OLIVIA WARBURTON

Winner of the Hamburg Theatre Prize ‘Rolf Mares’ for most outstanding performance of the 23/24 season, Olivia Warburton is increasingly recognised as a captivating performer and versatile young artist on opera stages and in concert halls across the world. As a member of the solo ensemble at Staatsoper Hamburg, Olivia performed many roles including Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Najade (Ariadne auf Naxos), Nannetta (Falstaff) and Anne Frank (Das Tagebuch der Anne Frank). Highlights of the 2026/27 season include Olivia’s debut at the Vienna State Opera and concerts with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London.

Described as “a voice of the future” (The Telegraph), Olivia’s wide ranging operatic repertoire includes Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Frasquita (Carmen), Euridice (L’anima del Filosofo), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Fox (The Cunning Little Vixen), L’enfant (L’enfant et les sortilèges), and Valetto (L’incoronazione di Poppea). She has performed at major theatres including: Staatsoper Hamburg, Festival d’Aix en Provence, Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Nevill Holt Opera and Opera North — collaborating with directors including Dmitri Tcherniakov, David Bösch, Melly Still and Simon McBurney, as well as conductors including Kent Nagano, Jane Glover, Alexander Joel, Finnegan Downie Dear and Tomáš Netopil.

Olivia is a committed performer of contemporary work. She comes from a background of acting and physical theatre, and has a strong passion for multidisciplinary arts projects. Recent concert engagements include George Benjamin’s A Mind of Winter with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra under Finnegan Downie Dear, John Adams’ Grand Pianola Music under the baton of the composer and the role of role Max in Oliver Knussen’s Where the Wild Things Are with both the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Tampere Filharmonia. In 2021 she made her German operatic debut at the DNT Weimar in the world premiere of Stewart Copeland and Jonathan Moore’s Electric Saint.

Equally at home in baroque and early repertoire, Olivia made her debut as the title role in Handel’s Teseo at the London Handel Festival with David Bates and La Nuova Musica. Other Handel roles include Ernando in the modern day premiere of Venceslao at the Halle Handel Festival with Opera Settecento and Leo Duarte, Ino in Semele under Laurence Cummings and the title role in Dido and Aeneas under the direction of Michael Chance. Olivia has worked with Masaaki Suzuki and Trevor Pinnock on tour to the Lincoln Centre, New York, the Boston Early Music Festival, the Royal Festival Hall, London and the Bach Festival, Leipzig.

As a recitalist, Olivia has performed to critical acclaim at Wigmore Hall, The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace and the Aldeburgh Festival. A Samling Artist and Britten-Pears Young Artist she is also the founder of Sunday at Six, a concert series connecting audiences from around the world during the Covid 19 pandemic. On the concert platform Olivia has performed as soprano soloist in Mahler’s 4th Symphony, Fauré’s Requiem, Concert arias by Mozart, Bach’s Magnificat in D and Johannes Passion as well as Handel’s Messiah with orchestras including the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Janáček philharmonic Orchestra, Ars Eloquentiae, Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. She is the artistic director of The Big House Arts Festival Lincoln which launched in April 2026. She is also the creator of The Song Apothecary.

Born in the UK, Olivia’s musical education began aged eight when she began piano and singing lessons. She later became a chorister at Lincoln Cathedral and played child parts for Opera North in productions of The Magic Flute and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, London with first class honours and distinction and was a young artist at the Georg Solti Accademia and the Deutsches Nationaltheater, Weimar. Olivia is based in Berlin and has dual German/British residency.

August 2026