Midday Meditation - Pergolesi: Stabat Mater (Colleen Nichol, Ulrike Wutscher and Kevin Duggan)

Colleen Nichol and Ulrike Wutscher will perform this beautiful devotional work as part of an act of worship, accompanied by Kevin Duggan. 

Colleen Nicoll combines a successful career as a professional soprano, animateur and choral conductor. She holds a Master of Music with Distinction from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

Colleen’s numerous operatic roles include: the title role in Semele (Handel); Tytania, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Britten); Susanna, Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart); Diana, Actéon (Charpentier); Yum Yum, The Mikado (Gilbert and Sullivan); Giannetta, L’elisir d’amore (Donizetti); and Lady Dunmow, A Dinner Engagement (Lennox Berkeley).

At the Minack Theatre in 2016, Colleen sang the role of Tytania in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, including a performance for the then HRH The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall. Recently, in world premieres of new Scots Language translations of The Magic Flute, Mozart, and Dido and Aeneas, Purcell, Colleen made two role debuts, as Queen of the Night and Dido, with the Scots Opera Project. She also sang the part of Belinda in the 2023 Rosenethe concert performance of the latter work.

Colleen has recorded an album of Scottish classical art song with pianist Andrew Johnston, “Wi’ a Canny Lilt”, produced by Birnam CD. She is a workshop leader and performer with Scottish Opera, and works with Birnam Arts, providing outreach and educational projects in Perthshire.

Colleen conducts the Pitlochry and District Choral Society.

Ulrike Wutscher is an Austrian mezzo-soprano. Since moving to Scotland, she regularly sings with The Scots Opera Project including Apollo and Pluton in Orpheus (Charpentier) and The Cailleach in Seal-Woman (Kennedy-Fraser & Bantock). Future engagements for 2024 include The Magic Flute (3rd Lady) for Perth Festival and Dido and Aeneas (Sorceress) for Pitlochry Festival Theatre.

A keen recitalist and concert singer, Ulrike has sung recitals at a wide range of venues including the Sommerkonzerte in der Schubertkirche in Vienna, the Edinburgh Fringe, the Wanstead Fringe in London and the Netherlands. Highlights of recent concert performances are the alto solos in: Mozart’s Requiem in Austria; his Mass in C minor with the Rosenethe Singers at Dunblane Cathedral; and Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle and Handel’s Messiah with Aberdeen Choral Society under the baton of Paul Mealor. She has also recently sung solo roles in Dido and Aeneas and Bach’s B minor Mass with the Rosenethe Singers.

Ulrike studied singing with Lydia Vierlinger at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien (MA in 2012 with distinction). She continued her training in London at Trinity Laban with Sophie Grimmer and Helen Yorke, where she completed her Postgraduate Artists Diploma in 2015 (distinction).

Ulrike conducts the Crieff Choral Group.