Sam Hird.

    • The opera provides an excellent opportunity for Ellen Pearson, with her radiant and precise mezzo-soprano, to shine as Julia, while Sam Hird asserts his tremendous baritone to strong effect as Mark.

    • Pearson’s rich, mature voice is cleverly cast as one half of a long marriage, and well suited to the elastic range that Maconchy’s writing demands.

  • Die Zauberflote (Zweite Dame)

    Royal Opera House
    Oct 2025 - Nov 2025

    • He and Tamino had a great time with the Three Ladies, Hannah Edmunds, Ellen Pearson (both Jette Parker Artists) and Emma Carrington. Their well-blended voices were sharp enough to slay the monster but they nearly forgot themselves in fawning over Tamino.

    • In a similar vein, during ‘O zittre nicht, mein lieber Sohn’ and ‘Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen’ the Ladies (Hannah Edmunds, Ellen Pearson and Emma Carrington on good form) are joined by three further veiled figures who help to accentuate the Queen of the Night’s presence by moving or swaying around her.

    • Les Trois Dames, bien que non caractérisées individuellement, ont une place centrale dans l’ouvrage, qui est ici parfaitement occupée par Hannah Edmunds, Ellen Pearson et Emma Carrington. Leur ensemble, très énergique, est homogène et aligné jusqu’aux consonnes finales, toujours bien sonnantes.

  • Gianni Schicchi (La Ciesca)

    Verbier Festival
    Jul 2025 - Jul 2025

    • Die jungen Sängerinnen und Sänger, darunter Katrīna Paula Felsberga (Nella), Maryam Wocial (Gherardino), Maksim Andreekov (Betto de Signa), Ossian Huskinson (Simone), Ellen Pearson (La Ciesca), Felix Gygli (Spinelloccio, Ser Amantio di Nicolao) Edward Birchinall (Guccio) und Anton Beliaev (Pinello) brachten mit viel Spielfreude grossen Ensemblegeist auf die Bühne, wie man ihn sich bei diesem Stück wünscht – chaotisch, komisch, aber musikalisch glasklar, einfach herrlich!

  • La traviata (Flora)

    Royal Opera House
    Jan 2026 - Jan 2026

    • Current Jette Parker Artists made up much of the remaining cast who did well with what little Verdi gives them: Ellen Pearson, sang Flora and Sam Hird (Baron Douphol), Giorgi Guliashvili (Gaston) and Ossian Huskinson (Marquis d’Obigny) were all solidly sung vignettes; as were Barnaby Rea as Doctor Grenvil and Veena Akama-Makia (a former Jette Parker Artist) as Annina. Despite some undoubtably reliable performances – and not forgetting the always dependable chorus – overall this La traviata revival lacked a compelling frisson which could have elevated it from just an okay one to something more memorable.

    • There is splendid support from Veena Akama-Makia as Annina, Barnaby Rea as Doctor Grenvil, Ellen Pearson as Flora Bervoix, Sam Hird as the Baron Douphol, Giorgi Guliashvili as Gastone de Letorières and Ossian Huskinson as the Marchese d’Obigny.