Grimsby soprano opera singer, 26, holding intimate concert in St Augustine’s Church

An opera singer born and raised in Grimsby is coming back to perform for her hometown in St Augustine’s Church.

Olivia Thomas, 26, is a soprano, the highest female vocal range, and has carefully selected some of her favourite pieces with a theme of nature and fairytales to perform on Friday evening, August 2. She is keen for people who have never attended an opera before to give it a try and will be providing translations for any of the songs that are not in English.

Fresh from completing her master’s degree in classical singing and opera at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, Olivia told Grimsby Live: “I’m beginning my career now and it’s a tough old world performing, but I wanted to do a concert back at home for friends and family and just anyone really.”

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Olivia grew up near People’s Park and attended St Martin’s Preparatory School in Bargate and then King Edward VI Grammar School in Louth. She did her bachelor’s degree at Newcastle University.

She has picked “very emotional, beautiful music” for the concert at St Augustine’s Church and said it’s somewhere she considers special, having sung there in the past. The hour-long program has compositions by Mozart and Handel as well as more contemporary classical music.

“There’s a theme of nature, fairytales, and folklore,” said Olivia. “It is a program I put together myself with the help of my singing teacher and I performed it for the end of my degree. It’s just going to be me accompanied by piano.”

Olivia added: “I’ve been singing from a young age and having private singing lessons and singing in various choirs – I sang in the Grimsby Philharmonic Society. I was very lucky growing up to have people support me in my singing – if I didn’t have that I probably wouldn’t be pursuing it now because it is a tough industry.

“The competition is really high. In London alone, there are so many international students here and they have maybe more experience than you. London’s a great place to be but, unfortunately, as it stands at the moment, there is a lot more work for opera abroad than in the UK.”

Olivia has noticed it is mainly older people and students who attend opera and thinks people may believe you must be highly educated to follow it. She is keen to prove this is not the case.

She said: “Opera is not talked about a lot, I think people think ‘Oh I will go and watch something and I’m not going to be able to understand it’ but people don’t realise the libretto (translation) is actually projected onto the screen and in the program.

“There is also a live orchestra. Unfortunately, as it stands I feel like it’s dying. As the younger generation, I feel like we’ve got to keep it going and this is why I’m trying to do a lot of projects and concerts like this.

“I understand it’s not to everyone’s taste, but there’s so much beauty in this music. My repertoire is so varied, hopefully there’s something everyone can enjoy.”