Born in London, Kate Royal studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the National Opera Studio. Her many awards include the 2004 Kathleen Ferrier Award, the 2004 John Christie Award and the 2007 Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award.
In concert she has appeared with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Sir Simon Rattle (BBC Proms and Festspielhaus Baden-Baden), the Bach Akademie Stuttgart under Helmuth Rilling, at the Edinburgh Festival with Sir Charles Mackerras, the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington) under Helmuth Rilling, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Vasily Petrenko, the Orchestra of La Scala Milan and Chung, the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Pablo Heras-Casado, Le Concert d’Astree under Emanuelle Haim and the Berlin Philharmonic under both William Christie and Sir Simon Rattle. She has appeared in recital throughout Europe and North America.
She has recorded Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Manchester Camerata and Schumann’s Liederkreis (for Hyperion) with Graham Johnson. In October 2006 Kate Royal signed an exclusive contract with EMI Classics. Her first solo recording with Edward Gardner and the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields was issued in the summer of 2007.
In opera she has sung Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) for both the Glyndebourne Festival and the Royal Opera, Countess (Le nozze di Figaro) and Governess (The Turn of the Screw) for Glyndebourne on Tour, Helena (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) for both the Teatro Real, Madrid and the Glyndebourne Festival, Poppea for the English National Opera, Miranda (Ades’ The Tempest) for the Royal Opera, Handel’s L’Allegro for the Paris Opera, Micaela (Carmen) and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) for the Glyndebourne Festival and Countess Almaviva for the Aix-en-Provence Festival.
Her concert engagements include both the Berlin Philharmonic and the Orchestra of Bavarian Radio under Rattle, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Ticciati and the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Nezet-Seguin. Her operatic engagements include the Governess for the Glyndebourne Festival, Pamina for the Royal Opera and Euridice in her Metropolitan Opera debut.