Patricia Hammond

A non-shy introvert nevertheless described by the Sunday Times in 2012 as “A Leading Lady of the retro party scene”, Patricia Hammond is a singer who can go from Cathedral to cocktail bar, and change from Handel to hot jazz in the same night.

Her album of Belle Epoque French Salon songs was chosen by the editor of American Record Guide as one of his favourite classical vocal albums of 2007, and in 2011 Sir Michael Parkinson praised her CD of 1920s, 30s and 40s pop songs as “a music-box of vintage treasures, beautifully sung by a remarkable woman.”

Since then, she has headed up candlelit vintage evenings at Covent Garden Concerts in 2022/23, been a soloist alongside Dame Emma Kirkby and Helen Charlston for Voces8’s Live From London series in 2021, featured on BBC Four TV making a wax cylinder and an Edison Tone Test in 2018, in the Fox/Searchlight movie “Tolkien” in 2017, and in the Bundestag in Berlin for Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron for the centenary of the end of the First World War.

Patricia works frequently with multi-instrumentalist and researcher Matt Redman as a duo, and with his Edwardian band the Versatility Serenaders. Matt and Patricia’s CD of music from 1913 to 1919 called Songs of the Great War, has been featured on the BBC and radio stations around the world.

She continues to perform with orchestras and early music ensembles in Haydn, Rossini, Dowland and Bach, as well as giving premieres of works by living composers. Patricia has appeared as a soloist at the Bruges Concertgebeouw, Vancouver’s Orpheum Theatre, Geneva’s Victoria Hall, and London’s Queen Elizabeth and Royal Festival Halls under Ivan Fischer and Sir Simon Rattle with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. In opera, Patricia has sung at the Wexford Festival, Royal Opera House Covent Garden’s Linbury Theatre and the Herodus Atticus Theatre in Athens. With her Ragtime Parlour Band she has performed in the Buxton and Deal Festivals, Hugh’s Room in Toronto, and the 20^th Century Theatre in London, to name just a few.

Patricia has been featured on BBC Radio 2, Radio 3, and Radio 4’s “Midweek” with Libby Purves.

Her writing on many eclectic musical subjects has been featured in several issues of Chap magazine, and also in the Daily Mail’s “You” supplement and the Lancet Psychiatry. “Awakenings“, Patricia’s article on singing to people in hospitals, care-homes and hospices was published in the the Telegraph’s Weekend magazine and The Week. Her book on Women songwriters from the Victorian and Edwardian eras is coming out on Valley Press this summer.

Click here for Classical Music Biography

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Partial list of venues performed at

Heritage: Berlin Bundestag, Parliamentarische Gesellschaft, Hampton Court Palace, Houses of Parliament, The British Library, National Portrait Gallery, London Transport Museum, Buxton Pavilion, Valence House, Grange Park Opera, Burgh House, Royal Star & Garter Ballroom, Bloomsbury Ballroom, Brooklands Museum, Musical Museum, Horniman Museum, Manchester Central Library, Handel House Museum, Warwick University.

Clubs: Gilbert Scott, St Pancras Renaissance, Nightjar, Vauxhall Teahouse Theatre, Camden Forge, Experimental Cocktail Club, Principe Leopoldo, Wigmore Hall, Jamboree, Liberal Club, Turf Club, Arts Club, Reform Club, The Travellers’ Club, The Zetter Clerkenwell, Hugh’s Room (Toronto), Passing Clouds, the Idler, the Ritzy, Canada House, Showstudio, Pewterers’ Hall, Armourers’ Hall, Stationers’ Hall, Ironmongers’ Hall, Mercers’ Hall.

