Yorkshire born soprano Rowan Pierce was awarded the President’s Award by HRH Prince of Wales at the Royal College of Music in 2017. She won both the Song Prize and First Prize at the inaugural Grange Festival International Singing Competition, the Van Someren Godfery Prize at the RCM and the first Schubert Society Singer Prize in 2014. She has recently been made a Rising Star of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Rowan has appeared on the concert platform throughout Europe and in South America and performs regularly with ensembles including the Academy of Ancient Music, Gabrieli Consort, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Florilegium and Royal Northern Sinfonia. In 2017 Rowan made her BBC Proms debut at the Royal Albert Hall with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and her Wigmore Hall debut with the London Handel Players. Recent and future highlights include performances with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Early Opera Company at the Concertgebouw, the Academy of Ancient Music, Gabrieli Consort, BBC Scottish Symphony, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Polyphony, La Nuova Musica, a tour of the US with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, her début at the Edinburgh Festival, concerts with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and a return to the BBC Proms in 2019 in a performance of Handel Jephtha with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under Richard Egarr.

Operatic roles have included Drusilla in Monteverdi’s  L’incoronazione di Poppea, Galatea in Handel’s Acis & Galatea, Iris in Handel’s Semele, Susanna in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Miss Wordsworth, Emmie and Cis in Britten’s Albert Herring and Princess in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges as well as, most recently Barbarina / Le nozze di Figaro for Nevill Holt Opera and The Grange Festival. She was made a Harewood Artist at English National Opera in 2018 and roles have included Tiny / Paul Bunyan as well as Papagena / The Magic Flute with future roles including Barbarina. She made her debut at the Buxton Festival in 2019 in a production of Caldara Lucio Papirio Dittatore with La Serenissima. Opera engagements in 2020 include the roles of Quivera and Orazia / The Indian Queen for Opéra de Lille as well as Oberto / Alcina for Glyndebourne Festival Opera.

Festival performances include collaborations with Sir Thomas Allen and Christopher Glynn in the Ryedale Festival, Dame Ann Murray and Malcolm Martineau in the Oxford Lieder Festival and Roger Vignoles in Leeds Lieder. She will appear at the Chiltern Arts, Ryedale and St Endellion Festivals in ²⁰¹⁸⁄₁₉ season.

Recording plans include sessions with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gabrieli Consort and the Academy of Ancient Music.

Rowan was generously supported by the Countess of Munster Award and Midori Nishiura at the RCM.