The soprano Lorna Windsor has an extensive vocal repertoire, from baroque to contemporary, opera to song. Her song recitals and recordings often include rarer works and gems by lesser-known composers, including the Boulanger sisters and Hindemith as well as the many writers of great English song and poetry.
A pianist and violist, she trained in singing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She studied German Lieder in Vienna with Hans Hotter, French mélodie in St. Jean-de-Luz and Paris with Gérard Souzay, and was awarded various prestigious prizes for her song interpretations. Lorna performed with Jörg Demus in Austria and has collaborated for many years with the Italian pianist Antonio Ballista.
Her opera roles range from Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus to Die Lustige Witwe, and other Strauss, Lehar and Offenbach roles, in major European theatres. In early music she sang 14th century Troubadour songs in Occitan, sephardic songs, and toured Europe with works by Monteverdi. She has performed Salieri with Franz Brüggen, Bach with Gustav Leonhardt, Così fan Tutte with Claudio Abbado, Don Giovanni with Deborah Warner, in theatres across four continents. Other roles include Verdi‘s Un Ballo in maschera, Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Norina (Don Pasquale), West Side Story, Trouble in Tahiti and L’Enfant et les Sortilèges. A guest at Glyndebourne, Teatro San Carlo, La Fenice, the Sorbonne, La Sapienza, she also performs chamber music works by Berio, Crumb, Schönberg, (Pierrot Lunaire at the Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden), Walton (Façade), Messiaen, Kurtág (Kafka Fragments), Weill (RAI), Mahler (RAI), Radio France and the BBC. She is sought after by today’s composers.
Her numerous recordings include songs by Debussy, Cage, Togni, Nadia and Lili Boulanger, Casella, Ghedini, Pizzetti, Respighi, Malipiero, Mozart, selections of American Song, and various selections of French song and German Lieder.