Concert: Freemasons Hall Covent Garden, Glenn Gould Studio (Toronto), Lingotto Theatre (Turin), Théâtre des Champs-Elysées (Paris), Bruges Concertgebeouw, Herodes Atticus Theatre (Athens), Royal Festival Hall, 20th Century Theatre, Lumen, The Scoop at London City Hall, The Mill at Sonning, Linbury Theatre, Sadler’s Wells, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Victoria Hall (Geneva), St George’s Hall (Liverpool), Leeds Town Hall, Müvészetek Palotája (Budapest),  The Orpheum (Vancouver),, St Martin-in-the-Fields, various Cathedrals, Symphony Hall Birmingham, St John’s, Smith Square

Commemorative: RAF Coningsby; Courcelette Cemetery, the Somme; Fricourt German Cemetery, the Somme; Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, Verdun; Lilienthalstrasse, Berlin; Soldatenfriedhof Menen

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Classical Gigs

See Patricia Hammond’s full classical repertoire and Biography for use in Classical Programmes.

Solo Concert work – Oratorio:

2016: Vivaldi: Gloria  Beethoven: Mass in C

2015: J.S. Bach B Minor Mass; Christmas Oratorio;  Handel Messiah;

2014: J.S. Bach St. John Passion; Cantatas 94, 103;

2013: J.S. Bach Cantata 80, 93, 132, 140, 168; Coatman The Witch of Slatterdale (world premiere); Walton Facade Handel Messiah

2012: J.S. Bach Cantata 21, 172; Buxtehude Klag-Lied; Mit Fried und Freud Handel Jephtha Mozart Requiem Schütz Was hast du verwirket

2011: J.S. Bach Cantata 20, 39, 79, 93, 96, 108, 140, 181; B Minor Mass Buxtehude Missa Brevis; Haydn St. Nicholas Mass; Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle; Schütz “Vater Abraham”, SWV 477

2010: J.S. Bach Cantata 12, 92, 173, 177, 180, 249, Oster Oratorium; Handel Messiah; Clémence de Grandval Stabat Mater; Schütz SWV 307 “Was hast du verwirket”; SWV 355 “Herzlich Lieb’ hab ich Dich, O Herr”; Kleine geistliche Konzerte Vol 1-III “Ich danke dem Herrn”

2009: J.S. Bach Cantata 39, 79, 92, 124, St. John Passion; Britten Canticle II “Abraham and Isaac” Duruflé Requiem Schütz Kleine geistliche Konzerte Vol 1: VI; SWV 354 “Verleih uns Frieden”; SWV 355 “Gib unsern Fürsten”; SWV 307 “Was hast du verwirket”; Kleine geistliche Konzerte Vol 1-III “Ich danke dem Herrn” Handel Messiah; Haydn Stabat Mater, Jugendmesse in F; Purcell Verse Anthems “Rejoice in the Lord Alway”, “Sing unto the Lord a New Song”

2008: J.S. Bach Cantatas 4, 9, 78, 105, 144, 172, St. Matthew Passion; Handel Messiah; Haydn St. Nicholas Mass; Mendelssohn Elijah; Schütz Kleine geistliche Konzerte Vol 1 , V and II and “Herzlich Lieb’ hab ich Dich, O Herr” Vivaldi Gloria

2007: J.S. Bach Cantatas 13, 18, 20, 29, 78, 80, 87, 127 & 140, St. Matthew Passion, Easter Oratorio, Christmas Oratorio; Heinrich Bach Ach, daß ich Wassers gnug hätte; C.P.E. Bach Magnificat; Buxtehude Membra Jesu Nostri; Purcell Fairy Queen; Haydn Kleine Orgelmesse; Leonardo Leo Lamentazione; Mozart Solemn Vespers of the Confessor; Schütz Symphoniae Sacrae op 6 “in lectulo per Noctes” and “Invenerunt me custodes”

