We are very fortunate to have Anne Howells as the President of Concordia Singers.

Anne is a distinguished mezzo-soprano who has led an exciting international career in the field of opera. Anne is also a Professor of singing at the Royal Academy.

Anne Howells made two notable debuts as a mezzo-soprano while still in her mid-twenties: as Erisbe in Cavalli's L'Ormindo at Glyndebourne, and as Flora in the Visconti/Guilini Traviata at the Royal Opera House. She continued to sing regularly at both of these houses throughout a career which took her to almost every major opera house and concert hall in the world. These include the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Opera houses of both San Francisco and Los Angeles, the four Parisian opera houses, the Grand Opera of Geneva, the Salzburger Festspiele, the Vienna Staatsoper, the Carnegie Hall and the Musikverein of Vienna.

Directors with whom she worked include Peter Hall, Nicholas Hytner, John Schlesinger, Jean-Pierre Ponelle, Gunther Rennert and John Copley. Conductors included Colin Davis, James Levine, Georg Solti, Silvio Varviso, and Andre Previn.

She is especially noted for her portrayals of Mozart's Dorabella in Cosi fan Tutte (Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Chicago, Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne), Melisande (Scottish Opera, Royal Opera House), Conception in Ravel's L'Heure Espagnole (Amsterdam and Opera Comique, Paris) and Octavian - she sings the title role on the Solti/Schlesinger DVD of Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier by the Royal Opera. Other roles at the Royal Opera included Giulietta in Tales of Hoffman, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Despina as well as Dorabella, and Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro.

She accompanied the Royal Opera on three tours: As Ascanius in Berlioz' Benvenuto Cellini and Annius in Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito at La Scala Milan, and Despina in Cosi fan Tutte in Japan. She sang Helen in Tippett's King Priam in the Royal Opera's tour to the Herod Atticus Theatre in Athens.

Anne Howells also took part in many other contemporary operas: Cathleen in Maw's Rising of The Moon at Glyndebourne, at the Royal Opera as Lena in Rodney Bennett's Victory, Ophelia in Searle's Hamlet, Thea in Tippet's Knot Garden, and Lady de Hautdesert in Birtwistle's Gawain and the Green Knight.