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Winner of the 1994 Kathleen Ferrier Award, Susan Gritton is recognised as one of the most accomplished lyric sopranos of her generation. A prolific artist in opera, concert and recitals, her work spans many periods and styles. She has made many recordings and is Grammy nominated for her roles as Female Chorus in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia with the Aldeburgh Festival Ensemble/Oliver Knussen, and Mařenka in Smetana’s The Bartered Bride with the Philharmonia/Sir Charles Mackerras, and Holst's First Choral Symphony with the BBC Symphony Orchestra/Sir Andrew Davis.

Her concert highlights include Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem (Berlin Philharmonic/Rattle & Philharmonia/von Dohnànyi); Beethoven's Missa Solemnis in Carnegie Hall (Orchestra of St. Luke’s/Norrington); Shostakovich’s Blok Romances (The Florestan Trio); Handel’s Messiah for many orchestras including Gabrieli Consort & Players/McCreesh and London Symphony Orchestra (LSO)/Sir Colin Davis); Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony (Leith Hill Music Festival/Brian Kay; LSO/Richard Hickox; Düsseldorfer Symphonikern/Norrington); Elgar’s The Kingdom (Huddersfield Choral Society/Brabbins & LSO/Elder); Ravel’s Shéhérazade (Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Mackerras); JS Bach B Minor Mass & St. John Passion (Berlin Philharmonic/Rattle; Bach Choir/Hill); Mahler's Symphony no. 2 (BBC Symphony Orchestra/Haitink); Ravel L'enfant et les sortilèges (Berlin Philharmonic/Rattle); Britten's War Requiem at the BBC Proms (CBSO/Nelsons); Wagner Wesendonck Lieder (Woking Symphony Orchestra/Stratford); and Britten’s Les Illuminations – including the world premiere of Britten’s three additional Rimbaud settings arranged by Colin Matthews (BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Brabbins).
 

Notable operatic highlights are Ellen Orford in Britten’s Peter Grimes (Teatro alla Scala, Opera Australia, Tokyo New National Theatre); Countess Madeleine in Richard Strauss’ Capriccio & Tatyana in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (Grange Park Opera); Blanche in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites (Bayerische Staatsoper); title role in Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, Micaela in Bizet’s Carmen & Liu in Puccini’s Turandot (Royal Opera House Covent Garden); Handel operas include title role Theodora (Glyndebourne), Romilda Xerxes, Cleopatra Giulio Cesare and title role Rodelinda (Bayerische Staatsoper); Mozart roles began with Barbarina Le Nozze di Figaro (Haitink) to open the new opera house at Glyndebourne, continuing onto Fiordiligi Cosi fan tutte (New York Lincoln Center; English National Opera (ENO); Bayerische Staatsoper); Konstanze Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Deutsche Staatsoper & Bayerische Staatsoper); Vitellia La Clemenza di Tito (Bayerische Staatsoper); Donna Anna Don Giovanni (Bolshoi & Opera de Montreal); Elettra Idomeneo (Netherlands Opera) & Countess The Marriage of Figaro (ENO); and the title role in Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen (ENO). She has also sung in innovative staged performances of Sibelius’s Luonnotar at English National Opera, London; Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher in Rome and Handel’s Messiah in Vienna. Her 2019 live recording of Holst’s The Mystic Trumpeter (BBC Concert Orchestra/Wordsworth) was featured on the cover CD for BBC Music Magazine’s celebration of Gustav Holst’s 150^th anniversary.

Passionate about chamber music and song repertoire, Susan has sung for music clubs, festivals and at major venues such as Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Cheltenham Festival and at the Oxford International Song Festival. In addition to the Nash Ensemble and Florestan Trio, she has worked alongside pianists Steuart Bedford, Graham Johnson, Malcolm Martineau, Roger Vignoles, Andrew West, Susie Allan, Iain Burnside and notably Eugene Asti with whom she has recorded songs by Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann. She curated a programme for the 2009 Cambridge Darwin Festival with Dame Gillian Beer.  In 2021, she sang Haydn canzonets with Steven Devine at Sir Roger Norrington's final public concert.  She currently performs in a mother-daughter duo alongside the harpist Eleanor Medcalf with performances at Cambridge’s The Painted Church and London's St. James’ Piccadilly. 

Susan's formative musical background was as a violinist in family chamber music, youth orchestras including National Youth Orchestra of GB and singing for fun. It was whilst studying botany at Oxford University that she began to take singing more seriously taking private lessons with David Mason, then joining professional choirs and stepping in as a soloist. She attended one year at the National Opera Studio supported by Glyndebourne Festival Opera but her main training came through private singing lessons with Jonathan Papp, covering roles in the Glyndebourne Chorus and attending courses at the Britten Pears School at Snape Maltings. She was also a recipient of an Arts Foundation Fellowship, an invaluable support at the start of her career. With an academic background in botany from Oxford, London and Reading Universities and passionate about nature, Susan is also a professional botanist with experience in vegetation ecology.

November 2025