Soprano CATHERINE FOSTER was born in Nottingham Uk where she first qualified and worked as a nurse and Midwife before changing her career. She began her professional studies for singing at the Birmingham Conservatoire between 1995-97 under the guidance and tutelage of Pamela Cook MBE - who remains her teacher to date. Whilst at Birmingham Catherine was the first to win the acclaimed Dame Eva Turner award to continue her studies at the Royal Northern College of Music during 1997/8 where she attracted the attention of Sir Peter Moores. He then went on to sponsor Catherine at the London opera Studio 1998/9.
Her first professional engagement was as Queen of the night with Opera Northern Ireland in 1998, Welsh National Opera 1999, and with English National Opera in 2000. She followed this with Donna Anna (Dartington Festival and WNO) in 1998 and 1999 respectively and Elektra in Idomeneo at the 1999 Dartington festival.
Between 2001 and 2011 Catherine was engaged at the German National Theatre in Weimar as Spinto soprano where she made her debut as Mimi in autumn of the same year. With equal success followed many leading roles such as Elektra in Idomeneo, the two Elizabeths in Wagners Tannhäuser and Verdi's Don Carlos, the two Leonora's in Verdi's Trovatore and Beethoven's original Leonora (Fidelio), Senta in Flying Dutchman, Abigaille in Nabucco, Tosca, Turandot and Elektra.
Catherines past guest engagements have included Elisabeth in Don Carlos in Kassel and Abigaille in Nabucco with Opera Bremen. At the beginning of 2006 she made her debut on the stage of Dresden Semperoper in the role of Kaiserin in Die Frau Ohne Schatten to great acclaim and was further invited back to sing Senta in The Flying Dutchman in 2009 and Fidelio in 2010.
In the seasons 2007-08 Catherine sang all three Brünnhildes in the acclaimed Weimar ring cycle - Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung which are now available on DVD and Blu-Ray published by Arthaus productions. Catherine has also recorded Siegfried Brünnhilde to CD with the Hamburg Opera under the baton of Simone Yong.
Her venture into Brünnhilde, in The Ring of the Nibelungen, has found her performing the role in such houses as Hamburg, Budapest, Aalto theater Essen, Weimar and with Cologne opera in Shanghai for the 2010 EXPO. Due to her success in the role Catherine will continue to sing Brünnhilde in the future in such houses as Helsinki, Riga, Hamburg, Deutsche Oper Berlin and Barcelona.
In 2010 Catherine debuted the role of Elektra in Weimar and further sang the role under the baton of Marcus Stenz for Cologne opera to great acclaim.
As Catherine continues to make a name for herself as a Dramatic soprano she has made her debut on such stages as Deutsche oper Berlin as Turandot, in Hamburg , Shanghai/Cologne and Budapest as Brünnhilde, Copenhagen and Cologne as Elektra and in Frankfurt and Weimar as Isolde.
The 2011/12 season see's Catherine once again as Brünnhilde in the Helsinki Ring, as Brünnhilde in the final part of the ring in Riga's Götterdämmerung, on the Hamburg stage as Brünnhilde and Turandot, in Nice as Isolde, in Deutsche oper Berlin and Aalto theater Essen as Brünnhilde in Die Walküre and returning to her home theatre, Weimar, as guest for Isolde and Elektra.