PATRIZIA KWELLA studied singing, piano and the 'cello at the Royal College of Music, and shortly afterwards made her BBC Promenade Concert debut with Sir John Eliot Gardiner. She has a wide repertoire both in concert and on recordings, ranging from the 16th to the 20th century.
She has appeared at many of Europe's leading festivals, including Aldeburgh, Salzburg and Edinburgh, working with conductors such as Phillipe Herreweghe, Christopher Hogwood and Sir Charles Mackerras. Since her American debut with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra under Richard Hickox she has returned to sing with the San Francisco, Houston and Washington Symphony Orchestras, in addition to the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra under David Atherton. She also sang the title role in Handel's Theodora at a gala performance in the British Embassy in Paris.
Miss Kwella has given the world premières of Colin Matthews’ Night’s Mask and Pli de Lin, the former with the Nash Ensemble at the Aldeburgh Festival and the latter with the Allegri String Quartet. With the Nash Ensemble she subsequently recorded Night’s Mask and also sang the world première of David Matthews’ The Sleeping Lord at the Prague Spring Festival, repeating the performance at the Bath Festival and in London's Wigmore Hall.
Other notable appearances have included Haydn’s Creation using Ann Hunter’s recently discovered libretto, the first performance in modern times of Zelenka’s Requiem, both at the St Ceciliatide International Festival, Mozart’s Mass in C minor and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in Finland’s Turku Cathedral. She has also sung solo Bach Cantatas in the Madrid Early Music Festival, Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony, Tippett’s A Child of Our Time and Weber’s rarely performed Mass in Eb. She recently took part with James Bowman and Jakob Lindberg in a highly successful re-creation of an Elizabethan Masque in the Queen Elizabeth Hall. In May 2001 she gave the first performances of Handel's Gloria in excelsis Deo which was found in the Royal Academy archives in March 2001. With ‘cellist Jenny Ward Clarke and harpsichordist Laurence Cummings Miss Kwella has also given many shared recitals of 17th and 18th century music.