About Clover

Clover Kayne is a mezzo-soprano studying with Kate Paterson and Jonathan Papp at the Royal Academy Opera Studio. She is generously supported by the Carr-Gregory Award, the Hannah Horowitz Award, and the Opera Awards Foundation.

Her operatic roles include the title role in Handel’s Ariodante (Royal Academy Opera); Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel (RAO); Third Lady in The Magic Flute (upcoming, 2025, with RAO); Fox in The Cunning Little Vixen; Mystery/First Attendant in The Fairy Queen (RAM); Anna in Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins; Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro; The Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas; Arnalta/Fortuna in L’incoronazione di Poppea (Guildhall); Abbie in Sane and Sound (Grimeborn); and Florence Pike in Britten’s Albert Herring (RAO). She has been an Emerging Artist at Nevill Holt Opera, part of the inaugural If Opera ensemble, and a Georg Solti Accademia Young Artist in 2024.

As a recitalist, Clover has performed across England at venues such as the Austrian Cultural Forum, Italian Cultural Institute, St George’s Bristol, Iford Manor, St Lawrence Jewry, University of Cambridge, and Wiltshire Music Centre. Her concert experience includes performing Říkadla for London Symphony Orchestra at LSO St Luke’s; Mahler’s Rückert Lieder with the Freude Orchestra; the world premiere of James Allen’s song cycle Etched onto Me at Barbican; Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music under Vassily Sinaisky; and choral performances of Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder with Esa-Pekka Salonen at Basilique Cathédral de Saint-Denis and Mahler 3 under Semyon Bychkov at Royal Festival Hall.

Her singing was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the programme Reaching for Rossini, and she has also been recognised for her poetry performances on BBC Radio 4’s Poetry Please programme.

Clover was born in London and raised near Bath and in Wiltshire. She completed her undergraduate degree at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Marcus van den Akker, graduating with First Class Honours. She attained her Master’s with distinction from the Royal Academy of Music, receiving the Hannah Horowitz Award, competing as a runner-up in the Richard Lewis Award, and earning the Charles Norman Prize for outstanding studentship for two consecutive years. During her Master’s, she was coached by James Baillieu. She is a member of the Academy Song Circle, a Josephine Baker Trust Artist, and has performed in masterclasses with Ailish Tynan, Mary Bevan, Angelika Kirchschlager, and Edith Wiens.