"… Carolyn Sampson is radiant, voluptuous and utterly captivating." International Record Review, June 2004.

Carolyn Sampson made her opera debut with ENO as Amor (The Coronation of Poppea) returning for Pamina (The Magic Flute) and Handel’s Semele. Other opera highlights have included the title role in Lully’s Psyché for Boston Early Music Festival, Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro) for Opéra de Montpellier, First Niece (Peter Grimes) for Opéra de Paris and Iphis (Jeptha) at Strasbourg Opera. In 2009 she made her Glyndebourne Festival debut in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen conducted by William Christie.

As well as most of the world’s leading early music groups, she has enjoyed collaborations with the Orchestre des Champs Élysées, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bayerische Rundfunk Symphonieorchester, WDR Symphonieorchester Köln, Britten Sinfonia, Tafelmusik, Hallé, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and RIAS Kammerchor. In January 2010 she will make her debut with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly in performances of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio which will also be recorded.

Carolyn Sampson is an accomplished recitalist and in 2007 made her recital debut at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and at the Aldeburgh Festival. She is a regular visitor to the annual BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Carolyn Sampson has recorded Vivaldi, Zelenka, Monteverdi, Handel, Rameau, Lalande and Mozart for Hyperion, Bach and Handel for BIS, Robert Johnson lute songs for Avie, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo for Virgin Classics and Gluck’s Paride ed Elena for DG Archiv. Her recording of Purcell songs for BIS was selected as ‘Editor’s Choice’ in the December 2007 edition of Gramophone Magazine and her recent recording of Psyché received unanimously outstanding reviews.

Highlights for the 09/10 season include appearances with Freiburg Baroque Orchestra (Purcell and Handel arias), Leipzig Gewandhaus (Bach Christmas Oratorio), Hallé (Mahler Symphony No. 4), Britten Sinfonia and tours with the Academy of Ancient Music and Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century.