Born in Bedford, Rachel Nicholls is one of the most versatile sopranos of her generation, with a huge repertoire ranging from J. S. Bach and Handel to Schoenberg and Errollyn Wallen. She made her BBC Proms debut in 2008 singing Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music and returned in 2009 for The Mask of Orpheus - The Arches. Other festivals at which she has appeared are Bremen, Edinburgh, Three Choirs, Hereford, St Endellion and La Folle Journée, Tokyo.

In opera and concert, conductors she has worked with include Martyn Brabbins, Stephen Cleobury, Christian Curnyn, Colin Davis, John Eliot Gardiner, Valery Gergiev, Martin Gester, Richard Hickox, Roger Norrington, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Simon Rattle, Steven Sloane, Masaaki Suzuki and David Willcocks. She has appeared with the Royal Opera, London, English National Opera, the Early Opera Company and Scottish Opera, as well as with orchestras such as the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Bochum Symphony Orchestra, the Britten Sinfonia, the CBSO, the London Mozart Players, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the OAE, the Philharmonia, Le Parlement de Musique, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Broadcasts include Dvorak Stabat Mater, Schoenberg String Quartet No. 2 and Flashmob - The Opera (BBC), and with Bach Collegium Japan, she has recorded the B Minor Mass and two volumes of Cantatas. Other recordings include Orando, Silla, Hummel Mass in D Minor, two volumes of Music by Cecilia McDowall and Paul Spicer's Easter Oratorio.

Recent and current engagements include Fiordiligi Così fan tutte for the Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing and at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Helmwige Die Walküre for Longborough Festival Opera, the B Minor Mass, Jauchezt Gott, the St Matthew Passion and Messiah on tour with Bach Collegium Japan in Japan and the USA, the St Matthew Passion, Messiah and Mozart Requiem on extended tours with the Holland Boys Choir and The Four Seasons by Candlelight 2010 Tour for Raymond Gubbay Ltd.

May 2013