ABOUT

Originally from the Wirral, Abigail Iveson Wiegold graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, having previously trained as a ballet dancer at Hammond Ballet School and the London Studio Centre. During her time at RNCM, she was awarded the Sir Edward Downes Prize, and was a finalist in both the Joyce and Michael Kennedy Prize for the Singing of Strauss and the Frederick Cox Award for Singing; on graduation, she became a Major Peter Moores Scholar.

Abigail’s training in both disciplines brought her early success in principal operetta roles under the batons of, amongst others, Martin Handley and Richard Balcombe. Performing at the Barbican Centre, Royal Festival Hall and Edinburgh Usher Hall, and other leading venues, she began her long association with the director Simon Butteriss.

A Fachverwandlung has brought Abigail to the lirico spinto repertoire, early highlights of which include Cio-Cio-san in scenes from Madama Butterfly at the Hong Kong Grand Hall, and for the Opera North Opus Project. As principal soprano of London Festival Opera, she has appeared across Europe, including at Ca’Rezzonico, Venice, Palazzo Valguarnera Gangi, Palermo, and the Bellapais Monastery, Kyrenia.

A sought-after concert soloist, Abigail has sung with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, and Northern Lights Symphony Orchestra, with recitals including Strauss’s Vier Letzte Lieder at St Martin-in-the-Fields and oratorio at St Johns Smith Square, London.

Abigail studies with the Australian tenor Anthony Roden, and more recently has become a pupil of the American dramatic soprano Cheryl Studer. Her coaches include the conductor and pianist Lada Valešová, Christopher White of Deutsche Oper and the Royal Academy of Music, Geoffrey Loff of Staatsoper Unter den Linden and the Komische Oper, and the late Wagnerian soprano Elizabeth Connell.

Alongside her performing career, Abigail is now Programme Lead for British Youth Opera, and gives regular masterclasses at Trinity Laban Conservatoire. A qualified Royal Academy of Dance ballet teacher, Abigail brings an in-depth knowledge of the body to her vocal teaching practice, and her experience as an Assistant Artists Manager in Berlin to her work in preparing students for international auditions.