Originally from Toronto, Canada, now living in London UK, Gillian Keith has emerged as one of the leading lyric sopranos of the 21st century. Her superb voice and musicianship are at home both on the opera stage and on the concert platform‚ making her one of the most stylish and versatile artists of her generation.

A past winner of both the prestigious Kathleen Ferrier Award and the ROSL Singing Prize, and a distinguished graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, soprano Gillian Keith made her Royal Opera‚ Covent Garden debut as Zerbinetta in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos and has gone on to repeat the role with great success at Ópera de Oviedo and Welsh National Opera. Other operatic appearances include Tytania in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at ROH and at English National Opera‚ Nannetta Falstaff and Pretty Polly in Birtwistle’s Punch and Judy‚ both for ENO‚ and Pretty Polly in Geneva. She has sung Lucinda in Conti’s Don Chisciotte for Netherlands Opera under Rene Jacobs‚ Tiny in Britten’s Paul Bunyan for the Bregenz Festival‚ Elmira in Opera North’s Croesus‚ Ginevra in Handel’s Ariodante in Halle‚ Philine in Thomas’ Mignon, and Iphis in Handel’s Jeptha, both for Buxton Festival, The Woodbird in Scottish Opera’s Siegfried, and Poppea in Basel and in Boston.

Concert performances include Oliver Knussen’s Symphony No. 2 at the BBC Proms, Exsultate, jubilate with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Angel in Handel’s La Resurrezione with Ars Lyrica Houston, Bach’s St Matthew Passion and Mozart’s C Minor Mass with Handel & Haydn Society, Boston, Handel’s Messiah and Silete venti with The Sixteen in Hong Kong, Sydney Opera House and New Zealand, and The Songbook with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group at Wigmore Hall. She has presented her original scripted recital Debussy And His Muse at Wilton’s Music Hall, Buxton Festival, and Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Recent appearances include the title role in H.K. Gruber’s Gloria: A Pigtail at Royal Opera’s Linbury Studio Theatre, Buxton Festival and Bregenz Festival, Bach solo cantatas with Northern Chamber Orchestra, Kurtág’s Scenes from a Novel with the Psappha Ensemble, Handel’s Messiah in Washington National Cathedral, Bach’s St Matthew Passion (Handel and Haydn Society, Boston), Miss Wordsworth in Britten’s Albert Herring with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at The Barbican, the role of Ruth Ellis in Tom Randle’s new opera Love Me To Death at The Barbican’s Pit Theatre, and the premiere of works by David Matthews and Cecilia McDowall at the Presteigne Festival. Her original scripted recital ‘The Formidable Frau’, based on the wife of Richard Strauss was received with enthusiastic praise at the 2016 Buxton Festival. This season’s and future projects include performances and a multi-disc recording of Bach solo cantatas with Armonico Consort, as well as concerts of Beethoven’s Christ on the Mount of Olives at the National Concert Hall, Dublin, Handel’s Messiah at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor at the Three Choirs Festival.

She has recorded the role of Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Sir Richard Armstrong, as well as orchestral songs by Dallapiccola, Nielsen’s 3rd Symphony, and Casella’s Le convent sur l’eau with Gianandrea Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic, all for Chandos. Other recordings include Handel’s Gloria and Bach Cantatas with John Eliot Gardiner, Handel’s Messiah and Mozart’s C Minor Mass with Harry Christophers, and Handel’s Nine German Arias with Florilegium. Her recital discs include Schubert Lieder on Marquis, and with pianist Simon Lepper Debussy: Early Songs, and Debussy Songs For His Muse for Deux-Elles, as well as Gillian Keith – bei Strauss for Champs Hill Records.

Armonico Consort is a critically acclaimed choir, instrumental ensemble and music charity. It is renowned for inspiring audiences through passionate performances, providing imaginative singing opportunities for young people and helping people living with dementia through the power of music. Armonico Consort began life in 2001, set up by Christopher Monks and a group of university colleagues with a shared passion for music from the Renaissance to Baroque, coupled with the imagination to find new and unusual ways to present concerts. Audiences seemed to love their engaging and innovative approach, and most concerts in the first years sold out. “That gave us the confidence, energy and self-belief to do more; to take more risks with our programming and keep on experimenting” says Christopher. The ideas kept flowing, as did the titles (many of them created down the pub…) including the concert programmes Naked Byrd, Supersize Polyphony, Too Hot to Handel, Monteverdi’s Flying Circus and Baroque around the Block. Although their horizons have broadened to encompass contemporary repertoire and new commissions, Armonico’s signature concerts continue to feature choral masterpieces, rarely heard gems and new musical discoveries from the Renaissance and Baroque, performed in imaginative ways by some of the world’s finest singers and period instrument players. “I’m particularly proud of Supersize Polyphony where we perform 40 and 60-part works by Tallis and Striggio in the round, surrounding the audience, interpolated by the timeless chants of Hildegard of Bingen,” Christopher continues. It was this particular programme which earned the group their first 5 star reviews, from The Times and BBC Music Magazine, and there were plenty more to follow. Most recently Armonico Consort has become the world’s leading authority on the choral works of Francesco Scarlatti – a forgotten member of the famous dynasty. Their recording of his Dixit Dominus and Messe a 16 has been named “Spectacular - the classical music find of the century” by Le figaro, Paris, and the first modern performance of his only surviving oratorio Daniele described as “an exemplary resuscitation” by The Times. Armonico’s education programme – AC Academy – was fundamental from the outset and now encompasses after-school choirs and an in-school Choir Creation programme which has established almost 300 choirs and trained teachers as choir leaders, reaching over 250,000 young people. The programme offers high quality performance opportunities in venues across the country, including the Royal Albert Hall where Armonico’s biggest project to date, It Takes a City for 2000 voices and orchestra, was premiered in 2022.
“Many of these young people have been with the group since the age of 7 and are now singing as AC Academy Scholars alongside the professional singers. It is so rewarding to see how the opportunities we have created have changed them not just as musicians, but as humans, and this drives much of what we create,” Christopher says. The Choir Creation programme has recently expanded through partnerships with Westlands Entertainment Venue Yeovil, and overseas in Kenya, and with Foundaçion Azteca Mexico where the training of new choir leaders will help create the country’s first high level symphony orchestra and chorus. The mental and physical well-being benefits of singing are well established, and Armonico Consort witnessed this first hand through creating a workplace choir for its sponsors Phillips 66 in 2016. New research suggests Baroque music is extremely effective at unlocking memories for those affected by dementia and, with training from the Alzheimer’s Society, Armonico’s Communities programme now includes singing sessions in care homes and the first of what will soon be many community choirs, Warwick Memory Singers. Throughout 2024, Armonico tours the 'Forgotten Scarlatti' – Francesco Scarlatti’s choral masterpieces in brand new editions by Dr Geoffrey Webber – and presents a new semi-staged version of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen. The summer also sees the return of AC Academy Does the Royal Albert Hall, a biennial celebration of the Choir Creation programme involving thousands of children. It will include a bespoke musical work by children with special educational needs, feature guest dancers from BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, and what may well be the world’s largest ever performance of Orff’s Carmina Burana with 2500 singers.