2006: J.S. Bach Mass in G; Solo Cantata 170, “Vergnügte Ruh”; Cantatas 33, 62, 79, 91, 110, 123, 167, 176; St. John Passion; Magnificat; Haydn Nelson Mass; Maria Theresa Mass; Schütz Kleine geistliche Konzerte Vol 1-III “Ich danke dem Herrn” for solo alto; Kleine geistliche Konzerte Vol 1-II “Bringt her dem Herren”, for solo alto; “Sei Gegrüßet, Maria” for solo alto and soprano; Hummel Missa Brevis in C; Handel Chandos Anthem no. 36 “As Longs the Hart for Flowing Streams”; Dettingen Te Deum; Brahms Alto Rhapsody, Liebeslieder Waltzer; Mozart Missa Brevis in G ; Mass in C “Krönungsmesse”; Vesprae Solenelle di Domenica; Requiem; Couperin Troisième Leçon à Deux Voix; from Leçons de Ténèbres; Matthias Weckmann Lamentation “Wie liegt die Stadt so wüste;” Telemann Solo Cantata “Weg mit Sodoms gift’gen Früchten;” Solo Cantata “Jauchzet, frohlocket, der Himmel ist offen”; Vivaldi Stabat Mater; J.C. Bach Dies Irae.

2005: Rossini “Petite” Messe Solennelle, Bach Christmas Oratorio, Cantata no. 182; Cantata 62; Cantata 131; Cantata 132; Cantata 135; Cantata No. 71; Magnificat; B minor Mass; Rutter Feel the Spirit for solo alto and chorus, Mozart Solemn Vespers of the Confessor; Telemann cantata Auf Himmelfahrt: “Du fährest mit Jauchzen empor” for alto, organ and violin; Haydn Theresienmesse; Nelsonmesse;Kleine Orgelmesse; Durufl&eacute Requiem, Handel Messiah, Schütz Kleine geistliche Konzerte Vol 1, No. I “Eile mich, Gott zu erretten” Buxtehude Membra Jesu Nostri.

2004: Bach Cantata No. 62, Mass in G, Cantata 106 “Actus Tragicus”; Schubert Mass in A flat, Mozart Solemn Vespers of the Confessor; Requiem; Croft Te Deum; Vivaldi Gloria; Rutter Feel the Spirit; Dvorak Mass in D; Stabat Mater; Caldara “Vicino a un Rivoletto” solo cantata for alto, cello and continuo; Haydn Nelson Mass, Seven Last Words (English version, choir and soloists); Paukenmesse; Te Deum in C; Opera arias for Mezzo and choir; Schütz Herr, wie lang willst du mein so gar vergessen.

2002: Vivaldi: Gloria; Haydn: Nelson Mass; Bach: St John Passion, Cantata No. 77; Mendelssohn Lobgesang; Arias from Handel’s Silla and Rezurrezione; Messiah

2001: Bach Cantata No 39; Mozart Requiem; Handel Israel in Egypt; Pergolesi Stabat Mater; Rossini Stabat Mater.

2000: Dvorak Stabat Mater; Bach B Minor Mass; Handel Messiah.

1999: Vivaldi Stabat Mater, Bach St. Matthew Passion, Cantata No. 170 “Vergnügte Ruh”, arias from Cantatas No. 12 and 103 with Flute obbligato.

Chorus Work:

2007: Schumann Das Paradies und die Peri, Choir of the Enlightenment, (also solo in the duet of the Houris) Sir Simon Rattle cond, Royal Festival Hall, London, 7th Dec; Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris, 8th Dec; Lingotto Concert Hall, Turin, 10th Dec; Müvészetek Palotája, Budapest, 11th Dec.

2006: Mozart Mass in C minor, Choir of the Enlightenment, Sir Charles MacKerras cond, Prom Concert, Royal Albert Hall (September).

2005: Brahms Requiem, chorus, OAE, Royal Festival Hall, London; Kölner Philharmonie; Symphony Hall, Birmingham; Sir Simon Rattle cond. (December).

