She was born in Surrey, Great Britain. She trained at the Royal Northern College of Music with Joseph Ward, and at the British National Opera Studio. Since graduating, she has performed throughout the UK, Europe and the Far East. She has appeared with the English National Opera, the English Bach Festival, the Scottish Opera, the Dublin OTC, the Opera of Hong Kong and the Festival and La Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Italy. Her repertoire includes lyric soprano roles, such as Micaëla [Carmen], Lucia [Lucia di Lammermoor], Romilda [Xerxes], Pamina [The Magic Flute/Die Zauberflöte], Fiordiligi [Thus Do They All/Così fan tutte], Countess Almaviva [The Marriage of Figaro/Le nozze di Figaro], Musetta [La bohème], The Marschallin [The Knight of the Rose/Der Rosenkavalier] and Yum-Yum [The Mikado]. She has specialized in interpreting the works of Hans Werner Henze. She appears regularly in concert performances, interpreting, among other works, solo segments of compositions by Bach, Händel, Mozart, Rossini, Richard Strauss, Verdi, Vaughan Williams and Elgar. Her concert repertoire includes Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, the Requiems by Mozart, Brahms, Dvorak, Fauré and Verdi, the Stabat Mater, Haydn's The Creation [Die Schöpfung], Rachmaninov's The Bells, Poulenc's Gloria, etc. She has participated in recordings of Carmen (Chandos) and Sullivan's The Rose of Persia (CPO). She collaborated with the GNO on one occasion, interpreting the role of Pat Nixon in the revival of Nixon in China's classic production (2006/07).