“The best singing of the evening came from British Mezzo Kathleen Wilkinson as Brigitta”
Michael Kennedy reviewing Die Tote Stadt at the The Royal Opera House for Opera Magazine.

Born in Burnley Lancashire, of Irish descent, Kathleen Wilkinson studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, where she won a Peter Moores Foundation Scholarship and was the first female winner of the Webster Booth Competition.

She made her debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, London, in 2005, as The She-Ancient The Midsummer Marriage, and has returned on numerous occasions. Roles at the ROH have included Anna Kennedy Maria Stuarda, Brigitta Die Tote Stadt, Third Maid Elektra, Mother Goose The Rake’s Progress, Filipyevna Eugene Onegin and Giovanna Rigoletto.

Other UK engagements have included Geneviève Pelléas et Mélisande, Herdswoman Jenůfa and Filipyevna Eugene Onegin for the Glyndebourne Festival, and Mrs Herring Albert Herring and Mistress Quickly Falstaff for Glyndebourne on Tour.

For ENO she has sung the roles of Marnie’s mother Marnie, Mamma Lucia Cavalleria Rusticana, Pastuchyna Jenůfa, and the Cleaning Lady The Makropulos Case.

For Scottish Opera she created the roles of Margaret Muir Friend of the People and Mary Lamb Monster!, and has sung The Nurse / Old Woman Inés de Castro in both the original production and in the revised version (2015).

Other roles for Scottish Opera include First Norn Götterdämmerung, Erda Das Rheingold and Schwertleite Die Walküre. She also sang Ursule Béatrice et Bénédict with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

In 2019 she sang Mrs Grose Turn of the Screw for Garsington Opera, a production that won the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Best Opera of the season and was shown on BBC Arts.

She has sung the nurse Filipyevna Eugene Onegin in many productions, including for The Royal Opera House, Welsh National Opera, Glyndebourne (twice), Garsington (twice), Opera Holland Park (also twice!), Grange Park and The Grange Festival. Her performance of Filipyevna Eugene Onegin at the ROH in 2013 was shown on Channel 4 and at cinemas worldwide, and in 2016 her performance of the same role at Garsington was seen on big screens throughout the UK and streamed live on BBC ARTS.

Other UK work has included Mrs Herring at the Grange Festival, and Mère Jean The Carmelites at the original Grange Park.

She has appeared frequently with Opéra de Lyon, where roles have included Auntie Peter Grimes, Grandmother Buryja Jenůfa, La Ciesca and Zita Gianni Schicchi, La Zia Principessa and Mistress of the Novices Suor Angelica and La Damma Macbeth.

Elsewhere in France she has sung Marcellina Le Nozze di Figaro and Mistress Quickly Falstaff at the Opéra de Rennes,  Mistress Quickly at the Angers / Nantes Opéra and Mother Goose The Rake’s Progress at Théatre de Caen, Opéra de Reims, Opéra de Rouen and Opéra de Limoges.

Other European engagements have included Marcellina Le Nozze di Figaro at Flanders Opera, Mother Goose The Rake’s Progress at The Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, Mrs Grose The Turn of the Screw for Opera Zamku at Szczecin and Stralsund, Bianca The Rape of Lucretia at the Winteroper Potsdam (Berlin), The Nurse / Old Woman Inés de Castro at the Teatro Coliseu, Porto, Erda Das Rheingold at the Sopot International Wagner Festival, and concerts at the Puccini Festival at Torre del Lago.

Recordings include Káťa Kabanová and The Makropulos Case for Chandos CD and Eugene Onegin for Opus Arte DVD / Blu Ray.

She has appeared as soloist on a number of BBC radio broadcasts, and on several for Radio France, and on the Mezzo Channel.

Conductors she has worked with include Thomas Adès, Sir Richard Armstrong, Steuart Bedford, Martyn Brabbins, Bertrand de Billy, Douglas Boyd, Sir Mark Elder, Richard Farnes, Edward Gardner, Richard Hickox, Leo Hussain, Alexander Joel, Vladimir Jurowski, Kirill Karabits, Jan Latham-Koenig, Lothar Koenigs, Sir Charles Mackerras, James MacMillan, Paul McCreesh, Ingo Metzmacher, Kazushi Ono, Carlo Rizzi and Robin Ticciati.

She sings regularly in concert throughout the UK. Her repertoire includes Beethoven Symphony No.9, Duruflé Requiem, Dvorak Requiem and Stabat Mater, Elgar The Dream of Gerontius, The Musicmakers and Sea Pictures, Mendelssohn Elijah, Mozart Requiem, Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle and Stabat Mater and the Verdi Requiem. She was also the featured soloist at The Last Night of the Hallé Proms.