Kate Royal

Kate Royal

Kate Royal doesn't like a stressful life. The 28-year-old has been singing the role of the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro at the Aix-en-Provence Festival this summer, and she's enjoyed spending some private time relaxing in the villa where she's staying just outside the city. She's even hired a bicycle to cycle to performances as a way of avoiding the crowds.

It's not surprising the soprano cherishes this time to herself - she's had more excitement and upheaval over the last three years than most people have in a lifetime. Winning the Kathleen Ferrier Award the same summer you graduate and going straight into back-to-back high-profile performances may be every opera singer's dream, but it's been no easy ride.

'I'm still surprised at the speed with which it all happened,' she says. 'It's taken quite a while to get used to it. I've had to learn very fast and I'm still learning. You have to be very adaptable.'

Royal grew up in Dulwich, London and moved to Dorset with her family when she was 13. Her mother was a dancer and her father was a pop singer but she was not exposed to classical music during her childhood and didn't see her first opera until she was 15. She returned to London 'as soon as I could' to study piano and voice at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

'It can be hard and lonely but you have to be self-sufficient and get on with it - you're with other singers and you're all in the same boat'

After graduating she enrolled on the one-year programme at London's National Opera Studio. It was just a few weeks later that she won the Kathleen Ferrier Award: 'That was quite a moment for me. It was really, really exciting and I was desperate to sing at Wigmore Hall. It was a nice ending to my training and I felt I'd really achieved a lot.'

Her engagements have since taken her to London, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels and Cologne as well as to several US cities. 'You're away from home a long time and it's an unusual way of life,' she says. 'I never thought I'd do this. It can be hard and lonely but you have to be self-sufficient and get on with it. You're with other singers and you're all in the same boat. I've settled into it now and not a day goes by when I don't think how lucky I am.'

Royal has sung a variety of operatic roles, from Pamina in Die Zauberflöte for the Glyndebourne Festival to Woglinde in Das Rheingold under Simon Rattle at the BBC Proms. But there is one composer she feels closer to than any other: 'I love Mozart. Maybe I'd like to do a bit more Strauss and maybe some Massenet, but I don't really see myself going into Italian repertoire or anything like that.

'It's a bit of a myth to think that as you grow your voice will get heavier. You have to listen to your voice and if the repertoire is too heavy you know it. It's important to know your limits. At the moment I'm very happy where I am.'

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