Scottish soprano, Rachel McLean, is a Young Artist at The National Opera Studio in London and is a Sybil Tutton Opera Award holder. She is a Samling Artist and completed her postgraduate studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland under Wilma MacDougall, after graduating from the RCS with a first class Bachelor of Music under Margaret Izatt. Rachel’s MMus studies were generously supported by the ABRSM.

Rachel thrives in recitals and won the Tony & Tania Webster Russian Song Prize with her duo partner Abhisri Chaudhuri, the Florence Veitch Ibler prize for oratorio performance, the Edith Brass Prize for Development in Lieder, and the Hugh S.Roberton Prize for Scottish Singing during her time at the RCS.

On the operatic stage, Rachel performed with Lyric Opera Studio Weimar as Countess Almaviva in their production of Le nozze di Figaro.  She has previously performed Donna Anna in their production of Don Giovanni in 2023, and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte in 2022.

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In concert, she performed at Glasgow's RSNO Royal Coronation Concert alongside Jamie MacDougall, Glasgow Chamber Orchestra, and RSNO chorus.  She was the soprano soloist in Haydn's Nelson Mass, performing with the Garleton Singers under Stephen Doughty.

Rachel has performed in Verdi's Nabucco and Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor at the Dorset Opera Festival 2019.  She also performed the role of Youka in the RCS Opera production of Chabrier’s L’étoile.  Rachel has also performed many opera scenes including, Fiordiligi Così fan tutte, Arabella Arabella, Ilia Idomeneo, Rosalinde Die Fledermaus, Elettra Idomeneo, Vitellia La clemenza di Tito, and Anne Trulove The Rake’s Progress.

As a choral singer, she was an avid member of the Les Sirènes Female Chamber Choir, and the Glasgow Youth Choir.  Also the National Youth Choir of Scotland, performing Haydn's The Creation, Berlioz's Lélio, ou Le retour à la vie, Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust, and was the soprano soloist in Jenkins' The Armed Man.

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