Royal Northern College of Music

Samantha Clarke Soprano

Recipient of Independent Opera Voice Scholarship 2016 & Voice Fellowship 2019

Australian/British soprano Samantha Clarke is the winner of the 2019 Guildhall Gold Medal. She is a recent graduate the Guildhall School of Music & Drama Opera School as a Baroness de Turckheim Scholar, Help Musicians, Tait Memorial and Countess of Munster Trust Scholar and studies with Yvonne Kenny.

Samantha completed an Advanced Postgraduate Diploma and Intensive Masters of Music at the Royal Northern College of Music, as a Sir John Fisher Foundation and Independent Opera Scholar, under the tutelage of Mary Plazas.

In addition to the 2019 Guildhall Gold Medal, Samantha is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Leverhulme Royal Northern College of Music Award, the Dame Eva Turner Award and the Michael and Joyce Kennedy Award for the singing of Strauss. Samantha was awarded a 2017 RNCM Gold Medal and the Nora Goodridge Developing Artist Award through the Australian Music Foundation for 2017/18 and 2018/19. Samantha has also taken part in the prestigious Ferrier semi-final in April 2019.  

The list of conductors and directors she has already worked with include Ian Page, Mark Tatlow, Dominic Wheeler, Matthew Richardson, Timothy Redmond, Martin Lloyd-Evans, Olly Platt.

Roles include: Helena A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Fiordiligi Cosi fan tutte, Anne Trulove The Rake’s Progress, Georgiana Georgiana, Anna Gomez The Consul, Theodora Theodora, Donna Elvira Don Giovanni, Pamina Die Zauberflöte, First Lady Die Zauberflöte, Countess Le Nozze di Figaro, Beth Little Women.

Recent and future engagements include Fiordiligi Cosi fan tutte and Helena A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Guildhall; Georgiana Georgiana at the Buxton International Festival, Musetta La bohème at Opera North and John Rutter’s Requiem with the Munchner Rundfunkorchester, The Governess The Turn of the Screw at the Linbury Studio and appearances with Classical Opera.

This biography was updated in October 2019.