2004:Mozart Idomeneo, chorus, Berlin Philharmonic, Luzern Konsertsaal, Berliner Philharmonie; Sir Simon Rattle cond. (September)

Operas

• Storge, Handel Jephtha, Epsom College, Jonathan Rennert cond., Stephen Oliver, director, April 2012
• Alkandre, Fauré Pénélope, Theatre Royal, Wexford Festival (Ireland) Jean-Luc Tingaud cond., Renaud Doucet/André Barbe director/designer, October/Nov. 2005
• Ensemble, Britten Peter Grimes, Salzburger Grosse Festspielhaus and Berliner Philharmonie, European Voices, Berlin Philharmonic, Sir Simon Rattle cond., Sir Trevor Nunn dir., March/April 2005.
• Third Woman, Second Witch, and Alto in one-voice-per-part ensemble, Purcell Dido and Aeneas, St John’s Smith Square (London), David Roblou cond., Chris Tudor dir., English Bach Festival, July 2004. (NB Della Jones was Dido, the Sorceress and the Spirit)
• Ensemble, Mozart Idomeneo, Berlin and Lucerne, European Voices, Berlin Philharmonic, Sir Simon Rattle, cond. September 2003.
• Nymph/Shade, Gluck Telemaco, Sadler’s Wells (London) and Herodus Atticus Theatre (Athens), Nicholas Cleobury cond., Alain Germain dir., English Bach Festival, July 2003.
• Syrene/Miss Young , Handel Alceste, Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Nicholas Cleobury cond., Tom Hawkes dir., English Bach Festival, May 2002
• Nereid (solo alto), Handel Acis and Galatea, Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Nicholas Cleobury cond., Chris Tudor dir., English Bach Festival, July 2001
• Lucretia, Britten Rape of Lucretia, Scene: ‘Give him this orchid… Flowers bring to every year’ Western Front, Vancouver BC, Nov. 1999
• Carmen, various scenes from Bizet’s Carmen, Capilano College Opera Workshop (1995)

Education

• Honorary Fellow of University of Liverpool, School of the Arts (2011)
• Associate Bachelor of Music, Voice Major (Capilano College, 1994)
• Vocal studies with Alexandra Browning and Rena Sharon at CYMC (1989)
• Grade 10 Piano, RCM, (First Class Honours,1993)
• Grade 8 Voice, ABRSM, UK (Distinction, 1997)
• Private voice studies with Arlene McIntyre (1991 – 96), Bruce Pullan (1998-2000), David Lowe,Valerie Masterson, (currently) Kari Lovaas (2000-present, Switzerland)
• Flamenco Dance studies with Rosario Ancer (1997-98)
• Acting in Opera; BYO workshop with Martin Lloyd-Evans (2002)
• Private coaching: Harold Brown, Peter Gellhorn (Art song), Edward Evanko (Acting)

Other Musical Activities

• Guest, with the Lovely Parlour Trio on BBC Radio London, Saturday Breakfast with Simon Lederman and Joanne Good, 17.12.11
• Guest, Midweek, Radio 4 with Libby Purves. 14.04.10
• Guest on BBC Radio Berkshire, Anne Diamond Show; 08.03.10
• Guest on ManxFM, 11.03.10
• Guest on BBC Radio Gloucester, 12.03.10
• Guest on BBC Radio London, Saturday Breakfast with Simon Lederman and Joanne Good, 13.03.10
• Guest on BBC Radio Bristol with Graham Torrington, 16.03.10
• Guest on BBC Radio 4’s “You and Yours”
• Interviewed by Kirsty Lang on BBC4 TV and BBC World
• Organist and singer at St. Mellitus Church most Sundays and for funerals (2001 to present)

Writing

• Music editor, Chap Magazine, June 2013 to present
• “The Last Word,” The Week magazine, March 2010
• “Awakenings,” featured article in the Saturday Telegraph Magazine, 19th March 2010
• “Discography” column for Vancouver Opera Magazine (1998-99)
• “Recommendations” page in Virgin Megastore magazine, North America (1998)
• Articles in Vancouver Opera Club newsletter/magazine (1995-96)