Mancunian soprano, Katy Allan is a first class graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music, where she studied with renowned mezzo-soprano Antonia Sotgiu. Katy is a freelance professional soprano, and is looking forward to debuting two operatic roles this summer with Bollington Festival Choir and City of Manchester Opera. In September 2022, Katy began her new position as Assistant Director of the Hallé Children's Choir in Manchester, coming full circle from when she joined the choir herself at age ten. Katy enjoys working closely with the Hallé's education and outreach department, performing as the narrator/singer in their Hallé Storytime project and singing with the Hallé orchestra in their Relaxed Concert series. Katy is a freelance Singing and Dementia Specialist, delivering singing sessions in care homes and dementia cafes across Derbyshire, Cheshire, and Greater Manchester. Katy also organises her own series of dementia-friendly coffee concerts in her hometown of Buxton and surrounding areas. She is privileged to see the impact that live singing has upon those living with dementia. 

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During her time at the RNCM, Katy won the Amanda Ira Aldridge Honourary Mention in the inaugural Williams-Howard Memorial Prize alongside pianist Carl Leighton. Katy was joint winner of the T E Drane Award for Singing at Chetham's School of music, where the young soprano studied for her sixth form. 

 

Katy's operatic roles include Adele in Act 2 of Strauss' Die Fledermaus, with Preston Opera under the baton of conductor Helen Harrison. Whilst only in her third year at college, Katy played Vixen as a Cub in the RNCM's December 2020 production of The Cunning Little Vixen by Leoš Janáček. For RNCM opera scenes, Katy has sung Gasparina in Haydn's La Canterina, and Mrs Hayes in Floyd's Susannah. Katy made her operatic solo debut as Little Ben  in Thea Musgrave’s A Christmas Carol with Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance - where she studied for the first year of her Bachelors degree. In 2018, Katy performed as a chorus leader in the Blackheath Hall’s Community Opera summer run of Dido and Aeneas, with musical director Lee Reynolds and director Polly Graham. 

 

As a soloist, Katy has performed in venues across the country including the Buxton Opera House, where she was guest soprano with the Burbage Band in the Mayor's Grand Boxing Day Concert 2019. In May 2023, Katy was the the soprano soloist with the Amaretti Chamber Orchestra in Cheadle, for a performance of Pergolesi's Stabat Mater alongside mezzo Olivia Hamblyn. Katy represented Chetham’s School of Music - where she studied for her sixth form - in the Royal Greenwich International Early Music Festival, singing two of Handel’s Nine German Arias with a small Baroque ensemble. Katy has sung solo recitals in the famous round church of St Chad's in Shrewsbury, the Todd Lane Recital Series, RNCM Concert Hall, Old Royal Naval College, St Bartholomew's Church in Wilmslow, and Christ Church in Timperley, where Katy grew up.

 

Choral highlights include Vaughan William’s A Sea Symphony at the First Night of the BBC Proms 2013 in the Royal Albert Hall as part of the Hallé Youth Choir. During her time in the Old Royal Naval College Trinity Laban Chapel Choir, Katy sang in a live BBC Radio 3 broadcast of evensong from the ORNC under the baton of Ralph Allwood MBE, and at the NCPA in Mumbai, India. Katy has performed with many great conductors including John Rutter CBE, Sir Mark Elder, Carl Davis CBE, and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

 

Katy began her musical career when she joined the Hallé Children's Choir at age ten. She sang numerous solos with the choir including one in Carl Davis' premiere of A Last Train to Tomorrow in front of the 2,000 plus audience in the Bridgewater Hall, aged just thirteen. Katy is humbled to return to HCC and work alongside the acclaimed director Dr Shirley Court BEM.