Janet Shell

Janet is a widely respected artist who has sung in many major concert venues around the UK and abroad in opera, oratorio and recital. She is in particular demand in oratorio, but it was as a recitalist that she first gained recognition. She was invited to join the select group of artists to be represented by the Young Concert Artists' Trust, and for many years was the only mezzo-soprano on their books. She honed her performing skills around the country in such recital venues as the Purcell Room. During this time she toured South America with Christopher Goldsack, performing to huge acclaim in major venues across the continent. On their return they were invited to sing and be interviewed on the second day of a new radio station called Classic FM, thus becoming the first singers to give a live broadcast for the company. The then British Prime Minister, John Major, subsequently requested Janet to sing for his guests at the British Embassy in Tokyo, and later at Downing Street. She was also asked to provide the singing voice of Annette Badlands in the opening sequence to a British comedy film "Caught in the Act" which has been broadcast around the world.

.... Janet singing in l'Orfeo. In the background is her long standing friend and co-founder of The Musical Tuckshop, Louise Tucker.

She was overall winner of the Royal Tunbridge Wells International Concert Artists' Competition and went on to win prizes in successive years for performance of French song at the International French Song competition in Paris. Her duet recital with Christopher Goldsack as part of the Festival Mediterranéen was widely acclaimed, and she also sang duet recitals with Naomi Harvey, touring the Middle East many times. They also became the first female duet pairing on BBC Radio's "Friday Night is Music Night." Two more live Classic Fm recitals were followed by concerts and a recital at St John's, Smith Square with Malcolm Martineau. She maintains her love of recital and concert repertoire, most recently performing Ravel's Sheherazade.

As an opera singer she has sung roles for English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Kent Opera, Opera North and at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and her many roles include Rosina, Carmen, Dorabella, Suzuki, and Orlofsky. She made her début at the Göttingen Festival singing the role of Oronte in Handel's Riccardo Primo and sang Phyllis in Howard Blake's The Station at the Purcell Room. She sang in Strauss's Der Feuersnot for Pimlico Opera at the South Bank. She has recently returned to the English National Opera covering in the operas Berg's Lulu, Poulenc's The Dialogue of the Carmelites and Vaughan Williams' Sir John in Love. Janet covered the role of Zitta in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi for the Royal Opera House last year and many roles in Sondheim's Into the Woods for the Linbury Theatre, the studio theatre in Covent Garden.

Notable oratorio engagements include Mahler's Symphony no. 8 at the Royal Albert Hall and Birmingham Symphony Hall, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis at the Royal Albert Hall with Royal Philharmonic Orchestera, Elgar's Dream of Gerontius at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, with Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Canterbury Cathedral, Verdi's Requiem at the Sheldonian Theatre and Watford Colliseum and Haydn's Nelson Mass at the Barbican Hall. With the Scottish Chamber Orchestra she toured Brazil in Haydn's St Nikolai Mass and sang Haydn's Nelson Mass in Brussels the same year. Her début at the Cairo Opera House was with Beethoven's 9th Symphony and she sang Messiah in Pamplona. She has performed Elgar's Sea Pictures with the Bournemouth Sinfonietta and Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne and a "Last Night of the Proms" with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. She also learnt to sing in Welsh for Goroesiad Cenedl, a major new work for mezzo-soprano and chorus by Richard Elfyn Jones which she premiered in 2000 and repeated in 2001. In Elgar's anniversary year, she sang Dream of Gerontius at several venues including the Sage in Gateshead.

Janet maintains her diversity, equally at home on BBC Radio 2 for "Friday Night is Music Night," a recital at St. John's Smith Square or singing at dinners at Kensington Palace, Banqueting Hall, Tate Britain, or Hampton Court Palace. In 2004 and 2006 she was invited to sing at the International Festival in Harare.

In 2008 she was invited to give a master class and recital at Stetson University in Florida and at the University of Cumbria, and she combines her busy performing career with voice teaching.

In recent months, Janet has established TalkingVoice. A company which aids teachers and business executives use their voices more healthily and effectively.