British soprano Louisa Stirland is a member of the 2025/26 Opera Studio at the Opéra national du Rhin. In the upcoming season, she will make several notable role debuts, including the title role in a new production of Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias. She will also appear as both Sandmännchen and Taumännchen in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, and makes her musical theatre debut as Young Heidi in Sondheim’s Follies, performing alongside renowned soprano Felicity Lott. Louisa also makes her company debut with the Opéra national de Nancy-Lorraine, singing Olympia in Carrousel, a new children’s opera inspired by the works of Offenbach.
Louisa is a recent graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she studied under Yvonne Kenny. Her operatic credits at Guildhall include The Bird in Judith Weir’s Blond Eckbert, Aurore in Massenet’s Le Portrait de Manon, Columbine in Ethel Smyth’s Fête Galante, Lucia in Nino Rota’s I Due Timidi, Kitty Hart and Sister Catherine in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, and Clorinda in Monteverdi’s Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda. She also created the role of Lucia in Lucid, a new opera developed through the Opera Makers programme, a collaborative project with the Royal Opera House. Other recent roles include Königin der Nacht for Clonter Opera.
In the last year, Louisa has reached the quarter-finals of the Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition and the semi-finals of the Llangollen International Eisteddfod’s Voice of the Future. Louisa has also been selected as one of the eight finalists in the inaugural Vienna Opera Competition sponsored by the Mozart Foundation. The competition will take place in August 2025. Previous competition accolades include first prizes in both the Hugh S. Roberton Prize for Scottish Singing and the William Allan Prize during her time at RCS, third prize in the AESS Courtney Kenny Award, and the Kate Wolveridge Prize in the John Kerr Awards. She was highly commended in the Michael Head English Song Prize during her time at RAM, in addition to discretionary awards including the Parepa-Rosa Prize, Arthur Burcher Memorial Prize, and Rhoda Jones Roberts Prize.
A former BBC Young Chorister of the Year, Louisa is also an accomplished oratorio soloist, having performed with leading orchestras and ensembles including the BBC Philharmonic, BBC Concert Orchestra, BBC Singers, and the Bach Choir. Highlights include broadcast performances of Handel’s Messiah at Westminster Central Hall and Vivaldi’s Gloria at MediaCityUK in Manchester which both aired on BBC Radio 2. She has also appeared at the St Albans Organ Festival, performing Vierne’s Les Angelus for soprano and organ at the Royal Festival Hall. As a teenager, Louisa was also a frequent soloist on BBC Radio 2, 3 and 4, and performed multiple times on BBC One’s Songs of Praise.
Originally from Preston, Lancashire, Louisa holds dual British-Irish citizenship and is a recipient of the Veronica Dunne Bursary for Irish Singers. A proud European, she has lived and worked in England, Scotland, Germany, and France, and is currently based in Strasbourg.
