Despite an illness forcing a decade-long hiatus, the singer’s career has moved from strength to strength. She tells Tshepo Mokoena about her path into opera
Some of us are destined to end up on a particular path, no matter what obstacles life may hurl in the way. Opera singer Elizabeth Llewellyn is one of those people. The 46-year-old’s unorthodox journey from her childhood in south
London to breathtaking stage and concert performances around the world is testament to how there’s no singular route into classical music.
At first glance, her story starts in a way you might expect, with a piqued childhood interest. Aged 10, Llewellyn began the piano lessons that would form the bedrock of her musical education. “I remember my piano teacher gave me a cassette of violinist Nigel Kennedy, playing a version of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons,” she says, speaking on a busy day in
New York between rehearsals for an upcoming lead role in Porgy and Bess.