Scottish Soprano Rachel Speirs studied at the Royal Northern College of Music where she won the Betty Bannerman Award for French Song 2020, the Kennedy Strauss Award 2019, and was a finalist in the Elizabeth Harwood Memorial Prize 2020. Recent and future performance engagements include Maria Bertram in Jonathan Dove’s opera Mansfield Park, a post-lockdown recording of Paul Carr’s Requiem Mass ‘The Light of Love’ with EM Records, Chorus and Small Roles with Grange Park Opera and Wexford Festival Opera, and the role of Lotty in Retrospect Opera’s recording of MacFarren’s opera The Soldier’s Legacy in early 2021. Rachel is looking forward to performing a recital of French music for Clonter’s Digital Recital Series in November 2020.

Rachel is passionate about the difference that music can make in people's lives and has previously taught singing at Stagecoach Performing Arts and Footlight’s Theatre School. She has led singing workshops for various companies including The Sixteen Learning and Participation and Royal Northern College of Music Engage, and most recently developed and recorded a digital ‘Singing for Wellbeing’ workshop with Healthy Arts, based in Wigan. During lockdown she also developed and filmed ten Musical Postcards for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra which were distributed to members of Tayside Health. Rachel currently works as Administration Assistant for Together Dementia Support alongside her career as a freelance musician.

As a SoundUp Artist, Rachel has performed in two of the Creative Cast videos as guest performer, and held an online fundraising concert on Facebook live entitled ‘Home’ in July 2020. Rachel has also been involved in the upcoming WellSinging project and most recently, was project manager and performer for SoundUp’s digital series ‘TuneUp – 5 Musical Ways to Wellbeing’. In this series, Rachel introduced and led 10-minute videos featuring activities, singing games, and sing-alongs which highlight and encourage the 5 steps to wellbeing: Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning, Give.